Download Socialization - Gulfport School District

What is it?
How do we learn
what we learn?
How we learn to be part of
a group or society
The lifelong social
experience through which
individuals develop their
personality and learn
culture.
Primary socialization is the
learning we experience from the
people who raise us.
Physical needs must be met to thrive
(food, clothing, and shelter)
Caregivers must teach norms, values,
and language.
Inadequate primary socialization can
lead to troubled adulthood
Nature = Heredity/Genetics
Nurture = How the child is raised
Parents pass down characteristics
(Genetics)
Birth Order affects perspective and
personality (First born vs Middle vs
Baby)
Parental Characteristics (Old vs
Young parents)
Cultural Characteristics (Cultures
tend to produce unique
personalities)
Nature
vs
Nurture
Nature states that Darth Vader was just born
evil.
Nurture states that Darth Vader learned to be
evil.
Darth Vader
Loss of mother
Loss of home
Social Isolation
Loss of Wife and kids
Disfigurement
Anakin Skywalker
Good home
Jedi Powers
Friends
Hobbies
Family
Steady Employment
What caused him to turn evil? Was it the terrible things that
happened to him or was it in his nature all along?
Researchers have theories
about personality development
Despite differences
and criticisms they
shape sociological
thought it different
ways
English philosopher
and political theorist
during the late 1600s
Proposed the idea of
Tabula Rasa “Blank
Slate”
We are born without
personality
Experience creates our
personality
Sigmund Freud – biological and
sociological factors combine to
shape personality
Id: primitive desires
Selfish
Superego: social conformity
Conscience
Ego: resolves the conflicts
Decision maker
George Herbert Mead - people
develop self-images through
interactions
Self is the product of social experience.
We see ourselves as others see us
We also take on roles of others by
imitation, role playing, games, etc
Mead - the key to self-development is
understanding the role of the other
person(s)
Charles Horton Cooley - personality
develops through interactions with others
looking-glass self - a self-image that is
based on how we imagine others see us
Based on “imagination” – can be false or
true
Significant other - ANYONE
whose opinions matter to us
and influence our thinking,
about ourselves.
Not just romantic
 Jean Piaget – the way children think changes as
they mature physically and interact with the world
 Piaget’s Four Periods of Development:
 Stage 1: Sensorimotor Period (birth -2 years):
children learn by using their senses and moving
around.
 Stage 2: Preoperational Period (2-7 years):
children keep getting better at symbolic thought,
but can’t yet reason.
 Stage 3: Concrete Operational Period (7-11 years):
children start performing mental operations or
working real or tangible problems and ideas
through in their minds.
 Stage 4: Formal Operational Period (11+ years):
children apply mental operations to abstract
concepts or they start to think in abstract,
systematic, and logical ways.
Each of the theories of development has
flaws.
Freud’s theories have always been seen as
very male-centered.
Piaget’s theory is useful, but not all people
reach the formal operational stage.
How are personalities formed?
How much does nature/nurture affect your
personality?
Agents of socialization - People, groups, and
experiences that influence our behavior and
self-image
Family is the agent of socialization with the
most impact
Birth-Teenagers – children rely on parents or
caregivers for basic necessities, nurturing,
and guidance
Determines race, language, religion, class,
and political affiliation
School introduces children to new knowledge,
order, bureaucracy, and students from family
backgrounds different from their own
 Peer Groups – usually the same age and have
interests and social position in common
 Children break from their parents’ and learn to
make friends and decisions on their own
 Peer pressure can be difficult to resist
 Mass Media – communication that directs
messages and entertainment at a wide audience
 Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the
internet, and movies are all forms of mass media
 Profoundly influence children
 Stereotypes, explicit images, and unrealistic or
even unhealthy beauty standards shape the way
children think about themselves and their world
Agents of socialization can teach
conflicting lessons
Family teaches children to respect
their elders
Friends teach that respecting adults is
not cool
Read the handout about Isolated Children,
Isolated Monkeys, and Institutionalized
Children and answer the following
questions on the back of that paper.
1. How important is primary socialization
to an individual?
2. How important is primary socialization
to a society?
3. Looking back, what had the most
impact on your development as a child?
Primary socialization is received in
childhood
Resocialization - learning new norms and
values when joining a new group or when
life circumstances change
Enables people to adapt
Newly learned things may contradict what
previously learned things
Examples?
Retirement – What do I do now?
College – What do I do now?
Divorce – Free and single again!?!
Death of a friend or spouse – How do I
move on?
Anticipatory Socialization
• The groups we wish to belong to
may guide our actions, beliefs
and values.
• By acting like “them” we seek
acceptance into their group.
Sociologists generally divide a
person’s life into five stages:
childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, old age, and dying
Socially constructed
different societies apply
different definitions and
assumptions to each stage
We are taught to think for ourselves and
make decisions
A total institution is an organization or
setting that has the following characteristics:
Residents are not free to leave
All actions are determined and monitored
by authority figures
Individuality is discouraged
Examples
prisons
mental hospitals
military
In these total institutions, part of the
resocialization process includes the loss of
some decision-making freedom
Expected attitudes and behaviors for boys
and girls are different
A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes,
and personality characteristics expected and
encouraged of a person based on his or her
sex.
Influence of Biology?
Experts disagree on Nature v Nurture
Boys and girls process language differently.
Boys use half, girls use whole brain.
Girls tend to learn to speak and read
earlier than boys
Influence of Family?
Families will socialize their babies in
culturally appropriate ways
Boys wear blue, girls wear pink
G.I. Joes vs Barbies
Influence in Education?
Traditional expectations continue in school
Boys got more attention in the past, girls
dominate now
Current methods favor girls’ learning styles
now, boys more likely to struggle
Young boys are more active than girls –
Get in trouble more
 Meet the Parents (2000) – Ben Stiller gets laughs
by being a male nurse
 Why is this funny?
 We laugh because nurses are a “female”
profession
 Girls will be steered towards “girl” jobs and vice
versa
 What are some “girl” and “boy” jobs?
 Example:
 Women in traditionally male jobs can hit a glass
ceiling keeping them from reaching promotions
 Men in traditionally female jobs are viewed as
more qualified than women and benefit from a
glass escalator promoting them more quickly
than women