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CHAPTER 4 Socialization Over the Life Course
Chapter Outline
Social Participation of Social Deprivation
 Theoretical Perspectives and
Socialization
 Psychology and Life Course Theories
 Socialization and the Life Course
 Socialization and the Mass Media

Questions for Consideration

Who were the early proponents of each side
of the debate?

Which do you feel is more influential in
development, nature or nurture? Why?

Do you think individuals can have a sense of
self without interaction with others?
Socialization

Socialization – life long process of learning to
participate in group life through the acquisition of
culture; learning what the expectations of behavior
are in order to adjust and adapt.
Socialization and Personality

Personality – the relatively organized complex of
attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors
associated with an individual.
Importance of Socialization


Harlow’s experiments show negative effects
of social isolation among rhesus monkeys.
Social isolation causes monkeys to ignore or
abuse their own babies.
Social Isolation Among Humans

Anna: was confined to an attic-like room in a farmhouse.
Kept alive on milk until age of 5.

When found, was extremely emaciated and
undernourished.

No signs of intelligence were shown and she could not walk
or talk.

At time of her death (age 10) she could carry out
instructions, identify a few colors, wash her hands, brush
her hair, and try to help others.
Social Isolation Among Humans

Isabelle: child of a deaf-mute mother. Both she
and her mother stayed in a dark room, secluded
from the rest of the family.

Isabelle was found at age 6 ½, was physically ill
from inadequate diet and lack of sunshine. She
was unable to talk.
Social Isolation Among Humans

Communicated with her mother through gestures.
Reacted with fear and hostility toward strangers.

After two years of an intensive rehabilitation
program, she acquired the skills mastered by a 6year-old.
Social Isolation Among Humans

Genie: from the age of 2 was kept isolated by her father in
a locked room.

Was found at age of 13, much of her behavior was
“subhuman”. She was completely silent, did not cry or sob.
Could not chew as she had not been given solid food.
Social behavior was primitive.

Attempts to socialize her over a 4 year period were
unsuccessful. She could not read, only speak in short
phrases, and had begun to control some of her feelings.
Theoretical Perspectives and
Socialization
Symbolic Interactionism and
Socialization

Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert
Mead challenged the prominent belief in
their day, that human nature is biologically
determined.
Looking-glass Self Theory



Theory was developed by Cooley.
Cooley defined self-concept – an image of
oneself as an entity separate from other people.
Looking-glass self – a self-concept based on our
perception of others’ judgments of us.
 The looking-glass self is the product of a three
stage process that is constantly taking place.
Looking-glass Self Theory
1.
2.
3.
We imagine how we appear to others.
We imagine the reaction of others to our
imagined appearance.
We evaluate ourselves according to how we
imagine others have judged us.
Mead’s Theory of Development of Self


Some people are more important to us than
others.
Significant others – those people whose
judgments are most important to our self-concept
(mother, father, grandparents, playmates, etc.)
Mead’s Theory of Development of Self


Role taking – the process which allows us to take
the viewpoint of another individual and then
respond to ourselves from that imagined
viewpoint.
A cognitive process that permits us to play out
scenes in our mind.
Ability to Role Take - Mead
1.
2.
Imitation Stage – begins around 1 ½ to 2
years of age. The child imitates the physical
and verbal behavior of a significant other.
Play Stage – children take on roles of
others (significant others) one at a time
(e.g., playing house).
Ability to Role Take - Mead
3.
Game Stage – children learn to engage in more
sophisticated role taking. Can consider roles of
several people simultaneously (e.g., able to truly
play soccer).
Able to incorporate the generalized other – an
integrated conception of norms, values, & beliefs
of one’s community/society


“me” – the part of the self formed through
socialization; accounts for predictability and
conformity.
“I” – accounts for spontaneity and
unpredictability; takes the “me” into account.
Sigmund Freud – Psychoanalytic
Perspective

The personality has three parts:
1.
2.
3.
Id - made up of biologically inherited urges and
impulses; selfish and irrational; ruled by pleasure
principle.
Ego - the conscious, rational part of the personality;
balances the id and the Superego; ruled by reality
principle.
Superego - the conscience; contains all the “right”
and “wrong” ideas we have learned; all the “shoulds”
we have learned from society.
Erik Erikson - Psychosocial Development

Described eight developmental stages that occur
from infancy to old age; personality changes
throughout life.

Each stage is accompanied by a psychosocial
crisis, or developmental task.

Socialization and personality development are
lifelong processes.
Erik Erikson’s Stages of
Psychosocial Development
Jean Piaget – Cognitive Development


Children gradually develop
cognitive abilities through
interaction with their social
settings; children are
active participants.
Each of us must pass
through 4 stages in the
proper developmental
sequence:
Jean Piaget – Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor stage (0 – 24 mo.)

Preoperational stage (2 – 7 yrs.)

Concrete operational stage (7 – 11 yrs.)

Formal operational stage (after age 11)
Questions for Consideration

What are the agents (agencies) of socialization
identified in the video?

Can you identify any additional agents of
socialization?

Which agency/agent is considered the primary
one?

What is the purpose of schools in the socialization
process?
Goffman’s Total Institutions

Total institution – places in which residents are
separated from the rest of society (e.g., prisons,
mental health institutions, military).
Goffman’s Total Institutions


Desocialization – process of relinquishing old
norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.
Resocialization – process of learning to adopt to
new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Anticipatory socialization – the process of
preparing oneself for learning new norms,
values, attitudes, and behaviors.
groups – a group used to evaluate
oneself and from which to acquire attitudes,
values, beliefs, and norms.
 Reference
Questions for Consideration

How culturally universal are the various life
stage development theories relative to how
people learn the rules of a society?

Are life cycle stages defined by biology,
psychology, or sociology?
Socialization of the Young
Family is the child’s first exposure to the
world.
 Through members of the family we learn to:

 think
and speak;
 internalize norms, beliefs, and values;
 form basic attitudes;
 develop capacity for intimate and personal
relationships;
 acquire a self-image.
School

School provides children with non-related care.

Exposes children to objective standards of
performance and punishment.

Encourages them to develop loyalties beyond their
own families.
School
Trains children to be disciplined, orderly,
cooperative, and conforming.
 Hidden curriculum – informal and unofficial
aspects of culture that children are taught as
preparation for life in larger society.

Peer Groups

Peer group – individuals roughly the same age
with similar interests; not controlled by adults.

Provides young people with experiences they
cannot easily obtain elsewhere.

Teaches young people to deal with others as
equals.
Peer Groups

Children learn to be different from their parents in
ways that contribute to self-sufficiency.

Helps them gain experience in self-direction and
establish independence from adults.
Mass Media


Mass Media – means
of communication
designed to reach the
general population.
Sociologists agree
that mass media are
powerful socializing
agencies.
Mass Media

Children learn behavior expected of
individuals in certain social statuses.

The media display role models for children
to imitate.
Early Adulthood

Involves a move beyond adolescence and a
preliminary step into adulthood.

Interest in achieving occupational success,
contributing to society, and establishing a solid
family life are central here.

Ends when the individual has made a life within
the adult world.
Middle Adulthood




New questions about one’s place in the world arise.
Choices are made to either continue the path
already taken or establish a different life path.
Acceptance of one’s level of achievement occurs at
the end of this stage.
Emphasis of success is replaced by concern with
personal relationships and small pleasures in life.
Late Adulthood Socialization

Roles are lost because
statuses are lost.

Expected to retire from
work.

Generally face the loss
of a spouse.
Developmental Periods in the Eras
of Early and Middle Adulthood
The Sociology of the Life Course

Qualifications of early, middle, and late
adulthood:
1.
2.
3.
models of adulthood are based primarily on
males
not all people follow the same pattern
age ranges are only an approximation
Questions for Consideration
Does this model of development apply to
both men and women?
 Does the model apply across different
cultures and subcultures?
 What are socialization experiences unique
to women? Unique to men?

Functions of the Mass Media
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Provides valuable
information.
Promotes social
continuity and
integration.
Provides entertainment.
Explains and interprets
meanings of events and
information.
Helps mobilizes a
society.
Dysfunctions of the Mass Media
1.
Fosters panic.
2.
Increases social conformity.
3.
Legitimates the status quo.
4.
Impedes social change while promoting social
continuity and integration.
Dysfunctions of the Mass Media
5.
Diverts the public from serious issues through
trivial entertainment.
6.
Shapes views through editorializing as they
“interpret” events and information.
7.
Creates violence via public mobilization.
Conflict Theory and the Media:
Marxian View




Workers are exploited by being paid less than they
deserve.
Ruling class monopolizes the media and receives
excessive profits.
Ruling class views media as necessary to
disseminate the ideology of the ruling class.
The media are a tool of manipulation by which the
ruling class maintains its power.
Conflict Theory and the Media:
Power Elite (Dye)


Power elite – a unified coalition of top military,
corporate, and government leaders.
Evidence that the media is controlled by the ruling
class:
1. Concentration of power in the media
2. Agenda-setting power of the media
3. Media’s ability to socialize the population
Questions for Consideration

Who do you think has more influence on
people’s behavior – friends or family?
Explain.

As a college student have you undergone
desocialization, resocialization, anticipatory
socialization? Explain.