Concepts
Every person is a unique individual who develops in a social and environmental setting in which he or she is influenced by, and interacts with, other persons and groups. Communication, the sharing of values and beliefs, and cooperation are major interactions.
Persons
A social process where the values, customs and practices of Western industrial capitalism are adopted to form the basis of cultural change.
Westernisation
When individuals behave in certain ways as a result of group pressure, whether real or imagined.
conformity
A shared set of practices and beliefs that have attained global acceptance and that can usually be characterised by being associated with commercial products, paraphernalia and making money; developing from a local to a global acceptance; allowing consumers to have widespread access to the products that create the popular culture; and constantly changing and evolving to maintain interest and market share.
Popular Culture
The preconceived view of the characteristics of a group held by individuals who are not members of that group. These views are usually negative, generalised and inflexible, and ignore differences that exist between the members of the stereotyped group.
Stereotype
... refers to the shared knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that give each society its coherence, identity and distinctive way of life.
Culture
The ability of individual members of a group to work together to achieve a common goal that is in the group’s interests and that contributes to the continued existence of the group.
Cooperation
Composed of the various identities, attitudes, beliefs and values that an individual holds about himself or herself and by which the individual defines himself or herself as a specific objective identity: the ‘self’.
Self-concept
The process of adding value to an idea, product or commodity with the aim of selling it and making a profit. __________is about preparing the item for sale and making money from it.
Commercialisation
A perceived incompatibility of goals or actions. Conflict can occur at all levels in society and its resolution can involve modification to what was previously in place.
Conflict
Every person, society, culture and environment is located in a period of time and is changing with time. Time can be examined as past, present and future.
Time
A process of dynamic social change resulting from the diffusion and adoption of the characteristics of apparently more advanced societies by other societies that are apparently less advanced. It involves social transformation whereby the society becomes technologically advanced and updates cultural life.
Modernisation
When individuals lose self-awareness and self-restraint when acting within a group that allows more anonymity. When ________ occurs, individuals feel less responsible for their actions and will do things in groups that they otherwise would not do.
deindividuation
A set of stories or traditions that serves to support a worldview or is associated with a group or historical event. Myths may have arisen naturally from truth, or they may be fabricated or deliberately fostered to rationalise, support or explain ideas. ______ and their narratives provide a framework for societies to explain or support a belief or practice.
Mythology
behaviors, beliefs, or physical characteristics that violate a group's or society's established norms, values, and laws. What is considered ______ is not fixed but is relative to the specific cultural context, time period, and audience, leading to a wide range of acceptable and unacceptable actions, from minor informal violations like public nose-picking to severe formal transgressions like serious crimes.
...is made up of people, groups, networks, institutions, organisations and systems. These aspects of society may include local, national, regional and international patterns of relationships and organisation.
Society
The body of cultural practices and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation, often by word of mouth and behavioural modelling, that are integral to the socialisation process and that represent stability and continuity of the society or culture.
Tradition
The encoding, storage, retrieval and processing of information in an individual’s mind.
Social cognition
A social process by which an item is turned into a _______ in readiness to be traded. The process relies on marketing strategies with the aim of producing a perceived value in the item.
commodification
the broader social context and shared systems of beliefs, values, and practices that shape how individuals perceive, interpret, and respond to social information.
Social Cognition
Every society is located in a particular physical setting and interacts with its environment. The attitudes and values that people have in regard to their environment greatly affect interactions between persons, society, culture and the environment.
Environment
A social process that gives power or authority to people at a micro level, to groups at a meso level, and to institutions at a macro level, allowing them to think, behave, take action, control and make decisions.
Empowerment
A particular philosophy of life or conception of the world that is characterised by an organised and accepted set of ideas that attempts to explain the social, cultural, physical and psychological world.
Worldview
An organised collection or body of ideas that reflects the beliefs, values and interests of a group, system, institution or nation. In general use, the term refers to the body of doctrine, myth and symbols held by the group that guides individual and group actions.
Ideology
The process of contacts between different cultures and also the outcome of such contacts. ________ occurs when members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and behaviours of another group. It may involve direct social interaction or exposure to other cultures through mass media.
Acculturation