Understanding Society: Concepts, Data and Socialisation

What holds a society together

A society is a large group of people who live together and share a way of life. That shared way of life is called culture: the customs, beliefs and behaviour a group has in common. Within a culture, norms are the unwritten rules for how to behave, and values are the deeper beliefs about what is important and right. Social studies is the study of how people live together, and it uses careful ideas and careful data rather than opinion. This module covers the main concepts, how sociologists handle data, and how people learn the way of life around them, which is called socialisation.

The language of society

Learn these terms before you use them. They are the words a social studies answer is built from.

Match each concept to its meaning

Two kinds of data

Sociologists study society with evidence, and that evidence comes in two kinds. Knowing which kind you have decides what you can do with it.

Norm or value?

A person believes strongly that everyone should be treated fairly. Is this a norm or a value?

• A value, because it is a deep belief about what is right
• A norm, because it is an unwritten rule
• A subculture
• A piece of data

Read data with care

Numbers can be powerful, but they must be read carefully. First check where the data came from and how many people it covers. Then look for a pattern or trend, and describe it plainly. Do not claim more than the data shows: a small survey of one class cannot speak for a whole country. When you write about data, state what it shows, then say what it does not show. That balance is what earns marks in social studies.

Pick what counts as socialisation

Select every example of socialisation, where a person learns the norms and values around them.

• A child learning manners from their family
• A pupil learning to follow rules at school
• A teenager picking up habits from friends
• A person growing taller as they age
• A baby being born with a certain eye colour

Order the steps to find the median

Put the steps for finding the median of a set of values in the correct order.

• Write the values in order from smallest to largest
• Count how many values there are
• Find the middle position in the ordered list
• Read the value at that middle position
• State that value as the median

Complete the society facts

The customs and beliefs a group shares are its _____. The unwritten rules for behaviour are _____. Learning the way of life around you is called _____. Data in the form of numbers is _____ data.

One class, one small survey

Imagine a class survey asking how many clubs each student belongs to. Five students answer one, two, two, three and two. This is quantitative data, because it is numbers. To find the mean you add the values to make ten, then divide by the five students, which gives two. The mode, the most common value, is two as well. This small survey is useful for the class, but it is far too small to say anything about young people in general. That is the careful reading data needs: work out the figure, then say clearly what it can and cannot tell you.

Spot the agents of socialisation

Tap the TWO agents of socialisation, the people or groups that teach us norms and values.

• The family a child grows up in
• The school a pupil attends
• The weather on a given day
• How tall a person happens to be

Work out the mean

In a class survey, five students said they belong to these numbers of clubs: 1, 2, 2, 3, 2. What is the mean number of clubs? Add the values and divide by how many there are.

Name what is happening

Read each situation and choose the concept that best describes it.

• Children learn to say please and thank you from their parents at home. What is this an example of?
• A group of friends share their own music, clothes and slang that differ from the wider society. What is this group?
• A researcher records how many people in a town use the library each week. What kind of data is this?

Build a point about socialisation

Choose the word for each gap to complete one clear point about how people learn a way of life.

Explain how society shapes us

A friend says that people are simply born the way they are. Using what you have learned, explain how society shapes the way people behave.

• Explain what culture, norms and values are
• Explain what socialisation means
• Explain the difference between primary and secondary socialisation
• Give examples of agents of socialisation
• Explain why sociologists use data carefully when they study society