Individual
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“Norms are defined as expected patterns of behaviours, and are defined by the wider values of a societys culture”. (Barnard, A. Burgess, T.1996 page 50)
Norms are customs, traditions and habits integrated into our culture as a way of installing discipline and order in society, stipulating how individuals ought and ought not to behave. Informal norms are the widely accepted ways of thinking and behaving in society such as queuing, politeness e.g. saying please and thank you whereas there are some norms that are written downs as laws, such as drinking and driving, respecting ones privacy. Norms can change over a period of time, for example the norms of marriage, the union between a man and woman has been a social, legal and religious norm for a long time. This has now changed and marriage has been redefined to include same sex couples.
The result of non compliance to norms depends on the severity of the deviant behaviour punishments can range from positive sanctions (rewards), a disapproving look (negative social sanction) to, imprisonment.
Norms vary from culture to culture, what is consider to be normal in Britain may be seen as inappropriate in other countries, for example In the UK, it is a norm to greet people with a handshake, and to eat with a knife and fork whereas in Japan it is a norm to bow when greeting people, and to eat with chopsticks, while in other cultures it is a norm to eat with their hands. Britain is a multicultural country and some individuals do not comply with the widely accepted norms due to their cultural backgrounds, for example Muslim women wearing a hajab is not considered to be a norm in UK, and has led to a debate about a ban in the UK.
“Values are general guidelines about what is considered good and desirable or bad and undesirable in society”. (Holborn, M. Langley P. 2004 page 1)
The British value wealth, justice, family, power, privacy, respect for human life and private property. Failure to adhere to the share values in a given culture could result in punishment. The law against murder, enforces the value attached to human life, laws against perjury and theft reflect the values of honesty and respect for private property.
Shared values are beneficially to society as it gives people as sense of unity.
Values can change over a period of time. Societys views change as the older generations, with distinctive views die and are replaced by younger generation with different attitudes and values. (Park, A, Bryson C et al 2013 page v)
In Britain attitudes towards homosexuality, marriage and cohabitation have dramatically changed over the last 100 years. Cohabitation is no longer considered as living in sin, children from unmarried parents are no longer classified as bastards, and homosexuality is no longer punishable by capital punishment.
In 1987 Margaret Thatcher remarked “children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. (Park, A, et al 2013 page 14)The Conservative Party were once seen as upholding traditional values introduced legislation Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 banning local authorities from promoting homosexuality. However 30 years later, The Conservation Party passed the Marriage (Same Sex Couple) Act 2013, with “David Cameron has threatened to withhold UK aid from governments that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality”. (BBC News 2011)
“Societies work or function because each individual member of that society plays
particular roles and each role carries a status and norms which are informed by the values and beliefs of the culture of that society. The process of learning these role and the norms and values appropriate to them from those around us is called socialisation”. (Barnard, A. Burgess, T. 1996 page 49)
Socialisation is the process whereby we learn our culture in society, the norms, values, roles and appropriate behaviours that we are expected to conform to from the day we are born to the day we die, in order to become respectable and responsible members of our society. There are different agents of socialization primary socialisation (family) and secondary socialisation (peers, education, media and religion).
The primary socialisation begins with our parents/family, during this time children are taught how to behave and how not to behave, taught to walk, how to communicate, how to eat, in preparation for their integration into society. Children learn through imitation and by mimicking their parents behaviours.
The family is fundamentally the most important agent in the process socialization.
During early childhood, without social interaction the children would not learn the necessary skills in order to interact and communicate with others in society.
Secondary socialisation is the next stage in the process and takes place in later childhood into adulthood outside of the family. It is a legal requirement for all children to attend school in the UK. Through education children learn the religious and moral values of society, spending a considerable amount of time in school being prepared for their integration into the adult world by learning to: read and write, be obedient, punctual, make friends, observe rules, accept and respond to authority.
Peers groups are children of a similar age, social status who share interests. Once in school children learn to form friendships, learning to communicate share ideas, create rules of their own, separating themselves into gendered groups during playtimes/break times preferring to play with their own sex, for example boy playing football and girls skipping. Peers are an important part of the socialisation