Topic 2 Revision Notes: Social control, conformity and resistance
Structuralist theories of society, culture and identity
What is it and what do they believe?
It is a macro approach and so focuses on effects of large-scale processes such as social institutions. Is
a top-down theory. This approach is also called positivist as it claims to be scientific. Two types of
theories conflict and consensus. They believe that the social structure of society determines the
behaviour of individuals.
What evidence or research have they done to back this up?
How important society is on the formation of individuals identity and their behaviour is shown
through feral children.
Emile Durkheim – saw culture as playing a major role in the formation of the social roles that
constitute people’s identity e.g., an older sibling should look out and protect their younger sibling
Durkheim – found that society exists before the individual is born into it and continues relatively
undisturbed after the death of the individual – society is an entity of its own
Karl Marx argued that the superstructure transmits bourgeois ideology causing workers to accept
inequalities as normal
How does this evidence prove their point?
This shows that the behaviour of individuals of society whether they are workers or members of the
family is constructed by society and heavily influences and determined by social institutions hence
why functionalists such Emile Durkheim argue that human behaviour is predictable.
How are they criticised?
Dennis Wrong (1961) – argues this view is over deterministic and paints a picture of members of
society as over-socialised individuals and cultural zombies
Interactionist theories of society, culture and identity
What is it and what do they believe?
It is a micro or humanistic approach in which they focus on the small-scale daily interactions of
individuals.
They are a bottom-up theory in that they see individuals as more important than society.
They are a voluntarist approach because they stress the role of free will and choice in shaping
personal identity, culture and wider society.
They argue that identity or self is gradually socially constructed to as we adapt our outlook,
personality and social behaviour to how others respond to us in certain social contexts
Societies are not rigid but can gradually change over time
Structuralist theories of society, culture and identity
What is it and what do they believe?
It is a macro approach and so focuses on effects of large-scale processes such as social institutions. Is
a top-down theory. This approach is also called positivist as it claims to be scientific. Two types of
theories conflict and consensus. They believe that the social structure of society determines the
behaviour of individuals.
What evidence or research have they done to back this up?
How important society is on the formation of individuals identity and their behaviour is shown
through feral children.
Emile Durkheim – saw culture as playing a major role in the formation of the social roles that
constitute people’s identity e.g., an older sibling should look out and protect their younger sibling
Durkheim – found that society exists before the individual is born into it and continues relatively
undisturbed after the death of the individual – society is an entity of its own
Karl Marx argued that the superstructure transmits bourgeois ideology causing workers to accept
inequalities as normal
How does this evidence prove their point?
This shows that the behaviour of individuals of society whether they are workers or members of the
family is constructed by society and heavily influences and determined by social institutions hence
why functionalists such Emile Durkheim argue that human behaviour is predictable.
How are they criticised?
Dennis Wrong (1961) – argues this view is over deterministic and paints a picture of members of
society as over-socialised individuals and cultural zombies
Interactionist theories of society, culture and identity
What is it and what do they believe?
It is a micro or humanistic approach in which they focus on the small-scale daily interactions of
individuals.
They are a bottom-up theory in that they see individuals as more important than society.
They are a voluntarist approach because they stress the role of free will and choice in shaping
personal identity, culture and wider society.
They argue that identity or self is gradually socially constructed to as we adapt our outlook,
personality and social behaviour to how others respond to us in certain social contexts
Societies are not rigid but can gradually change over time
