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CHAPTER 4
Socialization
Chapter Outline
The Socialization Process
Agents of Socialization
Theories of Socialization
Growing up in a Diverse Society
Socialization Across the Life Course
Resocialization
To what degree are our lives socially
constructed?
Nature v. nurture: genetics v. environment
A person may be born with a great capacity for
knowledge, however, if they do not receive a good
education, that person is unlikely to achieve his or
her full potential.
Genie
Socialization
The PROCESS by which humans learn the
expectations of society
Socialization is different based on race,
gender and class.
Socialization
Roles are the expected behavior associated with a
given status.
learned
through the socialization process
Socialization is the basis for how we define
ourselves(IDENTITY) and it establishes the patterns
of our behavior and how we feel and
believe(PERSONALITY).
Internalization
Internalization occurs when behaviors and
assumptions are learned so thoroughly that people
no longer question them, but accept them as correct
Things
like expectations of society, attitudes, behaviors
Example:
homosexuality, racism,
Socialization as Social Control
The Sociologist Peter Berger theorized that as individuals
INTERNALIZE social expectations they will conform to the
norms of society=society is predictable and stable.
Socialization and Self-Esteem
How much value one sees in oneself is greatly
affected by socialization how you are seen by
society.
A national study of 9th and 12th graders examined
the eating behaviors:
57% of the girls and 31% of the boys reported
eating disorders.
Fear about one’s appearance to others was is
associated with this risky behavior.
Impact of Socialization
Socialization establishes SELF CONCEPTS: Ex.) You
think of yourself as a REBEL!
Socialization creates the capacity for ROLETAKING: Ex.)We are socialized to meet the
expectations of society, Dad wants me to be a
Doctor.
Socialization encourages people to act in socially
acceptable ways
Socialization makes people the bearers of culture:
Ex.) Spanish in the Americas
Agents of Socialization
A SOCIALIZATION AGENT is an individual, group
or institution that passes along social expectations.
The major Agents of Socialization in society are…
Family
Media
Peers
Religion
Sports
School
With your group:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Create a poster focused on one of the major Agents of
Socialization. The poster should:
Include a symbol that represents the agent.
Provide positive impacts that the agent has on the
socialization of individuals and society.
Provides negative impacts that the agent has on the
socialization of individuals and society.
Contains visual images to represent your key ideas
and points.
The Family
Families introduce children to the expectations of
society.
How parents define and treat a child is crucial to the
development of the child’s sense of self.
Some families emphasize educational achievement;
some may be more permissive, whereas others
emphasize strict obedience and discipline.
The Media
The average young person (age 8–19) spends 6 3/4
hours per day immersed in media in various forms,
often using multiple media forms simultaneously.
Television is the dominant medium, although half of all
youth use a computer daily.
Analysts estimate that by age 18, the average child
will have witnessed at least 18,000 simulated
murders on television.
Polling Question
Which media source do you think has the strongest
impact on attitudes and behaviors of your
generation?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Advertising
Television
Music and music videos
The Internet
Magazines
Peers
For children, peer culture is an important source of
identity.
Through interaction with peers, children learn concepts
of self, gain social skills, and form values and
attitudes.
Girls’ peer groups tend to be closely knit and
egalitarian.
Boys’ peer groups tend to be more hierarchical,
with evident status distinctions between members.
Religion
Children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as
their parents.
Very often those who disavow religion return to their
original faith at some point in their life, especially if
they have strong ties to their family of origin and
after they form families of their own.
Religious socialization also influences beliefs about
sexuality, including the likelihood of tolerance for gay
and lesbian sexuality.
Sports
Through sports, men and women learn concepts of
self.
Men learn that being competitive in sports is
considered a part of “manhood.”
Current research finds that women in sports develop
a strong sense of bodily competence, which is
typically denied to them by the prevailing cultural
images of women’s bodies.
Student-Athletes: The Impact of Title IX
Schools
In school, teachers and other students are the source
of expectations that encourage children to think and
behave in particular ways.
Research finds that teachers respond differently to
boys than to girls, with boys receiving more of their
attention.
The hidden curriculum consists of the informal and
often subtle messages about social roles conveyed
through classroom interaction and materials.
Polling Question
Which agent of socialization do you think is the most
responsible for gender differences in how males
and females are socialized?
A. The family
B. Religion
C. The peer group
D. Education
E. Mass media
Moments in America for Children
Every 9 seconds a high school student drops out.
Every 20 seconds a child is arrested.
Every 37 seconds a child is born to a mother who is
not a high school graduate.
Every 43 seconds a child is born into poverty.
Every minute a child is born to a teen mother.
Every 2 minutes a child is born at low birth weight.
Moments in America for Children
Every 4 minutes a child is born to a mother who
received late or no prenatal care.
Every 4 minutes a child is arrested for drug abuse.
Every 8 minutes a child is arrested for a violent
crime.
Every 19 minutes a baby dies.
Moments in America for Children
Every 3 hours a child or youth under 20 is killed by a
firearm.
Every 3 hours a child or youth under 20 is a
homicide victim.
Every 5 hours a child or youth under 20 commits
suicide.
Every day a young person under 25 dies from HIV
infection.
Theories of Socialization
So, now we know that Socialization DOES happen, now
the question is HOW.
There are several theories that seek to explain how
individuals are socialized.
1.) Psychoanalytic Theory
2.) Object Relations Theory
3.) Social Learning Theory
4.) Symbolic Interaction Theory
5.) Functionalism Theory
6.) Conflict Theory
Freud’s Iceberg Analogy
Psychoanalytic-Divisions of the
Mind
Id—instinctual drives present at birth
does not distinguish between reality and fantasy
operates according to the pleasure principle
Ego—develops out of the id in infancy
understands reality and logic, operates according to
the reality principle
mediator between id and superego
Superego
internalization of society’s moral standards
responsible for guilt
Main Idea for Psychoanalysis
Human identity is relatively fixed at an early age in
a process influenced by one’s family
Development of Social Identity is an unconscious
process, stemming from the tensions between strong
instinctual impulses (ID) and the social standards of
society (superego).
Human behavior is directed and motivated by
underlying psychic forces.
Pschoanalysis and personality
A person with a strong ego would be able to
accomplish the best, most realistic compromise
between the Id and Superego
A person with a strong ID will indulge in infantile
and immature behavior
A person with a strong Superego is to be very rigid
and repressive
Psychoanalytic Theory of Socialization
Individual
Unconscious mind shapes
Learning
behavior
process
Formation of self
Emerges from tension
between id and superego
Influence of
Societal expectations are
society
represented by the
superego
Main ideas Object Relations Theory
Modified from psychoanalysis, still focuses on the
unconscious
Key concepts: attachment and individuation
The social relationships experienced by children
determine the development of the adult personality
Chodorow Study: found that the process of
personality formation connects directly to the
division of labor in the family
Asymmetrical
division of labor—women “mother”, men
do not
Children identify with same-sex parent
Object Relations Cont
Father works out of home, not nurturingboys develop
detached, independent, less oriented to other people
personalities
Mother nurtures and forms close attachment with
childrengirls develop personalities based on
attachment and orientation towards others
Absent fathers worsens the tendency for boys to
develop detached concepts of themselves
Chodorow’s theory explains that if men were to
acquire more mothering skills, men and women would
probably have less gender-stereotyped personalities
Object Relations Theory of Socialization
Individual Learning
process
Formation of self
Influence of society
Infants identify with
same-sex parent
Emerges through
separating oneself from
primary caretaker
Division of labor in the
family shapes identity
Social Learning Theory Main Ideas
Considers the formation of identity to be a learned
response to social stimuli (Albert Bandura)
Emphasizes the societal context of socialization
Identity results from modeling one’s self in response
to the expectations of others (observational
learning)
Behaviors and attitudes develop in response to
reinforcements.
See Piaget and Kohlberg Charts!!!!!
Carol Gilligan
Criticized Kohlberg’s Theory of moral development
because:
Women
conceptualize morality differently then men
and shouldn’t be judged by the men’s standard or
experience
Women are likely to consider the different relationships
affected by any decision instead of making moral
judgments based on abstract principles.
Social Learning Theory of Socialization
People respond to social
Individual
stimuli in their
Learning process
environment
Created through
Formation of self
interaction of mental and
social worlds
Influence of
Young children learn
society
principles that shape the
external world
Main Ideas for Symbolic Interaction
Human actions are based on the meanings we
attribute to things and these meanings emerge
through social interaction.
Because roles are socially defined, they are not
real like objects, but they are real because of the
meanings people give them. I.E being a good
student
Understand the human capacity for reflection and
interpretation as having an important role in the
socialization process.
Symbolic Interaction Cont.
Self is our concept of who we are and is formed in
relationship to others (SI use self in place of the
word personality)
Symbolic interaction theory emphasizes that human
beings make conscious and meaningful adaptations
to their environments
The Self evolves over the life span.
Focus on the Conscious defining the self.
Symbolic Interaction Theorists
Charles Horton Cooley: looking glass self-in
explaining a person’s self arises through reflection
about relationships to others. (involves perception
and effect) We respond to the expectations of
others
1)how
we think we appear to others
2) how we think others judge us
3) the feelings that result from these thoughts
Ex: If you grow up with others thinking you are smart and
sharp-witted, chances are you will develop this definition
of yourself.
Symbolic Interaction Theorists
George Herbert Mead: Taking the role of the other—the
process of imagining oneself from the POV of another
Role-taking is a source of self-awareness
Three stages: imitation stage, play stage, game stage
Imitation:
children copy the behaviors around them, no roletaking, learning expectations
Play Stage: begin to take on roles of significant people in
their environment, child begins to develop self awareness,
seeing himself as others do
Game Stage: child becomes capable of taking on multiple
roles at the same time, provides more comprehensive view of
self. Child internalizes how society sees them.
Mead Cont.
Game stage children learn generalized other—the
abstract composite of social roles and social
expectations
Social position (race, class, gender, religion, etc),
one learns a particular set of social and cultural
expectations
Self has two parts: “I” and “Me”—must balance
“I”
is the unique part of individual personality: the
active creative, self-defining part
“Me” is the passive, conforming self; the part that
reacts to other
Symbolic Interaction Theory of
Socialization
Individual
Learning
process
Formation of
self
Influence of
society
Children learn by taking the
role of significant others
Emerges as the creative self
interacts with social
expectations of others
Expectations of others form
the context for learning social
roles
Functionalist Theory
The idea of social roles stems largely from
Functionalism
No specific theory of socialization
Learning roles from family first helps stabilize
society
Functionalist Theory of Socialization
Individual
Learning
process
Formation of
self
Influence of
society
People internalize role
expectations in society
Internalizing the values of
society reinforces social
consensus
Society relies on
conformity to maintain
social equilibrium
Conflict Theory
No specific socialization theory
Focus is on power in society
Conflict theorists see socialization in the context of
the inequality of systems of power that value some
social locations more than others
What would interest conflict theorists would be to
see how socialization helps perpetuate inequalities
created by race, class, gender, age, etc.
Conflict Theory of Socialization
Individual
Learning
process
Formation of
self
Aspirations that are part of
identity are shaped by
available opportunities
Group consciousness is
formed in the context of a
system of inequality
Influence of
society
Social control agents exert
pressure to conform
Piaget: Social Learning Theory
Stages of cognitive development:
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
Looking-glass Self
•
•
•
How we think we appear to others.
How we think others judge us.
How these make us feel - proud,
embarrassed or something else.
The Looking-glass Self
Mead: Taking the Role of the Other
1.
2.
3.
Imitation stage - children imitate behavior of
those around them.
Play stage - children take on the role of
significant others.
Game stage - children internalize an abstract
understanding of how society sees them.
Children in the United States
The World’s Children
Socialization Across the Life Cycle
Childhood - establish identity and values.
Adolescence - form a consistent identity.
Adulthood and Old Age - learn new roles and
expectations in adult life.
Work and Play Among Youth
Gender
%
Work
%
Play
%
Both
%
Neither
Male
29.4
29.6
8.2
32.7
Female
27.9
26.9
9.6
35.7
Work and Play Among Youth
Race/Ethnicity
%
Work
%
Play
%
Both
%
Neither
Asian
31.4
26.8
11.2
31.5
Hispanic
29.1
23.9
7.5
40.6
African
American
29.3
22.8
7.5
38.4
White
27.9
30.9
10.0
31.9
Native
American
23.9
29.9
10.8
35.4
Rite of Passage
A ceremony or ritual that marks the passage of an
individual from one role to another.
Weddings, graduation ceremony, bar mitzvahs
(Jewish), confirmation (Catholic), Quinceañera
(Latinos-Catholics)
Resocialization
Existing social roles are altered or replaced.
Takes place in organizations that maintain strict
social control.
Examples: military, prison, cults, fraternities and
sororities
Resocialization
Conversion—a far-reaching transformation of
identity often related to religious or political
beliefs
Brainwashing—converts are completely
stripped of previous identities
Captivity may lead to Stockholm Syndrome—a
captured person may come to identify with the
captor
POWs,
kidnapped children
QUICK QUIZ
1. According to Piaget, at what stage do children
begin to use language and other symbols?
a.play stage
b.sensorimotor stage
c. concrete operational stage
d.preoperational stage
Answer: d
According to Piaget, children begin to use language
and other symbols at the preoperational stage.
2. According to Mead, at what stage do children
become capable of taking on a variety of roles at
the same time?
a.the preoperational stage
b.the imitation stage
c. the play stage
d.the game stage
Answer: d
According to Mead, children become capable of
taking on a variety of roles at the same time at
the game stage.
3. Psychoanalytic theory originates in the work of:
a.
b.
c.
d.
George Herbert Mead
Sigmund Freud
Charles Horton Cooley
Jean Piaget
Answer: b
Psychoanalytic theory originates in the work of
Sigmund Freud.
4. The process of resocialization involves:
a.learning the values and beliefs of a
new school
b.relearning existing social roles
c. changing or replacing existing social
roles
d.adjusting to new significant others
Answer: c
The process of resocialization involves changing or
replacing existing social
roles.
5. Society has no influence on one's
identity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
Society does influence one's
identity.
6. Socialization is a subtle form of social control.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
Socialization is a subtle form of social control.