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Socialization
Chapter Four
Outline
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Why is Socialization Important?
Agents of Socialization
Sociological Theories of Human Development
Social Psychological Theories of Human
Development
Gender and Racial-Ethnic Socialization
Socialization through the Life Course
Resocialization
Socialization in the Future
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Why is Socialization Important?
 Defined: 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.
(p. 104)
– Elements:
 Essential for the individual’s survival and growth
 Essential for the survival and stability of society
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Why is Socialization Important?
 Human Development: Biology and Society
– Key insight: we are products of biology, society,
and personal experiences
– Two contrasts:
 Sociologists focus on nurture, culture, and society
 Socio-biologists focus on biology and how it affects
social behaviour
 Combined view: both nature and nurture shape us
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Why is Socialization Important?
 Problems with Isolation and Maltreatment:
– Nonhuman primates and isolation: the Harlow studies
– Isolated Children (or feral children). Real examples:
 Anna
 Genie
– Child Maltreatment
 Most common is neglect
 Very negative outcomes
 Issue of spanking: Is this abuse?
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Agents of Socialization
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The Family
The School
Peer Groups
Mass Media
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The Family
 The most basic and foundational agent
 Functionalist interpretation:
– Families are the source of procreation and
socialization of children
– Source of emotional support
 Variations of socialization:
– Class
– Race and Ethnicity
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The Family
 Conflict Theorists:
– Socialization reproduces class in children from
the class of the parents
 Symbolic Interactionists
– Through interactions with our parents, kin, and
siblings we are socialized
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The School
 A significant agent—most Canadians spend
about 20 years in education
 Issues:
– Single parent children
– Daycare for working parents
 Schools are miniature societies: we learn
skills, punctuality, obedience to authority
figures
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The School
A Functionalist Perspective
 Their functions:
1. teaching students to be productive members of
a society
2. transmission of culture
3. social control and personal development
4. selection, training, and placement of individuals
in social ranks
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The School
A Conflict Perspective
 Children have varied experiences
dependent upon class, race, gender, and
ethnicity
 Hidden curriculum concept: children learn
the capitalistic system in school
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The School
A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
 Socialization is a result of daily interactions
in the school setting
 Here, students learn about their culture, the
nation, aggression and compliance, and
gender
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Peer Groups
 Defined: a group of people who are linked
by common interests, equal social position,
and similar age (p. 111)
 Their functions:
– Contribute to our sense of “belonging”
– Give some sense of freedom from family
– Teach social norms
– They reflect the larger culture in many ways
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Peer Groups
 Question of Peer Pressure:
 When we conform we are rewarded but
when we rebel we are punished
 Issue: conflict between conformity to peers
or conformity to parents
 Strong pressure to have things that other
children have is passed on to parents
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Mass Media
 Media functions:
1. they inform us about events
2. they introduce us to a wide variety of people
3. they provide a variety of viewpoints of the world
around us
4. they make us aware of products and services
5. they entertain us by providing the opportunity
to live vicariously
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Mass Media
 Estimates of exposure of Canadian children:
– 2 ½ hours a day watching TV
– 2 hours a day on computers, video games, or a
VCR
– Total: over 1600 hours a year
– In contrast, they spend 1200 hours a year in
school
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Mass Media
 Issues:
– Children know more about media figures than
current events
– Reading skill decrease in U.S. children
– Effects: lower grades, read fewer books,
exercise less, and are overweight
– “Digital divide”: knowledge divide for those with
computers with those without
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Sociological Theories of Human
Development
 Classical Symbolic Interactionism
 Recent Symbolic Interactionism
 Ecological Perspectives
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Sociological Theories of Human
Development
 Overview:
– Meaning of self
 Has such terms as I, me, my, mine, and myself
 Self concept: the totality of our beliefs and feelings about
ourselves (p. 115)
 Four Components of Self
1. the physical self ( I am tall or short)
2. active self (I am good at soccer)
3. social self (I am nice to others)
4. the psychological self (I believe in world peace)
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Classical Symbolic Interactionism
 Origins in Cooley and Mead of the Chicago School
of Sociology
 Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
 Looking-Glass Self:
1. We imagine how we look to others
2. We imagine how others judge our appearance
3. We develop a self-concept by evaluating if others are
positive we feel good but if we think they are negative in
their judgments, we feel bad
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Classical Symbolic Interactionism
 George Herbert Mead (1963-1931)
 Central concepts:
– 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 (p. 116)
– Significant others: those persons whose care,
affection, and approval are especially desired
and who are most important in the development
of the self (p. 117)
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Classical Symbolic Interactionism
 Mead and Central concepts:
– Self: A unity of I (my active part) and Me (my passive
part)
– Stages of Development
1. Preparatory stage (no role)
2. Play (taking the role of another person)
3. Game (taking the role of others in many situations)
– Generalized other: the child’s awareness of the
demands and expectations of the society as a whole
or the child’s subculture (p. 118)
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Recent Symbolic Interactionist
Perspectives
 Key Theory: Children create and recreate
constructs in their daily lives through the
organization and meanings of social
situations and collective practices
 Key Concept:
– Orb Web Model: children’s cultural knowledge
reflects not only beliefs of the adult world but
also the unique interpretations and aspects of
their own peer culture
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Ecological Perspectives
 Key theory: a child’s development is an
effect of a variety of social and cultural
contexts that a child is embedded within
 Key Concepts:
– Microsystem: face-to-face contact (family)
– Mesosystem: indirect contact of another
person through the direct contact with a third
(fathers influence mothers who in turn influence
the child)
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Ecological Perspectives
 Key Concepts:
– Exosystem: Indirect influence on a child from,
for example, a parent who, in turn, is influenced
by where she or he works
– Macrosystem: The child’s development is an
effect of the larger social system especially in
regard to public policy and child care legislation
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Social Psychological Theories of
Human Development
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Freud and Psychoanalysis
Erickson and Psychosocial Development
Piaget and Cognitive Development
Kohlberg and the Stages of Moral
Development
 Gilligan’s View on Gender and Moral
Development
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Freud and Psychoanalysis
Key Theory:
1. People have two basic tendencies
(instincts):
– To survive
– To procreate
2. That a child’s development is an effect of
factors from the id, the ego, and the
superego
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Freud and Psychoanalysis
 Key Concepts:
– Id: the component of the personality that includes all of
the individual’s basic biological drives and needs that
demand immediate gratification
– Ego: the rational, reality-orientated component of
personality that imposes restrictions on the innate
pleasure seeking drives of the id
– Superego: The conscience that consists of the moral
and ethical aspects of one’s personality that comes from
parents, others, the whole society
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Erickson and Psychosocial
Development
 Erik H. Erickson (1902-1944)
 Key Theory: His was a developmental
theory of movement through 8 stages. Each
subsequent stage depended on the success
of transition from the previous one.
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Erickson and Psychosocial
Development
 Key concepts or stages:
1. Trust vs. mistrust (birth to one)
2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-3)
3. Initiative vs. guilt (3-5)
4. Industry vs. inferiority (6-11)
5. Identity vs. role confusion (12-18)
6. Intimacy vs. isolation (18-35)
7. Generativity vs. self-absorption (35-55)
8. Integrity vs. despair (maturity to old age)
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Piaget and Cognitive Development
 Key Theory: A theory of the development of
our cognitive skills. As we age, we change
how we think.
 Key concepts (stages):
1. Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
2. Preoperational (2-7)
3. Concrete operational (7-11)
4. Formal operational (12- through adolescence)
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Kohlberg and Moral Development
 Key Theory: A theory of the development of
our moral or ethical skills. As we age, we
change our moral behaviour.
 Key concepts (stages):
1. Preconventional (7-10)
2. Conventional (10 through adulthood)
3. Postconventional (adult life but few attain it)
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Gilligan, Gender, and Moral
Development
 Carol Gilligan (b. 1936)
 Key Theory: We develop morally depending
on our gender.
 Key concepts
1. Males: more concerned about justice, law, and
order
2. Females: more focused on relationships
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Gilligan, Gender, and Moral
Development
 Women’s Moral Developmental stages:
1. Motivated by selfish concerns
2. Motivated by some responsibility for others
3. Motivated to do the best both for herself and for
others
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Gender and Racial-Ethnic
Socialization
 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 (p. 124)
 Sources of gender socialization: family,
social class, schools, peers, media, and the
computer
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Infancy and Childhood
 Adolescence
 Adulthood
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Special term: Anticipatory socialization:
the process by which knowledge and skills
are learned for future roles (p. 125)
 Infancy and childhood
Central concern: during infancy and
early childhood, family support and
guidance are crucial to a child’s developing
self-concept
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Infancy and Childhood
 Central activities: carefree play, safety,
and freedom from economic, political,
and sexual responsibilities
 Issue: physical, emotional, and sexual
abuse and its negative outcomes for
children’s development
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Adolescence
– In industrialized societies, this stage represents
a buffer between childhood and adulthood
– Common: emotional and social unrest
– Some struggle in conflict between parental
wishes and peer pressure
– Transition for upper and middle class families to
higher education
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Adulthood
– Two foci:
 Work in the paid labour force
 The development of intimate relationships that often result in
marriage and having children
– Key concepts
 Workplace (occupational) socialization.
– Four phases:
1. career choice
2. anticipatory socialization
3. conditioning and commitment
4. continuous commitment
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
 Adulthood
– Key concepts
 Social Devaluation: wherein a person or group is
considered to have less social value than other
individuals or groups (p. 127). A frequent
phenomenon among elderly Canadians.
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Resocialization
 Defined: The process of learning a new and
different set of attitudes, values, and
behaviours from those in one’s previous
background (p. 127)
 Special term: total institution: a place where
people are isolated from the rest of society
for a set period of time and come under
control of the officials who run the institution
(p. 127)
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Resocialization
Voluntary
Involuntary
When we
receive a new
status of our
own free will
When we receive
a new status not
of our own free
will
Examples:
Examples:
Religious
conversion
Armed forces
conscription
Joining the
armed forces
Imprisonment
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization in the Future
 The family will continue to be the
foundational source of socialization
 However, with these nuances:
– Isolation of the family without social support will
lay increased burdens on parents
– Likely will be an increase of child abuse
 Increased use of computer technology may
further impact socialization
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada