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Chapter 5
Socialization and Interaction
Socialization and social interaction is instrumental in shaping who we are as individuals. The analysis of these
issues is the most basic unit of sociological analysis. Sociologists are interested in a continuum, referred to as
the micro-macro continuum, analyzing the smallest social realities to the largest trends in our social world.
This demonstrates the breadth of sociological inquiry, which is concerned with a vast array of social
phenomenon, many of which intersect with one another.
I.
II.
The Individual and the Self (smallest scale social phenomena)
a. The primary concern for sociologists is that of the individual in general (rather than specific
individuals); identify distinct differences between humans and animals. The primary difference
is the ability of humans to interact (symbolically) with other humans.
b. To address and validate the importance of social interaction on human development, studies of
feral children were conducted. Many of these feral children were subjected to severe isolation
and neglect. The conclusion is that humans who are severely deprived, are unable to “become”
human. Their social skills are retarded, and their personality severely underdeveloped.
i. Isabelle lived in seclusion for six years. She could not speak and did not display reactions
or emotions typical of humans. After a period of intense language and behavioral
therapy, Isabelle became well adjusted.
ii. Genie was confined in isolation from the age of 20 months until she was found at age
13. No one had spoken to her and there was no television or radio in the house. Despite
efforts at socialization, she never achieved full language ability.
c. Closely associated with the issue of feral children is the debate between “nature” and
“nurture.”
i. The “nature” argument suggests that humans are born “human.” Humans have the
ability to develop personality and interact socially. Being human is a natural instinct.
ii. The “nurture” argument suggests that “humanness” is nurtured and based on the way
we were raised and socialized by significant others. Here, “humanness” is taught;
learning is key.
iii. The reality is that both are very important.
Symbolic Interaction and Development of the Self
a. Human development relies heavily on the interactive process that takes place between parents
and children or caregivers and those who are cared for. In this process, we learn how to use
symbols and meaning to effectively communicate and transmit culture. The theoretical
approach most useful to look at the development of the self is symbolic interactionism.
b. Charles Horton Cooley explained the interaction process through his concept of the looking
glass self, which suggests humans develop a self-image that reflects how others respond to us.
If our social interaction is limited, then it becomes more difficult to develop a sense of our
selves.
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III.
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Humans and Non-Humans - George Herbert Mead distinguished differences between humans and
non-humans. Both are capable of making gestures; but humans are able to interact through the use
of symbols. It is the priority of the social, including interaction, over the individual mind/self that
distinguishes sociology from psychology.
a. Gestures refer to those movements by people that elicit an automatic and appropriate
response from others. Both animals and humans are capable of gestures.
i. Conversations of gestures refer to the use of a series of gestures to communicate.
ii. Vocal gestures refer to verbal communication. Both animals and humans. Vocal
gestures begin the distinction between animals and humans – humans react to and
interpret their own vocal gestures and words, and they have a far greater ability to
control their vocal gestures. Only humans are able to develop a language out of vocal
gestures, animals remain restricted to isolated vocal gestures.
1. Facial gestures refer to expressions as a response to some social cue.
iii. Significant symbol refer to gestures that are important to both the sender and the
receiver; and elicits an intended response. Significant symbols are said to only be
delivered through verbal communication. A gesture that can only be made by humans.
iv. Language – a set of vocal significant symbols - involves the use of significant symbols to
deliver meaningful communication. Language makes the mind and mental processes
possible – to Mead, thinking is nothing more than an internalized conversation that
individual humans have with themselves.
b. Symbolic interaction involves the use of significant symbols to engage in complex interaction
and communication. The symbols transmitted allow those engaged in the interaction to extract
meaning from the interactive process, to interact with large numbers of people, and to make
complex plans for the future, qualities that animals lack, at least according to most
contemporary research. However, there is much current work with other primates such as
chimpanzees which indicates that they are able to plan and calculate future action, and
communicate at least rudimentary information about both past and future actions. It may be
that human thought is simply more complex that other species.
c. Mind and Self
i. Mind refers to an internal conversation that arises, is related to, and is continuous with
interactions, especially conversations that one has with others in the social world. The
social world and its relationships and interactions precede the mind – i.e. we engage in
social relationships and then think.
ii. The self refers to the ability of a person to view (or take) oneself as an object.
1. The key to the self is a person’s ability to imagine themselves taking the place of
others and viewing yourself as they do.
2. The self is a self-reflective activity.
iii. The self develops through:
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1. Play stage allows a person to take the role of significant others; and evaluate
themselves as that person would. In this stage the sense of self varies depending
on the specific significant other being taken into consideration.
2. Game stage refers to the ability to take on multiple roles simultaneously, and to
understand the relationships that exist between various roles. This allows
children to function in organized groups and greatly affects what they will do
within a specific group.
iv. The Generalized Other
1. Generalized other refers one’s ability to internalize the attitudes of an entire
group or community.
2. This aids in the overall development of the self. If enables one to view and
evaluate themselves from the perspective of a group of community. It also
allows the group to engage in organized activities because it can function more
effectively and efficiently when group members understand and do what is
expected of them, as well as when members can anticipate what others will do.
d. The “I” and the “Me:” are subprocesses that are part of the larger mental process of thinking.
i. The I and Me are two distinct phases of the self. These concepts are important to a
human’s ability to think.
1. The “I” is the immediate response of an individual to others; it is unconscious,
incalculable, unpredictable, and creative part of the self. The “I” allows a human
to develop a personality. It is how the individual thinks about and acts outwardly
onto the world. Non-conformists have an overly powerful I.
2. The “Me” refers to the organized set of others’ attitudes assumed by the
individual, the conscious understanding of what a person’s responsibilities are to
a larger group. The “Me” is rational and exerts social control over the “I”. The
behaviors associated with the me tend to be habitual and conventional –
conformists have an overly powerful me. Society dominates the individual
through the me – often it is only through the me that social control must be
enacted, i.e. people self-police their own behavior. The me provides the
conformity needed for stable and orderly interaction, while the I is the source of
changes in society. In consumer society the me is constantly changing in
response to the demands of consumerism; the middle classes are particularly
vulnerable to the uncertainties and unpredictability of consumer society because
as rapidly as they change, they are led to desire many more changes than they
can afford to make. The lower classes experience the uneasiness associated with
not being able to keep up with changing demands of the me.
IV.
The Individual as Performer
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a. Erving Goffman – Also theorizes about the tension between the I and the me, between what
we want to do spontaneously and what people expect us to do. Dramaturgy views a person’s
social life as a series of dramatic performances similar to a theatrical performance.
i. The self is viewed as a dramatic product of social interaction between people and their
audiences.
ii. Impression Management: Impression management refers to those techniques used to
control the image of themselves that individuals want to project during their social
performances, even when they encounter problems. Can be used also to look at
interaction on social networking sites: changing pictures on Facebook pages or having
multiple identities for different sets of “friends.”
iii. Front and Back Stage:
1. Front stage refers to place or situation where the performance tends to be
idealized and designed to define the situation for those who are observing it.
For example, a teacher performs in front stage. Your audience is your students.
As a teacher, you want to give off the impression that you are knowledgeable to
your students.
2. Back stage refers to an area or situation where the performer can express
themselves in ways they cannot in front stage, more freely, less scripted, more
spontaneous. For every front stage performance, there are one or more back
stages where “hidden” things occur.
3. There are constant tensions between front and back stage. If your front stage
audience sees the back stage performance, it can affect their impression of you.
V.
Socialization
a. Socialization refers to an individuals’ ability to learn and effectively integrate themselves into a
group and of society. Often referred to as a process, socialization plays a major role in the
development of self and is a major part of social interaction.
i. Freud analyzes socialization by focusing on the early stages of life through various forms
of sexuality
ii. Piaget analyzes socialization through various stages of cognitive development.
iii. Kohlberg analyzes gender role socialization.
b. Socialization is a process that spans an individual’s lifetime.
c. Childhood Socialization
i. Agents of socialization are those entities responsible for helping children learn society’s
norms and culture.
1. Primary Socialization and the Family
a. Primary socialization refers to the acquisition of language, identities,
cultural routines, norms and values use for social interaction.
b. Primary socialization is the foundation for social development.
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c. Anticipatory socialization refers to teaching children what is expected of
them in the future. It prepares children for social changes that will affect
them and future interactions.
2. Peers Socialization
a. An informal type of socialization, peer socialization increases in
importance as a child ages.
b. Peers provide sources of cultural and mass media socialization.
3. Gender
a. Gender socialization refers to the transmission of norms and values
associated with being a boy or a girl.
b. Many argue that gender socialization begins at birth; boys are placed in
blue; girls in pink. Boys are given trucks, balls, or male action figures to
play with; girls are given dolls and easy-bake ovens.
c. Parents reinforce these behavioral expectations as they socialize their
children. Boys are encouraged to be tough, strong, and not to cry; girls
are taught to be lady-like and are encouraged to be nurturing.
4. Mass Media and New Media (Figure 5.1, Figure 5.2)
a. Typically refers to exposure to TV, computers, cell phones, and portable
game systems.
b. Children are exposed to “adult themes” through the various mass media
outlets.
c. Social networking is important as well, initiating a new medium for peer
socialization.
5. Consumer Culture
a. A person must be socialized on how and what to consume. Knowledge on
shopping patterns, spending v. thriftiness, and even shopping venues (i.e.
malls versus online shopping) are acquired through socialization.
b. The items we purchase also reinforce lessons on race, class and gender.
d. Adult Socialization
i. Socialization is a life-long process. It becomes more complex as people age.
1. Workplaces
a. Traditionally, workplace socialization related to the task the individual
was hired to perform and occurred at early stages of the career.
b. Now, people change occupations and thus have to resocialize to a new
workplace environment and new co-workers.
2. Resocialization refers to unlearning old behaviors; and learning new behaviors,
norms, and values.
a. Total Institutions
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i. Total institutions refers to closed, all-encompassing place of
residence and work set off from the rest of society. These
institutions meet the needs of those who reside in it.
ii. Examples include a prison and the military.
3. Other Aspects of Adult Socialization
a. Other agents of adult socialization include:
i. Changes in societal values and norms.
ii. Family changes such as separation, divorce, death of a spouse,
and remarriage.
iii. Geographic changes – mobility due to job changes, retirement
and migration.
iv. Changes associated with aging.
v. Changes in consumption settings (travel destinations like Las
Vegas; cruise ships; etc.)
vi. The 2008 recession (lifestyle adjustments resulting from stock
market failures).
4. (Table 5.1)
VI.
Interaction
a. Interaction refers to social engagements involving two or more individuals who perceive, and
orient their actions to, one another.
i. Typically involves face to face interaction.
ii. Increasingly occurring via “mediated” space, e.g. Smartphones, internet, social media,
etc.
iii. Occurs throughout an individual’s lifetime.
iv. In the early years of life, it is long and intense; later in life, brief and purposeful.
b. Superordinate-Subordinate Interactions
i. Simmel suggested that superordinate-subordinate interactions could not exist unless
the subordinate has freedom to actively participate in the interaction. Examples include:
employee-employer relationships; student-teacher interactions, and prisoner-guard.
Another example is that of benefactor and poor person.
c. Reciprocity and Exchange
i. Here, interaction is viewed as a rational process in which those involved in the
interaction seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs.
ii. If the relationships continues to reap rewards; it will continue.
iii. Reciprocity refers to interaction relationships where the two parties involved (ex. The
student v. Student relationship) expect to give and receive rewards equally.
d. “Doing” Interaction
i. Ethnomethodology focuses on people’s everyday practices, especially those involved in
interaction. The argument is that people interact daily, and are constantly “doing
interaction.”
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ii. Conversation analysis refers to how people do and/or accomplish conversations. There
are rules that govern conversations, like knowing when it is your turn to talk; when it is
appropriate to laugh, etc.
e. Interaction Order: Interaction order refers to interactions that are organized, orderly, and
governed by those actively participating in the conversation.
i. Status and Role
1. A status refers to a position within a social system that is occupied by people
a. Ascribed status is a position in which individual are placed, or move to.
Placement has nothing to do with what people do or the nature of their
abilities or accomplishments.
b. Achieved status is a position acquired by people based on their abilities
or capacities.
c. Master status – a position that is more important than any others both
for the person in the position and for all others involved; race and
disability are two powerful examples of master status.
2. A role is what is expected of a person who occupies a given status.
a. Role conflict refers to conflicting expectations associated with a given (or
multiple) positions.
b. Role overload refers to people being confronted with more expectations
than they can possibly handle.
c. Role-making – people have the ability to modify their roles to some
extent, meaning that roles are not fixed and unchanging, nor are they
completely constraining on people’s activities.
Micro-Level Social Structures
a. Human relationships and interactions are instrumental in the formation of social structures.
Social structures – enduring and regular social arrangements that include everything from faceto-face interaction to networks, groups, organizations, societies, and the globe.
b. Interpersonal Relationships (based on Georg Simmel’s work) (Figure 5.3)
i. Dyads refer to 2-person groups. Dyads are the most basic form of interpersonal
relationship. The can easily evolve to triads.
ii. Triads refers to 3 person groups. Triads focus on group dynamics.
iii. Most important point about Simmel’s ideas on the triad is that it is the group structure
that matters, not the people involved or the nature of their personalities.
c. Social Networks - involve networks consisting of two or more individuals.
i. Networks with strong group inter-connectedness, tend to be stable and long lasting;
those who are members of weak networks rarely hold together (social networks).
ii. Key idea in network theory: the “strength of weak ties” – those who have only weak ties
with others can have great power, can move more easily between groups and provide
important linkages among and between them.
iii. (Figure 5.4)
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d. Groups
i. A group refers to a relatively small number of people who, over time, develop a
patterned relationship based on interaction.
ii. Once formed, groups develop unique identities, and rules and norms that govern the
behaviors of members.
iii. Groups tend to be informal and rely heavily on face to face interaction.
iv. Malcolm Gladwell – The Tipping Point: groups operate like infectious diseases, starting
often very small, exploding, then dying away. The tipping point – when things suddenly,
rather than gradually, either explode or die off.
1. Developed “laws” to explain what it takes to reach and go beyond the tipping
point:
a. Law of the few: it takes only a few people to push a development beyond
the tipping point. 3 types of people are central to the process:
connectors, mavens, and salesmen.
b. Law of stickiness: people hear many messages, but only a few are
“sticky” enough to take things beyond the tipping point.
c. Law of the context: context in which the message is heard matters a
great deal.
v. Types of Groups
1. Primary groups are small, close knit, and required intimate face to face
interaction, where relationships are personal and people identify strongly with
the group.
2. Secondary groups are typically large, impersonal, with weak ties among
members. Its members do not know each other and their impact on members is
typically not very powerful.
3. Reference groups are used for self-evaluation. You can belong to a reference
group; or use an outside reference group as a point of personal reference
4. People belong to and identify with in-groups.
5. Non-conventional people, or outsiders, belong to out-groups.
vi. Conformity to the Group: People are more likely to conform to those groups and its
member with which they identify. Conformity is essential to group survival. Conformity
has been extensively studied in sociology and psychology: Stanley Milgram’s work on
obedience, Solomon Asch’s work on conformity in groups with no strong authority,
Philip Zimbardo’s mock prison. (Figure 5.5)