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Chapter 3
Socialization
Chapter Outline
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Social Isolation and Socialization
Theories of Childhood Socialization
Agents of Socialization
Socialization Across the Life
Course
Socialization
• The process by which people learn their
culture:
– Entering and disengaging from a
succession of roles.
– Becoming aware of themselves as
they interact with others.
Social Isolation and
Socialization
• Studies show that children raised in
isolation do not develop normally.
• This corroborates the view that social
interaction unleashes human potential.
Theories of Childhood
Socialization: Freud
• Proposed the first social-scientific
interpretation of emergence of the self:
Id - the part of the self that demands
immediate gratification.
Superego - personal conscience
Ego - balances the conflicting needs of the
pleasure-seeking id and the restraining
superego.
Criticisms of Freud’s
Analysis
1. Connections between early childhood
development and adult personality are more
complex than Freud assumed.
2. Many sociologists criticize Freud for gender
bias in his analysis of male and female
sexuality.
3. Sociologists often criticize Freud for
neglecting socialization after childhood.
Cooley- “looking-glass self”
• When we interact with others, they
gesture and react to us.
• We can imagine how we appear to
them.
• We judge how others evaluate us.
• From these judgments we develop a
self-concept.
Mead’s Four Stages of
Development: Role Taking
1. Children learn to use language and
other symbols by imitating important
people in their lives.
2. Children pretend to be other people.
Mead’s Four Stages of
Development: Role Taking
3. About the age of 7, children play games that
require them to take the role of several
other people.
4. Once a child can think in this way, she can
begin the fourth stage, which involves
taking the role of the generalized other.
Gilligan and Gender
Differences
• Sociological factors help explain
differences in the sense of self that boys
and girls develop.
• Parents and teachers pass on different
cultural standards to boys and girls.
Polling Question
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Of the socialization theories, which one do
you think offers the best explanation for why
people develop as they do?
A. Mead
B. Goffman
C. Cooley
D. Freud
E. Piaget
Agents of Socialization
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Families
Schools
Peer Groups
Mass Media
Hidden Curriculum
• Teaches students what will be expected
of them in society after they graduate.
• Teaches them how to be conventionally
“good citizens.”
Hidden Curriculum
• A successful hidden curriculum teaches:
– punctuality
– respect for authority
– importance of competition in leading to
excellent performance
– and other conformist behaviors and beliefs
that are expected of good citizens,
conventionally defined.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
• An expectation that helps bring about
the result it predicts.
– Example: Believing school won’t help
you get ahead may cause you to
perform poorly in school and you are
more likely to end up near the bottom
of the class structure if you perform
poorly in school.
Peer Group
• Individuals who are not necessarily
friends but are about the same age and
of similar status.
• Help children and adolescents separate
themselves from their families and
develop independent sources of identity.
% of Americans Age 12–17 Who Used
Substances in Month Prior to Survey, 1990–97
The Mass Media
• Includes TV, radio, movies, the Internet,
newspapers, magazines, and books.
• Worldwide, the number of Internet users
jumped to 1 billion in 2005 from 40 million in
1995.
• Over 98% of American households own a TV.
– Each TV is turned on for 7 hours/day.
Number of Internet Users,
1996–2005 (projected)
Top 4 Activities of American Women
and Men, 18–24, 1993–95
Hours of TV Viewing /Week by Year of
School Completed
Hours/day
0–11
12
13-14
15-16
17-20
0–1
16.8
18.1
27.5
31.0
48.7
2–3
38.7
42.8
46.8
50.0
41.7
4–5
24.1
19.2
18.8
12.0
8.0
6+
20.4
19.9
6.9
7.0
1.6
Polling Question
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Which media source do you think has the
strongest impact on attitudes and behaviors
of your generation?
A. Advertising
B. Television
C. Music and music videos
D. The Internet
E. Magazines
Initiation Rites and
Resocialization
Three stages signify the transition from one
group to another:
1. Separation from one’s old status and
identity (ritual rejection).
2. Degradation, disorientation, and stress
(ritual death).
3. Acceptance of the new group culture and
status (ritual rebirth).
The Flexible Self
1. People are free to combine elements of
culture from a variety of historical periods
and geographical settings.
2. You can change your body:
– Body building, sex-change, plastic
surgery, organ transplants, etc.
3. The internet allows people to create virtual
communities and use concealed identities.
Cosmetic and
Reconstructive Surgeries,
Emergence of Childhood and
Adolescence
• In preindustrial societies, children were
thought of as small adults.
• They went to work when they could
contribute to the welfare of their
families.
• Marriage was common by the age of 15
or 16.
Problems of Childhood and
Adolescent Socialization Today
• Declining adult supervision and
guidance.
• Increasing media influence.
• Declining extracurricular activities and
increasing adult responsibilities.
Effect of Employment on Grades
Among Full-Time College Students Who Work,
United States, 1999–2000
Quick Quiz
1. _________________ is the process
by which people learn their culture.
Answer: socialization
• Socialization is the process by which
people learn their culture.
2. Freud wrote about three parts of the self, one
which demands immediate gratification, the
second which is a repository of cultural
standards, and the third which keeps the
first two parts in balance. These three parts
of the self are known, respectively, as:
a. the ego, the superego, and the id
b. the me, the I, and the id
c. the id, the superego, and the ego
d. the superego, the ego, and the id
Answer: c
• Freud wrote about three parts of the self, one
which demands immediate gratification, the
second which is a repository of cultural
standards, and the third which keeps the first
two parts in balance. These three parts of the
self are known, respectively, as: the id, the
superego, and the ego.
3. Which of the following do sociologists
not regard as agents of socialization?
a. the family
b. schools
c. peer groups
d. the generalized other
e. total institutions
Answer: d
Sociologists do not regard the
generalized other as an agent of
socialization.
4. A(n) _________________ is an
expectation that helps bring about
what it predicts.
Answer:
self-fulfilling prophecy
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A self-fulfilling prophecy is an
expectation that helps bring about
what it predicts.
5. Which of the following has done much to
change the socialization patterns of
American youth over the past 40 years or
so?
a. declining adult supervision and guidance
b. increasing media influence
c. declining extracurricular activities
d. increasing adult responsibilities
e. all of these choices
Answer: e
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Declining adult supervision and
guidance, increasing media
influence, declining extracurricular
activities and increasing adult
responsibilities have done much to
change the socialization patterns of
American youth over the past 40 years
or so.