Download Sociological theories of human development

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
 Self-concept – the totality of our beliefs and
feelings about ourselves
 Self-identity – our perception about what kind
of person we are
 we do not know who we are until we see
ourselves as we believe others see us
COOLY AND THE LOOKING-GLASS SELF
refers to the way in which a person’s sense of
self is derived from the perceptions of others
 not who we actually are or what people actually
think about us; it is based on our perception of
how other people think of us
 our sense of self depends on how we interpret
what others do and say

MEAD AND ROLE-TAKING
linked the idea of self-concept to role-taking –
the process by which a person mentally
assumes the role of another person in order to
understand the world from that person’s point
of view
 role-playing often occurs through play and
games, as children try out different roles (such
as being mommy, daddy, doctor, or teacher)
and gain an appreciation of them

Mead divided the self into the “I” and the “me”
 The “I” is the subjective element of the self that
represents the spontaneous and unique traits
of each person
 The “me” is the objective element of the self,
which is composed of the internalized attitudes
and demands of other members of society and
the individual’s awareness of those demands

Both the “I” and the “me” are needed to form
the social self
 The unity of the two constitutes the full
development of the individual

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
1) Freud and the Psychoanalytic Perspective
 Human behaviour and personality originate
from unconscious forces within individuals
 He assigned sexual motives in explaining
behaviour
 Human development occurs in 3 stages that
reflect different levels of the personality which
he referred to as the id, ego, and superego

2) Erikson and Psychosocial Development
 Drew from Freud’s theory
 8 psychosocial stages of development
 Each stage is accompanied by a crisis or
potential crisis that involves transitions in
social relationships

3) Piaget and Cognitive Development
 Emphasized the intellectual (cognitive)
development of children
 Interested in how people obtain, process, and
use information – that is, in how we think
 4 stages of cognitive development – organized
around specific tasks

All children must go through each in sequence
before moving on to the next one, although
some move faster than others
 Also investigated moral development (pg. 122)
 He found that children move from being totally
influenced by external factors, such as parental
and other forms of moral authority, to being
more autonomous, thinking and acting based
on their own moral judgments about behaviour

GENDER AND RACIAL-ETHNIC SOCIALIZATION
In most societies, parents prefer male children
to female children based on cultural
assumptions about sex differences
 Parents acquire these gender preferences
through:
 gender socialization – the aspect of
socialization that contains specific messages
and practices concerning the nature of being
female or male in a specific group or society

In some families, this starts before birth
 Parents who learn the sex of the fetus often
purchase colour-coded and gender-typed
clothes, toys, and nursery decorations
 After birth, parents may respond differently
toward male and female infants; often play
more roughly with boys and talk more lovingly
to girls

Throughout childhood and adolescence –
assigned different household chores and given
different privileges
 Schools, peer groups, and the media also
contribute to our gender socialization (activity)
 Sports reinforce traditional gender roles
through division of events into male and female
categories

The media – from an early age, children’s
books, tv programs, movies, and music provide
subtle and not-so-subtle messages about
“masculine” and “feminine” behaviour
 Beliefs as to what is, and what is not, proper
treatment of children vary from society to
society around the world (box 4.4 pg. 124)

RESOCIALIZATION
The process of learning a new and different set
of attitudes, values, and behaviours from those
in one’s previous background and experiences
 1) Voluntary – when we assume a new status
(such as becoming a student, an employee, or
a retiree) of our own free will

2) Involuntary – occurs against a person’s
wishes and generally takes place within a
total institution – a place where people are
isolated from the rest of society for a set period
of time and come under the control of the
officials who run the institution
 Military boot camps, jails and prisons,
concentration camps, and some mental
hospitals are total institutions

People are totally stripped of their formal selves
– or depersonalized – through a degradation
ceremony (pg. 128)
 After stripping people of their former identities,
the institution attempts to build a more
compliant person

SOCIALIZATION IN THE FUTURE
The family is likely to remain the institution that
most fundamentally shapes and nurtures
personal values and self-identity, but parents
may feel overburdened by this responsibility
 Interactive tv and computer networking
systems will enable children to experience
many things outside their own homes and
schools and to communicate regularly with
people around the world
