Naomi Braine Definition Of A Social Institution

The beginning of the chapter discusses how individuals are involved in different institutions which help describe the person and his/her interests. The book depicts social institutions as “social powers” that affect individual’s lives as well as their behavior, norms and ideologies. Social institutions impact an individual because they shape interactions with others and one’s social life in general. These institutions share common norms that make up individuals’ lives socially. Through institutions, there is social cohesion, which means individuals share common ideas and they come together to form perspectives of the world socially. The five main institutions, or primary social institutions, that are important to society are: family, education,

Through the micro level, social interactions occur in person or through social media; these interactions describe personal characteristics. In the book Ten Lessons in Introductory Sociology Braine states “[t]hinking about how institutions shape interactions offers a new angle of vision on familiar contexts and activities” (Braine, 2014, 93). This elucidates that more exposure to different institutions lead individuals to form different perspectives, through the use of communication and interactions, but depending on which institutions one affiliate themselves with it can be in a negative or positive outcomes. The book explains this by providing an example of how students interact with their teachers and vice versa, however studies show that interactions are usually with male students due to the ideology that men are more superior, even though that is not the case, people still assume this idea based on past history and their

Braine states “ [w]hile political discourse uses societal norms to build arguments about social issues, government policy has to directly regulate and support the operations of social institutions” (Braine, 2014, 97). This emphasizes that political discourse and government policy function in different ways. In other words, the political aspect involves gathering values, beliefs, and behaviors and using it to provide reasons why there are social issues. However, the government supports the social norms and protects social institutions by regulating them. Social institutions are also used by the government to help shape its policies. In addition to health, marriage and family also contributes to social institutions. Although, many may assume marriage is an individual choice, it requires legal documentation and changes financial incomes. Moreover, government plays a role in determining marriage because it has a set of rules one must abide to. The book explains that one must be a couple in order to become legally married, which means no more than two individuals and marriage of blood relationship is not allowed. Furthermore, most states in the US only allow opposite sexes to get married, however socially it is becoming acceptable for people such as transgender to marry the gender he/she chooses. This is due to socialization which has evolved from believing marriage is only