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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 Infant monkeys raised in isolation became distressed, apathetic, withdrawn, hostile adult animals D. Can we generalize from monkeys to humans? 1.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