Sociology Case

'A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value' (2011, http://www.sociologyguide.com)

During life, we have to deal with a lot of social institutions. All these institutions together creates you into who you are, because we are highly influenced by institutions around us. These social institutions play a big role in determining how we make choices, and how we behave in daily life.

It all starts directly after your birth, because the first social institution you meet is your family. Your parents, brothers and sisters will have their own specific way of living, so they as an institution will affect the creation of your personality. In my opinion, these first three or four years are very important because during these years a baby have to learn a lot.

The second institution of a child will be the primary school. In my opinion, this is the most important institutions which will affect your personality and behavior. Teachers will cover a big part of this, but I think the students of the school will cover even more. For example, in my home town Muiden there are two different schools. A school with children from wealthier parents, and a school with less wealthy parents. If you look at the students who finish the schools, there exist a big difference in behavior, decisions and goals in life. In my opinion this proved that the primary school as a social institution affects personality and choices in life.

After school, students are joining institutions such as the soccer club or the hockey club. These institutions indeed are affecting the behavior and choices we make. Furthermore, religion as an institution is an important aspect too. If we look at different religions, you can clearly see a difference in behavior and the style of living. For a lot of people their religion is a very important aspect in their lives. They meet each other very often and the live the way the religion wants them to live.

Finally, a big institution which is also affecting our way of living is the Government. It is about what does the government accept, and what rules and laws do we have to follow. Citizens from a country act totally different than the citizens from another country. This is mostly because of the different governments. For example, I visited India last year together with the New Business School. The way of behavior from people in India is totally different than the behavior of citizens in the Netherlands. This is the case partly because of the different rules and laws that have to be followed by the citizens of a particular country.

To draw a conclusion, our behavior and choices we make are not only created by ourselves, but these are created and developed with the help of all the institutions we have to deal with during our lives. In my opinion, the affect of social institutions differ from every country, to every town, to every