The sociological approach
What's covered
Key facts
Because what counts as 'normal' behaviour varies greatly between cultures and changes over time, sociologists argue behaviour cannot be biologically fixed.
Achieved status is a social position gained through a person's own efforts, talent or choices, such as becoming a doctor or qualifying as a teacher.
An agency (agent) of socialisation is an institution or group through which individuals learn norms and values, such as family, education, peers, media and religion.
Interactionist Becker argued an act only becomes deviant when others successfully apply the label of "deviant" to it.
Feral children are children who have grown up isolated from human contact and so lack socialisation, leaving them unable to behave as full members of society.
Ascribed status is a social position fixed at birth and not changeable through effort, such as that based on age, sex or the family one is born into.
The family is the primary agent of socialisation because it is where a child first learns norms and values.
In Marxist theory the bourgeoisie own the means of production and exploit the proletariat, who sell their labour for wages.
Cases such as Genie and Oxana Malaya are used as evidence for nurture, because their lack of socialisation severely impaired their language and social development.
Culture is the shared way of life of a group or society, including its beliefs, customs, knowledge, language, norms and values.
Sample questions
A taste of the 70 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
In the nature versus nurture debate, what does 'nurture' refer to?
- •Behaviour caused by genes and instincts
- •Behaviour determined by hormones alone
- •Behaviour fixed at birth biologically
- ✓Behaviour learned through socialisation
Which of these best defines norms in sociology?
- •A position or standing held within society
- •General beliefs about what is important or right
- •The shared way of life of a whole society
- ✓Unwritten rules of expected behaviour in a situation
Which is the best definition of socialisation?
- •The biological process of inheriting traits from parents
- •The economic process of earning money through paid work
- •The legal process of becoming a citizen of a country
- ✓The lifelong process of learning a society's norms and values
Which sociological perspective argues that society depends on a shared value consensus to function in an orderly way?
- •Feminism
- ✓Functionalism
- •Interactionism
- •Marxism
Which best describes how sociologists view identity?
- •Caused entirely by hormones
- •Fixed by genes at birth
- •Inherited from biological instincts
- ✓Socially constructed by social factors
Which of these best defines values in sociology?
- •A position or standing held within society
- ✓General beliefs about what is important or right
- •Rewards and punishments that enforce conformity
- •Unwritten rules of expected behaviour in a situation
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