Chapter 4Socialization

Dating Guidelines Then

A man should not sit down until the woman is seated.

A man should always pull out the woman’s chair for her and see that she is served first.

A man should never let a woman carry anything heavy

A should always open a door for woman and let her pass in front of him

What’s “okay” for today?

What’s similar between today’s dating etiquette and from prior generations?

What are some key differences?

Why do you think these habits change?

Are these changes good or bad?

The importance of socialization

Section One

Objectives

Define the term socialization

Discuss the role socialization plays in human development

Describe the effects of extreme isolation on children

Socialization and Personality

Nearly all the human social behavior we consider natural and normal is learned.

Socialization The cultural process of learning to participate in

group life

The most important learning occurs early in life.

“Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep”

Pliny the Elder

Roman scholar

How do we know socialization is important?

We could set up an experiment using human infants, however, it would be unethical to do so.

Monkeys have been used instead.

Experiment Design

How would you design an experiment to study the effects of socialization?

Need control group and experimental group

Harry Harlow’ Experiment

Rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth.

These infants were offered a wire monkey “mother” and a soft/fluffy monkey “mother”.

The infants always preferred the soft/fluffy, even when the wire monkey became their only source of food.

How do monkeys react to isolations?

Infant monkeys need intimacy, warmth, physical contact and comfort.

Infant monkeys raised in isolation became distressed, apathetic, withdrawn, and hostile.

Can we generalize from monkeys to humans?

Human babies denied close contact usually have difficulty forming emotional ties with others.

Touching, holding, stroking, and communicating appear to be essential to normal human development.

Case Studies

Anna

Anna was the 2nd child to her unwed mother

Kept in a small room and given only milk to drink for 5 years

When found: Her legs were skeleton-like, her stomach was bloated, she had seldom been moved or held.

She could not walk or talk.

Isabelle

Mother was deaf since age of 2

Lived with her mother in a dark room, secluded from the rest of the family

Found at the age of 6 ½

Physically ill from malnutrition and lack of sunlight

Reacted like a wild animal and communicated with her mother with gestures; made gutteral noises

Outcomes

Anna

Lived in a county home for children where she learned to walk and understand simple commands.

Transferred to a school for disabled children where she made some further progress, but was well below her peers in terms of development

Died at the age of 10

Isabelle

Received intensive program of rehabilitation

In 2 years, she had caught up developmentally with her peers

Socialization and the self

Section Two

Objectives

Explain key concepts of socialization from the symbolic interactionist perspective

The Functionalist and Conflict Perspectives on Socialization

All 3 theoretical perspectives agree that socialization is needed if cultural and societal values are to be learned.

Symbolic interactionism offers the most fully developed perspective for studying socialization.

How does the functionalist perspective explain socialization?

Functionalism stresses the ways in which groups work together to create a stable society.

Example- schools and families socialize children by teaching the same basic norms

How does the conflict perspective explain socialization?

The conflict perspective views socialization as a way of perpetuating the status quo.

Symbolic Interactionismand Socialization

In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead developed the the symbolic interactionist perspective.

They challenged the belief that human nature is biologically determined.

How does symbolic interactionism help us understand socialization?

Symbolic interactionism uses a number of key concepts to explain socialization: The self-concept The looking-glass self Significant others Role taking

The imitation stage, the play stage, the game stage

The generalized other

Where does theself-concept come from?

Self-concept An image of yourself as having an identity separate

from other

Children learn to judge themselves in terms of how they imagine others will react to them.

Other people serve as mirrors for the development of the self.

Looking-glass self A self-concept based on our idea of others’

judgment of us

How does the looking-glass process work?

3-stage process that is constantly taking place:

① We imagine how we appear to others

② We imagine the reaction of others to our (imagined) appearance

③ We evaluate ourselves according to how we imagine others have judged us.

The result is a posi.tive or negative self-evaluation

Can the looking glass be distorted?

The looking-glass process works even if we are mistaken about others’ perceptions of us.

Do we use some people as mirrors more than others?

Significant others Those people whose reactions are most

important to your self-concept

What is role taking?

Role taking Assuming the viewpoint of an other person and

using that viewpoint to shape the self-concept

How does the ability for role taking develop?

The ability for role taking is the product of a 3-stage process

① Imitation stage

② Play stage

③ Game stage

Imitation Stage

Mead’s first stage in the development of role taking; children begin to imitate behaviors without understanding why

Play Stage

Mead’s second stage in the development of role taking; children act ways they imagine other people would

Game Stage

Mead’s third stage in the development of role taking; children anticipate the actions of others based on social rules

When do we start acting out of principle?

During the game stage, a child’s self-concept, attitudes, beliefs, and values gradually come to depend less on individuals and more on general concepts.

Generalized other An integrated conception of the norms, values,

and beliefs of one’s community or society emerges

What is the self?

The “self” is composed of two parts:

“Me” The part of the self formed through

socialization

“I” The part of the self that accounts for unlearned,

spontaneous acts

Agents of socializationSection Three

Objectives

Analyze the role of the family, school, peer group, and media in socializing young people

The Family and Socialization

Within the family the child learns to Think and speak Internalize norms, beliefs, and values Form some basic attitudes Develop a capacity for intimate and personal

relationships Acquire a self-image

Socialization in Schools

How do schools socialize students? Hidden Curriculum

The informal and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school

Peer Group Socialization

Peer group Set of individual of roughly the same age and

interests

How do peer groups contribute to socialization?

• Opportunity to engage in give-and-take relationships

• experience conflict, competition, and cooperation • experience in self-direction• Make own decisions• Experiment with new ways of thinking, feeling,

and behaving• Engage in activities that involve self-expression

Do friends or family have more influence on young people?

According to Judith Harris, peers are more important than parents in socializing children.

The Mass Media and Socialization

Mass media Means of communication designed to reach the

general population

What role do the mass media play in socialization?

Display role models for children to imitate

Offer ideas about the values in their society

What about violence in the mass media?

Based upon hundreds of studies involving over ten thousand children, most social scientists now conclude that watching aggressive behavior on tv significantly increases aggression.

Processes of socialization

Section Four

Objectives

Discuss processes for socialization in adulthood

Desocialization and Resocialization

Symbolic interactionism views socialization as a lifelong process.

They describe 4 processes associated with socialization after childhood1. Desocialization

2. Resocialization

3. Anticipatory socialization

4. Reference groups

Desocalization

The process of giving up old norms, values, attitudes and behaviors

How does desocialization prepare people for new learning?

Often means the destruction of old self-concepts of personal identity

This can be accomplished by Replacing personal possession with standard-

issued items Use of serial numbers to identify people Loss of privacy

Resocialization

The process of adopting new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors

How does resocialization begin?

Once the self-concept has been broken down, resocialization can begin.

Anticipatory Socialization

The voluntary process of preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors

May occur in people who are moving from one stage of their life to another