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The Influence Of Perceived Youth Culture On Social Orientation Of Undergraduates
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feelings of unhappiness, isolation, loneliness and uncertainties. Hence,
to avoid to some extent the anomic situation, there is good evidence
that youth in the process of interacting, from and conform to social
norms and goals of the group (Turner, 1991). Conflict (Marxist-type)
theories of youth culture generally see human behaviour in terms of the
various ways in which the structure of people’s relationships broadly
conditions the way they behave, writers in this perspective tend to
focus on the complex nature of individual/social group responses to the
social environment in which they live (Adamson, 2000). The theory
propounded by Allium (2001), tend to focus attention on categories such
as social classes (upper, middle and lower working class) and possibly
more importantly class-fractions rather than “Youth as a wholeâ€. In this
respect an individuals position in a system of social stratification
affects, how they experience the social world and the benefits they
develop about the nature of the social world and their relative
prospects. It could be seen from the above that Marxist perspectives on
youth sub-cultures develop around the need to explain how and why
different social groups (abbeit predominantly male and working class
groups) respond to the structural pressures that surround them (Almond,
1997). To achieve this theoretical explanation, two levels of analysis
are frequently used
- firstly, a macro level
that seeks to understand the social structural pressures (economic,
political and ideological) that surround and act on our choices of
behaviour.
- secondly, a micro level that seeks
to understand the various ways that different groups respond to these
pressures. In analysing this second level, Mc Robbie and Garber (1995)
writing about female teenage subcultures attempted to explain why these
female subcultures are expressed differently to male subcultures. The
behaviour of teenage girls in society is more closely controlled by
parents. Also young girls are far more likely than young boys to attract
negative labelling for their behaviour. On the issue of class by
Marxist, it should be noted herein, that youths in the undergraduate
level are seen identifying with those who are popular academically or
materially. To this, Eaton (1990) in a study found that student who were
popular with their peers tended to be more successful in school work
than those who were rejected by them. He also discovered that there was a
stronger relationship between achievement in school and peer
acceptance, than between achievement in other school activities and peer
acceptance. However, Coleman (1991) in an earlier study had results
that were not consistent with Eaton’s. The former found that boys valued
athletic status while girls valued popularity and leadership in extra
class activities more than scholastic achievement. Hence, like class,
gender is not simply a social category but relative and relational:
women and men as social groups are defined in terms of each other.
Lastly, the Interactionist Theory of Youth Culture. One of the most
significant concepts in interactionist approach and analyses of deviance
is that in order for behaviour to be seen as deviant, there must be
some form of publicly-stated response. Cohen (1994) argues that what is
significant about youth subcultures is not that they are either
functionally necessary or indicative of attempts by powerless youths to
resist ‘hegemony’. Rather his basic argument is that youth subculture
are effectively created, maintained and killed off by the mass media. He
further argues that sociological attempts to explain youth cultures or
subcultures in terms of structural pressures forcing a reaction amongst
misconceived, since such attempts fail to recognise that youth cultures
are not social groupings that arise “spontaneously†as a reaction to
social forces. The crucial variable involved here is that of the mass
media as a form of social reaction. The media in effect, provide an
ideological framework which gives meaning to the behaviour of people
that prior to the labelling process, may not have had any coherent
meaning like the popularisation of a spectacular subculture such as the
Hippy movement in the 1960’s. This was also confirmed in Cohen’s (1994)
classic study where he illustrated the idea of media involvement in the
manufacture of spectacular youth subcultures in numerous ways, the most
striking being his analysis of the relationship between “mods†and
“rockernâ€. These two groups, he argues came to see themselves as being
implacably and violently opposed through numerous media references to
their opposition. This could be likened to the present ‘Area Boys’ or
‘OPC’ in Nigeria today. However, it was noted by Ross Farelly (internet)
that modern electronic media allow children and youth to live in a
socially isolated, individualised world which is entirely a creation of
the youth culture itself.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study examined the influence of youth culture on the social orientation of adolescents in University of Lagos, Akoka Lagos.The descriptive research survey was employed to assess the opinions of the respondents. A total of 120 (one hundred and twenty) students were sampled for this study.Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested using the t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance.At the end of the analyses, the following conclusions were reached: Hypothesis o ... Continue reading---
