Key Concepts
What is the 'S' in 'S.P.E.C.T.' ?
Refers to the social, cultural and psychological qualities of our ideas about masculinity and femininity.
Gender
An individual’s identification with, or sense of belonging to, an ethnic group.
Ethnicity
The use of sounds and words in linguistic form to express yourself and to communicate.
Verbal Communication
The idea that people should possess a body of knowledge, understanding and skills that allows them to share, communicate effectively, and respect themselves and others.
Social and Cultural Literacy
A particular physical setting that society exists in and interacts with.
Environment
A person or institution that shapes an individual’s social development.
Agent of Socialisation
Those members of a society who occupy a similar position in the economic system of production.
Class
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.
Stereotypes
A socially created aspect of social life, actively and creatively produced by human beings rather than being merely given or taken for granted.
Social construct
Made up of people, groups, networks, institutions, organisations and systems. May include local, national, regional and international patterns of relationships and organisation.
Society
The transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. Considered a social construct.
Adolescence
A culturally defined sequence of age categories through which people are usually expected to pass as they progress from birth to death.
Life course
Interactions that occur between members of the same generational group.
Intragenerational interactions
The process by which individuals learn to become functioning members of society by internalising the roles, norms and values of that society.
Socialisation
Every 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.
Persons
The traditional family unit in Australia during the 1950s.
The nuclear family
Established relationships between individuals and groups based on socially recognised biological relationships or marital links.
Kinship
The right for a person to communicate freely is promoted in this important document.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Occurs when members of one cultural group adopt the beliefs and behaviours of another group.
Acculturation
Refers to the shared knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that give each society its coherence, identity and distinctive way of life.
Culture
The structural components of a society through which its main concerns and activities are organised – for example, the church, the law, the government and the family. These structures provide stability and continuity for society.
Institutions
________ described four major stages, or periods of cognitive development. Each of these contains the key characteristics of cognitive development.
Piaget
Also known as the Speech Accommodation Theory. Recognises that many people make behavioural changes in order to attune themselves more to those with whom they are communicating. The theory attempts to create a framework on how best to predict, and therefore adjust to overcoming, these differences when in conversation.
CAT (Cultural Accommodation Theory)
The idea that concepts are socially constructed and vary across cultures. These should not be judged using the values and norms of your own culture as a measure of right or wrong.
Cultural relativism