Social conditioning

**avgas** · 29th July 2008, 21:35

Originally Posted by Big Dave

otherwise fine...
Otherwise it's dandy...
Otherwise fine...
Otherwise it's over the top!

Keep that jazzersize away from me man....

**Number One** · 29th July 2008, 21:38

OK a Summary - taken from various contributing posts.

Social Conditioning

Social conditioning = the influences and cues which we all absorb as we grow up. Excepted ways of being or what is generally considered normal, polite and appropriate.

Social conditioning rules our lives - the reason we DON'T do a lot of shit is fear of the reaction of our peers. So our behaviour will be totally modified by the expectations of the audience. Same is true for most people.

Do we REALLY always notice when we've been 'socially conditioned'??? And then how to counter it? IF we don't know we are conditioned then how can we ensure we are reacting in ways that are about what is important or right for us VERSUS the reaction that registers as a result of our conditioning....

At times we are not aware we have been 'conditioned' and so don’t consciously 'give-up' anything to be accepted.

It’s a fine line to maintain one's individual self, and still conform to be part of society. So how much of myself am I willing to give up to be acceptable to others. Never lose focus on what and who you really want.

Children can’t discriminate between internal and external behavioural pressures. They don't know which behaviours produce positive long term returns yet either. Challenge your kids - make them think for themselves and let them know when they should be proud of themselves (i.e. don't rely on the praise of others - rely on their own praise!). That way they'll always be accepted. After that - if "others" accept them or not becomes less of an issue... and they become less prone to peer pressures.

Adults recognise that some behaviours are consistent with a persona they can respect. That’s not to say they necessarily construct a persona against which they can measure their performance, just that they are sufficiently self actualised to recognise external influences for what they are and remain internally consistent.

So - When should we throw that conditioning aside?

Is it of any benefit, why not all be 1%ers and ignore society's rules?

Two thoughts:

If we throw the conditioning aside, there will be no society - no-one you can trust, nobody you can rely on. So its pretty damned important.

Secondly, want to look at the world through the eyes of someone who doesn't "get" the conditioning? It’s called Aspergers Syndrome.......Not a comforting thought.

**Big Dave** · 29th July 2008, 22:38

Originally Posted by avgas

Keep that jazzersize away from me man....

I have a compilation CD that lists them as an Aussie Band. Would you like to hire it?

**boomer** · 29th July 2008, 22:41

_________________________

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**scumdog** · 29th July 2008, 22:44

Originally Posted by boomer

I think women and cruiser riders should be banned from this site.

Its degrading for us men!

.

Who voted YOU as a man???

**boomer** · 29th July 2008, 22:47

Originally Posted by scumdog

Who voted YOU as a man???

you're only ~~gay~~ bitter cos you ride a cruiser.. fag boy..!!!

**Pwalo** · 30th July 2008, 07:29

Originally Posted by Number One

You thought long and hard about that reply didn't ya

I'm not too sure I should even comment on that!

**Skyryder** · 30th July 2008, 10:43

I don't like the term social conditioning because of it's political overtones. The word conjures up the type of society that a political party would try and create for it's contued acceptance by the society that it is attempting to control.

It's difficult to acheive in a democratic society, not impossible, but difficult due to the relitive short time frames of power by a political party.

Not so with dicatorships where the time frames are much longer.

There is however a cultural conditioning. It's why we don't eat cats or dogs or for that matter horse meat where as this is normal in some societies. There are heaps of areas where cultural conditioning becomes part of our values and how we look. We project ourselves to the type of culture that we want to be identified with and in doing so usually adhere to the values of the culture.

But cultures can evolve. Where once woman could 'not' vote now they can. There are numerous examples of cultural evolution but not all of it is for the better.

Skyryeder

**svr** · 30th July 2008, 13:04

Originally Posted by Number One

Social conditioning = the influences and cues which we all absorb as we grow up. Excepted ways of being or what is generally considered normal, polite and appropriate.

Thats an old-school `socialization' definiton whereby the individual internalizes social `norms' to enable 1. society to function and continue and 2. enable the individual to interact effectively. Basically a `functionalist' explanation of whats going on - pretty conservative.
As you can imagine there are a bunch of quite different theories as to why we think (and feel) the way we do.
What was fashionable 15 yrs ago (when I was studying) was to kung-fu the whole individual Vs society `tension' debate and say our whole existence / experience is just one big construction through language - even our little `resistances' are not really from any original or authentic viewpoint.

**Ocean1** · 30th July 2008, 18:33

Originally Posted by svr

our whole existence / experience is just one big construction through language

Yes. I once had a sociologist tell me it wasn't possible to manipulate concepts without naming the relevant factors.

Utter bollox.

**svr** · 30th July 2008, 19:18

Originally Posted by Skyryder

I don't like the term social conditioning because of it's political overtones. The word conjures up the type of society that a political party would try and create for it's contued acceptance by the society that it is attempting to control.

It's difficult to acheive in a democratic society, not impossible, but difficult due to the relitive short time frames of power by a political party.

Not so with dicatorships where the time frames are much longer.

There is however a cultural conditioning. It's why we don't eat cats or dogs or for that matter horse meat where as this is normal in some societies. There are heaps of areas where cultural conditioning becomes part of our values and how we look. We project ourselves to the type of culture that we want to be identified with and in doing so usually adhere to the values of the culture.

But cultures can evolve. Where once woman could 'not' vote now they can. There are numerous examples of cultural evolution but not all of it is for the better.

Skyryeder

Its getting less plausible to use terms like `our culture', or `our society anymore'. Progressive cultural `evolution' is less of an issue than preserving cultural diversity in the face of intensifying cultural imperialism. Given the current rate of homogenization we'll be hard pressed to spot any local differences by the end of the century. Look whats taking over, look what we're all losing.

**ElCoyote** · 30th July 2008, 19:27

Originally Posted by scumdog

Hmm the last line kinda summed up the post....

But social conditioning rules our lives - the reason why we DON'T do a lot of shit is fear of the reaction of our peers.

Try being a male who has tassles on his jacket and bike fr'instance,

you gotta be impervious to the 'social conditioning' regarding tassles otherwise you wouldn't have them.

It's like being inundated about how "Speed kills" that is SOCIAL CONDITIONING at it's worst.

Caution is no substitute for skill with or without tassles, with all due respects Tom, why cater for the lowest common denominator instead of fixing a known problem. Sorry to hijack this thread, but this area of social engineering gives me erectile dysfunction.