Contrast ideal culture and real culture and provide examples of each

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Sociologists stress that a gap always exists between ideal culture and real culture in a society. Ideal culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people in a society profess to hold. Real culture refers to the values and standards of behavior that people actually follow. For example, we may claim to be law-abiding (ideal cultural value) but smoke marijuana (real cultural behavior), or we may think of ourselves as "good citizens" (ideal cultural value) but we may regularly drive over the speed limit (real cultural behavior). Most of us are not completely honest about how well we adhere to societal values. The degree of discrepancy between ideal culture and real culture is relevant to sociologists investigating social change.

Large discrepancies provide a foothold for demonstrating hypocrisy (pretending to be what one is not or to feel what one does not feel). These discrepancies are often a source of social problems; if the discrepancy is perceived, leaders of social movements may use it to point out people's contradictory behavior. For example, preserving our natural environment may be a core value, but our behavior (such as littering highways and lakes) contributes to its degradation.