Socialization in sociology

Socialization

Definition :-
             The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture.

Social Experience
     Socialization

•The lifelong social experience by which individuals develop their human potential and learn patterns of their culture

 Personality

•A person’s fairly consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting

–Could a person’s personality develop without social interaction?

Nature and Nurture
•Biological sciences–The role of nature

–Elements of society have a naturalistic root.

•Social sciences–The role of nurture

–Most of who and what we are as a species is learned, or social in nature.

–Behaviorism

•Nature or nurture?

            –It’s both, but from a sociological perspective, nurture matters more.

Social Isolation

Effect on nonhuman primates: Harlows’ experiments

•Six months of complete isolation was enough to disturb development.

Effect on children: Anna and Isabelle

•Years of isolation left both children damaged and only capable of approximating a normal life after

intensive rehabilitation.

Genie

•Somewhat less isolated, but suffered permanent disabilities

Sigmund Freud(Elements of Personality)

•Basic human needs: Eros and thanatos as opposing forces

•Developing personality

       –The id: Basic drives

       –The ego: Efforts to achieve balance

       –The superego: Culture within

•Managed conflict

      –Id and superego are in constant states of conflict, with the ego balancing the two.

Critical Evaluation of Freud

•Studies reflect gender bias.

•Influences the study of personality

•Sociologists note Freud’s contributions.

       –Internalization of social norms

       –Childhood experiences have lasting impact.

Jean Piaget (Cognitive Development)

Cognition

       –How people think and understand

Stages of development

      –Sensorimotor stage: Sensory contact understanding

      –Preoperational stage: Use of language and other symbols

      –Concrete operational stage: Perception of causal connections in surroundings

      –Formal operational stage: Abstract, critical thinking

Critical Evaluation of Piaget

•Differed from Freud, viewing the mind as active and creative.

•Cognitive stages are the result of  biological maturation and social experience.

•Do people in all societies pass through Piaget’s four stages?

Lawrence Kohlberg (Moral Development)

•Moral reasoning

              –The ways in which individuals judge situations as right or wrong

•Preconventional

              –Young children experience the world as pain or pleasure

•Conventional

             –Teens lose selfishness as they learn to define right and wrong in terms of what pleases parents and conforms to cultural norms.

•Postconventional

             –Final stage, considers abstract ethical principles

Critical Evaluation of Kohlberg

•Like Piaget, viewed moral development as stages

•Many people don’t reach the final stage.

•Research limited to boys, generalized to population

Sociologists

George Herbert Mead (Social Self)

Self–The part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image

1.Self develops from social interaction.

2.Social experience is the exchange of symbols

3.Understanding intention requires imagining the situation from the other’s point of view.

By taking the role of the other, we become self-aware

Mead

Mead believed that the self was created through social interaction and that this process started in

childhood (that children began to develop a sense of self at about the same time that they began to

learn language).

•The I and Me: The self has two parts.

–Active side of the self is “I”

–Objective side of the self is “me”

Development of Self

•Imitation

–Infants mimic behavior without understanding intentions.

•Play

–Taking the roles of significant others

•Games

–Taking the roles of several others at once

•Generalized other

–Widespread cultural norms and values we use as a reference in evaluating ourselves

Critical Evaluation of Mead

•Mead found the root of both self and society in symbolic interaction.

•Critics: Mead doesn’t allow biological elements.

Agents of Socialization

•The Family

•The School

•The Peer Group

•The Mass Media

The Family

•Most important agent

      –A loving family produces a happy well-adjusted child.

•Parental attention is very important

      –Bonding and encouragement

•Household environment

      –Stimulates development

•Social position

     –Race, religion, ethnicity, class

The School

•Experience diversity

           –Racial and gender clustering

•Hidden curriculum

          –Informal, covert lessons

•First bureaucracy

          –Rules and schedule

•Gender socialization begins

         –From grade school through college, gender-linked activities are encountered.

Peer Groups 

              A social group whose members have interests, social position and age in common.

•Developing sense of self that goes beyond the family

•Young and old attitudes and the “generation gap”

•Peers often govern short-term goals while parents influence long-term plans.

•Anticipatory socialization

            –Practice working toward gaining desired positions.

The Mass Media

                            Impersonal communications aimed at a vast audience.

•Televisions in the United States

            –98% of households have at least one TV.

            –Two-thirds of households have cable satellite.

•Hours of viewing television

           –Average household = 7 hours per day

          –Almost half of individuals’ free time

          –Children average 5 ½ hours per day.

•Television, videotapes, video games

Socialization and Life Course

•Each stage of life is linked to the biological process.

•Societies organize the life course by age.

•Other factors shape lives race class, ethnicity, and gender.

•Stages present problems and transitions that involve learning.

The Life Course

•Childhood (birth through 12)

           –The “hurried child”

•Adolescence (the teenage years)

           –Turmoil attributed to cultural inconsistencies.

•Adulthood

            –Early: 20-40, conflicting priorities

            –Middle: 40-60, concerns over health, career and family

•Old age (mid-60s and older)

             –More seniors than teenagers

            –Less anti-elderly bias

            –Role exiting

Total Institutions

A setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative

staff.

Erving Goffman

•Staff supervises all daily life activities

•Environment is standardized.

•Formal rules and daily schedules