Socialization

1. Definition:(i).”Socialization is a process by which a society transmits its cultural

values to individuals so that they can function properly as its members.(Sociology; A brief
introduction by Alex Thio)
(ii).“The process by which somebody especially a child, learns to behave in a way that is
acceptable in their society”. (Oxford Dictionary)
(iii).“The life long process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviours
appropriate for members of a particular culture”.(chapter 4, Sociology by Richard T.
Schaefer)
(iv). “Socialization is the process whereby one internalizes the norms of the groups among
whome one lives so that a unique self emerges”.( Horton and Hunt)
2. Introduction:
Socialization is a life time process of social interaction by which we acquire the
knowledge, values, norms, and behaviours essential for effective participation in
society. It is the process whereby one acquires a sense of personal identity and
learns what people in the surrounding culture believe and how they expect one to
behave. Through socialization, a biological organism is transformed into a genuine
social being able to communicate with others. Socialization influences both
personality development and social behaviour. Although the foundation of
personality are laid and basic social skills are acquired in early childhood;
socialization continue through life. In the cases of children are raised in isolation,
like those of Anna, Isabelle, and Genie, are rare, but they point out that people
are born emotionally and socially, as well as biologically, helpless. To survive and
develop as complete human being people must have regular interaction with others.
This process if interaction and learning is called Socialization. One acquires
knowledge, attitude, values, norms and behaviour which are essential for an
individual to act according to the expectations of the society. A society thereby
will survive as long as its members act together to support and maintain it, and
therefore, every society seeks to shaper the behaviour of its members to this end.
It gives individual a sense of personal identity.

3.Ways to socialize an individual or Types of learning

Learning continues throughout our life. There are two ways to socialize an individual or
there are two types of learning.
(i) Conditioning (ii) Observing
(i) Conditioning (Conditional Learning): In this type of learning one learns
directly experiencing particular incidents. For example, touching hot
stove a child learns that he can harm oneself by touching hot things.
 Learning by reasons is difficult and rare during this period. Instincts are
dominant over reasons. Conditioning helps primary
socialization.(socialization by closed ones) It mostly takes place is
childhood and such learning includes learning to walk,talk, obedience to
parents.
(ii) Observing (Observational Learning): one learns by observing others.
Learning by conditions slows down and learning by reasons speeds up.
Social interaction plays a vital role in this type of learning. By
interactions experiences are transmitted among the people. This type of
learning occurs at the stage of secondary socialization.(socialization by
distant ones)For example, when somebody puts bulb in a lamp socket, one
learns that how to do this job. Kicking a football is another example of
observing.
4. Kinds of Socialization
i. Formal Socialization ii. Informal Socialization
Formal socialization is continuous learning with specific purpose under certain rules and
regulations, in an organized way and in a particular direction. School, office, military are
some examples of formal socialization. Informal socialization is learning by primary groups
or from those with whom an individual is in direct contact such as parents, family,
playmates or books he reads. Learning beliefs, language and moral values fall in informal
socialization.
5. Agents of Socialization
There are following agents of socialization
1. The family
2. Religion
3. School or Workplace
These are in a sense appointed by society to transmit its cultural heritage to
the young.
4. Peer Groups
5. Mass media
6. Sports.
7. community
These are not appointed by the society; their socialization of children is
mostly unintentional. The detail is as follows.
1. Family: Family is the fundamental and vital agency of socialization. Family is the
ABC of socialization. Home is the first school and parents are the first teachers
who socialize an individual. Home is a kind of nursery where a child plays, learns
throughout his life. According to Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) “A man’s home
may seem to be his castle on the outside, inside, it is more often his nursery.”
Family is the true architect and designer of the individual character. Children with
love of parents often become great people. Children from broken homes, or single
 mother or father, or divorced parents become deviants and delinquents. Parents
always tend to socialize their children to conformity. As Alex Thio has rightly
said,“Warm, supportive, reasonably constrictive family environments usually
produce happy and well behaving children; while cold, rigid, and coercively
restrictive families cause youngsters to become rebellious, resentful, and
insecure.”(Chapter 5.Socialization)
2. Religion: Religion teaches morality, discipline, punctuality, love and peace. In Islam,
offering prayers five times a day, one becomes punctual and disciplined. All
religions inculcate moral values in theirs followers’ minds.
3. School: Norman Denizen says ,”Schools teach social rituals and also submission
to higher authority.”School gives moral education. One learns nationalism,
patriotism, ideology and customs of life and one’s country from schools. Teachers
are the true character builders. According to Durkheim, “The teacher in the
classroom represents society and its moral order: just as priest is the
interpreter of his god, the teacher is the interpreter of great moral ideas of
his time and his country.”
4. Peer Groups: People of the same age, group, same interests or activities and
playmates with values and norms of other families help to understand society as a
whole. Peer groups teach its members:-
i. To make individuals independent from adult authorities which may speed
up their entry into adulthood.
ii. It teaches social skills and group loyalties.
iii. It teaches its members the values of friendship and companionship
among equals.
Children develop their distinctive subcultures with their own values,
symbols, jargon, music drives etc.
5. The Mass Media: Books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television, radio teach
new ideas, trends and fashions to the people.
6. Sports: People learn discipline and working in a group through sports.
7. Community: community is one of the biggest agencies of socialization. Some of main
socializing agencies working for the people are.
i. Mosque, Eid-gah ii. Political parties and their offices iii. Seminars,
discussions and marriage ceremonies IV. Hotels v. Recreational agencies
e.g. theatre, cinemas, parks etc
6.Adult Socialization or Socialization through life course.
Socialization process continues throughout life. Being socialized means in effect learning
new roles. Like children, adults learn many new roles as they go through various stages of
life. All of us undergo three types of adult socialization.
i. Anticipatory Socialization
Definition: (i)“process of socialization in which a person rehearses for future
positions, occupations and social relationships.”(Richard T. Schaefer)
 Or “Socialization that prepares a person to assume a role in the future.”(Alex Thio)
For example, children learn to be future parents by playing house. Students prepare
themselves for their future profession by attending college e.g. medical student.
ii. Developmental Socialization
Definition: “A kind of socialization that teaches a person to be more
adequate in playing his or her currently assumed role.”(Alex thio)
Already acquired roles also undergo socialization much like on the job
training. Children learn their currently acquired roles as sons, daughters and
students while adults learn as full-time workers, husbands, wives and parents
etc. Adult socialization is more likely to be voluntary or self initiated where
children cannot do away with their status of being sons or daughters.
Children are mostly socialized within the confines of Primary Relationships
while adults go beyond their families and friends and are involved in
Secondary Relationshipssuch as bosses, clients, co-workers etc.
iii. Re-Socialization:
Definition: (i)“The process of discarding former behaviour patterns and
accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life.”(Richard T.
Schaefer)
(ii) The kind of socialization that is aimed at replacing one’s old self with a
new self.”(Alex Thio)
Re-socialization is more common in adults than in children. It can take place
in prison, mental hospitals, military training centers, war camps etc.
Resocialization is more effective when it occurs within a total institution.
iv. Total institution:
Erving Goffman (1922-1982), an American sociologist coined this term
which he defines as “an institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s
life under a single authority such as a prison, the military, a mental hospital,
or a convent”. People often lose their individuality within total institutions.
v. Degradation ceremony.
Degradation ceremony is the abasement or humiliation which one has to
face at the time of punishment or when one is declared publically a
criminal. For example, a person entering a prison may experience the
humiliation of degradation ceremony as he or she is deprived of all his
possession and is given a new name and uniform of a prisoner.
7. Socialization; Fundamental to every society.
Socialization is fundamental to every society. A society cannot run smoothly without
socialization. Joel M. Charon in his work “Sociology; A Conceptual Approach”tells us
about an event that in 13th century, Frederick II of Germany wanted to know once for all
what God’s true language is? He did an experiment and took away newborn infants from
their parents. Nurses were not allowed to speak with the infants. He wanted to know that
whether children speak Hebrew, Latin, Greek or their parents’ language. But children spoke
no language and even they died during this exercise. Similarly, Anna was born in
Pennsylvania was an illegitimate child. Her mother hid her in attire. She was neither
touched, talked nor was bathed when she was found in 1938. Anna could not talk or walk.
Her eyes were vacant, face expressionless. Through socialization, she learnt to walk and
brush her teeth but she never learnt to speak and died at 11 years of age.
Because man is a social animal so need to be socialized. No society can avoid socialization
for its survival.

8. Socialization varies from society to society.

Socialization varies from society to society according to different cultural
patterns, values system and normative orders e.g. accepted ways in Pakistan may be
rejected ways in American society. Perda is accepted in Pakistani society but it is
rejected in American society. In our society, children are told mythical stories and
they play with dolls but in America they are told very constructive and pragmatic
scientific tales. This arouses feeling of inquiry in them and their IQ level is
stronger than our children. Inherent differences in cultural patterns also make
socialization to differ.

9. Concept of Nature and Nurture:

Or
Genetic Determinism and Environmental Determinism.
(i) Genetic Determinism ( The Nature view)
Which is more important, heredity or environment?
The nature viewpoint put forward by 19thCentaury Social Darwinists that most
individual and social behaviour is genetically pre-determined and is governed by
biological drives and extinct.
Examples: violence is due to aggressive extinct; love of one’s infant is due to
maternal extinct; an interest in homemaking to the nesting instinct, and so on.
The nature view gives the notion of a born criminal in which skull is measured
and individuals are labeled criminals according to their physique. Phrenologist
claimed that they could tell whether an individual had criminal tendencies by
measuring his/her skull. Socialization is little like ‘icing on the cake’. By
implication, attempts to rehabilitate individual or to reform society are largely
futile.
(ii) EnvironmentalDeterminism( The Nurture view)
Early in the 20thcentury the pendulum swung in other way, and the nurture
viewpoint moved forefront led by American Psychologists John Watson and
B.F. Skinner and many other sociologist came to believe that almost all human
behaviour is the product of learning. Watson said that behaviours are shaped by
 environment and he called his theory,”Behaviourism”. The heart of behaviourism
is conditioning. According to this view, human behaviour is malleable of plastic.
The infant is Tabula Rasa- John Locke’s term(blank Plate) on which experiences
may write virtually anything. What people became is dictated by events in their
environment, and heredity they claimed is unimportant.
(iii) Contemporary view:
Contemporary social scientists reject both views. According to them human
beings are a joint product of nature- the inherited traits- and nurture- the
experiences. Some of the behaviours may be primarily a product of nature and
some of nurture, but all are shaped by both. Both interact in various ways to
provide you with a distinct PERONALITY, unique pattern of thoughts, feelings,
and self-concept of an individual. Heredity predisposes an individual towards,
and sets limits for, certain behaviours. However, environment shapes their
expressions. For instance, intelligence is in part determined by the genes
inherited from parents. But the kind of home in which individual was reared, the
degree to which he/she was intellectually stimulated, the amount and quality of
formal schooling etc affect the followings of the person’s intelligence. For
example, a Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov showed that a dog can be trained to
salivate at the sound of the bell by repeatedly presenting food at the sound of
the bell. Nature draws the outline of our traits and potential abilities but
learning and training puts us at the right track.Allan G. Johnson in his book
“Human Arrangements, An Introduction TO Sociology” has also given the
example of dog and has emphasized that learning also plays important role in
socialization.

10. Importance of socialization:

i. Socialization is important for the survival of human beings. Human beings without
socialization will not be human beings. It makes us human and differentiates us
from animals.
ii.We learn human qualities through socialization. Harlan Lane in his book,“The Wild Boy
of Aveyron” gives the example of Victor who was captured in 1797 from woods
in France. He was completely naked, ran on all fours, no speech and ate
uncooked food. Experts pronounced him as retarded. Jean Itard trained him.
He learnt joy, remorse, sit at table, and eat with utensils but not speech. He
was abnormal person even at the age of more than 40 years. According to
Cooley, “Such groups as families, friends and neighbourhoods make possible
human nature. Man does not have it at birth; he cannot acquire it except
through fellowship or socialization and it decays in isolation.”
iii. Socialization shapes each individual and makes him how to act, communicate,
how to respond emotionally to events, how to eat etc. socialization shapes
 individual from birth to death. Families socialize during childhood, schools and
universities socialize during adulthood. It is socialization which makes us what
we are.
vi. We learn language, adopt character and morality. We take on beliefs and
observe ourselves and also acquire personality.
11. Conclusion:
Socialization is central to the society. It is necessary for a bona fide social order and
social control. Its failure leads to decay of human beings and ultimately human society.
Intensive socialization can develop children’s potential to the maximum, while
deprivation of socialization can severely retard their intellectual and physical growth.
Personality and Theories of Personality Development:

1. Introduction:
Personality is a product of social and culture forces. A children develop, their behaviour
become less and less dependent on MATURATION – automatic changes in an organism due
to physical and chemical process – and more and more on LEARNING. We are not locked
into on and modify the world we live, and in turn we are shaped, transformed by the
consequences of our own actions. These transactions between us and the environment are
the foundation of human intelligence, knowledge and culture. Leaning is an illustration of
how these principle works.
Learning is the more or less is permanent modification in behaviour that results from
experiences in the environment. It occurs across the entire life span. Learning allows you
to adopt your behaviour to changing conditions. It makes your behaviour flexible. Learning
occurs through CONDITIONING and OBSERVING the behaviours of others. In
conditioning you learn by directly experiencing particular incident or by acting and seeing
the consequences of your actions e.g, very likely you have formed an association between a
hot store and a painful burning sensation, between studying for a test and passing a course
and between criticizing friends harshly and upsetting them. Thus, by conditioning you
establish a link between two events. A child stops whining to avoid scolding from parents.
And a motorist slows down when noticing a police officer so as not to be challaned. In
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING, you learn new responses by watching others without first
having had the opportunity to make the responses yourself. This is how we learn how to put
a light bulb in a lamp socket. We also learn how to show love, concern, or respect, as well as
aggression and violence.

The word personality has been derived from Latin word “persona” which means “mask” or
“veil”. Thus personality is something hidden and therefore difficult to
understand.Sociologists have defined personality in a variety of ways.Some say that it is
an organized and well knit expression of cultural traits while other termed it as a biological
complex. Personality can be defined as follows;
Definition of Personality.
(a) “A fairly stable configuration of feelings, attitudes, ideas, and behaviours that
characterizes an individual”.(Alex Thio)
(b) “Personality is the totality of behaviour of an individual with a given tendency system
interacting with a sequence of situations “(Horton and Hunt)
(c)”The various aspects of a person’s character that combine to make them different from
other people.”(Oxford Dictionary)

2. Factors in the development of personality

Following elements play a major role in personality development.
i. Biological Inheritance
ii. Physical Environment
iii. Culture
iv. Group Experience
i. Biological Inheritance and Personality: -By biological factor we mean, those
physical characteristics which one inherits from his parents by birth. These include
height, colour, features, reflexes, drives, intelligence, temperament, etc. In both sociology
and biology these elements are referred as heredity. Biological inheritance provides the
raw materials of personality and these raw materials can be shaped in many ways.
ii. Physical Environment and Personality: -Sorokin is of the view that to
associate human behavior to climate and geographic conditions is an ancient practice,
starting from Confucius, Aristotle and Hypocrites. Those physical environment influences
personality yet it is less important in culture evolution and personality development. It is
less important than culture, group experience and unique experience. Examples are Black
African and white European.
iii. Culture and personality: - Culture is more powerful determinism of how and why
people behave as they do. The rail on which our social behavior and interaction travels, are
essentially culture. Hence personality is true mirror of culture.
iv. Personality and Group Experience:-Social groups exert tremendous influence
on the formation of personality. As it is said the birds of same feather flock together.
Sociological research has shown that an individual cannot survive in isolation, instead he
tends to live in groups and the reactions of these groups also affect the personality
development.The reference group, people as models for one’s ideas conduct and norms,
greatly influences the personality. For example, the boys who like Imran Khan tend to be
like him.
3. Self:-Self is an aspect of personality. It means one who is and how one differs
from others. It can be defined as;-
Definition: “A distinct identity that sets us apart from others”. (Sociology by Richard T.
Schaefer)

One aspect of personality is called the SELF. Self refers to a person’s awareness of and
feeling about his or her personal and social identities – which one is and how one differs
from others. The development of the self depends heavily upon the process of
socialization. It is not a static phenomenon, but continues to develop and change
throughout our lives.
We continuously modify the self. The judgments and reactions of others constitute it and
it is not a static phenomenon but continues to develop and change throughout our lives. The
formation of self image is central to the development of the personality.
4. Theories about personality Development.
There are many theories about personality development. However some of these theories
have been proved by empirical evidence and research experiments. But each theory in one
way or the other helps in understanding how a personality develops.
4.1 Sociological Approaches to the Personality or Self.
Symbolic Interactionism
Freud pitted the individual against the society; Piaget set the individual against the
environment. Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the harmonious relationship between the
individual and the society as the foundation of personal development. Interaction with
other people plays the main role in developing an individual’s personality
(a) Charles Horton Cooley(1846-1929) The Looking Glass Self.
Charles Horton Cooley was one of the most first sociologist concerned with the emergence
of SELF. In hit influential “Human Nature and the Social Order” (1902) Cooley argued
that self develops through interaction. Our IMAGE of ourselves is largely a reflection of
how other people react to us – in Cooley’s phrase, a LOOKING-GLASS SELF. Our view of
ourselves, then, comes not only from direct contemplation of ours personal qualities, but
from our impressions of how others perceive us.
He stressed the importance of using others as our mirrors by observing their reactions to
our behaviour. According to Cooley, the core of personality is self-image and self image is
developed through the looking glass self. Cooley’s Looking Glass Self puts forward the
following three elements.
1. We imagine how we appear to others around us e.g. we may think that others see
us as witty or dull.
2. We interpret other’s reactions. We come to conclusion about how others evaluate
us. Do they like us being witty or dislike us as being dull.
3. We develop a self concept i.e. how we feel about those reactions bases on our
interpretation a favorable reaction is this “social mirror” leads to positive self-concept a
negative reflection to a negative self-concept.
Note that the developments of the self-concept depend on accurate evaluations. Even if
we grossly misinterpret how others think about us, those misjudgments become part of our
self-concept. Thus as we monitor how other people react to us, we continually MOFIFY the
self. But as told, self-concept may be based on incorrect perceptions how others see us.
For example, an instructor perceives a student stupid and criticizes him for being stupid.
First the student thinks that the instructor criticizes him then he thinks that the
instructor calls him stupid and finally he takes himself as stupid through the following
process: (a) the instructor criticized me, (b) the instructor must think that I’m stupid, (c)
I am stupid. But when he gets A+ grade, he is no longer thought as stupid.
Just as an individual can never see his face directly, but only through, say, mirror, an
external medium, so one can never see his SELF except as reflected through the external
medium of others. The judgments and reactions of others constitutes a looking glass.
Cooley viewed society as a group of individuals helping one another to develop their
personalities.
(b) George Herbert Mead: Stages of the Self.
George Herbert Mead(1863-1931) of USA agreed with Cooley but in his book “Mind, Self
and Society”(1934) suggested various stages of the development of the self and Role
Taking Process.Where Cooley stressed using others as mirrors, Mead suggested and
emphasized the significance of getting “under the skin” of others by taking their roles.
Mead’s Stages of the development.
According to Mead, Children pass through three stages in developing a self.
(i) Imitation Stage: It starts from the birth and go up to the age of 2 years. In this
stage, conversation takes place through gestures and there is no role taking. For example,
a child bang on wood if his father is engaged in carpentry or a child may read a book as his
father does but words are meaningless for him.James Baldwin (1924-1987) in his book
“Nobody Knows My Name” has rightly said, “Children have never been very good at
listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. They must, they
have no other models.”
(ii) Play Stage: In this stage, a child uses symbols to communicate and interact. The
period of this stage is from 2 to about 5 or 6 years. Children start to engage in role taking
but only one role.Mead saw self as a product of symbolic interactions i.e. interactions
through use of symbols. Symbols are gestures, objects or language by which a child
interacts with others. During this stage,interaction takes place with Significant
Others.Significant others are those people with whom children interact most of the time
on daily basis e.g. parents, siblings and teachers. It is generally a kind of home based
interactions. The process of internalization also starts during this stage. Children
internalize their parents’ values and attitudes. For example, while playing children pretend
to be their own parents when they tell doll not to be naughty, actually they tell themselves
not to be naughty.
(iii) The Game Stage. It begins with early school years and children take the role of
many other persons in contrast to play stage’s only one role at one time. For example, they
take multiple roles while playing football. In this stage, children also interact with
Generalized Others. Generalized others are the people with whom children interact off
and on, usually outside their home e.g. Doctors, shopkeepers and bus drivers etc. They
start internalizing the values of the society as a whole. Thus Mead believes that others
play a key role in the development of the personality.
Mead does not see an individual as a social robot mindlessly following the society’s roles.
He distinguishes between “Me” and “I” in the development of the self.
Mead’s Concept of “Me” and “I”
According to Mead,the “I” is the self as subject, the active, impulsive and creative part of
the self. “I” stands for the spontaneous, unique, natural traits and unrestrained impulses
of each person. It is the egocentric self. “Me”, according to Mead, is the self as object,
the passive and social part of the self. Internalized social values form the “Me” of the
self. “Me” is shaped by society while “I” is controlled by independent self. Both are
necessary and complementary to each other. Without “I” there will be no individual
creativity or social progress while without “Me” there will be no social order and
cohesion.“I” develops first. “Me” starts developing in play stage and its formation is
complete in Game stage. The following example explains the interplay between “I” and
“Me”. For example, a mother, angry at her son’s misconduct tells him to go to his room and
stay there until dinner. The boy starts protesting but then checks himself and does as he
is told. We can imagine his reasoning” she will only be angrier with “Me” if “I” object.” The
spontaneous willful “I” wants to protest but the “Me” is concerned with the norms
regarding respect to the mother and complies. Mead attributes both deviance and
creativity to unsocialised “I”. “I” takes “Me” into account before action but “Me” does not
always check the impulsive “I”. According to Mead, in free and permissive society or
family,“I” is stronger than “Me” and in overprotective and tightly controlled society or
family; “Me” is more powerful.
“I” propels behaviour “Me” directs it. “Me” represents society within our personality. “I”
makes us unique in our behaviour while “Me” makes us alike in our behaviour. Through “Me”
children identify with their parents so totally that they feel themselves an inseparable
part of their parents. It is “I” that makes us different from our parents.
4.2 Psychological Approaches to the self (conflict)
(a) Sigmund Freud(1856-1939): The unconscious
Vienna (Austria) born physician Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis. He stressed the
role of inborn drives. Unlike Cooley and Mead who stressed the harmony between the
individual and society, he saw a basic constant conflict between them. According to
him,there is always a conflict between people’s natural impulsive instincts and societal
constraints and thus individual personality becomes a battleground for these conflicting
demands.
According to him, there are three elements of Personality.
1. Id 2. Ego 3. Superego
1. Id: Id are the inborn drives which are pleasure seeking and have no regard for
reason, logic and morality
2. Ego: Ego is the rational, logical part of the personality. It is the balancing force
and plays the part of a mediator between Id and Superego. It is the unconscious. Ego
operates in accordance with the reality principle. In emotionally healthy individuals, ego
succeeds in balancing but in maladjusted individuals, ego does not succeed and the result is
confusion and problematic behaviour.
3. Superego: Superego is the moral component of the personality which gives us
feeling of guilt and shame when we are involved in some immoral activities or pride and self
satisfaction when we follow them. It is much the same as what is traditionally called
conscience and plays the role of censor or social monitor. It represents culture within us.
Example:you are driving behind someone who is travelling very slowly and you are getting
late. You blow the horn and flash your light but in vain. At this point, your id may make you
want to slam down the accelerator and hit the car in front of you in order to teach the
driver of the other car a lesson. The ego might be considering the probable consequences
of the action; ruined cars and perhaps lost lives. The superego or conscience would
question the morality or rightness of your action. Do I have the right to smash my car into
that car in front of me? Does the other not have the right to go slow? The final result
would be that you probably mumble or scream in frustration but you are unlikely to hit the
car in front of you.
(b)Piaget and the Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) of Switzerland identified four stages in the development of the
children thought and mental processes i.e. how children think at various stages. Piaget’s
stages of the development are as follows.
i. Sensorimotor Stage. It starts from birth and remains up to two years. During
this stage, children use their senses and bodily movement to interact with
others.
ii. The preoperational stage: it remains from two to seven years. In this stage,
children use symbols to speak and make their first attempt to draw objects but
cannot perform simple intellectual operations. Children cannot understand such
abstract concepts as width, depth and density etc. For example, if we put same
volume of water in two glasses of different width and height, the child may say
that there is more water in the taller one. Children are egocentric and see
things from their own perspective only. In this stage if we ask a boy how many
brothers he has, he may correctly say, one. But if we ask him how many brothers
does his brother has, he may say, none.
iii. The Concrete Operational Stage: it is from seven to twelve years. In this
stage children are engaged in more logical thinking. They can understand
concrete but not abstract thinking. For example, a child can easily line up the
dolls from the tallest to the shortest but cannot solve a problem put verbally in
abstract terms. If he is said that Ali is taller than Akram, Akram is taller than
Aslam, who is the tallest of the three. The answer will be his or her confusion
and long thinking.
iv. The formal operational stage: it begins from the age of twelve years and
remains till fifteen years. During this stage, children are involved in abstract
thinking and hypothetical reasoning. They can understand many alternative
solutions to a problem and can contemplate the future and formulate personal
ideas and values.
Thus Piaget focused on the intellectual part of the personality. According to
him, there is an inherent structure to the human mind that determines what can
be learnt and when. Piaget further says, moral development becomes an
important part of socialization as children develop the ability to think more
abstractly. E.g. children learn to obey societal norms, when they learn rules of
respecting the parents.
4. Conclusion
We have seen that a number of thinkers considered social interaction the key to
the development of an individual’s personality or self. Both sociological and
psychological factors are involved in developing personality.Personality is the
bio-cultural entity and its basic constituents are physical body and socialized
human nature.
Culture
Introduction
When sociologists use the term culture, they are generally referring to a shared
way of life among the members of a society. Culture is an agreement in a society’s
members about appropriate behavior, values, rituals, history and heritage that should be
respected and observed.
1. Definition : a)“A culture is a design for living, or more precisely, a complex
whole consisting of objects, values, and other characteristics that people have acquired as
members of society.”(Sociology: A Brief Introduction by Alex Thio)
b)“The beliefs and attitudes about something that people in a particular group or
organization share”. (Oxford Dictionary)
C) “Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material
objects, and behaviour.”(Sociology by Richard T. Schaefer)
d)The classic definition of culture by Sir Edward Taylor is as follows
“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs
and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a man as a member of society.”(Sociology
by Horton and Hunt)
e)According to MacIver “Culture is what we are”.
2.Types of Culture
i. Material Culture: It refers to the physical or technological aspects of our daily
life and all human made objects including food items, factories,buildings and raw
materials etc.
ii. Non Material culture: It refers to the ways of using non-material objects and
abstract human creations, for example, customs, beliefs, philosophies, governments
and patterns of communication.
iii.Ideal Culture and Real culture: The norms and values that a society adheres to in
principal are called Ideal Culture and real culture means the norms and values a
society adheres to in practice. For example, Pakistanis, in line with Islamic principles
claim to believe in the value of human equality,yet Pakistanis contain people who are
millionaire and people who are improvised. Sometimes, the discrepancy between the
ideal and the real culture creates social problems.
iv. High culture; A culture that primarily appeals to and is supported by a fairly small
and elite group e.g. classical music, fine art etc.
v. Popular culture: It is supported by a large audience of typical members of the
society e.g. cricket game, newspaper etc.
vi. Sub-Culture: According to Horton and Hunt,” Sub- Culture is the behaviour and
value system of a group which is a part of the society, but which has certain unique
 cultural pattern.” In a sense, a sub-culture can be thought as a culture existing with
in a larger, dominant culture.
vii. Counter Culture: A counter culture is a sub culture which is not merely different
from but sharply opposed to the dominant values of the society. (Horton and
Hunt).It is typically popular among the young who have least interest in the existing
culture.For example, World Social Forum by Brazilian Indians in Belem(Brazil) is
annual counter culture to World Economic Forum.
3. Dominant Culture or Dominant Ideology:” The set of cultural
beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic and
political interests”. (Richard T. Schaefer). Dominant culture may exist as common
culture but it serves to maintain the privileges of certain groups who protect their
own self interests. In Karl Marx’s view capitalist society has dominant ideology that
serves the interests of the ruling class.
4. Cultural Universals: Many values, norms or things are common in different
societies, these are called cultural universals. It can be defined as “A common
practice or belief found in every culture or society”. (Richard T. Schaefer).
Cultural universals are in fact are adaptations to meet essential human needs such as
needs for food, shelter and clothing.

5. Elements of Culture or Components of Culture or

constituents of Culture.
Basic elements of culture are as follows.
5.1 Cognitive Component
5.2 Normative component
5.3 Symbolic component
5.1 Cognitive Component:
i. Knowledge ii. Beliefs
Knowledge is the collection of objective ideas and facts through which we
develop technology, science etc.while beliefs are subjective ideas which are
unreliable and unverifiable e.g. religion.
5.2 Normative component. Following elements make the normative
component of the culture.
i. Values
ii. Norms
iii. Folkways
iv. Mores
v. Taboo
vi. Law
vii. Sanctions
 i. Values:values are socially shared ideas, concepts or abstract general rules.
It can be defined as, “A collective conception of what is considered good and
proper or bad, undesirable and improper in a culture”(Richard T. Schaefer)or
“Values are socially shared ideas about what is good, desirable, or important.(Alex
Thio). Values are not directly observable but we can infer them the way people
carry out norms.For example we value equality,freedom,education etc.
ii. Norms:”An established standard of behaviour maintained by a
society”(Richard T. Schaefer). It means that norms are socially shared rules or
guidelines how people should behave. According to Alex Thio, norm is “A social rule
that specifies how people should behave”. For example, sending our children to
school, obedience to our parents and not criticizing others etc.Norms ensure that
social life proceeds smoothly.We conform to norms so readily that that we are
hardly aware that they exist.
Norms have been further divided in two types.
a. Formal Norms b. Informal Norms
Formal norms are those norms that have been written down and that specify strict
punishment for violation. Informal norms are generally understood norms and not
precisely recorded. To stop at red light of the traffic signal is formal norm while
standards of a proper dress is a common example of informal norms.
iii. Folkways: “Weak norms that specify expectations about proper
behaviour”. (Alex Thio)and according to R.T.Schaefer,”A norm governing
everybody behaviour whose violations raises comparatively little concern”. For
example, not saying salam to our elders, teachers and seniors challenges the
standards of our appropriate behavior but it would not result in a fine or jail
sentence.
iv. Mores:The word mores was the ancient Romans’ term for their most
sacred customs.It can be defined as “Strong ideas of right and wrong which require
certain actions and forbid others.”(Horton and Hunt) or “Strong norms that
specify normal behavior and constitute demands, not just expectations” (Alex
Thio). Mores embody the cherished principles of a society. Each society demands
obedience to its mores. Their violation can lead to severe penalty.For
example,theft, murder, rape are violation of mores.
v. Taboo: These are powerful social beliefs whose violation is unthinkable.
For example, marrying one’s sister, eating human flesh etc.
vi. Laws:These are formal norms. Law is body of rules, made by government
for society, interpreted by the courts and backed by the power of the state. To
ensure that people behave in expected and approved ways. Social control is
exercised in order to make people conform to the norms. Police, rangers and
government exercises formal social control while family, friends and teachers
exercise informal social control.
 vii. Sanctions: There are two kinds of sanctions called Positive Sanctions and
Negative Sanctions. Positive sanctions mean reward which is given for conformity
to the norms e.g. pay raise, medal, a word of praise, or a pat on back while Negative
Sanctions are the punishment for non-conformity e.g. fine, imprisonment, and even
stares of contempt.
5.3 Symbolic Component:
i. Symbols
ii. Gestures
iii. Language
i. Symbols
Symbol is anything that can meaningfully represent something else. Gestures, facial
expressions, drawings, numbers, music, are all symbols but the most useful are spoken or
written words. Words are symbols for objects and concepts. Their meanings are socially
agreed upon. It is through symbols that we develop a culture, thus they enable people to
create, communicate, share and transmit the other components of culture to the next
generation.
ii.Gestures
A gesture is the use of one’s body and the facial expressions to communicate with others.
The meaning of gestures is not universal. They change from one culture to another and can
lead to misunderstanding and embarrassment.
iii. Language
Language is the foundation stone of the culture without which culture could not exist. For
without the medium of words, complex patterns of thought,emotion, knowledge and belief
could not be transmitted from one generation to another. Language gives human beings a
history – an access to the social experience and accumulated knowledge of the generation
gone before. Like the words values and norms, the word language is universal because all
human groups, societies have language but there is nothing universal about the meanings
given to the sounds or words. Thus the same sound or word may have different meaning or
no meaning at all in different cultures.
a. Language allows human experience to be cumulative
Language enables one generation to pass significant experience to the next.
b. Language provides a social or shared past, memories and events.
We recall our past memories and events in present because of language.
c. Language provides a social a shared future time, dates, places.
Language enables people to agree with one another about times, dates and places.
d. Language allows complex, shared, goal-directed behavior.
When we plan a picnic because it is someone’s birthday or it is a fine day, then we
decide who will drive, who will bring what, where we will meet.
e. Language and perception: -The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis: In 1930, two
anthropologists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf noted that Hopi Indians of
South West United States has no words to distinguish among past, present and
 future. No nouns, for times, days, seasons, years. They and English perceive time
differently. There is no difference in working now and working yesterday.
f. The linguistics Relativity Hypothesis: In “1984’’, George Orwell,created“News
Speak” in which there was no word for freedom. So people cannot think about
freedom. Thinking and perceptions are not only expressed through language but are
actually shaped by language. For example, Eskimos use many words for snow like fine
powdery, thicker powdery, more granual snowfalls, which are not used by non Eskimos.
Similarly, the Garo of North East India speak dozen words for different kind of ants
but no general term for ants.
6. Internalization of Norms: we ourselves exercise social control when we
internalize norms. Internalization of norms is an unconscious process of making conformity
to norms a part of one’s personality.
7.Culture (Norms and values) changes from place to place: Values and
norms change from place to place because they are subjective. A value and its norms
considered good in one society may appear bad in another. For example, we say thank you
to someone who says to us you have done an excellent job. It is because that our society
values fair exchange but in china the same praise will elicit a self effacing response like
“oh, no, not at all or no I have done poorly”. The reason is that humility ranks higher in
Chinese value system. Thus we might think the Chinese odd for being unappreciative and
the Chinese might consider us as arrogant for being immodest. Similarly, we say salam
when we meet one another but the British say Hi to one another when they meet while
Chinese bow to one another when they meet.Cultural Shock is a term that is generally used
when someone confronts values and norms not only entirely different but also extremely
shocking as compared to his or her own culture. It is defined as, “the feeling of surprise
and disorientation that people experience when they encounter cultural practices that
are different from their own.”(Sociology by Richard T. Schaefer)
8. Values and Norms change from person to person: Some norms apply to
every member of the society. For example, in Pakistan, nobody is allowed second marriage
without permission of the first wife. But some norms apply to some people but not to
others. For example, in Pakistan taking human life is considered a crime but this norm
generally does not apply to police officers in shootouts and soldiers against armed attacks.
9. Culture (Norms and values) is unique: The culture of every society is
unique. For example, the Pakistanis eat beef but the Hindus do not, the Hindus eat pork
but Pakistanis do not. The Chinese eat snakes but Pakistanis do not etc.
10.Values and norms change over time. Fifty years ago most people in the
US supported the norms of school segregation because they valued racial inequality. But
today, people value social equality in US and norms have given way to social integration.
Few years back, people do not send their daughters to schools because they did not value
equal rights to women but now they have started sending girls to schools because values
have changed.
11. Strong cultures replace weak cultures:As it has been already said that
culture is way of life.Our values, norms and our way of life change with the passage of
time. Weak values and norms become dead and strong storms continue while adapting some
other values and norms from all over the world. Mary Kenny (1944- ) in an interview to
Sunday Telegraph in 1993 rightly said,”Decadent cultures usually fall in the end and
robust cultures rise to replace them”
 Ethnocentrism
1. Introduction
The term ethnocentrism was coined by William Graham Sumner(1906). According to him,
culture varies from place to place, time to time and from person to person. As people love
their own country so they love their particular culture. Some render their culture superior
to other’s while some regard their own culture inferior to that of others. When someone
loves or thinks his or her own culture superior to other’s culture, we term this attitude as
ethnocentrism and we use such terms as underdeveloped, backward and primitive for
other societies.
2. Definition of ethnocentrism:
a. “The attitude that one’s own culture is superior to that of others” (Alex Thio)
b. According to Sumner “That view of thing in which one’s own group is the center of
everything and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.”(Sociology by
Horton and Hunt)
c. “The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and ways of life represent the
norms or are superior to all others.”(Richard T. Schaefer)
3. Explanation
It means that every culture considers itself superior to other cultures. People
everywhere are opt to take it for granted that their morality, their marriage forms, their
clothing styles are right, proper and the best of all possible choices.
Most human beings spend their entire lives within the culture in which they were born.
Knowing little about the culture of others, they see their own norms and values as
inevitable rather than optional. According to Ralph Linton,“The last thing a fish would
ever notice would be water. It would become conscious of its (water’s) existence only
if some accident brought it to the surface and introduced it to the air.”(Sociology:
A brief introduction by Alex Thio)
4. Examples of Ethnocentrism
1. Americans think of themselves as progressive while Eastern call them immoral.
2. Pakistanis call themselves brave, hardworking and faithful people.
3. Arabs call themselves hospitable.
4. We don’t eat cats because Islam prohibits haram things. They don’t eat beef because
cows are sacred for them.
5. Our religion is divinely inspirited truth, there is heathen superstition.
Similarly people of every nation feel pride and claim superiority upon other nations and
this feeling of pride and superiority is called ethnocentrism.
Eskimos’(a tribe of eskimos named Inuit means real people) practice of putting their
aged parents out on the ice to die seems abhorrent to us and we think it homicide or
genocide. From the Eskimos’ point of view, however, the aged parents, become too old to
keep up with the tribe to travel vast distances that must be covered in the course of the
year in search of enough food to keep alive, thus jeopardize the continued existence of
the community and the existence of the community is considered more important than the
survival of the individual.
5. Ethnocentrism is universal: Ethnocentrism exists to one degree or another
in every society, nations, groups and the individuals. It is particularly strong in
primitive, isolated and traditional societies that have little contact with other
cultures. But even in the modern world, where citizens have such advantages as
formal education, mass communication and international travel, such attitudes still
prevail.
6. Ethnocentrism even within a society: Even within a society different
social groups are ethno-centric against one another. For example, the agriculturists
claim to be superior to labourers and the businessmen are proud upon low class
servants. Similarly, high class officers think themselves higher upon other low class
officers.
7. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Shock:Ethnocentrism creates severe
problems for anthropologists while analyzing other cultures. Even trained observers
experience cultural shockwhen they confront a culture radically unlike their own.
Thus ethnocentrism is so ingrained and embedded in us that even anthropologists
face considerable difficulty avoiding it.Richard T. Schaefer has defined Cultural
Shock as,” the feeling of surprise and disorientation that people experience
when they encounter cultural practices that are different from their own.”For
example, Napoleon Chagnon, an anthropologist studied the YANOMAMO of Brazil.
He was aghast and extremely disturbed when he met his subjects. They stank to
him, the heads of the men were covered with scars because of their incessant
fighting and they were under the influence of a local hallucinogenic drug whose one
of side effects was a runny nose. Chagnon says,” I am not ashamed to admit that
had there been a diplomatic way out, I would have ended my fieldwork there
and then. They were decidedly different from what I had imagined them to
be. The whole situation was depressing and I wondered why I had ever decided
to switch from civil engineering to anthropology in the first place.”
8. Causes of Ethnocentrism:
i. Habits:It becomes the habit of the people to love their own cultures
and traditions.
ii. Lack of understanding:We lack understanding to see the norms and
values of other people from their own perspective.
iii. Indoctrination:Conservatives are usually more ethnocentric than
liberals.
iv. Weakness in personality structure: The ethnocentric people tend to
be less educated, more socially backward and religiously more
orthodox.
9. Positive Effects of Ethnocentrism:
 i.It encourages social solidarityand unity among the group members by promoting
group pride.
ii.Ethnocentrism provides protection to group members and thus it ensures culture
survival.
iii.It promotes nationalism and patriotism by denigrating other nations and cultures.
For example, Hitler before WWII, created the vigorous feelings of nationalism and
patriotism in his people by declaring his people the supreme race of the world.
iv.It develops caste bradri system. For example, in rural societies, ethnocentrism
helps to promote caste and baradri system.
v.It creates loyalty to one’s own culture.The people of the same culture and group are
tied by a strong bond that creates among them the feeling of loyalty.
vi.It is Source of satisfaction. By remaining loyal to their own group and by being
protected by their own culture and by following their own norms and values,
ethnocentric people feel themselves satisfied.
10. Negative Effects of Ethnocentrism:
i. Process of social relation gets slower because people generally do not like to mix
with people of other cultures.
ii. Ethnocentrism creates conflicts and tension among groups of different cultures
because a general sense of hatred is found between people of two different
cultures.Samuel Huntington in his book “The Clash of Civilization and Remaking of
Third World Order” (1996) says that the source of conflict in the new world will
no longer be ideological or economical but cultural. Just as a cultural clash within
the country is expected, similarly the difference among the cultures like western,
Islamic and Hindu will be cause of war in future.
iii. It discourages cultural change. Ethnocentrism rejects social or cultural change
without discriminating between good and bad changes.
iv. National development in general slows down. Ethnocentric people even reject good
changes which can play useful role in their national development.
v. It blocks the road of knowledge. Different social and cultural changes bring with
them new words, new discoveries and new knowledge but ethnocentrism tends to
hinder all this knowledge from becoming a part of the culture.
vi. Ethnocentrism is hurdle in the way of integration of societies. Instead it isolates
one society from the other societies.
vii. It creates ethnic problems. Ethnocentrism promotes ethnicity because it instills
the norms and values in the minds of the people and as a result tribalism starts to
develop.
viii. Ethnocentrism is a hurdle in the creation of international peace.
ix. It creates disunity among nation because several ethnocentric groups exist within
one nation. It becomes difficult to develop a culture of nationalism or a concept of
one nation in presence of several ethnocentric groups.
 x. Ethnocentrism promotes crime and delinquency in the society.
xi. The welfare of society becomes a problem when different ethnocentric groups in a
society consider some welfare schemes against their particular values and norms.
11. Conclusion
Ethnocentrism is a double edged sword.Where it promotes a sense of oneness, stability
within the group and bind people together, it also isolates people from world and blocks
the progress of the society and nation as a whole. In short, ethnocentrism is a killing as
well as a relieving pill for the society.

Community
1.Definition:a. “A community is a local grouping within which people carry out a full
round of life activities”.(Horton and Hunt)
b.“A community can be defined as “a spatial or political unit of social organization that
gives people a sense of belonging.”(Chapter 20, Communities and Urbanization. Sociology
by Richard T. Schaefer)
c.A community is a population that shares a territory and meets basic physical and social
needs through daily interaction among residents.”
d. “All the people who live in a particular area, country, etc. when talked about as a
group.”(Oxford Dictionary)
2.Basic Elements of Community.
i.A group of people
ii.Common locality
iii.Common culture and social structure
iv.Sentiments, consciousness or sense of belonging or social coherence
v. Division of labour
Community refers to one of the most important aspect of our life- where we are born,
where we live, attend schools and mosques, make and lose friends, find and lose jobs, raise
families, grow old and die.

3.Difference between society and community.

Society: Society is a large aggregate of the people. It has specific geographic boundary.
People may form a loose group. There is mutual relationship on basis of common culture. It
can be urban and have secondary groups.
Community: There is comparatively smaller group of people in a community. It may spread
across boundaries. There is close social interaction and solidarity among the people. There
is strong affiliation among the people and with the locality. It is more common in rural
areas and has primary groups.
4. Types of Community
There are two types of community
Community

Rural Community Urban Community

4.1. Rural Community: The village is the fundamental unit of our rural life.It
refers to the small and homogeneous community based on primary relationships. It has
alike and shared life experiences. People are sparsely settled, and their social structure is
simple.Agriculture is not only their main occupation but rather their way of life.
a. Characteristics of Rural Communities
i.Isolation: - The people of the rural community are isolated from other people. Even one
family is isolated from the other. Therefore there develop few personal contacts among
people.
ii. Homogeneity: - People in rural community generally belong to the same ethnic and
cultural background and this homogeneity and isolation foster conservatism, traditionalism
and ethnocentrism.
iii. Farming:-The people of rural community are mostly engaged in agriculture or farming.
Agriculture is a common way of life of all rural people. Even shopkeepers are involved in
some kind of farming.
iv. Primary social relationship: - People of rural community interact with parents,
siblings, neighbours, teachers therefore, they are surrounded by primary relationship.
V. Closed Class System: - People tend to be co-operative instead of being competitive
in rural society. Social mobility is slow because of lesser opportunities which results in
poverty and illiteracy of the rural community as a whole.
Vi. Informal Social Control: - Baradri, jirga and panchaeit are the elements of social
control in rural society and ex-communication, pressure, criticism, non co-operation are
few forms of punishment.
vii.Combined family system: -Relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles live in the
same home as parents and their children and thus their family system is combined.
viii.Closed class society (Ascribed status) -The individual is assigned a status by
society without regard to person’s unique talent. Thus ascribed status is the unique
feature of rural community. For example, a wadera or chaudhary’s son will be the next
wadera or chaudhary of the same rural area. The status of wadera or chaudhary has been
given to him by the society and not because of his achievements.
Ferdinand Tonnies of Germany (1855-1936) in (1887) used the term Gemeinschaft
to describe “a close knit community where social interaction among people is intimate
and familiar.”
b.Urbanization of Rural Life
Despite of the differences between rural and urban communities, all historic differences
are shrinking. Following elements are reducing these differences. These elements play
major role in the urbanization of rural area.
i. Same media. The modern form of communication has made it possible to reduce the
gap between rural and urban form of life. Media, roads transport have changed rural life.
ii. Same norms and values: The norms and values of the rural and urban communities
are integrating day by day.
iii. Same problems. Crimes, drug abuse, have ceased to be urban specialties and areas
closer to larger cities are becoming urban at a fast pace. There agriculture is rationalized
and commercialized.
4.2.Urban Community. The urban community implies large, heterogeneous
community based on secondary relationships. The population is densely settled availing
highly advanced infrastructural, communicational and technological facilities. Rationality
and interdependence set urban community apart from rural community. Social structure is
complex.
a.Characteristics of Urban Community.
i. Large community;There are a lot of people in a community. It is therefore larger in
number.
ii. Heterogeneous population. People of urban community are from diverse groups,
races, regions and countries and this heterogeneity promotes instability and conflict.
iii. Nuclear family; The structure of the family is mostly nuclear as compared to the
combined family system in rural community. Married couple and their unmarried children
generally live together in urban areas.
iv. Secondary relationship; The relationships are indirect, formal and impersonal and
due to such relationship cold bloodedness increases among urban people.
v.Formal social control: The agencies like police, military and other law implementing
forces exercise formal social control.
vi. Developed infrastructure:Roads, transport, electricity, telephone and other form
of communication are developed to a considerable extent in urban communities.
vii. Multiple social problems; The social problems like beggary, alcoholism, suicide,
theft, noise and pollution are associated with urban areas.
viii. Secular and liberal life; The people of urban community usually tend to move away
from religion and are more liberal than rural people. For example, women wear jeans, drive
cars.
xi. Open class society;(Achieved Status) There are more opportunities of
employment and promotion in urban areas. Social mobility is higher. Competition rate is
higher than rural community enabling people to achieve progress and status because of
their inner talent and qualities.
Ferdinend Tonneis termed the urban community as Gesellschaft which is based on
impersonal and goal oriented contacts and people have little in common with others.

b.Rural Urban Convergence

i.The Town: The town is the intermediate between rural and urban communities. The
rural and urban life styles converge in town. We have the rural as well as urban outlook
in town.
 ii. Rural Non Farmers: These people are not engaged in farming.They move to urban
areas for job, shopping, entertainment. These are rural only by census definition;
their lifestyle is more urban than rural.
iii. Fading rural urban distinction. The rural dweller is rapidly developing urban
personality. According to Horton and Hunt, western societies like that of USA and
Europe are more or less similar because of alike infrastructural development of
transport, communication and media.
iv. Pakistani societies. Rural areas are developing but without urban personality and
urban style of living. Extremely urbanized cities but scarcely urban people.
Underdeveloped infrastructure of life, poverty, illiteracy, lack of proper family
planning, combined family system prevent developing urban areas from truly
becoming urban.
Allen Edward in Rural Sociology says “Although the gap between rural and urban
community in decreasing but both are far from the line of convergence.”
5. The future of cities.
It is a fact that position of inner city is deteriorating and people are moving to
suburbs but predictions of urban collapse are unrealistic. A modern society cannot
operate without large cities. Cities are the backbone of a country’s economy and
development.City planning is commonly recommended antidote for urban problems
and to prevent urban collapse. People, industries and business are being shifted to
the suburb leaving city center to avoid such social problems as traffic jams and
accidents.
6. Conclusion
In short, rural and urban communities have their own particular features. Rural life
is simple and calm while urban life is complex and turbulent.
Sorokin has described the difference between rural and urban communities in
following words:
“Rural community is similar to calm water in pool and urban community to boiling
water in kettle.”

Social Mobility
1. Introduction
Every society has its own social structure and people move within this social structure.
These movements can be horizontal or vertical. Such movements can be in occupation,
income, status, education or any other field pertaining to the basic sociological
characteristics of an individual. These movements are called social mobility. Social mobility
is found in every society of the world though the rate of mobility is different in all the
societies depending upon their cultural conditions.
2. Definition:
a. “Social mobility refers to movements of individuals or groups from one position of a
country‘s stratification system to another.”(Richard T. Schaefer)
b.”Social mobility is the movement from one social standing to another.”(Alex Thio)
C.” Social mobility refers to a change on the part of an individual or a group of people
from one status or social class to another.”(Sociology by David Popenoe)

3. Open and Closed Class System

There are two class systems regarding the social mobility.
3.1 Open Class System
3.2 Closed Class System
The detail is as under.
3.1 Open Class System: An open class system implies that the position of an individual
is influenced by the individual’s own achievement. In such a class system competition among
the members of the society is encouraged and mobility is easier and more frequent.
Industrialized and capitalist societies are example of open class system.
3.2 Closed Class System: In a closed class system positions are determined by
ascription more than achievement and there is little or no possibility of individual
mobility.There are lesser opportunities which slow down the rate of mobility. Feudalism in
Pakistan, slavery, traditional caste system in India and to a lesser extent estate system
are examples of closed class system.
4. Ascribed Status and Achieved Status
Ascribed status: “A social position that is assigned to a person by society without
regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics”. (Richard T. Schaefer). For
example, a person’s gender, religion, age, racial background, and family are few examples
of ascribed status. Social mobility is inversely proportional to ascribed status. The
higheris the ascribed status in a society the lower is the rate of social mobility.
Achieved status: “A social position that a person attains largely through his or
her own efforts.”(Richard T. Schaefer)Achieved status accelerates the rate of Social
mobility and is directly proportional to social mobility.
5. Types of Social Mobility
Following are some major types of social mobility.
i. Vertical Mobility ii. Horizontal Mobility iii. Geographical Mobility iv. Intragenerational
Mobility v. Intergenerational Mobilityvi. Structural Mobility vii. Individual Mobility.
i. Vertical Mobility: Vertical mobility involves moving up or down the status
ladder.It has been further divided into two kinds.
a. Upward vertical mobility b. Downward vertical mobility
a. Upward Vertical Mobility:The upward movement from lower social position to a higher
social position is called upward vertical mobility. The promotion of a teacher to principal is
an example of upward vertical mobility. An individual gets a higher social standing by
passing an exams, by arrival of an opportunity or by sheer luck.
b. Downward vertical mobility:The downward movement from a higher social status or
standing to a lower position is called downward vertical mobility. For example, demotion
from principal to teacher is downward mobility. Downward vertical mobility is the result of
some punishment or some severe kind of geographical pressure which forces an individual
to take up even a lower social status or position.
ii. Horizontal Mobility:In contrast to vertical mobility, horizontal mobility is the
movement from one job to another within the same status or rank. Pitirim Sorokin was
the first sociologist to distinguish between horizontal and vertical mobility. For example,
if a teacher leaves one school for the same position at another, he or she is experiencing
horizontal mobility. Horizontal mobility takes place because of family migration or
dissatisfaction from the urban or rural life. It can be within the same district or from one
district to another or even from one province to another.
iii. Intragenerational Mobility:If a change occurs in an individual’s position
within his own life or his own career, it is called career mobility or intragenerational
mobility. It can be upward or downward depending upon the situation. For example, a
manager becomes vice president of a company or vice versa.
iv. Intergenerational Mobility.If an individual from lower class family gets a
higher status relative to his or her parents, it is called intergenerational mobility. For
example, a farmer’s son becomes a police officer or the son of a poor teacher becomes
president. It is also upward and downward.
v. Geographical Mobility. When a individual moves from the one area to another
because of the geographic conditions, such movement is called geographical mobility. It
can be a kind of forced mobility because sometimes floods, wars and earthquakes force
individuals to leave one areaand settle in another area. For example, people living in
mountains or hilly areas move to the plain areas or cities due to the earthquake disaster.
vi. Structural Mobility.The mobility that results from changes in the social or
economic system is called structural mobility. No personal or individual achievements are
involved in this type of mobility. It takes place due to the advance industrial development,
large educational enrollment, lower birth rates in higher classes and a considerable
immigration.
Vii. Individual mobility. Mobility that is related to an individual’s personal
achievements is called individual mobility. Racial or ethnic background, gender, education,
occupation or a place of residence and sheer luck influences individual mobility.
6. Measurement of Social Mobility. Social mobility can be measured by
the income of an individual or by his or her occupations. These indicators show the rate or
chances of social mobility in a society. Occupation and income tell us how many stages an
individual has covered to reach this status or position. These stages further tell us that
how many opportunities are there in a society, for an individual to get a higher social
position or status.

7.Factors determining the chances of Social Mobility OR

Factors favourable to Social Mobility OR Causes of Social
Mobility.
A number of factors cause social mobility. The main causes are as follows.
i. Number of status available: Social mobility is determined by the number of status
or positions present in the society. The more the number of statuses, the greater are the
chances of social mobility. For example, in industrial society, there is more social mobility
because there are more positions or occupations in an industrial society. Similarly, in
feudal society, less number of social position cause less mobility.
ii. Ease with which people move from one status to another:Transparency, merit,
law and order, and democracy create greater chances of social mobility. All these elements
help an individual to achieve higher social standing in a society or system easily. While
dictatorship, corruption, favouritism hinder the chances of social mobility. For example, a
candidate can attain higher social position if he or she works hard and passes exams
because system is transparent, merit based and supports hard working and intelligent
people.
iii. Dissatisfaction with previous conditions: The individuals who are dissatisfied
with their current status or positions try to achieve a higher position. For example, a
teacher at school does not want to stuck to school for his whole life and tries to get a job
in college or even university.
iv.Arrival of Opportunity:The arrival or availability of opportunityalso causes social
mobility. For example, a college is established in a town and the educated individual avail
themselves of this opportunity and start teaching there at a good salary.
v.Education: The advancement in education makes a society more mobile. The illiterate
mostly spend their lives at the bottom rung of the mobility ladder while the individuals
with higher qualification becomes the accountant, manager, general manager and even
chairman of an organization or multinational company.
But education is not equally important for some social statuses or social standing. For
example, a famous cricketer, a business tycoon or any other celebrity may be less
educated or even illiterate. The other factors like family background luck and good
working habits enable an individual getting higher social position.
vi. Industrial and Technological Development: Industrial and technological
development brings about changes in ideas, attitudes, habits, customs and sentiments of
the people which make people more socially mobile. Moreover, such developments bring a
lot of opportunities in its wake and create chances of upward mobility.
vii.Urbanization: urbanization on a large scale causes social mobility to a considerable
extent with a lot of opportunities for higher positions. Schools, colleges, hospitals,
factories increase the rate of social mobility.
viii.Social Change: Social or cultural change also increases the chances of social
mobility. For example, the tunnel farming and other modern ways of farming has changed
the social status or economic positions of farmers or agriculturists.
ix.Internal migration and Immigration:The migration of people from one country to
another also causes social mobility. An individual who leaves his native region or country
and moves to Europe to earn money, changes his social status with reference to his
previous poor condition while at the same time the European leave the low paid social
position for the new comer and get higher social position as compared to their earlier
position.But this is not always true because sometimes the new comers are more skilled or
educated than the locals and get a prestigious position at a new place.
8. Social Mobility in Pakistani Society:Pakistani society is less
advanced and developed as compared to western society. Following factors determine
social mobility in Pakistan.
i. Dual Social Order: Pakistani society is a blend of rural and urban communities. In
rural areas the rate of social mobility is extremely slow. The rural culture does not
promote social mobility at all because of the little education, few economic opportunities,
and closed class society in the rural areas. In urban areas, the pace of social mobility is
higher as compared to rural areas due to the great number of opportunities. Ascribed
status seems more prominent than achieved status not only in rural areas but also in urban
areas.
ii. Feudalism in Pakistan and Social Mobility: Pakistani society is basically feudalistic
society. The rich and the powerful use their influence to bend rules in their favour. The
status or social position of an individual is determined by the status of his or her parents.
The son of a jagirdar, influential politician or a bureaucrat is likely to get well settled in a
good career even better than his father while son of a poor or a common man would not be
able to get a good social position because of poor education and poor family background.
iii.Corruption in Pakistan and Social Mobility:Corruption has become a norm of the
Pakistani society and thus has become the main source of the social mobility. Because of
corruption, people in Pakistan pass exams, break laws, prevent them from punishment and
thus become rich. Today, corruption is the dominant factor that causes social mobility in
Pakistan.
iv.Illegal trade and Social Mobility: Many people are involved in illegal businesses like
drug dealing, human trafficking, smuggling in Pakistan which have made them rich
overnight. All these illegal activities have become important source of social mobility.
v.Education: In Pakistan education plays a key role in achieving a higher social standingbut
we are still far behind in this sector. Our education standard is very poor as compared to
many other countries. Our talented students go to England, America and Australia for
study and mostly settle there.
vi. Immense potential of economic progress and Social Mobility:Pakistan has the
great potential for economic progress and social mobility due to it. Terrorism has slowed
the pace of economic and social development and has thus reduced the rate of social
mobility.
vii.Social mobility in Pakistani women: The status of woman in Pakistan is determined
by the status of her father or husband.But now a change can be seen in social positions of
women in Pakistan because they have started working at higher positions like manager,
doctors, engineers and pilots.
9.Significance or Importance of Social Mobility:Social mobility is
essential for the smooth functioning of a society. A static, rigid social status system is
bound to cause harm to the individual and society as a whole. Following are some positive
sides of the social mobility.
i.Social mobility provides satisfaction.An individual gets satisfaction when he or she
achieves some higher social position. People remain contented and work happily and
wholeheartedly.
ii. Social mobility reduces crime. Social mobility creates opportunities and new
openings for the frustrated individuals. Thus it prevents people from committing suicides
and other crimes like bank robbery and theft.
iii.It encourages competition.Social mobility fosters competition among the members
of a society. People try to excel in all walks of life from one another which not only
improve their social status and prestige but also lead society towards prosperity and
progress with the contributions from the talented people.
iv. It maintains balance and equilibrium within the society. Social mobility creates
job opportunities for individuals thus it creates stability and balance within the society.
Strikes and protests can be avoided by social mobility. Everybody gets his rights on time
and thus remain busy in his work and wait for his next social status without going for
agitations and strikes.

Multiculturalism
Definition
 Is a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States
and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions”

Euro centrism
Many cultures did not melt together from the outset and formed them into a
hierarchy. English were at the top. They formed majority in early US history.
English developed the nation’s dominant language. All other were advised to
model themselves after the English. Multiculturalists see it as a process of
Anglicization- adaptation of the English ways. The society set up the English way
as an ideal that everyone should imitate and by which everyone should be judged.
They criticize it as euro centrism, the dominance of European cultural patterns
Supporters of the Multiculturalism say as the fifteenth century European believed
that the earth was the center of the universe; today they believe the European
culture as the center of social universe.

Afro centrism

Increasing social diversity of US has resulted in the rapid increase in

Asian and Hispanic population. People of African, Asian and Hispanic
ancestry will make the majority of the American nation in future. To
counter eurocentrism, multiculturalists support afrocentrism-
emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns

Multiculturalists believe that multiculturalism is a good way to

strengthen the academic achievement of African American children.

Negative aspects of Multiculturalism

1.opponents say that it encourages divisiveness rather than unity because

it urges people to identify with their own category rather than with the
nation as a whole
2. instead of developing common standards , multiculturalism breaks
down the humanity into African experience and Asian experience.
3. Multiculturalism harms the minority themselves. Multicultural
policies support the same racial segregation that America has struggled
so long to overcome.
Conclusion

The global war on terror has highlighted the issue of multiculturalism. In

2005, the British Prime Mininter Tony Blair responded to a terrorist
attack in London saying “It is important that the terrorists realize our
determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than
their determination to ….impose their extremism on the world”
In a world of conflict and cultural difference the world has much to
learn about tolerance and peace.

Assimilation
Definition
Characteristics of assimilation
Examples of assimilation

Acculturation
Definition
If you belong to a minority community in a country and retain your own culture
but cannot remain isolated and are affected by the majority culture in such a way that you adapt
to some aspects of the majority culture, the process is referred to as acculturation.
Thus members of the minority become bicultural. In the study of cross cultural influences.
It is the processes of cultural learning imposed upon minorities by the fact of being minorities
Example .In a multi ethnic society such as US, a person who is Hispanic or has
Chinese roots remains attached to his own culture while adapting and accepting some of the
customs of the whites.

Characteristics of acculturation
Societies multiethnic and multicultural in nature
Theories of Acculturation
The theory of acculturation can be broken down to include a few different topics; these include
learning a new language, immersion, assimilation and integration. Let's take a look at each of
these terms more closely.

Language and Immersion

Language and immersion can be some of the most important parts of the acculturation process.
In fact, social theorist John Schumann proposed that language is the largest factor in
successfully acculturating. For example, if you were a Hispanic or South American native, and
you moved to the United States, you would have to learn to speak English in order to fully
understand and even feel comfortable living and communicating in the American culture.
As you can imagine, transitioning into a new culture might often require learning a new
language. While you can learn a new language by using audio CDs or taking lessons from an
instructor, one of the most effective ways to learn a new language is through immersion.
A great way to acculturate is to move from your native country into the new country and live
with and learn directly from the natives. When you immerse or surround yourself entirely in a
new culture, you learn first-hand what that new culture is all about. Immersion doesn't only
include practicing the language directly with native speakers, but also includes coming to
understand the customs, traditions, acceptable behaviors and so on.

Society and its characteristics

Characteristics
1. Grouping of people
2. Likeness
3. Sense of belonging
4. Web of social relationship
5. Division of labour
6. Cooperation
7. Conflict
8. Dynamic nature
9. Interdependence
10. Comprehensive culture
11. Permanent nature