Introduction To Sociology II

Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY II
SOC 152
KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLOGY
UNIT FIVE
Culture
Several definitions have been given;
Some are sociological and others are not sociological
• The sum total of the systems of symbols among human population is what
sociologists generally call culture, (Turner, 2006).
• Tylor (1871) defines culture as “the complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, custom and other capabilities and habits acquired by man
as a member of society”.
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Cont’d
• It provides the fabric that enables human beings to interpret their

experience and guide their actions.
 This makes culture the total shared product of society.
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Elements of Culture
• It is learned and not biologically transmitted.
• All members of the society share it.
• It is dynamic and not static.
• It is specific to societies and groups. Each society has its own culture. (cultural
diversity)
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Cont’d
• It is made or created not in-born.
• It has two elements, namely the material and non- material.
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Key features of Culture
• Cultural Universal
• Cultural relativism
• Cultural diversity
• Ethnocentrism
• Subculture
• Counter culture
• Real culture
• Ideal culture
• Cultural conflict
• Acculturation (sociologist see it as the process of second-culture learning)
• Enculturation (is seen as the process of first-culture learning)
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Components of Culture
• There are two basic components of culture.

• These are;
Norms
Values
Other components are, beliefs, technology and language.

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Cont’d
Norms
• According to Zenden (1990:32), Norms are social rules that specify

appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in given situations.
• People get to know the norms of society through socialization.
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Cont’d
• The rules and behavior associated with some expectations are what is known as
norms.
• Norms constrain the behavior of people.
• Therefore our lives consist of learning, fine-tuning and renegotiating of norms.
• We are able to predict peoples’ behavior because of the norms in the society.
• Knowledge of norms can help us to insist on behaviours others must perform.

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Cont’d
• Norms vary in their generality.
• Some norms pertain to basic types of institutions.
These are called institutional norms
• Other norms are more specific to some special settings.
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Types of Norms
• Norms can be grouped into three main categories based on the severity of
our reaction to them.
 Folkways
 Mores
 Laws
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Folkways
• Behavior patterns whose violations are not taken too seriously are known as
folkway.
• There are no prescribed ways of enforcing folkways.
• The common social control mechanisms are gossip, ridicule and isolation.
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Mores
• Behaviors whose violations are taken very seriously are termed as mores.
• Norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to the core
values.
 Examples include theft, rape, murder
• Reactions to such behaviors are serious
• Their prevention is regarded as vital for the survival and well-being of

society.
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Laws
• In civilized societies, most of the important mores, are written into laws.
• Violations are punished with legal penalties in addition to social disapproval.
• Therefore, laws are rules enforcing the mores by setting out punishment for
their infraction.
• All laws constitute mores but not all mores are laws
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Values
• Humans always hold ideas about what is good or bad, appropriate or

inappropriate, and essential or unessential. These are Values.
• Values provide the criteria and conceptions by which we evaluate our

behavior and other people, objects, and events as to their worth, beauty
and morality.
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Cont’d
• When values are organized into a system of standards or criteria for
assessing the moral worth and appropriateness of conduct, they
constitute a value system.
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Significance of Culture
• It frees us from the reliance on the slow, random, accidental process of
physical evolution.
• It offers us a purposive and efficient means of adapting to changing
conditions (if we wait for natural selection to enable us live, we will wait
forever).
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Dynamism of culture
• Culture as already stated is not static, it is dynamic.
• The dynamism of culture is largely influenced by two modern trends.
 One is expansion of the media.
 The second, globalisation has ensured that the economies of the world are
interconnected.
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Process of change in culture
• Discovery
• Invention
• Diffusion
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Social Structure
• We observe different kinds of activities that may portray society as disorderly.
• A careful look however, reveals that there is coordination which provides

regularity in the behavior of people.
• Everybody performs a function that complements each others role.
• The performance is guided by rules to ensure stability and regularity.
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Cont’d
• Hence, most of our interactions occur in a pattern.
• For example, students interact with teachers and other students.
• There exist rules that guide the interactions.
• The teacher-student encounter may change and the setting too

may change but the pattern of interaction is virtually the same.
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Cont’d
• When the setting changes, the students have an idea of what is
expected of them.
• This is because the rules and regulations tell us what is expected of

them in a particular position.
• These rules and regulations make up the social structure that

constrain individuals behavior and organize each interaction.
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Cont’d
• Social structure can therefore be regarded as relationships that
have achieved relative permanence.
• It can also be seen as recurring patterns of behavior or interactions

that are pervasive, constraining, enduring and largely invisible.
• They render social life predictable, orderly and familiar.
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Cont’d
• Social structures are constraining because they determine
appropriate behaviour in any given social situation.
• They are pervasive because it is found in all aspects of the

society. Eg. social structures are found small communities as well
as large societies.
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Cont’d
• They are enduring because these structures existed when we
were born, and they will most likely still exist and persist over
generations.
• They are largely invisible in the sense that they are not
incarnated in physical settings but disseminated in all levels of
society.
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Definition of social structure
• Robertson defines social structure as the pattern of

relationships among the basic components in a social system.
• C. Wright-Mills (1970) considers it as the combination of social

institutions classified according the functions each performs.
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Cont’d
• The definition by C. W. Mills emphasizes on the functions the

social institutions play.
• It also shows how the institutions are arranged and how they
relate to one another in order to achieve the goal of society.
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Components of social structure
• The components of social structure are classified under three

types: institutional, relational and embodied.
Institutional dimensions: statuses, roles, groups and
institutions. These are referred to as the building blocks of
society.
Relational dimension: referred to as the cement of society.
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Social institutions
Institutional Dimension – The Building Block
• Societies must meet certain social and human needs if it is to
exist.
• Training new members, providing food and shelter, protection of

members, etc.
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Social institutions
Societies must meet certain social and human needs if it is to exist.
Training new members, providing food and shelter, protection of members, etc.
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Cont’d
• The needs are both social and individual because they are
necessary for the survival of both individuals and society.
• Social needs are universal, hence all human societies develop
means of satisfying them.

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Cont’d
• The means or mechanisms to satisfy the needs are routine.
• These routine ways are what we call social institutions.
• They are society`s standard ways of meeting the needs.
• The institutions provide guidelines on how people should behave in

order to meet such needs.
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Cont’d
• Social institutions are not actual physical locations.
• They are belief patterns and regular ways of organizing

behaviour and interactions in order to serve the social needs of
society.
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Cont’d
• Social needs are universal hence all human societies develop

means of meeting them.
• There are many social institutions but the most basic ones are;
family, political, economic, religious, health and educational
institutional.
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Cont’d
 Family or kinship to procreate and care for children
 Education to train children into the way of life of society
 Economy to produce and distribute goods and services
 Politics to provide for collective decision making and protection
(maintenance of law and order)
 Religion to provide meaning and allay fears.
 Health to ensure physical wellbeing.
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Cont’d
• The social institutions are interdependent.
• Social institutions are not static.
• They adapt to changes in the broader social environment and

technology.
• New institutions emerge or can be created to solve new problems that

emerge.
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Components of Institutions
• In order to fulfil the social needs, institutions themselves
comprise smaller components parts:
Status and roles
Values and norms
Groups and organizations.

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Status
• Linton (1936) defines status as a socially defined position in a group or society
that an individual occupies.
• It is the position an individual occupies in a social system of interconnected

positions in a society or group.
• Therefore statuses make sense in relation to other statuses.
• Status explain how people are to act and how to relate to others.
• It defines part of our identity.

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Cont’d
• A status set refers to all the statuses a person occupies within
a giving time.
• A master status is the most influential status that can establish

a person`s identity and relationship with others.
• The master status can be positive or negative.
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Cont’d
• Status can be achieved or ascribed.
• Ascribed statuses are those, which are accorded at birth that

cannot be changed by the person.
• They are thus involuntary. We have no influence over the way

they control our lives and positions in the social structure.
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Cont’d
• Achieved statuses are on the other hand are those that one
attains by choice, effort, merit or activity.
• It is therefore voluntary.
• Status inconsistency is when a person behaves contrary to the

dictates of his/her position.
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Roles
• A status comes with it, some culturally defined duties, rights,
responsibilities and obligation.
• These are what sociologists call roles.
• Roles explain how we are expected to behave and interact in a given

situation
• Roles are then the set of social expectations attached to a given status.
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Cont’d
• The distinction between a status and a role is that, we occupy a
status and we play a role.
• By performing our role, we are in effect acting our status.
• Societies attach legal sanctions to non performance of expected

behavior.
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Cont’d
• The multiplicity of roles attached to a status is known as role set.
• Participation in social life is full of conflict. This is because performance

of some roles occur at the same time.
• Role conflict occurs when we perform different roles that come into
conflict or are incompatible.
• Role strain occurs when the expectations attached to a particular status

is demanding and the person has difficulty in performing. Eg. A student
has to go for lectures, do assignment, go to library, etc.
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Cont’d
• Role conflict and role strain are not automatic.
• When people receive help from others, role conflict or role strain may not
occur.
• They only occur if the person has no capacity to contain the contradictions,
incompatibilities and the demands of the status.
• Roles like status (achieved) are not permanent. They end after some time.
• Besides, a person in a status can decide to quit the status.
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Cont’d
• The process of quitting a status or role is known as role exit. Role
exit involves disengagement with one status and engagement with
another.
• This occurs through the following steps;
 Doubt
 Search for alternatives
 Turning point
 Creation of new identities
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The Relational Dimension - cement
• This dimension of the social structure focuses on what holds society together.
• How it ensures a high degree of continuity and consistency amidst changes.
• This dimension is often regarded as the “cement of society”. It has two

components;
 Social solidarity – Emile Durkheim
 Social cohesion – Ferdinand Tonnies
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Social solidarity - Durkheim
• Durkheim believes that society is held together by division
of labour.
• Division of labour refers to how tasks are divided and

performed.
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Cont’d
• The nature of division of labour determines its social solidarity.
• Solidarity is the glue that binds people together as members of

society.
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Types of Social Solidarity
• There are two types: simple and complex.
• It is simple when few people are engaged in many tasks. (mechanical solidarity)
it is associated with preindustrial society.
• It is complex when many people are engaged in a small number of more

specialized task. (organic solidarity)
 it is associated with industrial society.

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Mechanical solidarity
• In societies with mechanical solidarity, division of labor is minimal.
• Most people are engaged in farming and similar task.
• The family and kinship is dominant institution that fulfils most of the
social needs.
• There is little or no specialization and little institutional status and role

differentiation.
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Cont’d
• Interactions in such societies are close, intimate and
predominantly face-to-face.
• People share common values and similar mode of thinking.
• There is a strong attachment to traditions.
• The society is characterized by collective consciousness.
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Cont’d
• There is emphasis on community interest than individual interest.
• Deviations from the accepted norms and values are not tolerated
and are sanctioned informally.
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Organic solidarity
• It is called organic solidarity because it is like the human organism.
• It has lots of parts with different functions and depend on each

other for proper functioning of the whole system.
• Organic solidarity characterizes modern societies.
• It emerges when societies, traditions are weakened.

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Cont’d
• The weakening means that collective consciousness is not

possible.
• Hence, mechanical solidarity paves way for organic solidarity.
• There is greater status and role differentiation.
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Cont’d
• People occupy different statuses and play very different multiple roles.
• Society is held together not by same norms or values but by differences

and interdependence.
• People are interdependent.
• There are also limit on what is acceptable.
• Primary groups are unable to satisfy social needs.

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Cont’d
• Individuals are not able to develop primary relationships.
• Secondary groups more often take up the role of primary groups.
• Interactions of people are more;

 Short-term
 Goal-oriented and formal
 Based on formal contracts rather than personal trust.
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Cont’d
• There is greater degree of tolerance for diversity and change.
• Deviance is dealt with through formal systems of social

control.
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Social Cohesion-Tonnies
• He focused on the transformations induced by
industrialization.
• It was meant to explain the impact of the changes on

human relations in social context.
• He christened the change from tradition to modernity as a

shift from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft.
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Cont’d
• Gemeinschaft, a German word literally means ‘community’ is a form of social
cohesion common in preindustrial societies.
• In such societies, the family and local community controls social life.
• The community’s interest supersedes that of the individual .
• Hence, it has control over the individual behaviors of its members.
• Interactions are personal and face –to-face and everyone knows everybody.
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Cont’d
• Gesellschaft literally means association.
• This type of social cohesion develops in industrial societies or urban

societies.
• Relationships are short-term, impersonal, goal-oriented and based on

achieved status.
• There is less emphasis on community and family ties.

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Cont’d
• The interest of the individual is paramount. Its emphasis is on

individualism.
• There is tolerance for diversity and change.
• It is said that the many social problems plaguing society now is

as a result of the loss of tight bonds that existed in the
gemeinshaft society.
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Bodily Dimension
• The institutional and the relational dimension components are

put together in practice through peoples activities.
• The structure becomes visible through the interactions and

practices of social actors.
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Theoretical Perspectives on Social Structure
Structural functionalism
• Functionalist views society as organized, stable and well

integrated system in which members agree on common values.
• It assumes that all elements of the system tend to fit together

to maintain stability of the whole.
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Cont’d
• Talcott Parsons has argued that for a system to survive, it must fulfil four
needs or functional imperatives.
• He terms it as “AGIL SCHEME” (adaptation, goal attainment, integration

and latency).
 Adaptation: the system must adapt to its environment or adjust the environment
to its needs.
 Goal attainment: there must be a general objectives for the system as a whole.
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Cont’d
 Integration: the parts in the system must be interrelated and have to be able
to work in coordination.
 Latency and pattern maintenance: latency refers to the rewards the system
gives to keep members motivated.
• Functionalists believe that social inequality is good to make talented people

strive for the top of the social system.
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Cont’d
• Pattern maintenance refers to the values (e.g. Success), that support

the system of rewards and motivation.
• The values are transmitted through the family and school to children.
• This he says, is the function of the major institutions in the society.
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Cont’d
Conflict perspective
• Dahrendorf argues that different statuses have different amounts of

power.
• The system sees this as legitimate, and must not be challenged.
• The guiding principles of the social system is not the maintenance of

the privileges and conflicts that result from the status inequalities.
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Cont’d
• The main purpose of social institutions is to maintain, reproduce and
legitimize power arrangements.
• Bourdieu describes institutional setting as fields or markets.
• A field is a structured space of positions related to constitute a

hierarchy (dominant/dominated) based on the unequal distribution
of certain forms of capital; economic, social, symbolic, cultural.
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Cont’d
• The position of a person in field is determined by what type
and how much capital agents a person is endowed with.
• The different positions in the field promote constant

struggles to improve one’s position and definition of what is
defined as legitimate in the fields.
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Sociological significance of social structure
• Social structure helps us to understand how society

works.
• We are able to recognize that all the aspects of our lives

are shaped by social elements.
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Society and Community
• Society can be referred to as voluntary organizations with specific aims
and objectives.
• Example, Ghana Society for the Blind, Society of Friends of Lepers, etc.
• It can also refer to the people of a village, town, region or even a

country or a continent.
• Example Ghanaian society, Kotei society, etc.
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Cont’d
• When sociologist say they study society, they actually mean a group
of people. For people to be considered as living in a society;
 They should occupy a common territory.
 They should interact with each other.
 They should have a common culture, shared sense of membership and

commitment to the group.
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Cont’d
• Robertson (1977), “defines a society as a group of interacting

individuals sharing the same territory and participating in a
common culture.”
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Concept of Community
• It may refer to groups of individuals who may have little or nothing in common.
• It may also refer to people living in a fairly well bound geographical area and a
relatively important aspects of their lives as constituting a community.
• There can be community of scholars, ethnic, racial groups, etc.
• It can also refer to several nations or people working as a group like ECOWAS, EEU
(EU).
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Groups and Associations
• Groups and associations are pervasive aspects of human life.
• Peoples behaviors are influenced by variety of forces when

they join groups.
• Hence human life is constrained by the system of authority

that emanates from the interactions in the group.
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Cont’d
• Paulus (1989), defines group as “consisting of two or
more interacting persons who share common goals, have
stable relationship, and are somehow interdependent,
and perceive that they in fact part of a group”.
• Robertson (1987), defines group as “a collection of

people interacting together in an orderly way on the basis
of sacred expectations about one another’s behavior”.
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Cont’d
• Robin and DeCenzo (1998), also defines groups as “two or more
interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to
achieve a particular objectives”.
• The results of the interaction is a feeling of belongingness.
• The collection of people can be grouped into social groups,

aggregates, or social category.
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Social Group
• It is a number of people who interact on a regular basis and in an orderly
manner on the basis of shared expectation.
• The regularity of interactions binds participants together as a unit and

provides them with an identity.
• There is a sense of belonging.
• There are some behaviors expected from members but not expected from
non-members.
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Social Aggregate
• Social aggregate relates to a collection of people who are in the
same place at the same time but share no definite connections with
one another.
• Goffman calls aggregate “as a gathering of people with unfocused
interaction”.
• They have no manner of interaction.
• They may never have met before.
• Example, a crowd on the street.
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Social Category
• A category is a statistical grouping.

• It relates to a grouping of people based on some
commonalities.
• Some of the similar characteristics can be sex, age, race.
• They may never have met before.
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Cont’d
For people to be called a group, the following criteria must be met:
 The members must see themselves as one unit
 The group must provide rewards for its members
 Anything that affects one member also affect other members
 They must share a common goal

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Cont’d
To Baron and Byrne (1995) a group must satisfy the following

criteria;
 The people must interact direct or indirectly
 They must be interdependent
 Their relationship must be relatively stable
 They must have some goals they want to achieve
 The people must perceive themselves as a group.
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Cont’d
There are two main types of groups ;

• Primary groups
• Secondary groups
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Primary Group
• A primary group refers to a small group of people connected by

ties of an emotional nature.
• They fundamental to the forming of ideals of individuals. Eg.
Family, peer group, etc.
• Cooley calls primary groups “spring of life”.
• The group tend to persist overtime.
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Secondary Groups
• A secondary group refers to a group of people who meet regularly, but
whose relationships are mainly impersonal.
• Members do not have intimate ties with each other.
• They come together for specific purposes. Eg. A club, committee, etc.
• There is limited face to face interactions.
• However people in this group can develop informal relations.

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Cont’d
• Groups can be formal or informal.

• Formal groups established by an organization and have
designated work assignment and established task.
• They can be relatively permanent though it members may
change.
• There is line of authority along which communication usually
flow.
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Informal groups
• They are natural formations that appear in response to social

contacts.
• Members develop informal means of handling problems, they

break and bend the rules.
• There are no defined pattern of relationship.
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Cont’d
• Groups affect their members through
 Roles and status
 Norms and conformity
 Group cohesiveness
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Group Cohesion
• Group cohesiveness refers to all the pressures causing

members to remain part of a group, including mutual
attraction, interdependence, and shared goals.
• It is influenced by the degree to which;
 Members live with each other
 The extent to which members provide for the attainment of goals.
 The size and amount of effort required to gain entry into their group.
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Group Dynamics
• This is the interpersonal processes, conscious or unconscious that
takes place in the course of interactions among a group.
• It is seen as the force of the group.
• It is the force that determines the behavior of members in the

group situation.
• It is developed through interaction, interpersonal relations,

structure and communication.
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Factors that influence group performance
• Group cohesion
• Communication structure
• Group roles
• Individual dominance
• Group think
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Causes of group think
Group occurs when the group is;

• Very cohesive
• Isolated from qualified outsiders
• has illusion of invulnerability, infallibility, or both
• Under pressure to perform
• Has a leader who promote favorite position
• Has gatekeepers who keep information from non-members.
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How group think can be reduced
• The group leader should not state his own position on belief until
late in the decision making process
• Promote open-discussion and encourage members to speak
• Assigning the job of devils advocate
• Increase subgroups in committees to increase disagreement.

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SOCIALIZATION
UNIT SEVEN
SOCIALIZATION
• Human beings are born with limited instincts, but have a great capacity to
learn from experience.
• The ability to learn enables human beings to adapt to an enormous range of

environments.
• This is possible when people go through socialization.
• We become social beings because of socialization.

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Definitions
• Socialisation is the complex process of interaction and experience through
which people learn cultural ways of the society of which they are a part.
• Giddens, A (2010): Defines it as “the process whereby, through contact with

other human beings, the helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware,
knowledgeable human being, skilled in the ways of the given culture”.
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Cont’d
• The key word in the definitions of socialization is “process”.
• The term “process” means that socialization is continuous. It starts from birth to
death.
• It is in this sense that we say that socialization goes with biological maturation.
• Each stage in life has its own specialization that equips the individual to
perform the role associated with the new status.
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Types of socialization
• There are two basic types;
Primary
 Secondary
• Primary socialisation: it is the initial socialisation that an individual experiences.
 It takes place in the primary group - the family.
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Cont’d
• Primary socialization has more influence on the development of behaviour than

secondary socialization.
It is here that children learn the basic attitudes and values of life.
Children acquire the basic attitudes, values and skills of life and
Simply they develop the core of their personality.
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Personality Development Theories
We will consider three theories:
• Psychosexual- Sigmund Freud
• Psychosocial - Erik Erickson
• Cognitive - Jean Piaget
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Psychosexual stages of development
• According to Frued, human behaviour is triggered by powerful forces haboured

within the unconscious part of our personality.
• The human being has no control over these forces.
• This unconscious parts contains instinctual forces; drives, desires, needs,

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demands, and wishes which demand expression all the time.
Cont’d
• Freud believes that personality characteristics including the symptoms of

psychological disorder grow out of these unconscious forces.
• According to Freud, conscious experience is like the tip of an iceberg.
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Structure of Personality
• Personality to Freud is composed of three major systems;
id,
ego and
the superego.
• These interact to govern human behaviour.
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The id
• It is the most primitive part of personality.
• The id is the portion of the mind where instinctive drives reside.
• It consists of the biological impulses (drives) such as;

the need to eat,
drink,
eliminate waste and
sexual (sensual) pleasure.
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Cont’d
• These are fuelled by what he called libido or psychic energy.
• The basic aim of the id is to avoid pain.
• It strives for immediate satisfaction and operates on the pleasure
principle.
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The Ego
• It is the part of the mind that is largely conscious and reality oriented.
• It develops when a child learns that their impulses cannot always be satisfied.
• The child learns to consider the demands of reality and therefore operates on the
reality principle.
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Cont’d
• Thus the ego is the reality oriented portion of personality that directs
behaviour.
• It determines the final decision and therefore considered the executive of the
personality.
• The ego however acts within the constraints of the superego.

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The Superego
• It is the last of the system to develop.
• It represents the rule (moral codes) of parents and society.
• The ego is the internal representation of the values and morals of society and
therefore judges which actions are right or wrong.
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Cont’d
• It has two parts;
the ego ideal. It represents the image of what a person can ideally be,
and the conscience. It is the inner voice which says you did something right
or wrong.
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Cont’d
• The superego battles the id and the ego because behaviour often falls short of
the moral code it represents.
• The person too controlled by the superego is rigid and bossy.
• On the contrary a weak superego creates an excessive self indulgent or

criminal behaviour.
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Cont’d
• In other words a person with a weak superego has no moral standards for
acceptable behaviour and therefore has no behavioural constraints.
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The Stages of Development
• He argues that the core of personality is developed before age 6 in a series of

psychosexual stages.
• He points out that every child derives pleasure from a particular part of the
body called the erogenous zone at every stage in life.
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Cont’d
• The attempt to derive the pleasure attracts parental attention.
• Parents will either approve or disapprove the satisfaction of the desired

pleasure.
• The nature of the parental reaction influences the type of personality

developed.
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Stages of Development of Personality.
• Freud identified five basic stages in the early years of life.
Oral stage (birth to 1)

Anal stage ( 1-3years)
Phallic stage (3-6yrs)
Latency (6 – puberty)
Genital (11 yrs on)
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Cont’d
Oral stage
• The infant’s source of pleasure is derived from the stimulation of the mouth.
• He gets pleasure from sucking and swallowing.
• If a child enjoys swallowing and sucking too much he becomes an oral

receptive person.
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Cont’d
• Oral receptive persons continue to seek pleasure through the mouth by:
overeating,
gum chewing,
alcoholism,
smoking,
kissing.
They are also gullible, that is they “swallow” things easily
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Cont’d
• When the oral pleasure is frustrated through rigid rules, he may

grow up to be oral aggressive person who is:
aggressive,
argumentative,
cynical and
exploitative of others.
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Cont’d
• 2. Anal Stage: (1 -3yrs)
• The child’s attention shifts to the process of elimination.
• If there is an attempt for toilet training the child expresses

either approval or disapproval by letting go or holding up.
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Cont’d
• Harsh or indulgent toilet training may lock such response into personality.
• Anal –retentive persons are:

 obstinate,
stingy,
orderly and
clean.
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Cont’d
• The anal –expulsive is:
 cruel,
messy,
disorderly and
destructive.
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Cont’d
• 3. Phallic Stage: (3-6yrs)
• There is increased sexual interest.
• This causes the child to become physically attracted to the parent of the
opposite sex.
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Cont’d
 Freud calls the attraction Oedipus complex for males and
Electra complex for females.
 Adult traits of the phallic personality are:

 sensitive pride,
abnormal and excessive admiration for oneself
 and exhibitionism (the tendency to behave in a way intended to
attract attention to oneself).
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Cont’d
4. Latency: (6yrs – Puberty)
 Sexual feelings subside.
 Attention is now on the acquisition of skills to cope with the

environment.
 The child develops self–confidence and learns the social rules for
appropriate male and female behaviour.
 Same sex friendships are strong.

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Cont’d
• 5. The Genital Stage (11years on)
• The stage begins at puberty through adolescence and ends with heterosexual love and
attainment of full adult sexuality.
• Masturbation is frequent.
• The focus is on moving toward sexual and emotional attainments outside the family.
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Cont’d
• There is a growing capacity for mature and responsible social- sexual

relationships.
• Sexual energies activate all the unresolved conflicts of earlier years.
• This resurgence according to Freud is the reason why adolescence can be

such a trying time.
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Cont’d
• According to Freud, the first three stages are more critical than
the last two fixations here are likely to have effects on the
development of normal personality.
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Erik Erikson
• His theory is called the psychosocial stages of development.
• Erikson however, describes a person’s emotional tasks both in terms

of relationships with others and with his or her own feelings.
• Each of the stages according to him must be successfully resolved to

lay the groundwork for the next stage.
• The growth of the personality is divided into eight stages.

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Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1)
• The infant at this stage is learning a basic attitude that will determine
whether to trust or not trust.
• Much of this depends on the interaction between the family (significant

others) and the child.
• The level of trust of the baby is dependent on the level of responsiveness

of the caregiver.
• The kind of response influences the trust necessary to go along with the
world, especially in relationships.
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Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (before age two)
• Children want to develop a sense of control over self and

environment. They develop a variety of physical and mental abilities.
• They begin to walk, climb, push, pull and communicate more

effectively.
• The advent of these leads to a remarkable discovery, that “I have

power to make things happen”.
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Cont’d
• They acquire independence and self control when parents are

co-operative, patient and encouraging.
• A failure to gain this sense of autonomy leads to feelings of

shame in their relations with others and helplessness and
inadequacy to control life’s events.
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Initiative vs. Guilt (age 3 through 5)
• The child’s motor and mental abilities are fully developed. (Child enters
school)
• If children are giving the freedom to run and ride, they develop a sense
of initiative.
• They are able to shape their behaviour.
• On the other hand, if they are denied the freedom, they receive
whatever the environment brings.
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Industry (Competence) vs. Inferiority (6 to puberty)
• The child’s world is broadened as she or he is exposed to new influences and

pressures outside the home.
• At home and school, the child begins to learn to work, to be industrious.
• The objective is to gain recognition and the pleasure derived from the
completion of a task.
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Cont’d
• A positive attitude from parents and teachers enables children to gain

confidence to be industrious .
• Where attitudes are negative, they are likely to develop feelings of inadequacy
and inferiority with respect to their abilities and to themselves.
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Identity versus Role Confusion (adolescence; 13-17)
• This stage is crucial, for it is at this stage that one’s basic ego identity is
met.
• The child tries to answer the question, who am I?
• He tries on many new roles. He searches for a vocation.
• Erikson feels this is the most difficult stage for the individual.
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Cont’d
• There is an attempt to integrate a person’s ideas of what others think of him /her
and what he or she thinks of himself or herself.
• Those who emerge from this stage with a strong sense of identity are equipped to
face coming adulthood with an expanded sense of self – certainty and confidence.
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Cont’d
• Those who fail to achieve an identity, experience an identity crisis,

show role confusion.
• Whatever identity the person picks depends on the social group the
individual identifies with.
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Jean Piaget
• Cognitive development explains how the process of gaining
knowledge changes across the life span.
• Of specific importance are changes in perception, intelligence,

memory, problem solving and language.
• The theory was developed as a result of observation of children in

their natural environment.
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Cont’d
• Piaget observed that children consistently provided wrong answers when they
took intelligence tests.
• He believed that children are active and have the capacity to react to their
natural environment to enhance their cognitive development.
• It is for this reason that he believed that children have schemas (the organized
set of beliefs or general knowledge about the world).
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Cont’d
• Piaget’s cognitive development starts on the assumption that mental
functioning depends on two basic biological processes - organizing and
adaptation.
• With these children are able to organize their past experiences and adapt to
new observations and experiences.
• Children continually modify their schema about any object, event or person
through two complementary processes, assimilation and accommodation.
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Assimilation
• Assimilation refers to the process of taking in new information and
integrating them into the exiting schemas.
• We assimilate by relating the new thing to things we already know.
• If the new information is accepted and integrated into our schema,

there is accommodation.
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Cont’d
• Cognitive development therefore is an ongoing process whereby

people attempt to achieve a balance between assimilation and
accommodation, a situation called equilibrium.
• According to Piaget, development of cognition occurs in a series of

four distinct universal stages each characterized by a particular level of
thoughts.
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Stage One: Sensorimotor (0-24months)
• Knowledge is gained through sensory impressions and motor activities.
• Children learn through concrete actions. Looking, touching and grasping.
• In the first few months, it is out of sight out of mind.
• However, after about 8 months of life, there is an attempt to search for the
object, first at the place where it was found and later at different locations.
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Cont’d
• This is possible because the child now has a mental representation of

the object.
• The major achievement here is what is termed as object permanence.
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Stage 2: Preoperational (2-6/7years)
• The infant’s ability to use language and symbols to represent
other things is improved.
• They are able to play and imitate adult behaviour. They can
use one object to represent another.
• They are able to engage in what is often called pretend

games.
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Cont’d
• They lack the principle of conservation.
• They don’t understand causality. (can think but cannot reason)
• Their reasoning is based on their own senses. Cannot take others

views. They are egocentric.
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Stage 3:Concrete Operation (6/7-12years)
• A child’s reasoning abilities are much more developed.
• However, they are unable to make logical deductions, their reasoning is concrete.
• They can add, subtract, and measure.
• They can now understand the principle of conservation, serial ordering and
reversibility.
• They lose their egocentric focus.
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Stage 4:Formal Operation (Early 11/12 adolescent
to adulthood)
• There is the ability to do abstract reasoning including
speculation.
• They can do deductive reasoning, and apply reasons to

situations they have not experienced before.
• They understand moral values.
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Cont’d
• Passage through the stages requires the right type of stimulation from the
environment to initiate the change.
• The absence of the right stimulation denies the child the opportunity to attain
their full potential.
• This means the content of their reasoning and the speed with which they pass
through the stages differ.
• The theory concludes that children progress from human beings who cannot
reason to persons fully capable of adult reasoning in 11 short years.
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Principles of Socialisation
• Earlier socialisation has more influence on the formation of

human capacities than later socialisation.
• Interaction with significant others is more influential than

ordinary individuals are.
• The duration of the relationship/ interaction is crucial.
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Importance of Socialisation
• The major outcome of socialisation is the development of the self.
• We develop self-identity, self awareness and personality.
• We are also able to develop a social mirror or what C.H. Cooley calls
looking – glass self.
• It also essential for the reproduction of society.

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Development of the Self
I/ Me
Developing the self, we consider the following:
• Imagine our own experiences- how do I appear to people especially those who are
very close to me.
• Interpret the public’s reaction- imagine how all others perceive me.
• Developing the self-concept- integrate others judgement with our own and that of
significant others to develop a feeling about ourselves.
• If the image in the social mirror is favourable, our self concept is enhanced and our
behaviour is likely to be repeated.
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Cont’d
• The development of the self does not depend on accurate evaluation.
• When we misinterpret people’s evaluation even neutral statements as

negative or criticisms we become paranoid.
• Development of the self is an ongoing lifelong process.
• Those who also interpret every statement as positive are also “pronoids”
according to Fred Goldner (1985).
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George Hebert Mead and the “Self”
• To Mead, the vital outcomes of socialisation is the ability to anticipate what
others expect of us and to shape our own behaviour accordingly.
• Human beings are able to do this when we role-take (take the role of the
other).
• In role-taking, we attempt to put ourselves in the shoes of others.
• This starts first with taking the role of significant others (those who
influence our lives significantly).
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Cont’d
• As children grow, they are able to internalise the expectations,
attitudes and viewpoints of the generalised order and society as a
whole (the understanding of how “most” people think of us).
• This internalized general concept of social expectations provides the

basis for self-evaluation and hence for self-concept.
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Cont’d
He believed role taking goes through three stages and children

understand themselves better as they progress. The stages are;
• Imitation
• Play
• Games
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Imitation
• Children below age three lack a developed sense of self and so have
difficulty distinguishing their roles from those of others.
• They merely mimic or imitate people in the immediate environment, such

as family members.
• They do so only occasionally and spontaneously.
• This is not really role-taking but it serves as a preparation for it.

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Play
• After the age of about three to six, children begin to take the roles of
specific people.
• They walk around in their parents’ shoes; and pretend they are adults.
• By pretending to take the roles of specific other people in this kind of play.
• Children are for the first time learning to see the world from a perspective
that is not their own.
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Games
• By the early school years, children are ready to take part in organized
games- preludes to the “game” of life.
• The individual learns to take multiple roles, that is, learn to take the
role of everyone in the team.
• Very young children cannot play organized games, for they do not
understand the rules , cannot take the role of other players and thus,
cannot anticipate how others would respond to their actions.
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“I” and “ME”
• The “I” in the self is the subject, the active, spontaneous and creative
part of the self.
• The “I” enables the individual to make sense of the attitude of others.
• In contrast, the “me” is the object made up of the attitudes

internalized from the interactions with others. It is the social self.
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Cont’d
• The “me” enables the individual to passively absorb the attitudes of

others while the
• It is on the basis of the “me” that individual behavior is evaluated.
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Re-socialisation
• Adult individuals may experience re-socialisation, when there is

disruption of previously accepted values and patterns of behaviour.
• Re-socialisation refers to the process of learning new norms, values,

attitudes, and behaviour.
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Cont’d
• It may involve a modification of existing orientations to life or learning
a radically different perspective.
• It may be necessary when an individual enters a carceral organisation-

a mental hospital, prison, barracks or other setting.
• In other words, re-socialisation occurs when there is a marked

alteration in the social environment of an individual or group.
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Agents of Socialization
• This refers to the groups or social contexts within which significant
processes of socialization occur as agencies of socialization.
• In all cultures, the family is the main agent /agency for the socialization of
the child.
• Many other agencies come into play in the latter stages.
• The other agencies include peer relationships, schools, church, the mass
media, and the work place
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Effects of Social Isolation
• The case of children raised without social interaction or

experience provide dramatic examples of what happens in the
absence of socialization.
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Anna
• She was born illegitimate and her grandfather hid her in an attic.
• Had little physical care and attention and no opportunities for social interaction.
• When she was discovered at age 6, she could not talk, walk, keep herself clean and feed
herself.
• Those who worked with her thought at first that she was deaf and possibly blind.
• Attempt to socialise her had limited success.
• Died 4 to 5yrs later but before then she was able to learn some words and phrases. She
could not speak sentences.
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Isabelle
• She was born illegitimate to a deaf and dumb mother.
• She and her mother were locked up in a dark room, by her grandfather.
• She had the advantage of social interaction but had no chance to develop
speech.
• She could not talk when she was discovered, could only use gestures.
• She was hostile to men. She found her speech after two years of intensive
training and rehabilitation.
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Cont’d
• The cases suggest that while human beings are resilient creatures,
extreme social isolation results in irreversible damage to emotional,
cognitive and behavioural domains of personality development.
• When a person passes a certain age, certain skills such as language will
be difficult to develop. Socialisation helps us to develop a sense of
self-identity and the capacity for independent thought and action.
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Nature v. Nurture
• It seeks to determine how and to what degree nature

(inherited or genetic factors).
• Nurture (environment, learning and experience) contribute to

a person’s biological, emotional, cognitive and social
development.
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Cont’d
• There are some theorists who believe that all important
developmental changes are controlled by biological factors (nature).
• They are called the nature theorists.
• For them heredity and maturation produce developmental changes.
• They are called the nature theorists. For them heredity and
maturation produce developmental changes.
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Cont’d
• Arnold Gesell’s concept of maturation for example stresses that
nature is the sole determinant of motor skills.
• J. J. Rousseau on his part emphasized the dominance of natural

characteristics (genetic factors) but conceded that, that was subject
to the corrupting influence of the environment.
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Cont’d
• The environmentalists (nurture theorists) believe that learning produces
changes and the acquisition of new behaviour.
• They believe that the environment is the master of our development.
• John Locke and John Watson for example saw the new born human being
as possessing a blank slate (tabular rasa) on which his/her story could be
written from scratch.
• He suggests that the environment is the sole determent of development.

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Cont’d
• The two views as espoused here show that neither nature nor nurture
alone is responsible for the development of behavior.
• Each of them contributes a part to the development of behavior.
• A more realistic view is that biology endows individuals with some

potential.
• It is true socialization that we enhance this potential to develop our

identity and personality, which in combination create our selves.
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SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION, INEQUALITY, SOCIAL

STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY
UNIT EIGHT
Introduction
• Why are some groups in society more wealthy or powerful than others?
• How unequal are modern societies?
• How much chance has someone from a lowly background of reaching the top of the
economic ladder.
• What are the opportunities available to people from different social backgrounds?
• These are some of the questions we will try to answer as we delve into the topic.
We shall begin by looking at social differentiation?
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Social Differentiation
• Individuals in society are different in several respects.
• We have differences in sex, age, colour, strength, taste, habits, wealth,

belief, height, education, marital status etc.
• These are either personally , socially or naturally acquired.
• When any of these characteristics are used to distinguish one person

from another, there is social differentiation.
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Cont’d
• Sociologists do not see social differentiation as a problem that need to

be resolved.
• Differentiation becomes a problem when society use it as a bases to

reward people .
• Where differentiation is used as a bases to reward people, there is

social inequality.
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What is Social Inequality?
• Social inequality simply refers to the unequal distribution of valued

resources.
• It can also refer to differences in treatment of power, prestige etc of

individuals or groups.
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Cont’d
• Graib, E. G. (1997) defined inequality as “any of the differences

between people (or the socially defined positions they occupy)
that are consequential for the lives they lead, most particularly
for the rights or opportunities they exercise and the rewards or
privileges they enjoy.”
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Cont’d
• The question that people often ask is what are the determinants of
inequality?
• The factors that determine inequality vary from one society to

another.
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Cont’d
• However, it is generally accepted that the major determinants

of social inequality today are gender and ethnicity.
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Inequality and stratification
• Inequality can lead to stratification under two conditions:
If it is institutionalised.
If the reward is for membership of a given status rather than on personal
attributes-(emphasis shifts from the individual to the collective.
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Social Stratification: Definition
• The concept of stratification generally refers to the idea that society is

divided into different structures on the basis of variety of dimensions.
• The idea of stratification contains within it the system of inequality

where the strata are ranked and socially patterned according to
various criteria: wealth, status, honour, power etc.
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Cont’d
• An individual’s position within a society is determined by his /her
position within the system of stratification.
• The position affects the life chances of the individual and limits
his/her actions in various ways.
• It also defines ideas of the members of a stratum concerning their

own position and that of others.
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Principles of social stratification
• It is a characteristic of society and not merely of individuals
• It universal but variable
• It persists over generations
• It is supported by patterns of beliefs.

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Definitions
• Turner, J.H.(2006) defines stratification as the general term used to
describe a society, which distributes income, power, prestige and other
valued resources differentially and creates distinctive classes of members
who are culturally, behaviourally and generally different
• Bilton, T, et al (1997) defined it as all forms of inequality, not merely that of

class.
• Giddens, A (1993) defined it as the structured inequalities between

different groupings of people.
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Theoretical Explanations
• Different theories attempt to account for its existence and its

persistence over time.
• Hereditary Factors
• Structural functionalist theorists: Durkheim, Davis and Moore
• Marx
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Hereditary Factors
• These theorists suggest that individuals are born with differing
capacities or abilities.
• If people have different skills and traits, differences will exist.
• For these theorists therefore, inequality is not a problem to be

explained, it is natural.
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Structural functionalist theorists: Durkheim, Davis
and Moore
• They believe that people are stratified based on the various status-
roles they perform in society.
• The major basis of the actor-role ranking is occupation.
• Occupation to them is the best single indicator because:

It determines the person’s contribution to the development of the society.
 It correlates favourably with other important determinants such as income
and education.
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Cont’d
• This means that to the functionalist stratification is a consequence of

collective judgements by which society evaluates the worthiness of a
person with regard to his/her importance or contribution to the
collective.
• There are two variations in the functionalist perspective: Durkheim

and Davis and Moore
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Durkheim
• Durkheim sees stratification as something normal in societies.
• He observes that the complexities in organic societies require that there is division of
labour.
• This calls for specialization where individuals perform different roles which are
complementary.
• The division of labour is functional and it is this division of labour which is responsible for
the stratification.
• Specialization is functional and exist to ensure that individuals are mutually dependent.
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Davis and Moore
• They believe that in every society some of the roles are functionally
more important than others.
• They argue that those who perform these roles must be greatly
rewarded to motivate others.
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Cont’d
The explanation is based on the following assumptions;
• Certain vital functions in society require scarce talent and or long
training
• If society is to function effectively, it must fill these roles with talented

skilled people.
• Because the roles often involve stress and sacrifice, people must be
attracted with rewards such as wealth and power.
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Cont’d
Thus for them ones worth in society is judged by two overriding concerns;
• The functional importance for society of one’s occupation
• The differential scarcity of people with the talent or training needed for its
performance.
Based on these, Davis and Moore believe that inequality and stratification
are necessary for society’s existence.
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Marx
• He believed that the nature and determinants of social organisation rests on economic factors – production as a
process, which involves social relationships.
• He observed that a person’s relations to the means of production determine the person’s access to valued
resources.
• He explains inequality in terms of exploitation, the source of which is the desire to maximise profit.
• thus, the determinants of inequality are the ownership or non-ownership of productive property.
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Systems of Stratification
Four basic systems can be distinguished;
• Slavery
• Estates
• Caste
• Class
• Sociologist distinguish between them based on the degree of social mobility and
the opportunities for the individual inherent in the system.
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Caste System
• It is the system of stratification based on ascription.
• Pure caste systems are closed with limited social mobility.

• A typical example is the caste system of India. The Indian caste system
which is based on religion has four main castes.
• Each of them is subdivided based on occupation.

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Characteristics of the Caste System
• Status is ascribed
• Boundary line between different statuses is clear
• Limited chance to change status
• It is endogamous
• Inter-sexual relations is a taboo
• Contacts between members of different classes are forbidden.

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Cont’d
• They guard against ritual pollution.
• The risk of such pollution helps keep the strata physically as well as
socially separate.
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Class
• Class is one of the concepts used in sociology to explain aspects of

social stratification in industrial societies.
• Unlike the caste system, a class system is open. It is primarily based

on wealth or material possession.
• It can be defined as a large-scale grouping of people who share

common economic resources.
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The definitions reveal at least three distinct
elements;
• the concept of social class takes account of cultural factors,
such as lifestyle, language identity and patterns of sociability;
• Classes are social entities. They are distinct social groups with
their own history and identifiable place in the organisation of
society;
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Cont’d
• Class is a relational concept. Classes do not exist in isolation.
Classes can be understood in terms of their relationships to each

other.
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Major classes found in contemporary societies;
• Upper class (the wealthy employers and industrialists, top executives),
• Middle class (which includes most white-collar workers and professionals),

and
• Working class (those in blue – collar or manual jobs).
• In Ghana, we can talk about peasants (those engaged in traditional type of

agricultural production).
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Characteristics of class
• It is based on economic status
• Initial status depends on the status of the breadwinners of the family
• A person’s status is subject to change- social mobility is allowed
• No formal restrictions on inter-marriages
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Theories of Class
There are two basic analytical positions:
• Marx and;
• Weber.
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Karl Marx:
• In the view of Marx, classes emerge where the relations of production
involve a differentiated division of labour.
• This allows for the accumulation of surplus production that can be

appropriated by a minority grouping.
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Cont’d
• A class consists of all those people who stand in common relation to

the means of production.
• A social class therefore is, any aggregate of persons who perform the
same function in the organization of production.
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Cont’d
• A person’s social class or position is solely determined by his/her

access to society’s means of production.
• His theory of class can thus be described as materialist.
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Cont’d
• There is a dominant class and a subordinate class.
• These two groups have distinct and separate relations to the means of
production.
• The wealth of the dominant class’ comes from the extraction of the
‘surplus value’ of the labour of the ‘subordinate class’.
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Max Weber
• Like Marx, Weber saw class in economic terms.
• class division is derived from multiple sources

 control or non-control of the means of production
 from other economic differences, which have nothing to do directly with
property.
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Cont’d
• Such resources include especially the skills and credentials that affect
the types of job people are able to obtain.
• Thus a person’s membership of a class depends on his/her access to

the job market.
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Cont’d
• Weber identifies two other basic aspects of stratification.
• One he calls status and the other party.
• In other words he broke the concept of class into three distinct but related elements;
• class,
• status and
• party.
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Weber’s class dimension;
Position Material /Social Benefit

• Class / economic status - property/ wealth
• Status / social status - prestige
• Party / political status - power.
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Cont’d
• A class to Weber therefore, is a group of people who share a

similar market situation.
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Cont’d
• Status refers to differences between social groups in the social honour and
prestige they are accorded by others.
• Status groups are characterised by similar lifestyles. Individuals are usually

conscious of their behaviour and recognise others within the same status.
• They prevent others from entering or make entry difficult.
• This fits well into Parkin’s concept of “social closure”.

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Cont’d
• Party defines a group of individuals who work together

because they have common aims and interest backgrounds.
• The common interest is the bond that unites them is pursuit of

political power.
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Cont’d
• The statuses identified are overlap. That is, though each can be
independent of the other, they are closely associated.
• One can be used to achieve the other. A person can also belong
to one or more of the statuses.
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Slavery
• Slavery is an extreme form of inequality in which some individuals are
literally owned by others as their property.
• The legal conditions of slaves varied from society to society.
• In some societies they were denied all rights in law (Southern U.S)
while in others they were like servants.
• Slavery was not based on racism.

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It was based on one of three factors;
• Debt: - An individual who could not pay a debt could be enslaved by
the debtor. It was also possible for a relative to be enslaved
• Violation of Law: - A culprit could also be enslaved by a victim for his

or her penalty to compensate for the loss.
• War/conquest: - In war the vanquished could be enslaved.
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Cont’d
• Slavery, then, was a sign of defeat in battle, debt or of criminal act, and not
the sign of some supposedly inherently inferior status.
• There are different types of slavery. In some cases slavery was temporary.
• Here slaves would serve for a set number of years.
• Some even had the chance to buy themselves out.
• In most instances, however, it was life-long.

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Cont’d
• Slavery was not necessarily inheritable.
• The children of some slaves in some places were automatically slaves, but
in some they were not.
• Again slaves were not necessarily powerless and poor.
• In most cases, slaves owned no property and had no power.
• In some situations however, they could accumulate property and even rise
to high positions.
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Cont’d
• In the modern era there is a new form of slavery known as
indentured service.
• Indentured service is a contractual system in which someone sells his

or her body (services) for a specified period of time.
• The major difference is that indentured service is voluntary.
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Estate
• It was part of European feudalism.
• The feudal estates consisted of strata with differing obligations and rights
towards each other.
• Some of the differences are established by law. The highest estate was
comprised of the aristocracy and gentry (people not of noble birth but are
entitled to have a coat of arms).
• The clergy formed the second and the third the commoners, free
peasants, serfs, merchandised artisans.
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Cont’d
• There is a certain degree of inter marriage and individual mobility was
allowed. E.g. A commoner might be knighted.
• The system is found in modern Britain where people are knighted or

given titles.
• Estates of old were organized on local basis but in China and Japan
they were national.
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GLOBAL STRATIFICATION
• People are stratified within a nation into groups based on their relative
power, prestige and property so are nations.
• The most common model divides nations into their groups according to
how they rank in terms of wealth and economic development.
• Nations are categorized as belonging to first, second and third.
• There are basic relationships between theses three groups of nations.

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The First World
• It consists of earth’s most heavily industrialized nations.
• It constitutes about 25% of the earth’s surface and about 15% of its
people.
• Nations here hold most of the world’s power and resources.
• The wealth is so enormous that even the poor in the state live better
than the average person in the third world
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The Second World
• These are the less industrialized nations once governed by socialism or

communism.
• Examples are the nations of the former Soviet Union and its former
satellites in eastern Europe- Poland, Romania, and Hungary etc.
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The Third World
• These are mostly found in Africa and Asia. They account for about 60% of
the earth’s land and 75% of its population.
• Countries here have less industrialized; most of the people are peasant
farmers with low standards of living.
• The per capital income is less than $1000 a year. Population grows faster in
these areas but mortality is down although still higher than in the first two.
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Imperfections in the Model
• The classification enables us to notice the differences among

nations.
• There are inadequacies in the classification.
• Eg. There is a problem of grouping Asia and Africa together.
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How the World’s Nations Become Stratified
There are four theories that attempt an explanation;
• Imperialism and Colonialism
• The Dependency Theory (Gunder Frank)
• The World System’s Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein)
• Culture of Poverty
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Imperialism and Colonialism
• Imperialism refers to the pursuit of unlimited geographical expansion.
• Colonialism is the process in which one nation takes over another

nation, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and nature
resources.
• Imperialism stated because of the desire of manufacturers, investors,

shippers and exporters to expand their markets.
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Cont’d
• Nations were encouraged to seek territories for trading purposes.
• They invaded nations to exploit their labored resources.
• To ensure effective exploitation inspired government and this led to

colonization.
• There was scramble for Africa and other weaker nations (talk about
consequences).
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The Dependency Theory
(Gunder Frank)
• The development of the third world was effected by the process of
colonialism and imperialism.
• He referred to this as the development of underdevelopment
• The third world was not undeveloped but rather under developed.
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Cont’d
• They were turned into plantations and mines, planting and extracting
whatever they needed to meet their growing appetite for
commodities.
• The economies of these nations were linked to that of the so called

first world. (The only solution is to break the relationship).
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The World System’s Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein)
• He was influenced by the dependency theory and indeed uses some of
its core concepts such as core, periphery and unequal trade.
• It assumes that the world’s countries are tied together by economic

and political connections.
• There is interdependence of the world’s nation. All the social system

of the world is part of one international world capitalist system.
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For this theory, there are four groups of
interconnected nations;
• The core includes; Western Europe, the US and the industrialized nations.
They are powerful because of their wealth.
• The semi- periphery; the Mediterranean states that depended so much on

trade with the core nations). They could either move into the core or the
periphery.
• The periphery or fringe consists of the Eastern European nations.
• The external includes most of Africa and Asian countries.

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Culture of Poverty
• This theory assumes that some nations remain poor because they are
crippled by culture of poverty.
• It refers to a way of life that perpetuates poverty from one generation to

the next.
• The explanation is that there is no room for risk taking, people stick to the
tried and tested ways of doing things.
• The more they fail to take risks the more they fail.
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Maintaining Global Stratification
• Neocolonialism: There is no longer political control. Control is now

economic.
 control their products (determine their prices)
 sell weapons and manufactured goods at higher cost- they are always in debt
 Because of the debt, developed countries are able to control them and
dictate their trading relationships.
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Cont’d
• Multinational Corporations
 Wield enormous power.
 Work with urban power elite to deprive development in rural areas. Build
plush offices in capital cities.
 Genuinely however improves the economies of countries-Asian Tigers
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Social Mobility
• Sociologists are interested in social stratification, they are also
interested in the opportunities available to the people in the system of
stratification.
• The term social mobility refers to the movement of individuals and

groups between different social - economic positions.
• Simply put, it refers to movement from one status to another.
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Types of Social Mobility
There are two types of social mobility:
• Vertical Mobility
• Horizontal Mobility
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Horizontal Mobility
• Horizontal mobility refers to change in one status to another,

which is roughly the same.
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Vertical Mobility
• Vertical mobility means movement up or down the socio–

economic scale.
• The amount of vertical mobility in a society is a major index of

the degree of its openness.
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Sociologists study social mobility in two main ways;
• First, they examine an individual’s own carrier;
 how far has the individual moved up or down the social scale in the
course of his/her working life.
 This is usually called intra-generational mobility.
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Cont’d
• Second, they analyse the status of family members from one

generation to the next;
 That is, how far children enter the same occupation as their parents
or grandparents.
 This type of mobility is referred to as intergenerational mobility.
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Cont’d
• Sociologists are interested in vertical intergenerational mobility
because it tells the extent to which inequalities are built into the
society.
• Little intergenerational mobility means individuals’ life chances are

fixed by birth.
• whilst a good deal of intergenerational mobility means opportunities

for hard working people to improve their statuses regardless of the
circumstances at birth.
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SOCIAL CHANGE
UNIT NINE
Introduction
• “Everything changes,” observed the ancient Greek philosopher

Heraclites.
• This implies that social change is inevitable and it is a universal

phenomenon.
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The central questions about change that sociologist
asks are;
• What are the causes of social change?
• What is the direction of change?
• What are the consequences of change?
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Definitions
• Machionis et al (1994) define it as “the transformation of culture,

social institutions over time”.
• Robertson (1987) also defines it as “the alterations in pattern of

culture, social structure and social behaviour overtime”.
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Cont’d
• The definitions imply that change involves recognizable modifications

in the underlying structure or the basic institutions during a specific
period.
• A change in one institution affects all the other institutions in the

society due to the interdependence of the institutions.
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Characteristics of Social Change
• Social change happens everywhere but the rate of change varies.
• Social change is sometimes planned but it can be unintentional.
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Cont’d
• Social change has variable consequences.
• Social change often generates controversy.
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Influences on Social Change
The main influences on social change can be summarised under;
 Cultural,
 Environmental,
 Conflict
 Technological factors
 Need for adaptation
 Idealistic factors
 Social movement.
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Cont’d
• These processes are influenced by religion, styles of thought,
consciousness, and leadership.
Religion
• Religious beliefs and practices can act as barriers to change while others
facilitate change.
• Weber for instance, emphasised that, religious convictions frequently play

a mobilising role in pressures for social change.
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Cont’d
Leadership
• Leadership can influence the rate and direction of change.
How?
A leader capable of pursing dynamic policies.
 Those able to generate a mass following.
Those capable of altering existing modes of thought.
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Direction( Positive and Negative)
Positive
• Social change has led to industrialization, urbanization and
modernization.
• Industrialisation and modernisation have obviously transformed the

lives of people in society.
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Cont’d
Negative
• It has adverse effects on traditional social values (traditional values
and controls are weakened).
• This is the consequence of the weakening of the simple and cohesive

communities, which promoted solidarity.
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Cont’d
• The breakdown is the result of the individual’s inability to determine

the real values of society.
• It leads to permissiveness and anomie .
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Cont’d
• People accept scientific explanations for many of life’s events and consequences.
• People see their lives as a series of options; a process Peter Berger calls
individualization.
• The extended family which used to provide social support for members is
weakened.
• The tendency now is toward the nuclear family which is basically self-centred.
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Cont’d
• Individualism is a threat to societal morality.

 individuals find it difficult to relate to larger social structures
• In the view of Peter Berger, there is increased autonomy and personal

freedom, but less enduring social ties.
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Theories of Social Change
• Social theorists have proposed various explanations to why societies
change.
• In this section, we shall attempt to discuss the views of;
 Karl Marx,
 Max Weber and
 David McClelland.
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Karl Marx’s theory of social change
• Marx interpretations of social change have something in common

with evolutionary theory.
• Both regard the major patterns of change as being brought about by

interaction with the material environment.
• Marx explained change based on the dialectics of Hegel.
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Cont’d
• He believed that every stage of society operates to maximum

efficiency and it starts to develop weakness at a point.
• This weakness leads to the eventual collapse of that stage and usher
a new one.
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Cont’d
• According to Marx, wherever and whenever there is private

ownership of property, society is divided into two distinct groups;
 Those who own the means of production (in agricultural, societies, land;
industrial societies, factories and machines)
 those who do not.
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Cont’d
• The two groups (social classes) have completely opposing interest.
• The classes become conscious of their respective interests;

 a development Marx called increasing class-consciousness.
• This results in conflict between the two groups.
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Cont’d
• Thus in any society where private property was the source of material
production, there existed a basis for class conflict.
• This leads to social change.
• Marx thinks that it is conflict that brings about change.
• According to Marx, social change does not occur only as a process of

slow development but in the shape of revolutionary transformation
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Max Weber’s Theory of Change
• Weber admitted that economic influences are important in
influencing change but he chose to emphasis ideas.
• He argued that ideas and attitudes exert considerable influence on

society and thus have a very important role to play in social change.
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Cont’d
• To him it is the particular attitude of man that produces change.
• The individual in his view is the prime mover of change and not
society.
• A key concept in Weber’s theory of social change is that of

rationalization.
• Rationalization is the elimination of magical thought and practice.

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Cont’d
• When a person is rational, his social and cultural life is greatly
influenced by the efficiency technicality and rationality of his action.
• He argued that rational actions are purposeful or goal oriented.
• Weber argues that the institution in the modern world which best
exemplifies this aspect of social change is bureaucracy.
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Cont’d
• He saw religion as the motivation for modern capitalism.
• He wondered;
 Why people would work in a disciplined way?
 Why people constantly seek more wealth, great profits, even when they
apparently do not always enjoy them?
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Cont’d
• He identified a relationship between the ideas of the protestant sects, especially
‘Calvinism’ and the Sprit of Capitalism.
• Calvinism saw worldly work as very virtuous.
• It further encouraged members to live an acetic lifestyle.
• Thus although wealth accumulation is the symbol of virtuous and efficient hard
work.
• The consumption of fruits of labour is denied the believer because of the need to
live an ascetic life.
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Cont’d
• There was the need to accumulate money for re-investment and
become upwardly mobile.
• Weber described Protestantism as world affirming (they accept the

world and partake fully in it).
• Catholicism is world rejection, (the world is seen as a bad place and

people wait for the next world rather than try to change their
situation).
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The Psychological Approach
• This perspective places emphasis on the character and personality of
individuals.
• The assumption is that, attitudinal and value changes are

prerequisites to creating a modern society, economic and political
system.
• What is more important is why something happened, what

specifically caused what happened, and not what happened.
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Cont’d
• To understand why what happened, importance was put on value
orientation within specific cultures.
• The assumption is that certain factors when present lead to change but
when absent lead to stagnation.
• Among the factors singled out are the values and attitudes of individuals
and their willingness to see education as a means of promoting
meritocratic and individual’s character in society (the mere existence of
structure do not bring about change).
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Cont’d
• The general assumption underlying the physiological approach

therefore is that, for every social structure to accept any innovation,
that social structure must have a high level of achievement
motivation.
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Cont’d
• The view is that it is a society with a high level of achievement

motivation and a preparedness of ability to change that will produce
entrepreneurs that are more energetic.
• There are two factors that according to McClelland are change agents
– need for achievement and entrepreneurship.
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Cont’d
• The need for achievement is a psychological factor defined as a desire

to do well not so much for the sake of social recognition or prestige
but to attain an inner feeling of personal accomplishment.
• In McClelland’s conception, therefore economic change/development

is a product of high degree of individual motivation or need for
achievement.
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Cont’d
• He concluded that the economic, political and social structures have

nothing to do with the nature and direction of development.
• The values, motives or psychological force determines the rate of

social and economic development.
• What is needed is the diffusion of ideas; increasing ‘n achievement,

education and reorganizing of fantasy life.
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Cont’d
• People who have high “n’ach’t” usually are the most successful
entrepreneurs.
• Entrepreneurs possess what he called “strategic mental virus”.
• It is this virus that brings economic rationality and market

innovativeness crucial to societal development
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SOCIAL INTERACTION
UNIT TEN
Introduction
• Actions and encounters are necessary elements of social life.
• Some of our actions have implication for us, but most of them involve
some relationships with other people and thus constitute interaction.
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Definitions
• Social interaction is the process by which people act toward or
respond to other people whether face to face or indirectly.
• Giddens (2001) defines social interaction as the process by which we

act and react to those around us.
• Mead (1934) also defines it as the process of sending and receiving

gestures, and in the case of humans, sending culturally defined
symbols that carry common meaning.
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Cont’d
• It is the key fundamental process underlying the social world and
without it, social structures and cultures have no life.
• This means that without social interaction, we cannot build

relationships.
• We cannot carry on life cannot function in groups and in fact there is

nothing we can do as human beings.
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Cont’d
• One of the key processes in social interaction is the emission of signs
or gestures.
• As we act in our environment, we emit signs or gestures.
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Cont’d
According to G.H. Mead, interaction occurs when;
 one organism emits signs as it moves through the environment
 another organism sees the signs and alters its course of action in response to
them, thereby emitting signs of its own
 the original organism becomes aware of the signs of this responding

organism and alters its course of action in the light of these signs
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Cont’d
• Thus in social interaction, what is important is that human beings
interpret or define each other’s actions instead of merely reacting to
each other’s actions.
• In other words, our response to other people’s behaviour is based on

the meanings we attach to their actions in given situations.
• These meanings in most cases reflect the cultural norms and values
that we `acquire from our family and society (they are cultural).
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Types of Interaction
• Verbal and Non-verbal Interaction
• Proximity or the Use of Space
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Verbal and Non-verbal Interaction
• Verbal interaction involves the use of language whereas non-verbal
involves the use of gestures and signs.
• The two ways can occur at the same time.
• Non-verbal normally reinforces the verbal interaction.
• In some cases people express their emotions by using body language,

the popular maxim; ‘action speaks louder than words’.
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Proximity or the Use of Space
• We surround ourselves with a ‘comfort zone’ which we go to great

lengths to protect.
• The space you provide for a person determines the type of interaction
you are ready to engage in.
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Hall (1959) identified four main zones;
• Intimacy zone
– It is reserved for people in close relationships. It extends up to 18 inches.
• Personal distance
– It is reserved for friends and acquaintances and ordinary conservations. It
extends from 18inches to 4feet.
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Cont’d
• Social distance
– The zone extends from 4 feet to 12 feet, marks formal or impersonal
relationships. We reserve this space for job interviews and strangers.
• Public distance
– It extends beyond 12 feet. It is used to separate dignitaries and public
speakers from the general public.
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Cont’d
• One important thing that needs to be emphasised is that the ability to
read symbolic gestures allows humans to role-take or take the role of
others.
• In the process of interaction, we get an image of ourselves from the

perspective of others.
• Mead calls this self.
• The gestures that others emit therefore become what C. H Cooley called
looking glass or mirror.
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The Social Construction of Reality.
• People interpret reality in different ways.
• The knowledge and belief of ‘reality’ might be influenced by their history

and social location.
• Social reality is said to be literally constructed by individuals through social

interaction.
• The social construction of reality describes the process by which people

creatively shape reality and even their identity.
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Cont’d
• Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1963) describe ‘social

construction of reality’ as the “process by which people create their
understanding of the nature of their environment”.
• Often we notice that in unfamiliar situations, some part of reality

remains unclear so we present ourselves in terms that suit the setting
and our intentions and others in the interaction context.
• Consequently, reality is constructed.

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Dramatic Presentation of Self
• Human beings in their interactions are like performers or actors on
stage.
• We all present our gestures to present ourselves in a certain light- a

certain kind of person and as an individual who deserves certain kind
of responses from others.
• This view of interaction is known as dramaturgy, made popular by

Erving Goffman.
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Cont’d
• Goffman thinks that the human beings are skilful at the presentation
of the self, adjusting the image of themselves.
• They want to portray depending on the context, company and the

circumstances they find themselves.
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Cont’d
• He used the theatre to distinguished between the front stage and the
backstage regions in interaction.
• The front stage is formal and people consciously manipulate and

orchestrate gestures in ways to elicit a desired responses from
others(responses that uphold their self-conception).
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Cont’d
• In the backstage people relax and lower their respective fronts.
• It allows some privacy, express feelings and behaviours they kept in

check when in the front stage.
• Back regions permit ‘profanity, open sexual remarks, elaborate

griping… rough informal dress, “sloppy” sitting and standing posture,
use of dialect or substandard speech, mumbling and shouting, playful
aggressivity and “kidding”, … belching and flatulence’ (Goffman, 1969)
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Cont’d
• A lot of our interaction involves moving back and forth between front
stage and backstage areas.
• Without backstage life will be stressful and without front stage social
life will be problematic.
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Impression management
• It refers to a situation where a person presents a particular self to his

audience and receives certain kinds of responses.
• Such management gives each person’s behaviour consistency and

facilitates the alignment of behaviours, while contributing to the
general order of society.
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Cont’d
• Fronts can be both manipulative and deceptive as when a

conman presents a front that masks his true intentions to steal.
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THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE
UNIT ELEVEN
Introduction
• Virtually everyone in all societies is brought up in a family context.
• It is the most basic unit in society.
• It is the first point of contact for virtually every person.
• The two are usually discussed together basically because the family
has its origin in marriage.
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THE FAMILY
• The family is the most important institution in society.
• Its importance lies in the fact that, it is the basic unit of society.
• It is seen to have all the other social institutions in society.
• The family is described as a miniature society.

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Definitions
• Henslin (1993) defines it as a group of people who consider
themselves related by blood, marriage or adoption and usually lives
together.
• Giddens (1996) defines it as a group of persons directly linked by kin

connections, the adult members of which assume responsibility for
caring for children.
• Gerald (1996) sees it as a social institution that unites individuals into

co-operative groups that oversee the bearing and raising of children
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Cont’d
• Macionis et al (1994) it is a relatively permanent social group of two or
more people, who are related by blood, marriage and adoption and
who usually live together.
• The definitions show that the family is united by ties of marriage,

blood and adoption.
• However, its structures vary from one society to another.

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Functions
Murdock (1949), contends that the major responsibilities of the family
are;
 regulation of sexual behavior
 procreation, socialization of the young
 economic responsibility for dependence.
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Cont’d
Parson, (1959) for instance argues that in modern societies there are
only two basic and irreducible functions:
 stabilization of the adult personality and
 primary socialization of children.
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Cont’d
• The conflict views the family as the principal institution in which the
dominance of men over women has been expressed.
• It provides the model on which later forms of oppression are based.
• Husbands have several rights over women. Typical examples are right
of genetricem and rights in uxorem.
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Transformations in family patterns
• Fletcher (1962); and Goode (1969) have noted that industrialization has led
a move from the extended to nuclear families.
• This has led to a fundamental shift in loyalties.
• Goode, believed that there is a ‘functional fit’ between the family and
industrialization.
• Therefore as society industrialized, the family would change ‘to fit’ the new
arrangements.
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Cont’d
Specific factors influencing the shift from extended to nuclear families include;
• Geographical mobility
• Social mobility
• Loss of family functions
• Individualism – there is lack of obligation toward each other.
• Permissiveness
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Cont’d
The following points summarize the most important changes occurring worldwide:
• Decline in the influence of kin and other corporate groups.
• There is a general trend towards free choice of spouse.
• The rights of women and children are becoming more strongly recognized within
the family.
• Higher levels of sexual freedom

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MARRIAGE
• Society needs to perpetuate itself and to regulate sexual behavior.
• It is the recognized institution for the establishment and maintenance of

family life.
• The kinship institution is also extended and sustained by marriage.
• Marriage is a pervasive social institution.
• There is a great variation in marriage patterns across different cultures.

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Definitions
• It is a socially approved mating arrangement between two or more people
(Robinson 1987).
• It is a socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between two adult

individuals ( Giddens, 1996).
• It is an institutionalized social structure providing an enduring framework for the

regulation of sexual behavior and for child bearing (Brinkerhoff et al, 1991).
• A union between a man and a woman such that children born to the woman are
considered legitimate offspring of both parents (Notes and Querries, 1951).
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Cont’d
• The definitions show that for marriage between people to be
recognized, it must be socially approved.
• This confers legitimacy on children born to the couple.
• When two people marry, the marriage bond connects together a

wider range of kin people.
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Rules of Marriage
• Traditional laws and beliefs require that certain categories of people cannot
marry each other because their relationship is considered too close.
• The most widespread rule is that of lineage and clan exogamy.
• They are aimed at preventing inbreeding.
• Rules of marriage may be accompanied by rules designating others as

particularly appropriate, or even as the only appropriate partners.
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Cont’d
• If it is a rule that man ought to marry a person in a particular

category, it is referred to as prescribed marriage.
• It is however preferential, it is just desirable that a person finds

the partner in a particular category of persons.
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Forms of Marriage
• Some of the commonly known forms of marriage all over the world
are monogamy and polygamy.
• The form of marriage depends on the number of spouses.
• Among these, monogamy is the most popular institution.
• It is a form of marriage in which an individual has a single spouse at

any given time.
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Cont’d
• Polygamy is a form of marriage in which an individual has multiple
spouses at anytime. Polygamy has many sub-forms: polygyny and
polyandry.
• Polygyny is the sub-form in which an individual has multiple wives at a

given time.
• It is in two specialized variations: non sororal polygyny and sororal

polygyny.
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Cont’d
• Sororal polygyny is the variety in which the multiple wives of an

individual are sisters.
• In non- sororal polygyny, the wives are not sisters.
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Cont’d
• Polyandry is the sub-form in which a woman has multiple husbands at any given time.
• It appears in three specialized variations:
 fraternal
 adelphic,
 non-fraternal
 non-adelphic and
 familial polyandry.
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Cont’d
• Fraternal/adelphic is a variety in which the multiple husbands are
brothers.
• In non-fraternal/ non-adelphic, the husbands are either clan brothers

or unrelated.
• Familial polyandry is a variety in which the husbands of a woman are

father and son.
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Residence Patterns
• Where couples live after marriage is also culturally determined.
• Basically, there are four main types: matrilocal, patrilocal, neolocal and duolocal.
• Matrilocality is a residential pattern in which a married couple lives with or near the
wife’s family.
• Neolocality is a residential pattern in which couples live apart from the parents of
both spouses.
• Patrilocality, the couple lives with or near the husband’s family.

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RELIGION
UNIT SIX
Introduction
• Early Sociologist developed interest in religion because it underpinned
social order.
• It for instance legitimated the authority of emperors and monarchs in

societies.
• Although, religion is a universal social institution, it takes a multitude of

forms.
• They may practice solitary meditation, frenzied rituals or solemn prayer.

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Cont’d
• Religions involve a set of symbols
• They are revered, and

• They are linked to rituals or ceremonies such as church services engaged
in by a community of believers.
• The rituals associated with religion are very diverse.
• Ritual acts may include praying, chanting, singing, eating certain kinds of
food or refraining from doing so- fasting or feasting on certain days.
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Cont’d
• In all religions and whatever form religion takes, there is a distinction

between the sacred and the secular/ profane/ mundane.
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Theories of Religion
• Sociological approaches to religion are strongly influenced by the

ideas of the classical sociological theorists: Marx, Durkheim and
Weber.
• None of the three was religious and all thought that the significance of
religion would decrease in modern societies. (secularization)
• Their contributions can be described simply as the three ‘Cs:

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Cont’d
• Criticisms- the criticism of religion is the beginning of all criticisms.

(Marx)
• Creativity- Religion provides a source of new inspiration: new ideas

which stimulate change. (Weber)
• Cohesion- religion provides the social cement which unifies and

stabilizes society. (Durkheim)
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Marx
• Describes religious ideologies (set of ideas or beliefs) as symptoms of
alienation:
teach people that they do not have control over their environment.
• The ideologies use false pictures of the world to distract people from a
true perception of their environment.
• It convinces people to tolerate the miseries and oppression of their present

life in the expectation of a reward after death.
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Cont’d
• It is a form of false consciousness.
• It is a tool of the powerful in the struggle between competing classes.

It is used to legitimize the interest of the ruling class.
• It is a way of reconciling people to the injustices and exploitation they

suffered.
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Cont’d
Marx quotes that;
“Religion is the sigh of the hard-pressed creature, the heart of the

heartless world … it is the opium of the people”.
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Cont’d
• In other words, religion releases people from the miseries of life and
find in it a consolation which enables them to tolerate their situation.
• Religion provides a series of fantasies in which the humble is exalted

and the rich brought down.
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Max Weber
• His main interest specifically, was how religious beliefs provided some
form of motivation for certain kinds of economic activity.
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Two questions were significant;
• Why do people work in such a disciplined way?
• Why do people constantly seek more wealth, greater profits, even

when they apparently do not always enjoy them?
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Cont’d
• The explanation is in a form of religion that emerged within

Protestantism in the west.
• Identified a link between the early development of capitalism and a

Calvinism.
Question
• How could a religious ideology play a part in economic growth?
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Ideology of Calvinism
• God put man in the world for his own glory and that it was man’s duty
to work in an everyday occupation.
• God had predestined some for salvation and some for damnation and
that nothing a man did in his lifetime could alter his fate.
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The teaching had two effects;
• The feeling of loneliness- because only God knew who was saved.
• Urgent desire to know whether one was saved or damned. This

salvation desire created ‘salvation anxiety’.
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Attempts to help people overcome the anxieties;
• Assume you are saved- rejected because people wanted a firm answer
to the question, ‘am I one of the saved?
• Work hard in a worldly occupation and take your minds off the urgent
question of ultimate destination.
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Cont’d
• The final attempt to help people overcome the anxiety: be successful

in business.
“Success in business was a sign of divine favor and therefore
salvation”.
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Cont’d
• These teachings encouraged Calvinists to concentrate on worldly
work as the most virtuous activity and at the same time advised to be
ascetic- frugal, thrifty and austere- lives.
• The emphasis on the importance of industriousness coupled with

ascetic lifestyle gave capitalism the chance to take root.
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Cont’d
• For them, profligate, ostentatious or self-indulgent fashion
contradicts the Calvinists virtue of asceticism.
• The assumption of fruits of their labor is denied the believer because

of the need to live an ascetic life.
• There was the urge to accumulate money for reinvestment and

become upwardly mobile.
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Durkheim
• The main contribution was to show how religious beliefs and
practices provided a form of social cement, building together
members of society.
• The rituals such as Sabbath service promote solidarity of the

community.
• Religion was the mechanism which makes it possible for all aspects of
social life to proceed in relative harmony.
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Cont’d
• A society without religion was unthinkable;

religion is ‘functional’ it provides human beings with a
meaningful picture of their social and natural environment.
• In other words, religion provided a total view of the world (relate to

social structure).
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Religious organizations
• All religions involve communities of believers, but there are many

different ways in which such communities are organized.
• Weber and Troeltsch distinguished between church and sects.
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Cont’d
• A church is a large, well established religious body.
• It has has a formal, bureaucratic structure, with a hierarchy of

religious officials and tend to represent the conservative face of
religion.
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Types of churches
There are two types of churches,
• Ecclesia
• Denominations
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Ecclesia
• An ecclesia is a church that claims membership of everyone in society or
even several societies.
• Membership is compulsory.
• An example is the Catholic church of the Roman Empire, modern day

France, England and the Anglican Church, Sweden and Lutheran Church.
• In the Islamic world Islam is the official religion of Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Denomination
• A denomination on other hand is one of many religious organizations
in society.
• It is tolerant of other religions and can even collaborate with others to

solve problems in society.
• Membership is considered to be voluntary but most members did not

choose their membership.
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Sect
• Sects are smaller, more radical protest movements, set up in
opposition to a dominant mainstream church.
• They are less highly organized group of committed believers usually

setting up in protest against the church.
• They mostly aim at discovering and following the ‘true way’ and tend
to withdraw from the surrounding society into community of their
own.
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Cont’d
• Sects believe that their interpretation of scripture is the literal and the
route to salvation.
• The members of sect regard established churches as corrupt.
• Sects appeal to very specific types of people, the marginal lower class who
may be opposed to the state.
• Sects are typically highly integrative of those who join.
• Intimacy is very close- often described as surrogate kinship group.

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Cont’d
• The leader acts as a family head.
• Sects tend to express the needs and predicaments of people who are
undergoing rapid social, economic and cultural transformation.
• People whose changing statuses require meaningful interpretation and or

legitimating.
• They provide a cultic discipline that churches are unable to do. Taboos are
clearly spelt out and strictly enforced.
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Types of Sect
Sects can be classified into two main groups;
• Millennial
• Thaumaturgical
• The classification is based on what they teach and stress most.
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Millennial
• The millennial religion, stress the imminence of the second coming of
the Lord.
• The eventual radical changes in the fortunes of different social and
economic groups.
• They calculate the dates for the end of the world.

• They emphasize the inauguration of a new world with 1000 years of
bliss and happiness.
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Cont’d
• E.g. are the Jehovah’s Witness and Seventh - day Adventist.
• Millenarian movements often arise where there is either a radical

cultural change or a sudden increase in poverty (Worsley, 1970).
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Cont’d
• Thaumaturgical movements put considerable emphasis on wonder
working with stress on neo-magical manifestations such as divine
healing, interpretation of dreams and the assurance of success in a
wide variety of mundane enterprises.
• These movements are generally labeled as ‘praise the lord’

movements (fall under the Pentecostals).
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Cont’d
• Visions and speaking of tongues are common phenomena.
• It is however argued by Max Assimeng that tongues speaking are a

compensation of those with linguistic problems.
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Cults
• Cults are generally small loosely organized groups, usually founded by
a charismatic leader who attracts people by virtue of his personal
qualities.
• Cults often disband after the death of the founder.
• Cults are usually viewed with suspicion by people outside because of

their unconventional practices.
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THE POLITICAL INSTITUTION
UNIT THIRTEEN
Introduction
• The political institution is responsible for the maintenance of law and order
and the assignment of power.
• This means that it is through the political institution that some people
acquire power and exercise it over others.
• Power therefore becomes the central the central concept in sociological

study of the political institution.
• The basic question that sociologist ask is what is power, who holds it, how
is it acquired, why is it applied and for what purpose.
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What is power?
• Power is the ability to direct others even against their wishes.
• It can also be seen as the capacity to produce or contribute to outcomes.
• One of the most influential definitions of power is given by Weber.
• Weber conceives of power as the probability that an actor within a social

relationship will be in a position to carry out his will despite resistance,
regardless of the basis on which the probability rests.
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Forms of Power
There are two forms of power;
• Coercion
• Authority
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Cont’d
• Coercion is the exercise of power through force or threat of force.
• Authority is power supported by norms and values that legitimates its

use.
• However, both power and authority produce compliance.
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Cont’d
• The consensus notion of power assumes that there is no finite
amount of power in the society.
• This is adopted by most structural functionalist.
• The ‘zero or constant sum notion of power’ suggests that there is

only a set amount of power in society.
• This is adopted by Marx, Weber and some feminist

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Cont’d
• The structural functionalists believe that power is something possessed by
society as a whole.
• Individuals are given power to further societal goals within a broad

consensus.
• A typical example is power in democracies. In democracies power is given

to those who have the capacity to further societal goals.
• The power can be withdrawn during elections.

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Cont’d
• Weber on the other hand conceives of power as a relationship and
that conflict between actors is normal.
• His view is ‘zero or constant sum’: some people have power at the
expense of others (refer his definition of power).
• The zero sum describes an asymmetrical view of power which

assumes an unequal relationship.
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Cont’d
• Weber distinguished between three types authority:
– Traditional
– Legal- rational
– Charismatic
• The classification is based on the kind of claim to legitimacy made by each.

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Traditional Authority
• It is power legitimized by ancient custom and respect for long established
cultural patterns and has almost a sacred quality.
• It is generally founded on unwritten laws. People obey rulers through

habit.
• The right to rule is usually not open to questions. Claim to authority is

usually by birthright.
• Power seems virtually unlimited in practice.

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Cont’d
• However, there are informal social norms which set the boundaries within
which power is exercised.
• If the limits are exceeded, it can lead to destoolment or silent opposition.
• That means that rules are perceived to be legitimate and could continue
to rule so long as they do not change the existing arrangements.
• As a society industrializes, tradition no longer holds sway as a means of

legitimizing power.
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Charismatic Authority
• It is a type of authority in which power is legitimized by the unique and
remarkable qualities that people attribute to a specific person.
• They are perceived as being inspired by an unusual vision or by God. This

quality is referred to as charisma.
• The charisma inspires devotion and obedience.
• They are able to change existing rules because of the special powers or
special gifts them posses. They are thus a threat to public order.
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Cont’d
• The legitimacy of the leaders is based on the charisma. People obey
charismatic leaders because of the promises they make or because they
want to believe them
• Charisma is usually spontaneous and irrational. Most often, Charismatic

authority is unstable because it has no tradition or rules to guide conduct.
• Because it is based on the inherent qualities of the leader, it is undermined

if the leader dies and there is always a problem of succession.
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Cont’d
• The persistence of a charismatic movement, Weber reasoned, requires

routinization of charisma.
• The transformation of Charismatic authority into some combination of

traditional and bureaucratic authority.
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Legal-Rational
• Authority is legitimized by explicit rules and procedures that define the
rights and obligations of the rulers.
• This form of authority emerges when people become more rational

especially in public affairs.
• It is literally referred to as bureaucracy, meaning, rule of administrators.
• Bureaucracy, according to Weber is the most rational form of

organization.
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Cont’d
• Everything is done according to the rules, everyone has a strict

position and there is a clear chain of command.
• Bureaucracy can be contracted with patrimonialism which is

characterized by personal networks and cliques.
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Marxist view
• The starting point for the study of power according to the Marxists is the
study of class relationships and especially economic power.
• Those who own the means of production have the power over others.
• They are not given power as in the structural functionalists view.
• Like Weber, Marx has a zero or constant sum view of power.
• Classes have power at the expense of others.

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EDUCATION, BUREAUCRACY & PROFESSION
UNIT FOURTEEN
Education
• Societal survival depends in a large part on the socialization of new
members into the ways of society.
• Society therefore ensures that its members acquire the knowledge, skills,
behavior patterns and values necessary to become functional in society.
• To accomplish these goals, every society develops a system of roles and

norms that ensure that the transmission of these knowledge, values and
patterns of behavior.
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Cont’d
• This system of roles and norms is called education.
• Education thus plays a critical role in the well-being of individuals,

groups and entire societies.
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What is education?
• It can be described as a distinct form of secondary socialization.
• It is seen as a complex set of processes designed to transmit

knowledge and skills to develop mental competencies.
• This process generally occurs in institutions which are created and

legally sanctioned for the process of deliberate instruction in a
relatively standardized way.
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Cont’d
• One of the characteristics of modern education is that it is

institutionalized.
• It takes place through a formal environment.
• (Note: much education takes place through the media and at work.)
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Conflict account of Education
• One of the best known conflict models is that presented by Bowles

and Gintis.
• Like the functionalists they see an intimate link between education

and the economy.
• However, they claim that it is the requirements of industrial capitalism

which shape the educational system.
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Cont’d
• Bowles and Gintis argue that schooling operates within the ‘long
shadow of work.’
• That is the education system reflects the organization of production in

capitalist society.
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Cont’d
• They argue that there is a fragmentation of the work processes which
mirrors in the break – up of curriculum into packages of knowledge,
each subject divorced from all others.
• Pupils have no control over what they learn and this is reflected in the
lack of control over work.
• They also argue that education creates the conditions for the
reproduction of inequality.
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Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

KEY CONCEPTS IN SOCIOLOGY

Some are sociological and others are not sociological

• It provides the fabric that enables human beings to interpret their

 This makes culture the total shared product of society.

• All members of the society share it.

• It is dynamic and not static.

• It is made or created not in-born.

• It has two elements, namely the material and non- material.

• There are two basic components of culture.

Other components are, beliefs, technology and language.

• According to Zenden (1990:32), Norms are social rules that specify

• People get to know the norms of society through socialization.

• Norms constrain the behavior of people.

• Therefore our lives consist of learning, fine-tuning and renegotiating of norms.

• Knowledge of norms can help us to insist on behaviours others must perform.

• Some norms pertain to basic types of institutions.

These are called institutional norms

• Other norms are more specific to some special settings.

• There are no prescribed ways of enforcing folkways.

• Reactions to such behaviors are serious

• Their prevention is regarded as vital for the survival and well-being of

• Violations are punished with legal penalties in addition to social disapproval.

• Humans always hold ideas about what is good or bad, appropriate or

• Values provide the criteria and conceptions by which we evaluate our

• When values are organized into a system of standards or criteria for

assessing the moral worth and appropriateness of conduct, they

constitute a value system.

• It frees us from the reliance on the slow, random, accidental process of

• It offers us a purposive and efficient means of adapting to changing

• Culture as already stated is not static, it is dynamic.

• The dynamism of culture is largely influenced by two modern trends.

 One is expansion of the media.

• A careful look however, reveals that there is coordination which provides

• Everybody performs a function that complements each others role.

• The performance is guided by rules to ensure stability and regularity.

• For example, students interact with teachers and other students.

• There exist rules that guide the interactions.

• The teacher-student encounter may change and the setting too

• This is because the rules and regulations tell us what is expected of

• These rules and regulations make up the social structure that

• It can also be seen as recurring patterns of behavior or interactions

• They render social life predictable, orderly and familiar.

• They are pervasive because it is found in all aspects of the

• Robertson defines social structure as the pattern of

• C. Wright-Mills (1970) considers it as the combination of social

• The definition by C. W. Mills emphasizes on the functions the

• The components of social structure are classified under three

• Training new members, providing food and shelter, protection of

necessary for the survival of both individuals and society.

• Social needs are universal, hence all human societies develop

means of satisfying them.

• These routine ways are what we call social institutions.

• They are society`s standard ways of meeting the needs.

• The institutions provide guidelines on how people should behave in

• They are belief patterns and regular ways of organizing