Sociology Chapter 3 The Role of Socialization

Sociology Chapter 3 The Role of Socialization - - Socialization: the lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture o Occurs through human interactions that begin in infancy and continue through retirement Personality: a person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior The Role of Socialization: Nature versus Nurture - The nature versus nurture debate is over the relative importance of biological inheritance and environmental factors in human development Most social scientists have now moved beyond this debate Instead, they now acknowledge the interaction of heredity and environmental factors in socialization Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation - - - Consider the case of the child called Isabelle (1932): o Isabelle lived in almost total seclusion in a dark room until age six o She was discovered (6 years old) when her mother escaped from her parents’ home and took Isabelle with her o She could not speak, and she used only simple gestures o She showed a strong fear of strangers o Specialists developed a systematic training program to socialize her Consider the case of neglected Romanian orphans: o In the 1990s, public attention was drawn to the horrible orphanage conditions in eastern Europe o In Romanian orphanages, babies would lay in their cribs for 18 to 20 hours a day, next to a feeding bottle, with little care from adults o This lasted until the children were about five years old o Many grew up fearful of human contact and prone to unpredictable antisocial behavior Primate studies also support the need for socialization o Rhesus monkeys that were raised in isolation were fearful and easily frightened o In another study, infant monkeys developed greater social attachments from their need for warmth, comfort, and intimacy than from a need for milk The Influence of Heredity - Twins reared apart in roughly similar social settings have similar scores on intelligence tests Twins reared apart in dramatically different social environments tended to have their IQ scores quite differently Some traits, such as bipolar disorder, have significant genetic components Others, such as eating disorders, have a much more significant social environment component The Self and Socialization through the Life Course - Our concept of our self emerges as we interact with others Self: a distinct identity that sets us apart from others o It is not a static phenomenon; it continues to develop and change throughout our lives Sociologists and psychologists alike are interested in how the individual develops and modifies the sense of self as a result of social interaction Sociological Approaches to Self: Cooley - - Looking-glass self: a concept used by Charles Horton Cooley that emphasizes the self as the product of our social interactions Three phases of developing self-identity: 1. We imagine how we present ourselves to others 2. We imagine how others evaluate us 3. We develop feelings about ourselves as a result of those impressions The looking-glass self is a broader view of double consciousness: the division of an individual’s identity into two or more social realities A critical aspect is that the self-results from an individual’s “imagination” of how others view them o We can develop self-identities based on incorrect perceptions Sociological Approaches to the Self: Mead - - - - - George Herbert Mead said there are three stages in the development of the self Preparatory stage: o Children imitate people around them o Children begin to understand symbols Play stage: o Children become more aware of social relationships o Children can pretend to be other people o Role taking: the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint Game stage: o Children around age eight to nine no longer just play roles o Children grasp their social positions and the social positions of others o Generalized other: the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in their behavior According to Mead, the self begins as a privileged, central position in a person’s world o Young children think they are the focus of everything around them o As a person matures, the self changes and begins to reflect greater concern about the reactions of others Significant other: an individual who is more important in the development of the self o Such as a parent, friend, or teacher Psychological Approaches to the Self - Sigmund Freud’s early work in psychology stressed the role of inborn drives The self is a social product The self has components that work in opposition to each other Our natural impulsive instincts are in constant conflict with societal constraints By interacting with others, we learn the expectations of society and select the behavior that is most appropriate Jean Piaget stressed the importance of social interactions o He found that newborns have no self in the sense of a looking-glass image o They are quite self-centered, demanding all attention be directed toward them o As children mature, they are gradually socialized into social relationships o o o o - The Twentieth Century - Psychoanalysis o Sigmund Freud o Importance of the unconscious o Mind consists of the id, ego, and superego o Defense mechanisms o Importance of infancy o Sexual urges and psychosexual development Socialization throughout the Life Course - - Rite of passage: a ritual marking the symbolic transition from one social position to another o Rites of passages are ways to validate and/or dramatize changes in a person’s status o They are a worldwide social phenomenon Life course approach: a research orientation in which sociologists and other social scientists look closely at the social factors that influence people throughout their lives, from birth to death Turning points in life vary from one society or even one generation to the next For example, today in the United States, there is no clear dividing line between adolescence and adulthood, as there is in some other societies o Few young people finish school, get married, and leave home at about the same age o The terms youthhood, emerging adulthood, pre-adult, and not quite adult describe the prolonged ambiguous status of young people in their 20s Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization (13-17) - - Anticipatory socialization: processes of socialization in which a person rehearses for future positions, occupations, and social relationships Resocialization: the process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life o This typically involves considerable stress o It is particularly effective when it occurs within a total institution Total institution: a term coined by Erving Goffman for an institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority o Examples: a prison, the military, mental hospitals, convents All aspects of the life are conducted in the same place under the control of a single authority o Any activities within the institution are conducted in the company of others in the same circumstances o The authorities devise rules and schedule activities without consulting the participants o All aspects of life are designed to fulfill the purpose of the organization People often lose their individuality within total institutions Degradation ceremony: an aspect of the socialization process within some total institutions, within which people are subjected to humiliating rituals o The individual becomes secondary to and rather invisible to the social environment o - Agents of Socialization - The continuing and lifelong socialization process involves many different social forces that influence our lives and alter our self-images The most important of these in the United States is family Other agents of socialization: o School o Peer groups o Mass media and technology o Workplace o Religion o The state Family - Family members are an important part of the social environment o All families engage in socialization In the United States, social development also includes exposure to cultural assumptions regarding gender and race o Gender role: expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females o In some societies, girls are socialized mainly by their mothers and boys by their fathers School - Like the family, schools have an explicit mandate to socialize people into the norms and values of our culture Schools in the United States foster competition through rewards and punishments, such as grades and evaluations Functionalists argue that schools fulfill the function of teaching children the values and customs of the larger society Conflict theorists add that schools can reinforce the divisive aspects of society, especially those of social class Peer Group - As children grow older, peer groups increasingly assume the role of Mead’s significant others Young people associate with others who are approximately their age, and who often enjoy a similar social status The importance of peers or friends cannot be overstated Gender differences are noteworthy among adolescents Mass Media and Technology - Media innovations such as radio, motion pictures, recorded music, television, and the Internet have all been important agents of socialization Increasingly, socialization occurs online Both in industrialized nations and in developing areas, people have been socialized into relying on new communications technologies o Cell phones with broadband service are not cheap, however Workplace - - Learning to behave appropriately in an occupation is a fundamental aspect of human socialization More and more young people work today o They seek jobs for spending money o Teenage employment in the United States is the highest among industrial countries Socialization in the workplace changes with the shift from after-school job to full-time employment o It continues throughout one’s work history o Today, it is not socialization into one lifetime occupation: between the ages of 18 and 52, the typical person has held 12 jobs, nearly half of them at ages 18 to 24 Religion and the State - Organized religion and government have an impact on the life course Religious organizations stipulate certain traditional rites that may bring together all members of an extended family Government regulations stipulate the age that one can drink, vote, drive, marry, and retire Social Policy and Sociological Research: Child Care around the World - Looking at the issue: o In the United States, 88% of employed mothers depend on others to care for their children o Additionally, 30% of mothers who are not employed have regular care arrangements o Researchers found high-quality childcare centers do not adversely affect the socialization of the children o It is difficult to generalize about childcare, however, because there is great variablity among providers and among government policies from state to state o The coronavirus pandemic brought new attention to the need for childcare and the importance of childcare workers