Enculturation of social norms

IB Psychology· Human development· 14 min read

1. Core concept

Enculturation is the process by which a child absorbs the norms, values and expected behaviours of the culture they are born into, and so develops a self that fits that culture. Much of it happens without direct teaching — through observation, imitation and everyday participation. Children not only learn norms but come to treat them as binding, even enforcing them on others, which shows how deeply a culture's rules become part of the developing self.

2. Key studies

IB Psychology answers must be supported by named studies. Learn these to cite as evidence:

📘 Definition

Odden and Rochat (2004)

Over years in a Samoan village, children acquired complex skills and social/moral knowledge largely by observing adults, with little direct instruction. — Shows enculturation working through observation and participation rather than explicit teaching.

📘 Definition

Gockeritz, Schmidt, and Tomasello (2014)

Five-year-olds picked up even arbitrary social norms and then actively enforced them on others as 'the way things are done'. — Shows norms become internalised and normative — children treat them as binding, a sign the culture's rules are now part of the self.

3. Evaluation (AO3)

Strength — explains a huge amount of learning cheaply — Observational enculturation accounts for how children pick up vast amounts of culture-specific behaviour without formal teaching, and Gockeritz shows the norms are genuinely internalised, not just copied.

Limitation — mostly naturalistic or on arbitrary rules — Field observations (Odden & Rochat) cannot isolate cause, and norm-enforcement studies are usually lab tasks with made-up rules, so how far each captures real-world enculturation is uncertain.

4. Scope

5. Common Pitfalls

Wrong move:

Enculturation and acculturation are the same thing.

Why:

A frequently penalised misconception in IB Psychology exams.

Correct move:

Enculturation is absorbing your FIRST/own culture as you grow up; acculturation is adjusting to a SECOND/new culture later (e.g. as an immigrant). Development of the self through norms is enculturation.

Going deeper

Enculturationenculturation as a general sociocultural mechanism is SOC_6; here it is applied to the developing self.
Social learning theorylearning norms by observation and imitation is social learning theory (SOC_10).