Month: March 2017

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.

Today inputs where focused around Prejudice and Ideology. Before today I had a vague understanding of this topic, but during the lecture and tutorial I was able to greatly advanced my knowledge of prejudice and ideology, and the factors that underpins these topics.

I was able to consolidate my understanding of the definitions ‘prejudice’ and ‘ideology’. ‘Prejudice’ can be defined as the attitude usually negative views, that involve prejudgements of negative feelings and stereotypes that is held towards a group or individual.  Likewise, ‘ideology’ can signify an organised collection of ideas that reflect the beliefs/ attitudes of a group, system, nation and institution towards others. Both prejudice and ideological views are often influenced by the humans around us, groups, culture, religion and media. These influences can by segmented into sectors- Microworld and Macroworld.

·         Microworld- This is also known as personal knowledge, this encompasses the views, ideology and prejudice we acquire from our social circles, family, friends and peers.

·         Macroworld- This is the scope of people we have knowledge about but have no direct contact with such as celebrities, politicians, footballers and TV, which can influence what we believe. This is term is also known as public knowledge.

·         The term in-between microworld and macroworld is mesoworld.

Further to this I obtained understanding of theorist behind prejudice and the theory of social norms and conformity. Social norms are behaviours that citizens are expected to obey, which are cultural and socially accepted, social norms can vary amongst groups and nationalities, which are normally express through rules and laws. Conformity has a slightly different denotation, this is when an individual behaves in a certain way due to pressure from peers or groups, which can result in a possible punishment. There is numerous theorist involved in this facet of prejudice, for instance

·         Pettigrew (1959) states we can have prejudice views and ideas but we must always obey to the rules and laws in order not to cause discrimination.

·         Minard (1952) highlights that social norms influences prejudice which can progress to discrimination.

·         Rogers and Frantz (1962) denotes that prejudice can develop overtime and can change if we migrate to another.

Likewise, the main theorist of ideological views is Karl Marx we contribute that it is class that control views along with religious ideologies can control what people think. He believed that all knowledge and prejudice views are socially constructed.

It is important to bear in mind that prejudice and ideology interact forming agents of socialisation which are media, family, peers, education and technology which can subsequently greatly influence our views different parts of society.

Therefore, today I felt I learnt a breadth of new knowledge which is significant to the world we are part, it always important to keep an opened mind and views. I will definitely need to devote some reading in regards to this topic in order to gain a deep understanding of definitions, theorist and subsequently relate this information to possible exam questions.