UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Socialization and Enculturation
• Socialization
- life-long process of social interaction through
which people acquire their identities and
necessary survival skill in society
- enables a person to gradually become self-
aware and knowledgeable human being,
and learn the ways, values, rules, and culture
of society
- students learn that it is a norm to greet their
teachers
• Enculturation
- Process of being socialized in a specific
culture
- Going to church, learning local language,
attending school
- Learn cultural symbols, norms, values, and
language by observing and interacting with
others
• Acculturation
- Adapting the culture of a society
- American occupation (Public school),
Japanese occupation (Haiku), Spanish
occupation (Religion)
• Similarities of Socialization and Enculturation
- Instilling accepted values, norms, and
standards of behavior in society through
social rules
• Three Goals of Socialization
o Teaches impulse control and help
individuals develop a conscience
o Teaches individuals how to prepare for
and perform certain social roles
o Cultivates shared sources of meaning
and value
• The Development of Social Mind
o George Herbert Mead
- one of the founders of social psychology
- social mind or “self” is a sociological
concept
- “self” is characterized as “I” is the
response of an individual to the attitude
of others
- while “me” is the organized set of
attitudes of others which on individual
assumes, in short, “me” is one’s social self
• Mead’s Three Stages of Development
o Preparatory stage
- initiation
- children interact with others through
imitation
o Play stage
- required in development
- pretend play
- role-taking
- child takes different roles he observes in
“adult” society and plays them out to
gain understanding of different social
roles
- they learn what is acceptable and not
o Game stage
- children learn that people have multiple
roles and behave the way they do
because of these roles
• Agents of Socialization and Enculturation
- Persons, group, and institutions that teach
people essential knowledge to participate
successfully in society
o Family
o Schools
o Peer groups
o Mass media
Conformity and Deviance
• Conformity – process of altering one’s thoughts
and actions to adapt to the accepted behavior
within a group or society
o Going to church
o Following curfew
o Abiding rules
• Three Types of Conformity – according to Herbert
Kelman
o Compliance – outward conformity to
social pressure but privately disagreeing
with it
o Identification – individual adopting
certain behavior because it enables him
to have a satisfying relationship with the
members of the group
o Internalization or Acceptance – both
public compliance and internal
acceptance of the norms and standards
imposed by the group
• Deviance – behavior that elicits a strong negative
reaction from group members and involves
actions that violate commonly held social norms
o Women driving cars in Saudi
o During the Nazi regime
• Social Control – any systematic means and
practices used to maintain norms, rules, and laws,
regulate conflict and discourage deviant
behavior
o Implementing laws
o Rejection by other members of society
• Sanctions – most common means of social
control, and are often employed to address
conflicts and violations of social norms
• Types of Sanctions
o Formal – provided by for by laws and
other regulations in society
▪ Laws – formally designate certain
deviant behaviors as crimes and
prescribe sanctions for such acts
• Imprisonment
• Banishment
• Fines
• Corporal punishment
o Informal – commonly imposed by smaller
societies that are often agreed upon by
themselves
▪ Ostracism – ostracized individual
is forcibly isolated from the rest of
society for a certain time
▪ Social stigma – stigmatized
person remains in the society but
is subjected to isolation and
rejection by other members of
society
Human Dignity and Rights
• Human dignity – a person has the innate right to
be valued, respected, and to be treated well
• Human rights – legal, social, and ethnical
principles that consider human as deserving of
liberties and protections by virtue of his human
dignity
JULIANNE CHAELA A. DADO STEM 12-DEMOCRITUS
 - Founded on natural rights which are universal
and inalienable, and are not contingent on
laws, customs, beliefs or values of a particular
culture
o Right to life
o Right to freedom
• Characteristics of Human Rights
o Universal – they belong to all human
being regardless of race, religion, gender
and other characteristics
o Fundamental – cannot be taken away
from you
o Indivisible – rights that are interrelated
and given equal importance
o Absolute – cannot be qualified and are
considered basic necessities for living a
genuine life
• 1945 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR)
• 1989 – United Nation’s Convention for the Rights of
a Child (UNCRC)
Groups within Society
• Social group – collection of individuals who have
relations with one another that make them
interdependent
• Interdependent – enables members to pursue
shared goals or promote common values and
principles
• Primary group – small, intimate, and less
specialized group whose members engage to
face-to-face and emotion-based interactions
over an extended period of time
o Family
o Close friends
o Classmates
o Church groups
• Secondary group – larger, less intimate, and more
specialized groups. Members engage in an
impersonal and objective-oriented relationship for
a limited time
o Lawyers and clients
o Employees and co-workers
• Reference groups – which an individual compare
himself. Groups that individuals often identify with
and emulate the traits of people they feel closest
to
o They seek the same profession of their
parents
o Source of role models since the individual
uses it as a standard for self-assessment
▪ Favorite sports team/dance
group
• Networks – interconnections, ties, and linkages
between people, their groups, and the larger
social institutions to which they belong to
o Social media
Cultural, Social, and Political Institutions
• Social institution
- Such as economy and government
- Bike parts and the overall society is the bicycle
- Established sets of norms and subsystems that
support each other’s society’s survival
- It is a group of social positions, connected by
social relations, performing a social role
o Universities
o Governments
o Hospitals
• Functions of Social Institution
o Institutions simplify social behavior.
o Provide ready-made forms of social
relations and social roles.
o Act as agencies of coordination and
stability for the society’s culture.
o Control behavior
• Five Major Social Institutions
o Family
o Education
o Religion
o Government
o Economy (Commercial and Industrial)
• Family
- Smallest social institution
- Most basic unit of society and the educational
system where the child begins to learn
- Basic agent of socialization because it is here
where the individual develops, values,
behaviors, and ways of life through interaction
with members of the family
• Functions of the Family
o Reproduction of the race and rearing of
the young – a unique function that
cannot be done by any other institution
o Cultural transmission of enculturation – the
culture of the family as acquired from the
parents as well as other members of the
family
o Socialization of the child – child learns his
role and status
o Provide affection and sense of security
o Provide environment for personality
development and growth of self-concept
o Providing social status – each individual
inherits both material goods and social
recognition defined by ascribed status
• Kinds of Family Patterns
o Structure or membership
▪ Nuclear – husband, wife, children
▪ Extended or consanguine –
married couple, their parents,
siblings, grandparents, uncles,
aunts, cousins
o Residence
▪ Patrilocal – with or near the
parents of the husband
▪ Matrilocal - with or near the
parents of the wife
▪ Neolocal – separate household
o Authority
▪ Patriarchal – father is the head of
the family and plays a dominant
tole
▪ Matriarchal – mother is the head
and makes major decisions
▪ Equalitarian – both parents share
in making decisions and are
equal in authority
o Descent
▪ Patrilineal – recognized through
the father’s line
▪ Matrilineal – recognized through
the mother’s line
▪ Bilineal – recognized both sides
• Education
- Schools
- Ensure a literate population
- Transmit culture where beliefs, norms, values,
and practices of society are taught
JULIANNE CHAELA A. DADO STEM 12-DEMOCRITUS
• Functions of Educational Institutions • Government
- Manifest functions – defined as the open and - resolves conflicts that are public in nature and
intended goals of activities within an institution involve more than a few people
o Socialization - It can be city, provincial, national or even
o Social control international
o Social placement • Three Branches of the Government
o Transmitting culture o Executive – enforces laws and rules
o Promoting social and political o Legislative – makes laws and rules
integration o Judicial – interprets laws and rules
o Agent of change • Politics - A pattern of human interaction that
- Latent functions – hidden, unstated, and serves to resolve conflicts between people,
sometimes unintended consequences of institutions, and nations
activities • Administration - aggregate of persons whom
o Restricting activities hands the reigns of the government for the time
o Matchmaking and production of being
social networks • Functions of the Government
o Creation of generation gap o Constituent functions - contribute to the
• Functions of Schools by Calderon (1998) very bonds of society and are compulsory
o Conservation ▪ Keeping of order and providing
o Instructional protection of persons and
o Research property from violence and
o Social service robbery
• Religion ▪ The definition and punishment for
- Involves a set of beliefs and practices of a crimes
particular social group ▪ The administration of justice in
o Belief – concerns the ultimate civil cases
meaning of one’s life as it assumes o Ministrant functions - undertaken to
the existence of a greater being advance the general interest of society
• Characteristics of Religion such as public works, charity and are
o Belief in a deity or in a power beyond the merely optional
individual • Economics
o A doctrine (accepted teaching) of - study of how individuals and societies make
salvation decisions about ways to use scarce resources
o Code of conduct to fulfill wants and needs
o Sacred stories or text o Macroeconomics - Concerned with the
o Religious rituals (acts and ceremonies) economy as a whole, or large segments
• Functions of Religion of it
o Social control o Microeconomics - How individuals make
o Great influence on personality economic decisions, or concerned with
development specific economic units of parts that
o Fear the unknown makes an economic system
o Explains events or situations which are • Five Economic Questions
beyond the comprehension of man o What to produce (make)
o Gives comfort, strength, and hope in o How much to produce (quantity)
times of crisis and despair o How to produce it (manufacture)
• Church o For whom to produce (who gets what)
- Tends to be large o Who gets to make these decisions
- With inclusive membership
- Widely accepted by the host culture
- Tends towards greater intellectual
examination and interpretation of the tenants
of religion
• Sect
- Small
- Exclusive membership
- Formed by breaking away from a larger one
to follow a different set of rules and principles
- High degree of tension with the church the
sect originated from
• Cult
- Formed when people create new religious
beliefs and practices
- Can range from local groups with a few
members to international organization with
millions

JULIANNE CHAELA A. DADO STEM 12-DEMOCRITUS