CAPE SOCIOLOGY INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

2022

CANDIDATE NAME CANDIDATE NUMBER

RENAY CAMPBELL 1004220690
JAMIE FANNS 1004221247
BRITANY HENRY 1004221760
NATALIA GORDON 1004221506
RICHARD PALMER 1004222901
JINELL SMALLING 1004223487

Centre Name: Pre-University School, Taylor Hall, U.W.I, Mona Campus

Centre Number: 100422
Teacher: Ms. Quidi-Ann King
Territory: Jamaica
 Table of Contents

Contents

SECTION ONE (1)

Acknowledgement................................................................................................................................2

Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3

Statement of Problem..........................................................................................................................4

Aims and Objectives............................................................................................................................5

Literature Review................................................................................................................................6

SECTION TWO (2)

Research Design.................................................................................................................................11

Sample................................................................................................................................................12

Sociological Perspective.....................................................................................................................13

Data Collection Instrument...............................................................................................................15

SECTION THREE (3)

Presentation of Data..........................................................................................................................19

Analysis of Data.................................................................................................................................24

SECTION FOUR (4)

Findings..............................................................................................................................................26

Recommendations..............................................................................................................................28

Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................29

Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................30

Appendices.........................................................................................................................................31
 Section One

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 Acknowledgement

Primarily, we would like to thank the Almighty God for giving us the strength and knowledge to

complete this internal assessment. We would also like to thank friends who assisted in taking part in

the questionnaire which played a significant role in completing this assignment. We also give a

special thank you to our teachers Ms King and Mrs. Crawford who aided us with an understanding

and well-prepared guide and assisted us in completing this assignment.

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 Introduction

Culture is the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behaviour. It is

also the combination of thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, values, and the pattern shared by the racial,

ethnic, religious, or social groups of people. Culture is important in many ways. It teaches values,

beliefs, and traditions. It influences the social interaction with parents, siblings, peers, and teachers

and influences their languages and communications. This topic is important because we get a better

understanding of how culture is important to our lives and how it plays a key role in the lives of

everyone in society. Culture is also important because it helps us to answer various questions such

as why we need to follow rules.

Culture helps to shape people into who they are as they gain knowledge, learn the language,

symbols, values, norms, customs, and traditions. The researchers chose this topic because of its

relevance and significance, it is easy to understand it is a relevant and significant topic that is easy to

understand and learn the aspects of culture and how to shape the thinking and the way of lives of

the students and at Pre-University School. We also chose this specific topic because we have a lot of

sources we can get information from, the knowledge of the topic, and different things we can learn

from going along with this project.

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 Statement of Problem

“How does culture affect social interactions and social behaviours of the students who attend

the Pre-University School?”

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 Aims and Objectives

The aim of this research is: 

 to investigate how culture affects the social interactions of individuals in society

 to find out how culture affects the way we interact with each other

 to understand how culture affects the social life of the students at the Pre-University

School

The objective of this research is: 

 to learn how culture provides important social benefits. 

 to understand how the cultural society we live in influences our interaction.

 to assess the social behavioural pattern of the students at the Pre-University School

influenced by culture

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 Literature Review

    To conduct this research, the researchers chose The Pre-University School. This school has

been in existence for more than two decades, is located at Taylor Hall, University of the West

Indies, Mona Campus, and is known as one of the leading learning institutions in Jamaica.

Pre-University helps students to develop the skills they need to succeed in any situation. They

provide day school classes for CSEC and CAPE students so that they can be advanced to the

tertiary level. The school has an Integrated Sixth Form Program, a very innovative way to

keep fifth form graduates who would not or cannot be accommodated in the formal sixth

program in school leading them to tertiary advancement. Pre-University consists of many

different academic programs such as Mathematics and Pure Sciences, Humanities and Social

Sciences, Advanced Placement {AP} program, and the Integrated Sixth Form Program.

The Administrative Staff is led by Dr. Ronald Robinson who has a Doctorate in Chemistry.

He has over two decades of experience in education in Jamaica. He is one of the founding

individuals of the Pre-university School and has served at various levels in education in

Jamaica. Our academic faculty are some of the most qualified at his level in the country, with

qualifications ranging from Doctorates, Master of Science, Bachelor of Science, and teaching

diplomas each being a specialist in their area.

    These different programs are provided for the students to get a better advance to further

their education to other institutions like Universities, Colleges, or even the Working world.

The Pre-University School is to provide different modes of tertiary access to students from

CSEC to CAPE combinations to the country’s first Advanced Placement {AP} program

where students can sit university credits while doing CAPE. Pre-University School is one of

the first schools in Jamaica of its kind to utilize technology to deliver classes and tutoring.

The Pre-University Learning Management system brings classes into your home. They also

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offer diplomas, and certificates in many skills such as Customer Service, Early childhood,

and Healthcare, and they partner with other institutions when it is necessary.

 Students who enroll at The Pre-University School come prepared to take advantage of the

opportunities that are present, a highly qualified and professional faculty, modern air-

conditioned lecture rooms, live-streaming online classes, teaching aids, and the internet-

linked study rooms that are provided for the students and their comforts. The Pre-University

School has been focused on delivering the highest level of teaching to the students, resulting

in the school being one of the leading matriculating institutions in Jamaica. Culture is a very

broad topic that can be looked at from many different perspectives. Many different theorists

speak on culture, but the focus will only be on three; Emile Durkheim, M.G Smith, and Carl

Stone. These theorists gave their separate thoughts and views about culture. Going along we

will be giving our understanding of what the theorists said about culture then highlighting the

hypothesis with regards to our topic.

      For information to be collected for this research, the researchers used different internet

sources with articles and perspectives of different theorists. The Social interaction theory

studies ways that people engage with one another. Scholars from many areas such as

anthropology, sociology, and psychology are interested in social interaction and the patterns

that can be found in such interactions. Patterns that were observed helped social scientists to

develop theories to describe human behaviours. Firstly, Emile Durkheim believed that

people’s norms, beliefs, and values make up a collective consciousness and a shared way of

understanding, interacting, and behaving in the world. Durkheim assumes that humans are

inherently egoistic according to “collective consciousness forms the moral basis of society,

resulting in social integration. Durkheim's theory focuses on social structures and their

relation to human behaviours. He theorized that an individual's behaviours are greatly

impacted by social facts. Durkheim has been called a structural functionalist because his

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theories focus on the function certain institutions such as religion play in maintaining social

solidarity or social structure. He also mentioned that simpler societies are based on

mechanical solidarity, in which self-sufficient people are concerned with others by close

personal ties and traditions. Modern societies are based on organic solidarity, in which people

are connected by their reliance on others in the division of labour. According to Durkheim,

collective consciousness is formed through social interactions. Emile Durkheim developed

theories of social structure that included “functionalism”, the division of labour, and anomie.

    Secondly, German sociologist Max Weber. Weber argues the theory of social action, he

says that social action is a subjective form that a person can have in the way they think and

act and how they influence the behaviours of individuals. Weber says that a group of people

with similar behaviours believe in something related. Weber’s definition of social interaction

is the one most accepted. Max says that social behaviours have two components, the action or

the behaviours itself and the meaning that one attaches to his or her behaviours, meaning how

a person perceives their behaviours about others, this is what makes an action or interaction

social.  With the social action that was mentioned by Max Weber, he explained that cultures

are formed, ways of thinking of actions in the society that start from an individual and are

generalized by other societies. These social actions have undergone transformations and

modifications as times have changed.

  Schools are institutions created by society; they influence and help to shape society. Schools

are social institutions that have been given the mission to develop the young in worldwide

ways, to pass on knowledge and values, and reach certain cultures and practices. Teaching

them to learn to live and communicate in respectful ways. Schools especially in Jamaica help

to train students’ emotional maturity self-assurance, discipline, and social skills. In Jamaica,

some activities such as after-school social or other cultural activities play a very important

role in the personal and social development of adolescents. The way students speak to each

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other when they are interacting can also be influenced by what they are taught in school. In

Jamaica, it is culturally accepted that speaking standard English is the way to speak, and

speaking patois is considered as speaking bad. Jamaican Schools teach and train students to

speak standard English when communicating or interacting among themselves or with

teachers. Schools in Jamaica also influence the behaviours of students, how to be respectful,

how to behave when there is a conflict etc. The school is an institution that helps to shape or

influence the social behaviours and interaction of students.

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 Section Two

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 Research Design

The research investigating how culture affects social interactions and social behaviours of the

students who attend the Pre-University School was conducted at the Pre-University School, Taylor

Hall, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. The research project was done in a questionnaire

format, which was conducted on December 30, 2021. Two types of questions were included in the

questionnaire: open-ended questions and close-ended questions. Open-ended questions, according

to Nielsen Norman Group, are questions that allow someone to give a free-form answer; no choices

were given or guidance to what the answer should be, it is left up to the respondent. It can be seen

as beneficial as they allow the respondents to express complex ideas and feelings but also hard to

analyse because of unnecessary information that the respondents may have there. The other type of

question used was close-ended questions. According to Hotjar, Closed-ended questions are

questions that can only be answered by selecting from a limited number of options, usually multiple-

choice questions with a single-word answer, ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ or a rating scale (e.g., from strongly agree

to strongly disagree). Closed-ended questions give limited insight but can easily be analysed for

quantitative data. This kind of question does not allow the respondent to respond in detail, it guides

the respondent in a certain way, therefore a possibility of bias is in existence. Questionnaires were

administered to twenty (20) randomly selected students. The information acquired from the

research was presented in the form of graphs, as well as an in-depth analysis of the data collected.

Therefore, the primary source of data collection was the respondents themselves who gave the

information relevant to the data collection process and the secondary source would be the different

journal articles, reviews, and research reports which provided additional information that was useful

in solidifying the results of the primary findings. The limitations experienced in this research were

extremely minimal; it was just a little difficult to get the twenty respondents all at once because

some of them were a little hesitant to complete the questionnaire.

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 Sample

A sample can best be defined as a subset of the population being studied, it represents the larger

population and is used to draw inferences about the population. The sampling method that was

used by the researchers is the stratified sampling method, this is where the population was split into

groups according to similar age and gender. Twenty questionnaires were sent to the students at Pre-

University, 55% of the respondents were males and 45% were females all belonging to the age group

16-22. This method was chosen because it allowed the researchers to develop answers coming from

the minds of similar age groups with similar levels of thinking and to see how the responses from

females would differentiate from the males. 

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 Sociological Perspective

M.G Smith (1921-1993) is a Jamaican social anthropologist who coined the theory “Plural Society”.

Smith disagrees with George Beckford’s theory that says that we live in a plantation society that the

culture of whites is superior and that their culture is the dominant culture for all. He says that what

we live in is a plural society, that there is no mainstream nor dominant culture, and that our society

is heterogeneous and not homogeneous. “A society in which people mix but do not combine”, we

live in a society that has a diversity of different ethnicities, cultural backgrounds and values, ideas,

and language instead of one where most of the individuals share the same ethnicity, culture, ideas,

and language. He also argues that we are not only culturally diverse but also institutionally.    

       Smith says that the harmony we share is maintained and constructed by the basic instructions in

society. Even though we have different forms of basic institutions, it is still shared among us. All

individuals participate in the common basic institutions in society, they may not all participate the

same way as they are socially diverse, but they still participate, thus sharing values. Examples of

basic institutions include family and religion. Although we have different types of family, it is still

family and although we are religiously diverse it is still religion. Furthermore, M.G Smith has said that

culture shaped people’s lives in many ways. It helps them to understand their culture better and

know about different cultures. Culture on hold shaped our lives the way we work and how we view

ourselves and others.

     Sociologists utilize the use of quantitative and qualitative, primary and secondary social research

methods to collect data about society. The plural society perspective by M.G smith would lead to

quantitative research. Quantitative research is useful as it gives an understanding of the behaviours,

interactions and attitudes of human beings. It creates an in-depth understanding of why individuals

do the things they do, and it also helps sociologists to attach relationships between variables.

Quantitative research is a research strategy that focuses on the analysis and collecting of data.

Quantitative research is done by collecting numerical data that are analysed using mathematical

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based methods. The quantitative research method used were questionnaires as it comprises of

advantages like collecting and finding out information from a large group of individuals, and the data

can be easily analysed. The use of the self-completion written questionnaires were to gather and to

discover the necessary information needed to complete this Internal assessment. Sociologists use

this research technique as it helps to discover a new theory. The researcher used this data collection

method as it is effective in measuring behaviours and opinions. The data collected from the

questionnaires were then analysed through numerical and statistical comparisons.

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 Data Collection Instrument

To collect data from the survey, the researchers chose to use printed questionnaires. As a data

collecting tool, questionnaires have several advantages:

 It guarantees confidentiality since respondents are not required to state their names.

 It is not time-consuming

 They are usually effortless to analyse

Questionnaire

1. Gender

□ Male

□ Female

2. Age Group

□ 16-18

□ 19-21

□ 22-24

3. Do you think culture should be taught in school?

□ Agree

□ Strongly Agree

□ Disagree

□ Strongly Disagree

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 4. On a scale of 1-10, how much of your behaviour is impacted by the norms of the

country?

□1 □6

□2 □7

□3 □8

□4 □9

□5 □ 10

5. How does culture affect the social interactions and behaviours of you and your peers?

□ It does not affect me at all

□ It provides important social and economic benefits

□ It influences choices between what is right or wrong

□ It has influence in how we view ourselves and others

6. How does culture positively impact you as an individual?

7. Do you live the way your culture trains you to live? In other words, do you live by

your society’s norms and values?

□ Yes

□ No

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 8. Does culture influence the way you communicate and interact with others?

□ Yes

□ No

9. Briefly explain the way culture impacts the way you interact with people.

10. Is it important for students to understand the significance of how culture impacts their

social interactions and behaviours?

□ Yes

□ No

□ To a certain extent

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 Section Three

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 Presentation of Data

A total of 20 questionnaires were distributed, all 20 were returned. Of these respondents 55% were

male and 45% female. 80% of these respondents were between 16-18 years old, another 15% were

between 19-21 years old and the remaining 5% were between 22-24 years old.

Figure 1: Pie Chart depicting the responses to whether the respondents thought culture should be

taught in school

Figure 1 shows that the majority 50% of the respondents strongly agreed that culture should be

taught in school, another 45% simply agreed that it should be taught in school, and the remaining

5% disagreed.

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 Figure 2: Bar Chart depicting the responses on a scale of 1-10, whether the respondents thought

behaviour is impacted by norms of their country

Figure 1 shows that the majority 25% respondents responded with 7, 20% went with 10, another

20% said 6, 15% said 5, another 10% said 9, and the remaining 10%, distributed evenly, said 3 and 4,

respectively.

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Fig 3: Doughnut Chart depicting the responses to how the respondents thought culture affects the

social interaction and behaviours of them and their peers

Figure 3 reflects that a significant 35% of the respondents thought that it was effective in how they

view themselves and others, 25% thought that it influenced choices between right or wrong,

another 25% thought that it provided important social and economic benefits, and the remaining

15% said it does not affect them at all.

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Figure 4:  Column Chart depicting the responses to whether the respondents thought they lived by

the way culture trains them to live, in other words, do they live by society’s norms and values?

Figure 4 depicts that the majority 55% of the respondents did not live the way culture trains them to

live and the remaining 45% said yes, they live in the way society trains them to live.

Figure 5: Pie Chart depicting the responses to whether the respondents thought culture affects the

way they communicate and interact with others

A significant 80% of the respondents said yes, culture influences the way they communicate and

interact with others and the remaining 20% of the respondents said no.

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Figure 6: Bar Graph depicting the responses to whether the respondents thought it was important

for students to know the importance of how culture impacts their social interactions and social

behaviours

The majority 80% of the respondents thought it was important for students to know the importance

of how culture impacts their social interactions and social behaviours and the remaining 20% said

they believed so to a certain extent.

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 Analysis of Data

Figure 1, Pie Chart depicting the response to whether respondents thought culture should be taught

in schools. The Pie chart shows that the majority which is 50% of the respondents, strongly agreed

that culture should be taught in school. The least number of respondents disagreed that culture

should be taught in school. Figure 2, which is a bar chart shows the respondents on a scale of 1-10,

whether the respondents thought behaviours is impacted by norms of their country. Figure 2 shows

that majority which was 25% respondents was 7. 20 with 10 and the lowest being 10%. Figure 3

charts represent the response to how the respondents thought culture affect the social interaction

and behaviours of them and their peers. 35% of the respondents thought that it made a difference in

how they view themselves while 15% stated it doesn’t affect them. Figure 4 is a column chart

depicting the response to whether the respondents thought they lived by the way culture trains

them to live, in other words, do they live by society’s norms and values .55% of the respondents did

not live to the way culture trains them to live and the reminding 45 stated that yes, they live in the

way society trains them to live. Figure 5 pie chart shows the response to whether the respondents

thought culture affects the way they communicate and interact with other.80% of the respondents

said yes while 20% of respondents said no. Figure 6 bar graph depicting the response to whether the

respondents thought it was important for students to know the importance of how culture impacts

their social interactions and social behaviours. The majority 80% of the respondents thought it was

important for the students to know the importance of how culture impacts their social interactions

and social behaviours and the remaining 20% said they believed so to a certain extent.

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 Section Four

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 Findings

This research was set out to investigate how culture affects the social interactions of individuals in a

society, to find out how culture affects the way we interact with each other, and to understand how

culture affects the social life of the students at the Pre-University School. From analysing the

questionnaire responses, the first aim which sets out to determine how culture affects the social

interactions of individuals in a society, the question was asked how much on a scale of 1-10 is the

behaviours of the respondents impacted by the cultural norms of their country.   Many of the

respondents gave a high scale number for the question which led to the discovery that the norms of

a country impact and play an important role in the behaviours of individuals.  25% of respondents

responded with 7, 20% went with 10, another 20% said 6, 15% said 5, another 10% said 9, and the

remaining 10%, distributed evenly, said 3 and 4 respectively. This can be seen in the literature

review where Emile Durkheim states that people’s norms, beliefs, and values make up a collective

consciousness and a shared way of understanding, interacting, and behaving in the world.  

     The second aim which sets out to determine “how culture affects the way we interact with each

other”, the question was asked, “does culture influence the way you communicate and interact with

others” 80% of the respondents have said yes that culture influences the way they communicate and

interact with others while 20% said no. It was discovered that the reasons for or why 80% of the

respondents said yes is, language and certain traditions make it easy for individuals to interact and

relate to other people and create friends from their similarities. Culture teaches respect and

courtesy, which is considered as a right and wrong way to say something. One of the respondents

stated that depending on who they're speaking with will determine their language and respect. The

way they speak to their parents is much more respectful than how they interact with their peers. A

respondent that said no, says that they interact with people how people interact with them, the

respondent says our culture should speak to us, not for us. 

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    The third aim sets out to determine “To understand how culture affects the social life of the

students at The Pre-University School?” and from this aim, it has shown that culture has positively

affected the social life of the students at the Pre-University School because culture helps to

improved learning of new things in your society, an increase of tolerance and different opportunities

to come together with others, enhances the quality of our lives and increase our well-being for

ourselves and others.

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 Recommendations

 The Pre-University School can educate the students how the importance of social

behaviours and social interactions.

 The school can have functions such as culture day, which can help the students to

know how culture affects their social interactions and social behaviours.

 The students should be educated on different cultures in the society so that they can

have a greater understanding to differentiate between theirs and others. 

 The school could invite people from other cultures to teach them about their culture.

 Adolescents on a whole need to be more educated about culture and the impact it has

on them whether by their behaviours or the way they interact with others. 

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 Conclusion

Based on data collected, the researchers drew the conclusion that there are many ways that

culture positively impacts the students’ lives at the Pre-University. Culture is the acquired

knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behaviours, it is also the

combination of thoughts, values, beliefs, and the different patterns shared by racial, ethnic,

religious, or social groups of people. The different theorists that were mentioned also give

their understanding of culture and how it affects our everyday lives. We hope the information

in this portfolio is helpful for the students at Pre-University school, and to see the importance

of culture and how it shaped their everyday lives. 

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 Bibliography

 Crawford, Georgia. Introductory Sociology for Caribbean Students 1. Georgia

Crawford, 2022.

 Pre-University School. “About Us.” Pre-University School - Moving ahead with

Excellence, https://www.preuniversity.org/. Accessed 26 02 2022.

 Farrell, Susan. “Open-Ended vs. Closed-Ended Questions in User Research.” Nielsen

Norman Group, 22 May 2016, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/open-ended-
questions/. Accessed 27 February 2022.

 Doody, Sarah. “Open-Ended Questions [vs Close-Ended] + 7 Examples.” Hotjar, 9

September 2021, https://www.hotjar.com/blog/open-ended-questions/. Accessed 27
February 2022.

 “What is the Social Action Theory by Max Weber? Summary | toolshero.” Toolshero,
https://www.toolshero.com/sociology/social-action-theory/. Accessed 27 February
2022.

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 Appendices

Questionnaire

1. Gender

□ Male

□ Female

2. Age Group

□ 16-18

□ 19-21

□ 22-24

3. Do you think culture should be taught in school?

□ Agree

□ Strongly Agree

□ Disagree

□ Strongly Disagree

4. On a scale of 1-10, how much of your behaviour is impacted by the norms of the

country?

□1 □6

□2 □7

□3 □8

□4 □9

□5 □ 10

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 5. How does culture affect the social interactions and behaviours of you and your peers?

□ It does not affect me at all

□ It provides important social and economic benefits

□ It influences choices between what is right or wrong

□ It has influence in how we view ourselves and others

6. How does culture positively impact you as an individual?

7. Do you live the way your culture trains you to live? In other words, do you live by

your society’s norms and values?

□ Yes

□ No

8. Does culture influence the way you communicate and interact with others?

□ Yes

□ No

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 9. Briefly explain the way culture impacts the way you interact with people.

10. Is it important for students to understand the significance of how culture impacts their

social interactions and behaviours?

□ Yes

□ No

□ To a certain extent

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