How do you think social institutions influence and shape individuals?

[TZ]

What do you think are the major social institutions in the United States and how do you think they effect people?

[Khloe!]

If you mean PLACES that would be defined as 'social', then..

I would say School. And the social experiences that a person has there with others. Positive or negative.

Also, the workplace.

I don't know if this helped, but I hope it did...

[Dan T]

social institutions are things that shape who you are and who you become. The family gives a basic structure of beliefs and values. It is what cements our morals and beliefs. The school is where a person learns how to read and write, and also how to interact with peers in an acceptable way. The school teaches us social and occupational skills. The community teaches us values such as the importance of helping people out and it gives a sense of the other people in the world. Religion is something that can affect people in different ways, but it sets a standard of living with a specific set of goals and morals.

[radish]

-family: in our initial primary socialisation and throughout life.
-education: both formal education and peer goups socialisation
-media: a combination of information, advertisements, and the more subtle but signification processes of denotation/connotation and myth making
medical and health insttitutions (especially important in Foucauldian analyses)
-three branches of government executive, legislative, judicial
-the several instituitons within the economic system: labour market/leisure industry/fashion industry/advertising and marketing industry/credit institutions/and of course the range of selling outlets large and small nb these are operating not only at a local and national but also at a global level
-religions(and we could include sport here as it peforms many of the functions of religion)

how this occurs varies according to whether we draw on the:
functionalist,
interactonist
or the several approaches with the conflict perspective ie:
Class analysis,
Gender and Sexuality theories,
Weberian or
Foucauldian
or the Cultural Studies range of postmodern approaches

Briefly we learn norms and values and all about our culture and about how to be human, how to be a 'self' (often in very different ways according the particular sub culture we interract with.)

We learn these things without even realising that we are doing so. This means that we take our culture for granted like the air we breathe. especially in our first or primary forms of socialisation. We are more aware, but not completly, of the way we are being socialised in secondary levels of socialsation..

Today because we live in what Giddens has called a 'reflexive socieity' both our culture and our sense of 'self' is constantly changing. So we are both more aware, but more uncertain, about how to be 'me' and what we expect of others.

[Karen S]

I think social institutions give people a sense of identity, a common purpose, and a context for their behavior. Church or religion seems to be one of the classic, traditional institutions. It provides people with belief systems and a code of behavior and ethics. The other side of this is that those who don't follow the prescribed rules are punished or ostracized, so institutions socialize people and teach them how to behave in society. Of course, this fosters the "us versus them" mindset which seems to be a part of any group mentality. I believe that this "us versus them" thinking does give the groups and people involved identities that help define them.

Some institutions I can think of are education, marriage, family, work, religion, sports, government, etc. Don't have an in-depth knowledge of sociology but I hope this helps.