Socialization

1
Chapter 5

• Socialization

2
Chapter Outline

• Becoming a Social Being
• Nature and Nurture
• The Social Construction of the Self
• Social Environments and Early Socialization
• Socialization through the Life Course
• Gender Socialization

3
Socialization

• Socialization - the ways in which people learn to
  conform to their societys norms, values, and
  roles.
• People develop their own unique personalities as
  a result of the learning they gain from parents,
  siblings, relatives, peers, teachers, mentors,
  and all the other people who influence them
  throughout their lives.

4
Becoming a Social Being

• Phases of Socialization
• Primary - ways the newborn individual is molded
  into a social being.
• Secondary - occurs as a child is influenced by
  adults and peers outside the family.
• Adult - when a person learns the norms associated
  with specific adult statuses.

5
Issues in Socialization

• The strength of biological and social influences
  (nature versus nurture).
• How a person develops a sense of self.
• How social environments affect socialization.
• How gender socialization occurs.

6
Sigmund Freud

• Freud claims the personality develops in infancy
  as the child is forced to control bodily urges.
• The original, unsocialized urges arise out of the
  id.
• The norms, values, and feelings taught through
  socialization belong to the superego.
• The ego is ones conception of oneself in
  relation to others.

7
The Role of the Same-sex Parent

• Freud believed the individuals major personality
  traits are formed in the conflict that occurs
  when parents insist that the infant control
  biological urges.
• This conflict, Freud believed, is most severe
  between the child and the same-sex parent.
• To become more attractive to the opposite-sex
  parent, the infant attempts to imitate the
  same-sex parent.

8
Behaviorism

• Behaviorists believe all behavior is learned.
• Pavlov demonstrated that conditioned reflexes
  could be developed.
• Watson showed that emotions such as fear could
  also be conditioned.

9
The Need for Love

• Studies of children reared in extreme isolation
  suggest that lack of parental attention can
  result in retardation and early death.
• Primate psychologist Harry Harlow showed that
  infant monkeys reared apart from other monkeys
  never learned how to interact with other monkeys.

10
The Debate over Genetic Influences

• The role of genes in shaping traits such as
  intelligence and sexual orientation is a subject
  of continual research and controversy.
• There isnt any definitive evidence that specific
  genes determine these aspects of human behavior.

11
Genes And Intelligence

• In an influential but scientifically flawed study
  titled The Bell Curve, biologist Richard
  Herrnstein and social psychologist Charles Murray
  attempted to show that IQ is an inherited trait
  that underlies inequality among different groups
  in the United States.
• Herrnstein and Murray do not believe efforts to
  address educational inequalities will address
  growing inequalities among individuals and groups.

12
Genes and Intelligence

• Most social scientists oppose Herrnstein and
  Murrays conclusions, for several reasons
• There has been much criticism of IQ as a single
  measure of intelligence.
• There is evidence of cultural and middle-class
  biases in the questions used to test IQ.
• The authors of The Bell Curve have been
  criticized for asserting that correlation is the
  same as causality.

13
Seven Types of Intelligence

• Visual/spatial intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Verbal intelligence
• Logical/mathematical intelligence

14
Seven Types of Intelligence

• Interpersonal intelligence
• Ability to perceive other peoples emotions and
  motivations.
• Intrapersonal intelligence
• Ability to understand ones own emotions and
  motivations.
• Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence
• Sometimes thought of in popular speech as
  physical coordination or natural athletic
  ability.

15
Defining the Cognitive Classes

• Caution The labels imposed on this IQ curve and
  the score used as boundaries between cognitive
  classes are those of Herrnstein and Murray and
  do not represent the thinking of many other
  social scientists.

16
Sociological Research

• Most sociological research will focus on the
  following hypotheses
• The social environment can unleash or stifle
  human potential.
• The social environment presents an ever-changing
  array of roles and expectations.

17
The Looking Glass Self

• Charles Horton Cooley defined the looking glass
  self as the reflection of our self that we think
  we see in the behaviors of others around us.
• This insight into the role of others in defining
  the self was the foundation for the view of the
  self proposed by George Herbert Mead.

18
George Herbert Mead

• Mead claims role-taking - the ability to look at
  social situations from the view of another person
  develops in three stages
• Preparatory
• Game
• Play

19
Stages in Meads Role Taking
Stage Description Example
Preparatory The child mimics significant people. Toddler wears moms shoes.
Play Children pretend to be significant people. Playing house.
Game Symbolically, each child can become other participants. Neighborhood kids play baseball.
20
Goffmans Face Work

• Sociologist Erving Goffman identified rules of
  interaction whereby people seek to present a
  positive image of themselves, their face.
• Face is the positive social value a person
  claims for herself or himself by acting out
  socially approved attributes.
• Once they have established an image, they seek to
  defend it against any possible threat that might
  cause them to lose face.

21
Theories of Socialization
Theorist Description
Freud Socialization forces the infant to channel biological urges into socially acceptable behavior.
George Herbert Mead The self emerges out of interaction with others.
22
Theories of Socialization
Theorist Theory
Jean Piaget Children develop awareness of moral issues at an early age but cannot deal with moral ambiguities until they mature further.
Erik Erikson Throughout the life course, the individual must resolve a series of conflicts that shape the persons sense of self and ability to perform social roles successfully.
23
Theories of Socialization
Theorist Theory
Carol Gilligan Children tend to develop different ways of resolving moral dilemmas. Some rely on strict rules of right and wrong, while others tend to make judgments based on fairness and cooperation.
24
Early Socialization

• In the early decades of the 20th century, when
  children worked in textile mills and coal mines,
  the environment in which they were socialized
  forced them to take on adult roles at an early
  age.

25
Agents of Socialization

• Family - primary agent of socialization.
• Schools - most important agent outside the
  family.
• Religion - involved in socialization in different
  ways throughout an individuals lifetime.
• Peer groups - the dominant agent in middle and
  late adulthood.
• Mass Media - most controversial agent in American
  society.

26
Socialization Through the Life Course

• A persons core identity does not change easily
  later in life.
• The roles people play during their life can be
  influenced by
• Social change
• Changes in a societys culture
• Impact of new friends
• Occupational mobility

27
Eriksons View of Lifelong Socialization
Stage of Life Conflict
Infancy Trust vs. mistrust
Early Childhood Autonomy vs. shame
Play Age Initiative vs. guilt
School Age Industry vs. inferiority
28
Eriksons View of Lifelong Socialization
Stage of Life Conflict
Adolescence Identity vs. confusion struggle over fidelity to parents or friends
Early Adulthood Intimacy vs. isolation in the quest for love
Adulthood Generativity vs. stagnation in interpersonal relationships
Old Age Integrity vs. despair
29
Gender Socialization

• The ways we learn our gender identity and develop
  according to cultural norms of masculinity or
  femininity.
• Gender identity is an individuals own feeling of
  whether she or he is a woman or a man, a girl or
  a boy.

30
Quick Quiz
31

• 1. Which statement about the socialization
  process is not true?
• It is continuous throughout life.
• It enables us to function within groups.
• Socialization helps to construct our identities.
• Variations in how people are socialized are
  largely due to heredity.

32
Answer d

• The following statement about the socialization
  process is not true
• Variations in how people are socialized are
  largely due to heredity.

33

• 2. According to Freud, the aspect of the self
  first to emerge is the
• id
• ego
• superego
• significant other

34
Answer a

• According to Freud, the aspect of the self first
  to emerge is the id.

35

• 3. Although Donny does not have a handicap, he
  parked his car in a handicapped slot very close
  to the building he was to visit because he knew
  he would not be ticketedthe meter patrol shift
  had already left for home for the day. According
  to Kohlberg, Donny is in which stage of moral
  development?
• conventional
• preconventional
• nonconventional
• postconventional

36
Answer b

• Although Donny does not have a handicap, he
  parked his car in a handicapped slot very close
  to the building he was to visit because he knew
  he would not be ticketedthe meter patrol shift
  had already left for home for the day. According
  to Kohlberg, Donny is in the preconventional
  stage of moral development.