Download ch 4 socialization

The importance of socialization
I. Socialization & personality
A. Socialization – the cultural process of learning to
participate in group life
1. Socialization begins at birth& continues through
life
2. Successful socialization enables people to fit into
all kinds of social groups
3. The most important learning occurs early in life
a. Studies show that without prolonged &
intensive social contact, children don’t learn
such basics as walking, talking & loving
b. They can’t develop the set of beliefs,
attitudes, valued and behaviors associated
with being an individual
B. How do we know socialization is important?
1. Evidence gained from studies of socially isolated
children & experiments done with monkeys have given
some insight to how socialization affects infants
C. How do monkeys react to social isolation?
1. Harlow showed that infant monkeys need intimacy,
warmth, physical contact & comfort
2. Infant monkeys raised in isolation became
distressed, apathetic, withdrawn, hostile adult animals
D. Can we generalize from monkeys to humans?
1. Many experts on human development believe that
for human infants, emotional need for affection,
intimacy, and warmth are as important as physiological
needs for food, water & protection.
2. Touching, holding, stroking, and communicating
appear to be essential to normal human development
1. Our personality – our humanity –
comes from our cultural environment through
intensive & prolonged social contact with others
Socialization & the self
I. The functionalist & conflict perspectives on
socialization
A. How do the functionalist view socialization?
1. It stresses the ways in which groups work together
to create a stable society. Ex = schools & families
socialize children by teaching the same norms,
beliefs & values. If it wasn’t done this way, society
would be fragmented & chaotic
B. How does conflict perspective view socialization?
1. As a way for the powerful to keep things the same.
2. People learn to accept their social status. Since they don’t
challenge their position in life this maintains the social, political,
and economic advantages of the higher social classes.
II. Symbolic interactionalism & socialization
A. In the early part of the 20th century,
Charles Horton Cooley & George Herbert
Mead develop the symbolic interactionist
perspective. They challenged the belief
that human nature is biologically
determined. For them, human nature is a
product of society
B. Cooley: The Looking Glass self
1. Charles Horton Cooley (1864 – 1929) – American social
psychologist and one of the founders of the interactionist
perspective of sociology.
2. Looking glass self – refers to the interactive process by
which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we
imagine we appear to others. Other people act as a mirror,
reflecting back the image we project through the reactions to their
behavior.
3. It’s a three step process
a. we imagine how we appear to others
b. based on their reaction to us, we attempt to
determine whether others view us as we view
ourselves
c. we use our perception of how others judge us to
develop feelings about ourselves
4. Can the looking glass be distorted?
a. Yes it can. The looking glass works even if we are
mistaken about other’s perceptions of us. (If we
incorrectly believe that a teacher, or a date, or our parents dislike
us, the consequences to us are just as real as if they were true)
5. The process of identity development begins very early in
childhood
a. According to Cooley, newborns have no sense of
purpose or place
b. members of their primary group – parents, brothers,
sisters, etc. interact with the child, providing the child
with a mirror that reflects his/her image and from this
interactive process the child develops a sense of self
c. The theory puts a lot of responsibility on parents &
other primary group members who have contact with
the child
ex = parents who treat their children as capable and
competent are likely to raise capable and competent
children
ex = parents who think little of their child’s ability & let
their feelings be known are likely to raise children with
feelings of inferiority
d. Cooley points out that while this process begins early
in childhood, it continues throughout our lives.
C. Mead: Role taking
1. George Herbert Mead (1863 – 1931) – American
sociologist added to Cooley’s theory
2. We come not only to see ourselves as others see
us, but we actually take or pretend to take the role
of others
3. Significant others – we first internalize the
expectations of those closest to us – parents,
siblings, relatives etc. – who have a direct influence
on our civilization
4. Generalized other – as we grow older,
expectations and attitudes of society take an
added importance in guiding our behavior &
reinforcing our sense of self. (we begin to behave a
certain way not to just please our parents, etc. but
because it is the right thing to do
5. Mead saw role taking as a 3-stage
process = imitation, play & games
a. Imitation stage – begins around 1 ½ to 2 years of age, children
lack a sense of self, so they imitate (without understanding)
the actions of others, most often by imitating the physical and
verbal behaviors of family members & others in their
immediate environment. This is the 1st step in developing the
capacity for role playing.
b. Play stage – at the age of 3 or 4, children begin to play and act
out the roles of specific people. (they dress up in parent’s
clothes, play house, or pretend to be different people) For the
1st time, they are attempting to see the world through
someone else’s eyes.
c. Game stage – by school age, children begin to take part in
organized games. This requires them to not only take on roles
of their own but also to anticipate the actions and
expectations of others. It is during the game stage that
children learn to gear their behavior to the norms of the group.
(The game stage of role playing most closely resembles real
life)
• http://study.com/academy/lesson/georgeherbert-meads-stages-of-self-anddevelopment-in-toddlers.html
6. Through role taking, individuals develop a sense of self.
Mead says the self consists of two related parts – I & Me
a. I – is the unsocialized, spontaneous, unpredictable,
self-interested component of our personality & self
identity. (ex = when an angry child yells hurtful words
at the parent whom they love)
b. Me – the part of our social identity that is aware of
the expectations and attitudes of society – our
socialized self
c. As children, the I is stronger than the Me, but through
the process of socialization the Me gains power over
the I, bringing our actions in line with the
expectations of society
d. Ex = the Me never totally dominates/controls the I are
both needed if we are to be well-rounded individuals
Agents of socialization
I. The family and socialization
A. The family is the most important agent of
socialization in almost every society, mainly
because the family is the principal socializer of
young children.
1. Within the family, most children 1st
learn how to behave in socially acceptable
ways, to develop close emotional ties, and to
internalize the values and norms of society.
2. Experiences within the family help
determine the type of person an individual
becomes
3. Socialization within the family can be both deliberate
and unconscious (unintended)
a. deliberate – truthfulness or being considerate to
others or how to spend and save money
b. Unconscious (unintended) – you’ve just
discussed truthfulness when someone calls &
wants to talk to you and you tell the child to tell
the person you aren’t home
unintended socialization is very common.
Kids will do what they see their parents do
4. The impact of the family reaches far beyond its direct
effects on the child. Our family’s social class shapes what
we think of ourselves & how others treat us, even far into
adulthood
II. Socialization in schools
A. Because school occupies large amounts of
time and attention – anywhere from 13 to 20
or more years – it plays a major role in
socializing people.
B. In school, children are under the care and
supervision of adults who aren’t relatives
1.Rewards and punishments are based
on performance rather than affection
2. Children are taught to be less
dependent emotionally on their parents
3. The school also creates feelings of
loyalty and allegiance to something
beyond the family
C. How do schools socialize students?
1. The socialization process in school involves more
than reading, writing, and arithmetic – there is the
hidden curriculum
a. Hidden curriculum – informal & unofficial
aspects of culture that children are taught in
preparation for life
b. The hidden curriculum teaches kids
discipline, order, cooperation, and conformity –
all needed to be successful in the adult world
2. Schools also teach cultural values, such as patriotism,
responsibility and good citizenship
3. Much unintentional socialization occurs within
schools – teachers, coaches, etc. become models for
students in such unintended areas as manners of
speech or styles of dress
III. Peer group socialization
A. Peer group – composed of individuals of
roughly the same age and interests. It is the
only agent of socialization that isn’t primarily
controlled by adults.
B. How do peer groups contribute to socialization?
1. In the peer group, young people have the opportunity
to engage in give & take relationships. (In the family and at
school, kids are controlled/submissive to adults)
a. Kids experience conflict, competition, &
cooperation
b. Kids experience self-direction = they begin to
make their own decisions, experiment with new
ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving & engage
in activities that involve self expression
2. Independence from adults is promoted by the peer
group, because often the norms of the peer group conflict with
those of the adult world.
3. The peer group also provides the opportunity for kids
to develop close ties with friends outside the family, including
members of the opposite sex.
C. Do friends or family have more influence on
young people?
1. Today, because of the busy lifestyle of
families – in both 2 income and single income
families – parents travel many miles to work and
spend more time away from home
a. Once kids reach the upper levels of
grade school, they may spend more
time with their peers than they do their
parents
b. Key pt = most sociologists believe
that the peer group is having a growing
effect on social development
IV. The mass media and socialization
A. Mass media – means of communization
designed to reach the general population –
such as newspapers, internet, tv,
magazines, books, radio, movies, music,
etc.
B. TV has probably the most influence on
the socialization of children (at least 1 TV
in 98% of the homes in the U.S. TVs are
turned on for an average of 7 hours a day)
C. Debate over TV
1. Negative – kids spend more time watching TV
than they spend in school. By age 16 kids will have seen
20,000 homicides on TV, along with rapes, robberies,
muggings, and other forms of crime or violence
Most social scientists now conclude that watching
aggressive behavior on TV significantly increases
aggression
2. Negative – TV presents an image of society that
reflects white middle class values. Life experience of
many racial, religious, and economic groups often are
either ignored or shown in a negative way
3. Positive – TV expands our world. It can be a
powerful educational tool – brings far-off places into our
homes, world events become immediate, and introduces
us to things we might never experience on our own
Processes of socialization
I. Desocialization and resocialization – symbolic
interactionalism describes 4 processes
associated with socialization after childhood:
desocialization, resocialization, anticipatory
socialization & reference groups
A. Desocialization – the process of giving up old norms,
values, attitudes and behaviors
1. Total institution – a setting in which people are isolated
from the rest of society for a set period of time and are
subject to the control of officials. Ex = prisons, military
boot camp, monasteries, and mental hospitals
2. Total institution is concerned with resocialization – which
involves a break with past experiences and the learning of
new norms and values
B. Resocialization – the process of adopting new norms,
values, attitudes, and behaviors. It is directed toward
forcibly changing a person’s personality and social
behavior. Ex = changing the person’s style of dress,
hairstyle, speech, freedom of movement, etc. to convince
the person to conform to new patterns of behavior
C. Anticipatory socialization – the voluntary process of
preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and
behaviors. Usually doesn’t occur in prisons or mental
hospitals because it involves voluntary change
1. May occur in people who are moving from 1
stage in their lives to another. Ex = teenagers –
because they want to resemble their own age, they
may willingly abandon many of the norms, values,
attitudes and behaviors learned previously
D. Reference group – group whose norms & values are
used to guide behavior, the group with whom we identify
or use to evaluate others