OCR AS sociology G671 Pre-release
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Original post by crimsonk
Guys, what sociologists did you include in how the peer groups influence ethnic identities?
Sewell - Cultural Comfort Zones
Alexander - The art of being black
Johal & Bains - Code Switching
other possible questions may be
Question 3:
Explain and briefly evaluate the ways in which ethnicity may shape a person’s identity. (still doing on this one will post later)
Explain and evaluate the importance of peer groups in the reinforcement and maintenance of ethnic identities
When a child enters education they are subjected to peers of different ethnicities, this could result in them learning the norms and values of different ethnicities which may result in the emergence of a new identity known as a hybrid identity whereby a person may identify themselves as both Asian and British. This may occur due to the peer pressure whereby, a person feels the need to conform to those behaviours of their peers in order to avoid exclusion and/or ridicule as studies have found that when a person does not conform with wider cultural expectations they are ridiculed although such studies do not directly explain how peers influence ethnicities they can to some extent be related, as Lees study explains how girls dress in order to avoid ridicule, which can be applied to ethnicities as Indians traditionally wear a sari but may be ridiculed by peers for wearing this and pressured into wearing Western clothing.
It is not only peer pressure that leads to the learning of these norms and values but also influence and being subjected to this different culture. We may learn our ethnic identities from our peers in the same way as we learn them from our parents by simply observing our peers interactions and behaviours and learning about the celebrations they participate in such as, Christmas, as in the UK many people celebrate Christmas due to this being a Christian country so those students who may be Muslim would be subjected to peers talking about Christmas what they want and in this way learn this tradition which may influence their ethnic identities as when they are older they may decide to start celebrating this Western holiday themselves, moving away from their traditional ethnic identity and religion.
Further evidence which supports that peers have an influence on ethnic identities comes from Ballard’s study which found that young second generation Asians behaved in ways that fitted into the culture of the wider society for part of the time but at home conformed to their ethnic subculture, with children showing increased independence in terms of expecting to have some say in their choice of marriage partner although they did not generally reject the principle of arranged marriages. This indicates that in the contemporary UK ethnic minorities are influenced by peers due to behaving in ways that conform to the wider society when out of the home which may be the result of peer influence, although we can see here that parents have some control over ethnic identities as children behave in accordance to this when at home but this may be to make their family happy rather than due to it being a part of their ethnic identity.
However, it is argued that the family does in fact play a more important role in the creation of ethnic identities, this is due to parents teaching us the norms and values from our ethnic background as well as the traditions and celebrations, along with the religion associated with that ethnicity. Also parents are an agent of primary socialisation meaning that this will be the initial ethnicity which we are taught which by rights should mean that it will have a larger impact on our identities, even if as we get older we are influenced by the wider society we should still maintain parts of this ethnic identity.
Parents may influence our ethnic identities through the portrayal of their own behaviours. As children learn many things from just observing their parents attitudes, roles and behaviours, this may include their religion as those from Afghanistan and Morocco are likely to observe their parents prayer routine as in Islam it is required that you pray 5 times a day and as children observe this behaviour and are also encouraged to participate this reinforces that part of their ethnic culture. They may also observe their parents relationship as the way in which each person in a relationship is treated may relate to the culture in which they are from, as in England we see that each person within the relationship is treated as an equal but those from different ethnic cultures such as, those who are Muslim a child would observe that the mother has to obey the husband unless he asks her to do something which disobeys Allah this relationship is seen as unequal as it is outlined in the Qur’an that a husband has to go out and earn money and the wife has to stay at home, this is a traditional relationship known as a nuclear family. Butler found evidence that the family still plays an important role in the creation and reinforcement of ethnic identities. She studied a group of East Midlands teenage second and third generation Muslim girls and found that families are important in shaping their identities as while they want their independence through education and a career, they do not want to break family links and Islam is important for the maintenance of these.
Gillespie proposed that the media influences ethnic identities as the media can replicate the norms and values of a person's ethnic background. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie's study which found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie proposed that the media is allowing a new identity to emerge known as a hybrid identity. Evidence to support this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis who used television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities, as they were actively experiencing different cultures through the media and merging these with their ethnic identity to create this new hybrid identity.
Explain and evaluate the view that age identities are created through socialisation. 22 possibly 23/24 marks
Like gender or ethnic identities, age identities can be said to be influenced by a variety of factors. Age identities are created and reinforced by a number of primary and secondary agents of socialisation. Age expectations change throughout different cultures. In Western society these expectation and responsibilities change with age.
Age identity is influenced by our family as an agent of primary socialisation. Our parents influence this through teaching us norms and values that they believe to be suitable for our age group, for example, parents may teach us that we can play with dolls at 5 but when we are 10 tell us that we are too old, and when we are 12 our parents may teach us that we can go out with friends to the cinema, shopping, theme parks without parental supervision. Our family also influence our class identity, which can link to our age identity, as if our family is in the working class, we may be more vulnerable to enter a subculture in the transitional stage, which is the stage between childhood and adulthood, which is considered to be a time of storm and stress, in which we enter into a subculture as a form of peer support. In the contemporary UK, it has been found by Gardner et al. that parents and children are choosing to spend more time together than 25 years ago due to parents being more concerned about perceived risks that children are exposed to. This may result in parents having a larger influence on children and may even result in changes in age identities, as with parents being more concerned this may result in children becoming independent at a later age in life.
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15's involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Through education as an agent of secondary socialisation our age identity is influenced through what we learn throughout different key stages. In the UK we have key stage 1, 2, 3, and 4 and as we move through these key stages we are taught more intensive things, for example, in key stage one we are taught the basics of education such as, how to read and write, add simple sums, we may go over basic multiplication and when we get to key stage four we start learning things such as algebra. In this way we learn what we are capable of doing at different ages. Also our teachers teach us differently throughout different key stages, when we first start school teachers are much more attentive to our needs and offer help without being asked but when we get to key stage 4 teachers rely on their students to ask for help when needed, in this way teachers are helping us to become more independent which helps us to learn that when we are young we should be dependent on adults but as we get older we need to become independent and start helping ourselves. The hidden curriculum can also help us develop our age identities as the government use this to imbed norms and values into our educational system and in this way can teach us the norms and values they believe suitable for our age groups when we first start school the hidden curriculum most likely does not exist in our education but as we get older it may start to come into our education teaching us norms and values they believe are suitable for our ages.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees study on teenage girls showed us that girls do not naturally care about fashion but will wear certain clothing due to peer pressure as they do not want to dress too loose or sexy a fashion and risk being ridiculed by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group. Shain found that Asian girls developed distinct identities in a secondary school through girl gangs as a way of coping with school, their peers were crucial in who the girls identified with. This explains how girls may form age identities through peer influence as by joining a girl gang this would teach them the behaviours for their age, it is an act of rebellion and support, which is something teenagers resort to in the transitional stage to deal with a time known as storm and stress as stated by Parsons.
Question 3:
Explain and briefly evaluate the ways in which ethnicity may shape a person’s identity. (still doing on this one will post later)
Explain and evaluate the importance of peer groups in the reinforcement and maintenance of ethnic identities
When a child enters education they are subjected to peers of different ethnicities, this could result in them learning the norms and values of different ethnicities which may result in the emergence of a new identity known as a hybrid identity whereby a person may identify themselves as both Asian and British. This may occur due to the peer pressure whereby, a person feels the need to conform to those behaviours of their peers in order to avoid exclusion and/or ridicule as studies have found that when a person does not conform with wider cultural expectations they are ridiculed although such studies do not directly explain how peers influence ethnicities they can to some extent be related, as Lees study explains how girls dress in order to avoid ridicule, which can be applied to ethnicities as Indians traditionally wear a sari but may be ridiculed by peers for wearing this and pressured into wearing Western clothing.
It is not only peer pressure that leads to the learning of these norms and values but also influence and being subjected to this different culture. We may learn our ethnic identities from our peers in the same way as we learn them from our parents by simply observing our peers interactions and behaviours and learning about the celebrations they participate in such as, Christmas, as in the UK many people celebrate Christmas due to this being a Christian country so those students who may be Muslim would be subjected to peers talking about Christmas what they want and in this way learn this tradition which may influence their ethnic identities as when they are older they may decide to start celebrating this Western holiday themselves, moving away from their traditional ethnic identity and religion.
Further evidence which supports that peers have an influence on ethnic identities comes from Ballard’s study which found that young second generation Asians behaved in ways that fitted into the culture of the wider society for part of the time but at home conformed to their ethnic subculture, with children showing increased independence in terms of expecting to have some say in their choice of marriage partner although they did not generally reject the principle of arranged marriages. This indicates that in the contemporary UK ethnic minorities are influenced by peers due to behaving in ways that conform to the wider society when out of the home which may be the result of peer influence, although we can see here that parents have some control over ethnic identities as children behave in accordance to this when at home but this may be to make their family happy rather than due to it being a part of their ethnic identity.
However, it is argued that the family does in fact play a more important role in the creation of ethnic identities, this is due to parents teaching us the norms and values from our ethnic background as well as the traditions and celebrations, along with the religion associated with that ethnicity. Also parents are an agent of primary socialisation meaning that this will be the initial ethnicity which we are taught which by rights should mean that it will have a larger impact on our identities, even if as we get older we are influenced by the wider society we should still maintain parts of this ethnic identity.
Parents may influence our ethnic identities through the portrayal of their own behaviours. As children learn many things from just observing their parents attitudes, roles and behaviours, this may include their religion as those from Afghanistan and Morocco are likely to observe their parents prayer routine as in Islam it is required that you pray 5 times a day and as children observe this behaviour and are also encouraged to participate this reinforces that part of their ethnic culture. They may also observe their parents relationship as the way in which each person in a relationship is treated may relate to the culture in which they are from, as in England we see that each person within the relationship is treated as an equal but those from different ethnic cultures such as, those who are Muslim a child would observe that the mother has to obey the husband unless he asks her to do something which disobeys Allah this relationship is seen as unequal as it is outlined in the Qur’an that a husband has to go out and earn money and the wife has to stay at home, this is a traditional relationship known as a nuclear family. Butler found evidence that the family still plays an important role in the creation and reinforcement of ethnic identities. She studied a group of East Midlands teenage second and third generation Muslim girls and found that families are important in shaping their identities as while they want their independence through education and a career, they do not want to break family links and Islam is important for the maintenance of these.
Gillespie proposed that the media influences ethnic identities as the media can replicate the norms and values of a person's ethnic background. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie's study which found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie proposed that the media is allowing a new identity to emerge known as a hybrid identity. Evidence to support this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis who used television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities, as they were actively experiencing different cultures through the media and merging these with their ethnic identity to create this new hybrid identity.
Explain and evaluate the view that age identities are created through socialisation. 22 possibly 23/24 marks
Like gender or ethnic identities, age identities can be said to be influenced by a variety of factors. Age identities are created and reinforced by a number of primary and secondary agents of socialisation. Age expectations change throughout different cultures. In Western society these expectation and responsibilities change with age.
Age identity is influenced by our family as an agent of primary socialisation. Our parents influence this through teaching us norms and values that they believe to be suitable for our age group, for example, parents may teach us that we can play with dolls at 5 but when we are 10 tell us that we are too old, and when we are 12 our parents may teach us that we can go out with friends to the cinema, shopping, theme parks without parental supervision. Our family also influence our class identity, which can link to our age identity, as if our family is in the working class, we may be more vulnerable to enter a subculture in the transitional stage, which is the stage between childhood and adulthood, which is considered to be a time of storm and stress, in which we enter into a subculture as a form of peer support. In the contemporary UK, it has been found by Gardner et al. that parents and children are choosing to spend more time together than 25 years ago due to parents being more concerned about perceived risks that children are exposed to. This may result in parents having a larger influence on children and may even result in changes in age identities, as with parents being more concerned this may result in children becoming independent at a later age in life.
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15's involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Through education as an agent of secondary socialisation our age identity is influenced through what we learn throughout different key stages. In the UK we have key stage 1, 2, 3, and 4 and as we move through these key stages we are taught more intensive things, for example, in key stage one we are taught the basics of education such as, how to read and write, add simple sums, we may go over basic multiplication and when we get to key stage four we start learning things such as algebra. In this way we learn what we are capable of doing at different ages. Also our teachers teach us differently throughout different key stages, when we first start school teachers are much more attentive to our needs and offer help without being asked but when we get to key stage 4 teachers rely on their students to ask for help when needed, in this way teachers are helping us to become more independent which helps us to learn that when we are young we should be dependent on adults but as we get older we need to become independent and start helping ourselves. The hidden curriculum can also help us develop our age identities as the government use this to imbed norms and values into our educational system and in this way can teach us the norms and values they believe suitable for our age groups when we first start school the hidden curriculum most likely does not exist in our education but as we get older it may start to come into our education teaching us norms and values they believe are suitable for our ages.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees study on teenage girls showed us that girls do not naturally care about fashion but will wear certain clothing due to peer pressure as they do not want to dress too loose or sexy a fashion and risk being ridiculed by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group. Shain found that Asian girls developed distinct identities in a secondary school through girl gangs as a way of coping with school, their peers were crucial in who the girls identified with. This explains how girls may form age identities through peer influence as by joining a girl gang this would teach them the behaviours for their age, it is an act of rebellion and support, which is something teenagers resort to in the transitional stage to deal with a time known as storm and stress as stated by Parsons.
Original post by tasha212
Possible question 2's:
Outline and explain how any two agents of socialisation can influence our ethnic identities
Anne Oakley outlined ways in which our parents can teach us about our gender identities these included manipulation, canalisation and verbal appellations. These can be applied to how our parents teach us our ethnic identities. Our parents may use manipulation to encourage us to participate in traditions and celebrations from our ethnic background, for example Muslims fast during Ramadan and are discouraged from celebrating Christmas. Ballard found that in Britain south Asian families try to ensure that standards of behaviour did not slip and that children were kept under close scrutiny. According to Ghuman in order to reinforce ethnic identities parents would teach their children their mother-tongue, and the norms and values of the country they come from, this would help to reinforce their ethnic identity as they would see this language as their first language and therefore their native language and would be taught the celebrations and traditions of this culture. Also certain behaviours would have been taught by their families and the values behind these behaviours, for example, the drawbacks of pre-marital sex.
The media influences ethnic identities as it can produce programmes that present the culture of a country where a person is from, which means that we can now learn the norms and values of our culture and other cultures independent of which country we live in. It is even possible that due to the media being able to present the culture of any country that this has contributed towards the homogenisation of cultures to form a global culture as proposed by Hall, this would of course lead to changes in the ethnic identity of many people. Gillespie found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie also states that the media as well as reinforcing a person’s ethnic identity has caused a new ethnic identity to emerge, known as a hybrid identity. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis which found that they use television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities as the media allows them to actively experience different cultures and merge these with their current ethnic identities therefore creating a new identity.
Outline and explain how any two agents of socialisation can influence our age identities
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15 involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees studied female teenagers in London school and found that girls are forced into a state where great stress is put on looking right as they need to show that they are good girls rather than slags and that these girls feared that if they dressed too loose or sexy a fashion their reputations would be destroyed, this mean that girls do not naturally care about what they look like but rather they are pressured by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group.
Outline and explain two ways in which young people are influences by their peers.
Peers are those people who we see as similar to ourselves, they tend to be the same age with similar identities, and people will usually try to make friends with their peers.
Peers influence our education, this is due to young people identifying themselves with peer groups who are the same gender and possibly the same class. Boys tend to be negatively influenced towards education by their peers. It is often found that boys will do better at subjects such as, maths and science, than girls who tend to do better in subjects such as, English and art. This is due to some subjects being considered as feminine and others seen as masculine, as girls are expected to be more creative whereas, boys are expected to be more logical. When a boy is found to portray an image of academic succeed they may be excluded from participating with their peers with activities, such as, sports, as academic success is considered feminine and ‘nerdy’ so they aren’t considered as ‘cool’ or manly so their peers exclude them. Roberts did a study of boys in school and found that those who showed academic success were teased and bullied so would mask their academic achievements in order to be accepted among their peers, some of these boys would even start ridiculing the other boys seen as academic. This study supports hegemonic masculinity traits as traditionally men are sporty rather than academic achievers, and those boys who do not show these traits are going against the social norms of masculinity. An issue with this study is that it does not explain why girls do better than boys academically, as it states that boys mask their achievements but if that were the case boys should still achieve at least to the same standard as girls in all areas, so it may be the case that these boys rather than mask their achievements actually, deliberately start doing worse academically.
Another way in which a young person may be influenced by their peers is through fashion trends. This is due to a young person associating themselves with peer groups and possibly subcultural groups whereby, there fashion trends go against that of mass culture, such as Goth’s who tend to wear a lot of black, bulky clothing which goes against the fashion of the masses. These young people follow the fashion trends of the groups they associate with as they wish to be included with thee social groups and in order for this to occur they feel pressured into wearing clothing similar to that of the group, also it is due to fear of exclusion and ridicule. A study done by Lees found that girls are put under great stress n looking right despite this being an unnatural feminine behaviour/trend. It is something girls are forced into in order to show that they are ‘good’ girl rather than ‘slag’. Girls feared that if they dress too ‘loose’ or ‘sexy; a fashion that their reputation would be ruined. Even though the study did not find this girls also fear that if they do not wear clothes considered as fashionable for their age group they may also be teased which pressures them to try their best to keep up with fashion trends shown to be popular amongst their peers. Boys may also face ridicule when they show too much care in their appearance and clothes as this is not considered as a masculine thing to do, so they are pressured to not care about appearance and current trends as when they do they may be called names such as ‘poof’ or ‘Nancy boy’.
Outline and explain any two ways in which we experience social control
One way in which individuals may experience social control is through education. This is due to observation of teachers, what we learn and interaction with peers. Our peers may influence our norms, values and beliefs and can also pressure us into doing thing we do not agree with. Roberts conducted a study which found that boys who achieved well academically were excluded and ridiculed leading them to either hide their academic achievements or to focus less on education in order to be accepted among their peers. Observation of teachers allows us to view the roles that teachers take on according to their gender, so can teach us norms and values according to our genders reinforcing behaviours associated with our gender. A study which shows how teachers may socially control us was conducted by Skelton in a primary school it was found that teachers were asked to do roles associated with their appropriate gender, for example, male teachers were asked to set out the chairs for assemblies, which reinforces masculine identities as it shows that men do the strenuous work. Another way in which education socially controls us is through the hidden curriculum which is believed to be used in lessons in order to reinforce norms and values that the government want us to learn, the hidden curriculum is believed to be a way in which elitists can socialise us in a way that we will become easier to socially control and therefore become better workers.
Another way in which we may experience social control is through the media. The media believed to be exclusively controlled by the elitists, which means that they can use this control over the media to imbed norms and values into the public in order to dim their minds and make them more passive and therefore more controllable. The media also influences music preferences, and fashion trends. Over the last decade the media has influenced masculinity hugely, as it has bought about the new man identity, due to promoting fashion trends for men and promoting the caring, loving man, who helps around the house, they have also portrayed men as caring about looks and how they smell, using celebrities such as, David Beckham who cares about looks, is a family man but is also a footballer. This influence that the media has had on masculinity has caused what is known as the ‘crisis’ of masculinity as it has resulted in hegemonic masculinity fading out, this is a form of social control as it has result in men becoming somewhat more feminine in identity, this can be beneficial for those elitists as it can cause sales to increase in clothing, hair products, deodorants, moisturisers, and perfumes. Another way in which the media controls us is through newspapers, as the articles chosen to be publicised are decided by those with control, and these articles have been known to cause many moral panics as they over exaggerate the truth, for example, teenagers wearing hoodies became a moral panic as newspapers labelled this group as ‘folk devils’ and many people started to believe that teens in hoodies were dangerous, when they are in fact not, it is just a minority of people who wear hoodies that are dangerous just as with many other subcultural groups.
Outline and explain how any two agents of socialisation can influence our ethnic identities
Anne Oakley outlined ways in which our parents can teach us about our gender identities these included manipulation, canalisation and verbal appellations. These can be applied to how our parents teach us our ethnic identities. Our parents may use manipulation to encourage us to participate in traditions and celebrations from our ethnic background, for example Muslims fast during Ramadan and are discouraged from celebrating Christmas. Ballard found that in Britain south Asian families try to ensure that standards of behaviour did not slip and that children were kept under close scrutiny. According to Ghuman in order to reinforce ethnic identities parents would teach their children their mother-tongue, and the norms and values of the country they come from, this would help to reinforce their ethnic identity as they would see this language as their first language and therefore their native language and would be taught the celebrations and traditions of this culture. Also certain behaviours would have been taught by their families and the values behind these behaviours, for example, the drawbacks of pre-marital sex.
The media influences ethnic identities as it can produce programmes that present the culture of a country where a person is from, which means that we can now learn the norms and values of our culture and other cultures independent of which country we live in. It is even possible that due to the media being able to present the culture of any country that this has contributed towards the homogenisation of cultures to form a global culture as proposed by Hall, this would of course lead to changes in the ethnic identity of many people. Gillespie found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie also states that the media as well as reinforcing a person’s ethnic identity has caused a new ethnic identity to emerge, known as a hybrid identity. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis which found that they use television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities as the media allows them to actively experience different cultures and merge these with their current ethnic identities therefore creating a new identity.
Outline and explain how any two agents of socialisation can influence our age identities
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15 involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees studied female teenagers in London school and found that girls are forced into a state where great stress is put on looking right as they need to show that they are good girls rather than slags and that these girls feared that if they dressed too loose or sexy a fashion their reputations would be destroyed, this mean that girls do not naturally care about what they look like but rather they are pressured by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group.
Outline and explain two ways in which young people are influences by their peers.
Peers are those people who we see as similar to ourselves, they tend to be the same age with similar identities, and people will usually try to make friends with their peers.
Peers influence our education, this is due to young people identifying themselves with peer groups who are the same gender and possibly the same class. Boys tend to be negatively influenced towards education by their peers. It is often found that boys will do better at subjects such as, maths and science, than girls who tend to do better in subjects such as, English and art. This is due to some subjects being considered as feminine and others seen as masculine, as girls are expected to be more creative whereas, boys are expected to be more logical. When a boy is found to portray an image of academic succeed they may be excluded from participating with their peers with activities, such as, sports, as academic success is considered feminine and ‘nerdy’ so they aren’t considered as ‘cool’ or manly so their peers exclude them. Roberts did a study of boys in school and found that those who showed academic success were teased and bullied so would mask their academic achievements in order to be accepted among their peers, some of these boys would even start ridiculing the other boys seen as academic. This study supports hegemonic masculinity traits as traditionally men are sporty rather than academic achievers, and those boys who do not show these traits are going against the social norms of masculinity. An issue with this study is that it does not explain why girls do better than boys academically, as it states that boys mask their achievements but if that were the case boys should still achieve at least to the same standard as girls in all areas, so it may be the case that these boys rather than mask their achievements actually, deliberately start doing worse academically.
Another way in which a young person may be influenced by their peers is through fashion trends. This is due to a young person associating themselves with peer groups and possibly subcultural groups whereby, there fashion trends go against that of mass culture, such as Goth’s who tend to wear a lot of black, bulky clothing which goes against the fashion of the masses. These young people follow the fashion trends of the groups they associate with as they wish to be included with thee social groups and in order for this to occur they feel pressured into wearing clothing similar to that of the group, also it is due to fear of exclusion and ridicule. A study done by Lees found that girls are put under great stress n looking right despite this being an unnatural feminine behaviour/trend. It is something girls are forced into in order to show that they are ‘good’ girl rather than ‘slag’. Girls feared that if they dress too ‘loose’ or ‘sexy; a fashion that their reputation would be ruined. Even though the study did not find this girls also fear that if they do not wear clothes considered as fashionable for their age group they may also be teased which pressures them to try their best to keep up with fashion trends shown to be popular amongst their peers. Boys may also face ridicule when they show too much care in their appearance and clothes as this is not considered as a masculine thing to do, so they are pressured to not care about appearance and current trends as when they do they may be called names such as ‘poof’ or ‘Nancy boy’.
Outline and explain any two ways in which we experience social control
One way in which individuals may experience social control is through education. This is due to observation of teachers, what we learn and interaction with peers. Our peers may influence our norms, values and beliefs and can also pressure us into doing thing we do not agree with. Roberts conducted a study which found that boys who achieved well academically were excluded and ridiculed leading them to either hide their academic achievements or to focus less on education in order to be accepted among their peers. Observation of teachers allows us to view the roles that teachers take on according to their gender, so can teach us norms and values according to our genders reinforcing behaviours associated with our gender. A study which shows how teachers may socially control us was conducted by Skelton in a primary school it was found that teachers were asked to do roles associated with their appropriate gender, for example, male teachers were asked to set out the chairs for assemblies, which reinforces masculine identities as it shows that men do the strenuous work. Another way in which education socially controls us is through the hidden curriculum which is believed to be used in lessons in order to reinforce norms and values that the government want us to learn, the hidden curriculum is believed to be a way in which elitists can socialise us in a way that we will become easier to socially control and therefore become better workers.
Another way in which we may experience social control is through the media. The media believed to be exclusively controlled by the elitists, which means that they can use this control over the media to imbed norms and values into the public in order to dim their minds and make them more passive and therefore more controllable. The media also influences music preferences, and fashion trends. Over the last decade the media has influenced masculinity hugely, as it has bought about the new man identity, due to promoting fashion trends for men and promoting the caring, loving man, who helps around the house, they have also portrayed men as caring about looks and how they smell, using celebrities such as, David Beckham who cares about looks, is a family man but is also a footballer. This influence that the media has had on masculinity has caused what is known as the ‘crisis’ of masculinity as it has resulted in hegemonic masculinity fading out, this is a form of social control as it has result in men becoming somewhat more feminine in identity, this can be beneficial for those elitists as it can cause sales to increase in clothing, hair products, deodorants, moisturisers, and perfumes. Another way in which the media controls us is through newspapers, as the articles chosen to be publicised are decided by those with control, and these articles have been known to cause many moral panics as they over exaggerate the truth, for example, teenagers wearing hoodies became a moral panic as newspapers labelled this group as ‘folk devils’ and many people started to believe that teens in hoodies were dangerous, when they are in fact not, it is just a minority of people who wear hoodies that are dangerous just as with many other subcultural groups.
Thank you so much for posting your essays they are very helpful, I'm hoping one of these questions do come up tomorrow.
Original post by luked12
what ethical issues are there for the pre-release?
Holden disclosed the location of the stduy - If there were bad views on ethnic integrative play could have caused troubled with in the community.
He observed children so beforehand he would have had to have gained access from the parents and carers also known as 'gatekeepers'.
In addition to this Holden used self completed questionnaires and for the study to be ethical their personal information such as name and location should be kept confidential.
Thats all I can think of off the top of my head
is anyone else really nervous for tomorrow? just praying the questions I've been practising are going to come up!
Original post by AlongCameEmily
is anyone else really nervous for tomorrow? just praying the questions I've been practising are going to come up!
I am nervous too! Really hope we get questions on peer groups and ethnicity what do you think?
Original post by leoniepepperoni
I am nervous too! Really hope we get questions on peer groups and ethnicity what do you think?
I really hope that we get the mixed methods question for our 52, hopefully two ways your socialised into age identities for 16, how we are socialised into our ethnic identities for 24 and then multiculturalism or cultural diversity for the 8 marker. Really scared though, got my results back from mock and didnt do great, fingers crossed!
Original post by AlongCameEmily
I really hope that we get the mixed methods question for our 52, hopefully two ways your socialised into age identities for 16, how we are socialised into our ethnic identities for 24 and then multiculturalism or cultural diversity for the 8 marker. Really scared though, got my results back from mock and didnt do great, fingers crossed!
Oh yeah I just hope the questions relate to the PRM and good luck! All hard work pays off in the end! (Hopefully)
Original post by leoniepepperoni
Oh yeah I just hope the questions relate to the PRM and good luck! All hard work pays off in the end! (Hopefully)
ehe yes so do I! and ah yes!, just hoping it'll all come flooding back ine ive had a look at the questions! And aw thankyou! Good luck to you aswell hehe
Original post by AlongCameEmily
is anyone else really nervous for tomorrow? just praying the questions I've been practising are going to come up!
im freaking out
im retaking my AS
really want to do well
Best of luck everyone for tomorrow... I'm sure going to need nothing short of a miracle to pass :P
I'm still not sure whether the 52-marker will be on quantitative data collection, or research methods. Luckily, I think most of the stuff you can write can be used for both of these questions (triangulation, methodological pluralism)
As for the 8-, 16- and 24-markers, it will most likely cover ethnicity and age (as people have said before). It would be nice if the first 3 questions relate to the pre-release (i.e. they're all about ethnicity, multiculturalism etc.)
P.S. I heard that if someone dies during an exam everyone gets full marks, so you know... that's an option
I'm still not sure whether the 52-marker will be on quantitative data collection, or research methods. Luckily, I think most of the stuff you can write can be used for both of these questions (triangulation, methodological pluralism)
As for the 8-, 16- and 24-markers, it will most likely cover ethnicity and age (as people have said before). It would be nice if the first 3 questions relate to the pre-release (i.e. they're all about ethnicity, multiculturalism etc.)
P.S. I heard that if someone dies during an exam everyone gets full marks, so you know... that's an option
Original post by iJess
Could someone please explain the Hawthorne effect to me? Thank you did'nt really understand it
The Hawthorne effect simply is that when a group of people are being observed their behavior will change as opposed to not being watched.
For example in Holdens study there were elements of covert observation, the children didn't know but the parents would have had to due to ethical reasons. If the children knew that they were being observed then their behavior would change, they would start interacting with other kids from different ethnicity. This would make the data unreliable. This is the Hawthrone effect and why Holden used covert observation to stop the Hawthrone effect happening.
Original post by rosschaps
Best of luck everyone for tomorrow... I'm sure going to need nothing short of a miracle to pass :P
I'm still not sure whether the 52-marker will be on quantitative data collection, or research methods. Luckily, I think most of the stuff you can write can be used for both of these questions (triangulation, methodological pluralism)
As for the 8-, 16- and 24-markers, it will most likely cover ethnicity and age (as people have said before). It would be nice if the first 3 questions relate to the pre-release (i.e. they're all about ethnicity, multiculturalism etc.)
P.S. I heard that if someone dies during an exam everyone gets full marks, so you know... that's an option
I'm still not sure whether the 52-marker will be on quantitative data collection, or research methods. Luckily, I think most of the stuff you can write can be used for both of these questions (triangulation, methodological pluralism)
As for the 8-, 16- and 24-markers, it will most likely cover ethnicity and age (as people have said before). It would be nice if the first 3 questions relate to the pre-release (i.e. they're all about ethnicity, multiculturalism etc.)
P.S. I heard that if someone dies during an exam everyone gets full marks, so you know... that's an option
Idk why that made me laugh so much :|
Original post by tasha212
other possible questions may be
Question 3:
Explain and briefly evaluate the ways in which ethnicity may shape a person’s identity. (still doing on this one will post later)
Explain and evaluate the importance of peer groups in the reinforcement and maintenance of ethnic identities
When a child enters education they are subjected to peers of different ethnicities, this could result in them learning the norms and values of different ethnicities which may result in the emergence of a new identity known as a hybrid identity whereby a person may identify themselves as both Asian and British. This may occur due to the peer pressure whereby, a person feels the need to conform to those behaviours of their peers in order to avoid exclusion and/or ridicule as studies have found that when a person does not conform with wider cultural expectations they are ridiculed although such studies do not directly explain how peers influence ethnicities they can to some extent be related, as Lees study explains how girls dress in order to avoid ridicule, which can be applied to ethnicities as Indians traditionally wear a sari but may be ridiculed by peers for wearing this and pressured into wearing Western clothing.
It is not only peer pressure that leads to the learning of these norms and values but also influence and being subjected to this different culture. We may learn our ethnic identities from our peers in the same way as we learn them from our parents by simply observing our peers interactions and behaviours and learning about the celebrations they participate in such as, Christmas, as in the UK many people celebrate Christmas due to this being a Christian country so those students who may be Muslim would be subjected to peers talking about Christmas what they want and in this way learn this tradition which may influence their ethnic identities as when they are older they may decide to start celebrating this Western holiday themselves, moving away from their traditional ethnic identity and religion.
Further evidence which supports that peers have an influence on ethnic identities comes from Ballard’s study which found that young second generation Asians behaved in ways that fitted into the culture of the wider society for part of the time but at home conformed to their ethnic subculture, with children showing increased independence in terms of expecting to have some say in their choice of marriage partner although they did not generally reject the principle of arranged marriages. This indicates that in the contemporary UK ethnic minorities are influenced by peers due to behaving in ways that conform to the wider society when out of the home which may be the result of peer influence, although we can see here that parents have some control over ethnic identities as children behave in accordance to this when at home but this may be to make their family happy rather than due to it being a part of their ethnic identity.
However, it is argued that the family does in fact play a more important role in the creation of ethnic identities, this is due to parents teaching us the norms and values from our ethnic background as well as the traditions and celebrations, along with the religion associated with that ethnicity. Also parents are an agent of primary socialisation meaning that this will be the initial ethnicity which we are taught which by rights should mean that it will have a larger impact on our identities, even if as we get older we are influenced by the wider society we should still maintain parts of this ethnic identity.
Parents may influence our ethnic identities through the portrayal of their own behaviours. As children learn many things from just observing their parents attitudes, roles and behaviours, this may include their religion as those from Afghanistan and Morocco are likely to observe their parents prayer routine as in Islam it is required that you pray 5 times a day and as children observe this behaviour and are also encouraged to participate this reinforces that part of their ethnic culture. They may also observe their parents relationship as the way in which each person in a relationship is treated may relate to the culture in which they are from, as in England we see that each person within the relationship is treated as an equal but those from different ethnic cultures such as, those who are Muslim a child would observe that the mother has to obey the husband unless he asks her to do something which disobeys Allah this relationship is seen as unequal as it is outlined in the Qur’an that a husband has to go out and earn money and the wife has to stay at home, this is a traditional relationship known as a nuclear family. Butler found evidence that the family still plays an important role in the creation and reinforcement of ethnic identities. She studied a group of East Midlands teenage second and third generation Muslim girls and found that families are important in shaping their identities as while they want their independence through education and a career, they do not want to break family links and Islam is important for the maintenance of these.
Gillespie proposed that the media influences ethnic identities as the media can replicate the norms and values of a person's ethnic background. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie's study which found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie proposed that the media is allowing a new identity to emerge known as a hybrid identity. Evidence to support this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis who used television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities, as they were actively experiencing different cultures through the media and merging these with their ethnic identity to create this new hybrid identity.
Explain and evaluate the view that age identities are created through socialisation. 22 possibly 23/24 marks
Like gender or ethnic identities, age identities can be said to be influenced by a variety of factors. Age identities are created and reinforced by a number of primary and secondary agents of socialisation. Age expectations change throughout different cultures. In Western society these expectation and responsibilities change with age.
Age identity is influenced by our family as an agent of primary socialisation. Our parents influence this through teaching us norms and values that they believe to be suitable for our age group, for example, parents may teach us that we can play with dolls at 5 but when we are 10 tell us that we are too old, and when we are 12 our parents may teach us that we can go out with friends to the cinema, shopping, theme parks without parental supervision. Our family also influence our class identity, which can link to our age identity, as if our family is in the working class, we may be more vulnerable to enter a subculture in the transitional stage, which is the stage between childhood and adulthood, which is considered to be a time of storm and stress, in which we enter into a subculture as a form of peer support. In the contemporary UK, it has been found by Gardner et al. that parents and children are choosing to spend more time together than 25 years ago due to parents being more concerned about perceived risks that children are exposed to. This may result in parents having a larger influence on children and may even result in changes in age identities, as with parents being more concerned this may result in children becoming independent at a later age in life.
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15's involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Through education as an agent of secondary socialisation our age identity is influenced through what we learn throughout different key stages. In the UK we have key stage 1, 2, 3, and 4 and as we move through these key stages we are taught more intensive things, for example, in key stage one we are taught the basics of education such as, how to read and write, add simple sums, we may go over basic multiplication and when we get to key stage four we start learning things such as algebra. In this way we learn what we are capable of doing at different ages. Also our teachers teach us differently throughout different key stages, when we first start school teachers are much more attentive to our needs and offer help without being asked but when we get to key stage 4 teachers rely on their students to ask for help when needed, in this way teachers are helping us to become more independent which helps us to learn that when we are young we should be dependent on adults but as we get older we need to become independent and start helping ourselves. The hidden curriculum can also help us develop our age identities as the government use this to imbed norms and values into our educational system and in this way can teach us the norms and values they believe suitable for our age groups when we first start school the hidden curriculum most likely does not exist in our education but as we get older it may start to come into our education teaching us norms and values they believe are suitable for our ages.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees study on teenage girls showed us that girls do not naturally care about fashion but will wear certain clothing due to peer pressure as they do not want to dress too loose or sexy a fashion and risk being ridiculed by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group. Shain found that Asian girls developed distinct identities in a secondary school through girl gangs as a way of coping with school, their peers were crucial in who the girls identified with. This explains how girls may form age identities through peer influence as by joining a girl gang this would teach them the behaviours for their age, it is an act of rebellion and support, which is something teenagers resort to in the transitional stage to deal with a time known as storm and stress as stated by Parsons.
Question 3:
Explain and briefly evaluate the ways in which ethnicity may shape a person’s identity. (still doing on this one will post later)
Explain and evaluate the importance of peer groups in the reinforcement and maintenance of ethnic identities
When a child enters education they are subjected to peers of different ethnicities, this could result in them learning the norms and values of different ethnicities which may result in the emergence of a new identity known as a hybrid identity whereby a person may identify themselves as both Asian and British. This may occur due to the peer pressure whereby, a person feels the need to conform to those behaviours of their peers in order to avoid exclusion and/or ridicule as studies have found that when a person does not conform with wider cultural expectations they are ridiculed although such studies do not directly explain how peers influence ethnicities they can to some extent be related, as Lees study explains how girls dress in order to avoid ridicule, which can be applied to ethnicities as Indians traditionally wear a sari but may be ridiculed by peers for wearing this and pressured into wearing Western clothing.
It is not only peer pressure that leads to the learning of these norms and values but also influence and being subjected to this different culture. We may learn our ethnic identities from our peers in the same way as we learn them from our parents by simply observing our peers interactions and behaviours and learning about the celebrations they participate in such as, Christmas, as in the UK many people celebrate Christmas due to this being a Christian country so those students who may be Muslim would be subjected to peers talking about Christmas what they want and in this way learn this tradition which may influence their ethnic identities as when they are older they may decide to start celebrating this Western holiday themselves, moving away from their traditional ethnic identity and religion.
Further evidence which supports that peers have an influence on ethnic identities comes from Ballard’s study which found that young second generation Asians behaved in ways that fitted into the culture of the wider society for part of the time but at home conformed to their ethnic subculture, with children showing increased independence in terms of expecting to have some say in their choice of marriage partner although they did not generally reject the principle of arranged marriages. This indicates that in the contemporary UK ethnic minorities are influenced by peers due to behaving in ways that conform to the wider society when out of the home which may be the result of peer influence, although we can see here that parents have some control over ethnic identities as children behave in accordance to this when at home but this may be to make their family happy rather than due to it being a part of their ethnic identity.
However, it is argued that the family does in fact play a more important role in the creation of ethnic identities, this is due to parents teaching us the norms and values from our ethnic background as well as the traditions and celebrations, along with the religion associated with that ethnicity. Also parents are an agent of primary socialisation meaning that this will be the initial ethnicity which we are taught which by rights should mean that it will have a larger impact on our identities, even if as we get older we are influenced by the wider society we should still maintain parts of this ethnic identity.
Parents may influence our ethnic identities through the portrayal of their own behaviours. As children learn many things from just observing their parents attitudes, roles and behaviours, this may include their religion as those from Afghanistan and Morocco are likely to observe their parents prayer routine as in Islam it is required that you pray 5 times a day and as children observe this behaviour and are also encouraged to participate this reinforces that part of their ethnic culture. They may also observe their parents relationship as the way in which each person in a relationship is treated may relate to the culture in which they are from, as in England we see that each person within the relationship is treated as an equal but those from different ethnic cultures such as, those who are Muslim a child would observe that the mother has to obey the husband unless he asks her to do something which disobeys Allah this relationship is seen as unequal as it is outlined in the Qur’an that a husband has to go out and earn money and the wife has to stay at home, this is a traditional relationship known as a nuclear family. Butler found evidence that the family still plays an important role in the creation and reinforcement of ethnic identities. She studied a group of East Midlands teenage second and third generation Muslim girls and found that families are important in shaping their identities as while they want their independence through education and a career, they do not want to break family links and Islam is important for the maintenance of these.
Gillespie proposed that the media influences ethnic identities as the media can replicate the norms and values of a person's ethnic background. Evidence for this comes from Gillespie's study which found that some South Asians in Britain identified themselves with characters in Indian soaps such as Mahabharata, this allows these people to learn the values and norms from there ethnic origin which reinforces their ethnic identity. Gillespie proposed that the media is allowing a new identity to emerge known as a hybrid identity. Evidence to support this comes from Gillespie’s study of young British Punjabis who used television and videos to redefine their ethnic identities, as they were actively experiencing different cultures through the media and merging these with their ethnic identity to create this new hybrid identity.
Explain and evaluate the view that age identities are created through socialisation. 22 possibly 23/24 marks
Like gender or ethnic identities, age identities can be said to be influenced by a variety of factors. Age identities are created and reinforced by a number of primary and secondary agents of socialisation. Age expectations change throughout different cultures. In Western society these expectation and responsibilities change with age.
Age identity is influenced by our family as an agent of primary socialisation. Our parents influence this through teaching us norms and values that they believe to be suitable for our age group, for example, parents may teach us that we can play with dolls at 5 but when we are 10 tell us that we are too old, and when we are 12 our parents may teach us that we can go out with friends to the cinema, shopping, theme parks without parental supervision. Our family also influence our class identity, which can link to our age identity, as if our family is in the working class, we may be more vulnerable to enter a subculture in the transitional stage, which is the stage between childhood and adulthood, which is considered to be a time of storm and stress, in which we enter into a subculture as a form of peer support. In the contemporary UK, it has been found by Gardner et al. that parents and children are choosing to spend more time together than 25 years ago due to parents being more concerned about perceived risks that children are exposed to. This may result in parents having a larger influence on children and may even result in changes in age identities, as with parents being more concerned this may result in children becoming independent at a later age in life.
Media as an agent of secondary socialisation may influence our age identity due to advertisements, age related/restricted programmes and magazines such as, ‘Seventeen’ magazine which is aimed at teenagers. The media targets specific programmes at a specific age group, and these programmes include norms, values, fashion trends that they feel are suitable for the audience. These norms, values, fashion trends may be adopted by the audience, as they may associate with a specific celebrity and try to imitate their trends and behaviours. A programme in the 90’s which was extremely popular for young people was boy meets world which watched a boy from the age of 12 till he was about 19/20 and this saw him go through the troubles of being a teenager and relationship problems, this programme showed a lot of norms, values, fashion trends and problems of teenagers in this decade and many teenagers may have adopted these and learnt from this how they should behave at their age. Age restricted films, games and programmes indicate that the behaviours portrayed are only suitable for those above this age, which may be taken as that as long as you are of this age you can portray these behaviours and that these behaviours are a norm, however, many argue that ratings such as 15 portray behaviours that a 15 year should not see as a norm as many 15's involve sexual activity, violence, strong use of language, and when a person sees these behaviours they may copy them, known as ‘copycat’. The media also has a watershed in place whereby, programmes that are rated 12 and over cannot be shown until after nine as this is the time they believe that children are in bed and therefore will not be able to view these programmes.
Through education as an agent of secondary socialisation our age identity is influenced through what we learn throughout different key stages. In the UK we have key stage 1, 2, 3, and 4 and as we move through these key stages we are taught more intensive things, for example, in key stage one we are taught the basics of education such as, how to read and write, add simple sums, we may go over basic multiplication and when we get to key stage four we start learning things such as algebra. In this way we learn what we are capable of doing at different ages. Also our teachers teach us differently throughout different key stages, when we first start school teachers are much more attentive to our needs and offer help without being asked but when we get to key stage 4 teachers rely on their students to ask for help when needed, in this way teachers are helping us to become more independent which helps us to learn that when we are young we should be dependent on adults but as we get older we need to become independent and start helping ourselves. The hidden curriculum can also help us develop our age identities as the government use this to imbed norms and values into our educational system and in this way can teach us the norms and values they believe suitable for our age groups when we first start school the hidden curriculum most likely does not exist in our education but as we get older it may start to come into our education teaching us norms and values they believe are suitable for our ages.
Peers as an agent of secondary socialisation influence our age identity through norms, values, and fashion trends. Lees study on teenage girls showed us that girls do not naturally care about fashion but will wear certain clothing due to peer pressure as they do not want to dress too loose or sexy a fashion and risk being ridiculed by their peers. Peers influence us through the use of peer pressure as when peers take up a new activity or start wearing different clothes if an individual does not conform to these they may start to exclude them from activities they do, which can make this person feel pressured to conform to the group even if they do not agree with their norms and values, for example, when peers start going to parties and drinking they may not invite one of their friends as they don’t drink so won’t be any fun, this can cause this peer to start drinking when they go to parties in order to become included with their peer group. Shain found that Asian girls developed distinct identities in a secondary school through girl gangs as a way of coping with school, their peers were crucial in who the girls identified with. This explains how girls may form age identities through peer influence as by joining a girl gang this would teach them the behaviours for their age, it is an act of rebellion and support, which is something teenagers resort to in the transitional stage to deal with a time known as storm and stress as stated by Parsons.
I don't think you'd get many marks for those essays. And you have so much irrelevant content.
You get only 4 marks for the evaluation, you don't want to be writing too much.
Original post by iJess
Could someone please explain the Hawthorne effect to me? Thank you did'nt really understand it
where people who are being observed as part of an overt observation change their behaviour
Original post by crimsonk
The Hawthorne effect simply is that when a group of people are being observed their behavior will change as opposed to not being watched.
For example in Holdens study there were elements of covert observation, the children didn't know but the parents would have had to due to ethical reasons. If the children knew that they were being observed then their behavior would change, they would start interacting with other kids from different ethnicity. This would make the data unreliable. This is the Hawthrone effect and why Holden used covert observation to stop the Hawthrone effect happening.
For example in Holdens study there were elements of covert observation, the children didn't know but the parents would have had to due to ethical reasons. If the children knew that they were being observed then their behavior would change, they would start interacting with other kids from different ethnicity. This would make the data unreliable. This is the Hawthrone effect and why Holden used covert observation to stop the Hawthrone effect happening.
Ohhh we did this in class in regards to a study on the Moonies and my teacher said it makes research unreliable but unfortunately sometimes people have to know they are being observed. Thank you very much for clarifying this for me, much appreciated
Original post by umimstuck
im freaking out
im retaking my AS
really want to do well
im retaking my AS
really want to do well
Im freaking out aswell, just scared that my mind is going to go blank or something. But dont worry Im sure youll do great! all the work will come together fingers crossed! i just want a c or a b than ill be happy aha
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