Culture and Socialisation: the Building Blocks of Our Identity
Everything we as human beings come into contact with in the social world has a role, however minor, in helping to shape our individual identities. However, the question has been posed, is it culture and socialisation which are more influential as a social process in developing our identity or is it the social structures which are the main shapers in developing our identity? The culture we are raised in and the people that we come into contact with on a daily basis as a young child are the first encounters we have with socialisation. As children we imitate those close to us and habits begin to form. Through this imitation we also learn to express our emotions. These behaviours are ingrained in us from an early age and are the first basic building blocks we are given to develop our individual identities.
What we see and have contact with everyday has much stronger influence over us, especially in our early years when we are learning constantly about our environment, culture and the people involved in our lives on a regular basis. These are the things we absorb and begin to understand as a child, the things that we are aware of that have a direct impact on us. Ken Plummer also discusses the great need for this early socialisation and the negative effects that an un-socialised individual may encounter:
We start to become aware of other people in this world (usually initially our dear – or not so dear - mothers, father and siblings): we start to become attuned to them. We learn how to please them and others; and indeed how to annoy them. We slowly start to imagine the worlds they live in and how they may respond to us. Like it or not, we become increasingly socialised to act towards them, to develop a primitive empathy or sympathy towards others. If we do not – if we fail to learn this empathy – then we will not be able to communicate, we will not be able to routinely so about daily social life in any kind of satisfactory way (Sociology: The Basics, Ken Plummer 2010,
What we see and have contact with everyday has much stronger influence over us, especially in our early years when we are learning constantly about our environment, culture and the people involved in our lives on a regular basis. These are the things we absorb and begin to understand as a child, the things that we are aware of that have a direct impact on us. Ken Plummer also discusses the great need for this early socialisation and the negative effects that an un-socialised individual may encounter:
We start to become aware of other people in this world (usually initially our dear – or not so dear - mothers, father and siblings): we start to become attuned to them. We learn how to please them and others; and indeed how to annoy them. We slowly start to imagine the worlds they live in and how they may respond to us. Like it or not, we become increasingly socialised to act towards them, to develop a primitive empathy or sympathy towards others. If we do not – if we fail to learn this empathy – then we will not be able to communicate, we will not be able to routinely so about daily social life in any kind of satisfactory way (Sociology: The Basics, Ken Plummer 2010,
Bibliography: Plummer, K 2010, Sociology: The Basics, Routledge, New York Black, L, Bennet, A, Edles, L D, Gibson, M, Inglis, D, Jacobs, R & Woodward, I 2012, Cultural Sociology: An Introduction, Wildey-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex Atkins, K 2008, Narrative Identity and Moral Identity: A Practical Perspective, Routledge, New York Calhoun, C, Gerteis, J, Moody, J, Pfaff, S, & Virk, I 2002, Contemporary Sociological Theory, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Malden, Massachusetts Lemert, C 2011, Social Things: An Introduction to the Sociological Life, Fifth Edition, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc, Lanham, Maryland