Transcript Socialization of the Individual

Socialization of the Individual
How do people become
functioning members of society?
Enculturation
Process of being socialized (acquiring culture) to a
particular culture.
Much of human personality is the result of our genes,
however the socialization process can mold it in
particular directions.
– Encourage/Discourage specific beliefs and
attitudes and providing experiences.
Socialization: the interactive process by which
individuals learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and
behavior patterns of society.
Personality Development
Personality: the total sum of behaviors,
attitudes, beliefs, and values, that are
characteristic of an individual.
– Determine how we adjust to our environment and
how we react in specific situations.
– Continue to develop throughout our lifetimes.
Ex: My EX - Roommate and I…. GAH!!!
Looking-Glass Self
Our sense of self is socially created and develops
through interaction with others.
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We imagine how we appear to those around us
We interpret their reactions and evaluations
Develop a self-concept (feelings and ideas of ourselves)
NOT dependent on accurate evaluations but might become
part of our self-concept
– Development is ongoing/lifelong
Role of the Other: put ourselves in someone else’s
shoes in order to understand how someone else feels
and thinks to anticipate how that person will act.
Status
Social Structure: The network of interrelated statuses
and roles that guide human interaction.
Positions that someone occupies – defines who we
are and what we are expected to do (guide of
behavior)
– Master Status
– Ascribed Status
– Achieved Status
– Status Inconsistency/Contradiction
– Status Symbols
Roles – behaviors, obligations, privileges attached to each
status
Roles
Reciprocal Roles: corresponding roles that define the patterns of
interaction between related status (one cannot fulfill the role of
being a student without someone else performing the role
associated with being a teacher).
– Doctor-patient, friend-friend, husband-wife, employer-employee,
athlete-coach, etc.
Role Expectations: the socially determined behaviors expected
of a person performing a role.
Role Performance: a person’s ACTUAL role behavior - often
does not match the behavior expected by society.
– It is often difficult to fulfill completely the expectations that each of
our roles calls for (we are asked to perform many roles, some of
them being contradictory - ex. employee vs. parent).
Role Strain and Conflict
Role Conflict: occurs
when fulfilling the role
expectations of one
status makes it difficult
to fulfill the role
expectations of another
status.
Role Strain: occurs
when a person has
difficulty meeting the
role expectations of a
single status
Cultural Environment
Each culture gives rise to a series of
personality traits that are typical of
members of that society.
– U.S. = competitive, assertive, individualistic
How we experience our culture also
influences our personality.
– Gender, heritage, region, neighborhood,
etc.
Who Are You?
Create a poster that signifies who you are:
– Your statuses
• (6-8) Ascribed
• (6-8) Achieved
– Master Status (1)
– (1-2) Status Symbols
– Your roles (2-3 for each status)
– One Example of Role Strain – explain
– One Example of Role Conflict – explain
– Use pictures and vocabulary to describe who you are - be
prepared to briefly present your poster!
Agents of Socialization
People and groups that influence our orientations to life – our
self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior.
Birth Order
– Personalities are influenced by whether we have brothers, sisters, both, or
neither.
– Personalities are also influenced by the order in which we are born into the
family (first, middle, or last child).
Parents
– Personality development in children is also influenced by the characteristics
of the parents.
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Age, level of education, religious orientation, economic status, cultural heritage, and
occupational impact of the parents all have an impact
Family
Lays down our basic sense of self, establishing our
initial motivations, values, and beliefs.
Social Class has a significant impact
– Parents rear their children to have lives like theirs (life
experiences)
• Tend to have the same jobs as parents
– Job type plays a key role
• Blue-collar workers’ boss tells them what to do, so in turn they are more
apt to stress obedience as parents unlike middle-class parents.
– Different views of how children develop
• Working-class parents see children as developing more naturally, while
middle-class parents think children need more guidance.
Neighborhood/Religion
Neighborhood
– Poor Neighborhoods vs. Affluent Neighborhoods
– More eyes watching in the affluent neighborhoods
Religion – strongly influences vales and becomes a
key component in people’s ideas of right and wrong.
– Provides answers to perplexing questions (experiences are given
meaning)
– Emotional comfort
– Social solidarity
– Guidelines for everyday life
– Social Control (conflict – supports the status quo and helps to
maintain social inequalities)
School
Transmit knowledge and skills while also
earning a broader perspective of the world
(rules apply to everyone even if you come
from doting parents)
– Hidden curriculum: unwritten rules and
expectations of behavior, which are not explicitly
taught.
– Corridor curriculum: what students teach one
another
– Significance of Social Class
Daycare/Peer Group
Daycare
– More hours in daycare equates to weaker bonds with mothers =
more likely to be cruel, fight, and be mean – less familiar with their
children’s “signaling system”/less responsive to their emotional
needs.
– However, they have higher language skills (benefits for those in
low-income/dysfunctional families)
Peer Group
– Starting very early (elementary), children separate themselves
based on gender and develop their own worlds and unique norms
– Dominate our lives (resist parental and school efforts) – i.e. music
Sports and Competition
Teach physical skills and values (team-player
and student-athlete).
Effects of sports on self-image:
– Boys learn that to achieve in sports is to gain
stature in masculinity (prestige)
– Encourages instrumental relationships – those
based on what you get out of them and carried
into other aspects of life.
– Girls are socialized to construct meaningful
relationships.
Workplace
Those we work with, teach us a set of skills
but also a broader perspective of the world.
– Anticipatory Socialization: learning to play a role
before entering it – mental rehearsal for a future
activity.
• Avoid full on commitment to an unrewarding career
– The more one participates in a line of work, the
more the work becomes a part of our self-concept
Nature vs. Nurture
Nature = centered around heredity - the
transmission of genetic characteristics
from parents to children.
– Instinct: unchanging, biologically inherited
behavior pattern.
Nurture = environmental factors and
social learning determine our behavior.