Page 35 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3
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family
Although there are a relatively limited number Although they differ between families,
of family roles, both for adults and children, learning basic norms such as how to address
these tend to be played-out over long periods family members (Mum, Dad), when, where
and involve complex forms of role and how to eat and sleep, definitions of
development - especially in societies that acceptable behaviour and the like are normally
allow things like divorce and remarriage. taught within the family.
Adults, for example, may have to learn roles Sanctions are mainly informal, with positive
ranging from husband / wife to parent / step- sanctions involving things like:
parent, while child development involves
learning roles ranging through baby, infant, � facial expressions (smiling, for example),
child, teenager and, eventually perhaps, an � verbal approval / reinforcement (“Such a
adult with children of their own. good boy / girl”).
� physical rewards (such as gifts).
The ability to develop roles within the context
of a group mainly governed, according to Negative sanctions are similarly wide-ranging
Parsons (1951) by affective relationships - from showing disapproval through language
based on love, affection, responsibility and (such as SHOUTING) to physical punishment.
duty, means mistakes can be made and lessons
learned without too much harm being caused. While primary socialisation is often seen as a
one-way process that passes from adults to
As Horwitz (2005) argues “Families help us to children, socialisation is generally more
learn the explicit and tacit social rules complicated than simply teaching behaviour
necessary for functioning in the wider world, that is then adopted without question.
and families are uniquely positioned to do so
because it is those closest to us who have the Although children are socialised by copying
knowledge and incentives necessary to provide behaviour - Hartley (1959) argues imitation of
that learning”. adult family behaviours, such as girls "helping
mum" with domestic chores - is a significant
Parents, in this respect, are normally what dimension of socialisation, they’re also
Mead calls significant others - people whose actively involved in negotiating their own
opinions we value. They are influential in socialisation; children don't, for example,
shaping both basic values, such as how to always obey their parents. They may also
address adults and moral values, such as the receive contradictory socialisation messages -
difference between right and wrong. a relative may reward behaviour a parent
would punish.
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