Tag: Youth

Today’s society and lifestyle inputs were based around the apparent link between culture, society and the influence this can have on youths.

Culture can be defined as the knowledge and traditions shared by members of groups/ societies that reflect their way of life such as language, religion, medical care, food, jokes, manners, celebrations and clothes.  Likewise, society can be denoted as the “human relationship from a small group to a large system”, this highlights that citizens can belong to a formal group or informal group and within these group pattern of interaction form, societies/ groups can be small, large or encompass millions of members.

During the lecture, we examined in depth the meaning of youth and the theories within. Youth is the transition between childhood and adulthood which can be split into two segments

·         Adolescent

·         Adolescence

Youth is a general way of life, during this transitions the age range may be easily identified from the wider society due to culture patterns. The term youth is mainly used in the developing world but the meaning is constantly changing as citizen are taking more responsibilities when young.  Adolescence is used to describe youth adulthood (age 18 to mid-thirties) who live independently, but are not married and have no children.

There are many evident connections that can be made to theories, society and youth.

·         Piaget

·         Erikson

·         Kohlberg

·         Maslow

Having already explored Piaget theory within literacy and mathematical development of children, I find this insightful that his theory is relevant to the social developments of youth. Piaget theory is based around observing his children cognitive developments, which enabled him to compile developmental stages.

·         Stage one- Semi motor period (birth to 2 years) this is when children begin to learn how to learn, developing their language from the people they see and hear, and beginning to acquire an understanding of the world

·         Stage two- preoperational (2 years to 7 years) during this period children develop there thought and thinking mechanism, they demonstrate egoism as they only have a sound understanding of their world. They pretend to play but this varies depending of culture and environment.

·         Stage three- concrete operational (2 years to 11 years) this is the stage children develop abstract thought, grasping of the world and appreciate family and themselves.

·         Stage four- formal operational (11 years) this means cognitive development is ongoing, as adult we still experience and acquire new skills, knowledge and still constructing a sense of the world. Adolescent being to think more abstractly gaining a greater awareness of problem solving, logically and symbolic thinking.

Overall, I found today’s inputs to be considerably insightful and I was able to gain a wider knowledge of the links between culture, society and the evolving impact this can have on youth.

In Society and Lifestyles today we learned about the differences in society and culture and how they interact with youth. We also learned that youth culture can been seen as a subculture in itself and were able to link this with social theories from Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg and Maslow. In the tutorial we studied certain questions and answered them in groups and then had feedback with the class. This was very useful because I believe it gave insight to different peoples opinion.

I feel that my knowledge has increased today because I was unaware of any of the social theories that we learned today. I feel that these theories will help me in preparing for my exam. Some of the slides in today’s lecture also referred back to the previous lecture which has further improved my knowledge and understanding of the five agents of socialisation.

I felt in the tutorial that I struggled with answering some of the questions but once a few examples were given I started to understand what I was being asked. To combat this I will look over the questions again to improve my understanding of the questions.

I feel that this weeks input has been enjoyable because youth culture is something that I am interested in and would love to teach this particular subject as an aspiring teacher.

Todays lecture for me was the most insightful and educational input that we’ve had. We were taught what ideology and prejudice are and examples of these. I thought that the lecture was very relevant to todays society and is a topic that is prevalent in every day life – especially as a teacher. Before this lecture I think that I had a relatively good grasp of what the term prejudice meant and knew some examples of where I might see these. However, when the term ‘ideology’ was on the board, I was faced with a completely unfamiliar and new word. I learned that the correct meaning of prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude towards an individual based solely on the individuals membership of a social group. I also learned that the correct and real meaning of ideology is an organised collection or body of ideas that reflects the beliefs, values and interests of a group, system, institution or nation. In general use, the term refers to the body of doctrine, myth and symbols held by the group that guides individual and group actions. I also learned that there was a link between prejudice and discrimination – someone can be prejudice towards a certain group but not discriminate against them – discrimination is acting about their thoughts whereas prejudice can be kept to oneself.

After the tutorial I feel that I can confidently speak about the 5 agents of socialisation – media, family, peers, education and technology. These 5 agents all contribute positively and negatively to society and on yourself. Our task was to discuss how each of these things impact us. We discussed how media often project false allegations and false information which can be interpreted by a naive mind to form an wrong interpretation of information which in turn, creates fallacious arguments and beliefs. Another agent that we discussed was famous and Mannheim – Sociology of knowledge. ‘The theory of generations’ – you ideology and belief systems are from the generations – whatever you have been taught from your parent, where they got theirs from etc and so views on race, sexuality and religion are often passed down the family – when in fact these views are now seen as very outdated as society has changed so much.

One concept that I did not understand fully in the tutorial or lecture was secularisation. I asked Laura for help and she gave me the example of catholics. I understood it to mean religion being adapted or used for non religious purposes for example, marriage in a church when the couple aren’t religious. I know that with this knowledge I could not confidently write and essay response on this topic and that I will need to explore it further in the library and online.

After todays lecture, I feel that I will be able to identify prejudice in a classroom and as a teacher I feel that this is essential to ensure equality.

This week’s lecture was about Ideology and Prejudice. Prior to the lecture, I felt I had a firm understanding of prejudice but was not confident in my understanding of ideology. However, I now feel I have gained knowledge in both these concepts as well new concepts discussed in the lecture, tutorial and independent task. I learned that when a person acts on their prejudice it becomes discrimination, I found this interesting as it shows how prejudice and discrimination are linked but also very different. I also discovered that prejudices are often learned in childhood, from parents or others around us. Because of prejudices being learned in childhood, the person who has such prejucided views them as normal. I feel that it is important, as a future primary teacher, to exhibit a non-prejudiced attitude. By doing so, I hope this will have an impact on those I teach thus reducing prejudice amongst young children. I feel confident in my understanding of most concepts discussed, however, to prepare for the exam, I would like to study some concepts in more depth to further enhance my understanding.

From today’s lecture and workshop’s i have learned that what is meant by ideology and prejudice in relation to society and lifestyle. When this topic was first introduced i didnt have much knowlege and felt uncertain with the terms ideology and prejudice. However, the lecture gave great examples and definitions of both terms and i now have a deeper and thorough understanding.

I now understand that prejudice and ideology often can come from 5 agents of sociliastion which are media, technology, family, peers and education. I undertstand that they can have an impact on our thoughts and feelings toward certain subjects. I found it very useful that we were able to go over questions based on the 5 agents of socialisation in the tutorial. This again helped me to have a deeper understanding of the two concepts ideology and prejudice.

One thing i found challenging was the term secularisation. We had to tackle a question  in the tutroial which i found difficult. I will continue with further reading to further my understanding of this term.