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Socializing the Individual
What makes you the
person that you are?
Write 10 responses to finish the following
sentence: “I am . . .”
Think of a variety of aspects of yourself –
physical, emotional, strengths, weaknesses,
likes/dislikes, etc.
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Socializing the Individual
• What does it mean to be human?
• What is the source of our “humanness”?
– Are we born with these human characteristics
– Or, do we develop them through our
interactions with others?
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
QUICK FIRE
Nature v. Nurture: Which do you
believe has the most influence on
the development of an individual?
Explain.
Give an example of an influence
in your own life of each.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Nature Versus Nurture
A personality is the sum total of behaviors, attitudes,
beliefs, and values that are characteristic of an individual.
Nature
Nurture
• Heredity is the transmission of
genetic characteristics from
parents to children
• Social environment can imprint
characteristics on a child
• Instinct is an unchanging
biologically inherited behavior
• Sociobiology searches for the
biological basis of all social
behavior
• Pavlov’s experiments showed
that behavior could be taught
• Most social scientists believe
personality arises from a
mixture of both nature and
nurture
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Socialization
• SOCIALIZATION - The lifelong process of
social interaction through which individuals
acquire a self-identity and the physical,
mental, and social skills needed for
survival in society.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
QUICK FIRE
Where are you in the birth order of siblings?
First? Middle? Last? Only?
• Write five words that describe your
personality.
Choose one of your siblings.
• Where is he/she in the birth order?
• Write five words that describe his/her
personality.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Factors in Personality Development
Heredity
Birth Order
• Characteristics present at birth
include hair type, eye color, and
certain aptitudes.
• Personalities are influenced by
brothers and sisters.
• Biological needs include hunger
and thirst.
• Early-born siblings have different
traits than later-born siblings.
• Culture decides how you will use or
satisfy hereditary characteristics.
Parental Characteristics
The Cultural Environment
• Age, level of education, religious
orientation, economic status,
cultural heritage, and occupation of
parents can shape personalities of
children.
• Each culture has set “model
personalities.”
• Individuals experience a culture in
different ways.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Do you ever think
about how other
people see you?
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
QUICK FIRE
• When you woke up this morning and
began to dress, why did you choose the
clothes? For yourself or for others?
• “No one can make you feel inferior without
your consent.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
– Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
The Development of Self
Socialization is the interactive process through which
people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior
patterns of a society. There are many theories of how
individuals gain a self, or distinct identity that separates
you from other members of society.
Locke: The Tabula Rasa
Cooley: The Looking-Glass Self
• A “clean slate” onto which
anything can be written
• Process by which we develop
an idea of self based on how
we think we appear to others
• Believed adults could shape
newborns’ personality
• Absorb the aspects of the
culture they are in contact with
• Three-step process
• Begins in infancy but continues
throughout life
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Socializing the Individual
Mead: Role-Taking
• Seeing ourselves as others see us is first step
• Eventually take on, or pretend to take on, the
roles of others (role-taking)
• Significant others are the people who are
closest to us: parents, siblings, and others who
directly influence our socialization
• As an individual ages, significant others grow
less important
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Generalized-other
• Occurs when an individual reaches a
point in their socialization process that
they have integrated the values and
norms of a society in principle (not just
because they don’t want to get
punished)
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Battle between the “me” and “I”
“I”
“me”
• The part of one’s self that
is responsible for
spontaneous, unlearned
behavior
• The part of one’s self
formed through
socialization
Example:
The “I” wants to blurt out an answer in class as
soon as it pops into your head.
The “me” (socialized) considers the possible
negative consequences (learned through
socialization) and holds the “I” back.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Click on the image
above to play the
Interactive.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
The Presentation of Self
Dramaturgy
Impression Management
• Theory suggested by Erving
Goffman
• Attempt to play the role well and
manage the impressions that
the audience receives
• States that social interaction is
similar to a drama performance
• Suggests people are an
audience, judging each others’
performances, trying to
determine each individual’s true
character
• States that much of our time
with others is spent trying to
manage their impressions
Goffman’s theory suggests that an individual’s self can be changed
according to audience.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Agents of Socialization
• The primary agents of socialization in the United States
are the family, the peer group, the school, and the mass
media.
• As the principal socializer of young children, the family is
the most important agent of socialization in most
societies.
• As children grow older, forces outside the family—such
as friends, school, and mass media—increasingly
influence them.
• Resocialization, or the process of learning new values
and norms, can be voluntary or involuntary.
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
How do fairy tales
help to socialize
children?
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Primary Agents
Sociologists use the term agents of socialization to
describe the specific individuals, groups, and institutions
that enable socialization to take place.
The Family
The Peer Group
• Most important agent in most
societies
• Usually first agent
• Composed of individuals of
roughly equal age and similar
social characteristics
• Can be intentional or
unintentional
• Particularly important during
pre-teen and early teen years
• Reflects the social groups
family belongs to
• Socialization focuses on values
of the peer group
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
The School
• Planned activities for the deliberate purpose of teaching skills
• Extracurricular activities intended to prepare for a life in society
• Transmit cultural values
• Unintentional socialization comes from teachers and peer groups
The Mass Media
• Mass media: instruments of communication that reach large
audiences without personal contact between those sending and
those receiving the information, such as films, television, and radio
• Television is most common mass media
• Both positive and negative behaviors and beliefs are learned from
television
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
QUICK FIRE
• Throughout your life, you have been
resocialized upon entering a new stage of
life or an new institution.
• Identify an example of a time that you
experienced resocialization. What norms
did you have break away from and what
new norms did you have to take on?
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Resocialization
Resocialization involves a break with past experiences
and the learning of new values and norms.
Voluntary
Resocialization
Involuntary
Resocialization
• Individuals choose to assume a
new status
• Often occurs in total
institutions, or a setting in
which people are isolated from
the rest of society
• Examples include going to
college
• Examples include joining the
military
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Reverend Jim Jones
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Socializing the Individual
Jonestown
Guyana, South America
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
900 members of Temple commit
suicide on command
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
TOTAL INSTITUTIONS
• A SETTING IN WHICH PEOPLE
ARE:
– ISOLATED FROM SOCIETY
– CONTROLLED BY STAFF
• CHARACTERISTICS:
– SUPERVISION OF ALL SPHERES
OF A PERSON’S LIFE
– STANDARDIZED, RIGID SYSTEM
UNDERWHICH ALL LIVE
– FORMAL RULES AND DAILY
SCHEDULES FOR ALL
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
QUICK FIRE 2
• Identify a total institution (make sure it is
an example of a TOTAL institution).
– List ways in which the institution resocializes
members to the new norms.
• What is the process by which total institutions
make a member give up old norms and take on
new norms?
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Functionalist View on
Socialization
• Groups work together to reinforce
(socialize) basic norms, beliefs, and
values.
• i.e. the values of our legal system are
reinforced by families and schools
• When not socialized, chaos/fragmentation
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Socializing the Individual
Conflict Theory’s View of
Socialization
• Believe people are socialized to maintain
status quo (don’t rock the boat!)
• Higher social classes are able to maintain
advantages
Original Content Copyright © Holt McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.