Transcript Chapt04
Socialization
Chapter Four
Outline
Why is Socialization Important?
Agents of Socialization
Sociological Theories of Human Development
Social Psychological Theories of Human
Development
Gender and Racial-Ethnic Socialization
Socialization through the Life Course
Resocialization
Socialization in the Future
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Why is Socialization Important?
Defined: The lifelong process of social
interaction through which individuals acquire
a self-identity and the physical, mental, and
social skills needed for survival in society.
(p. 104)
– Elements:
Essential for the individual’s survival and growth
Essential for the survival and stability of society
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Why is Socialization Important?
Human Development: Biology and Society
– Key insight: we are products of biology, society,
and personal experiences
– Two contrasts:
Sociologists focus on nurture, culture, and society
Socio-biologists focus on biology and how it affects
social behaviour
Combined view: both nature and nurture shape us
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Why is Socialization Important?
Problems with Isolation and Maltreatment:
– Nonhuman primates and isolation: the Harlow studies
– Isolated Children (or feral children). Real examples:
Anna
Genie
– Child Maltreatment
Most common is neglect
Very negative outcomes
Issue of spanking: Is this abuse?
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Agents of Socialization
The Family
The School
Peer Groups
Mass Media
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The Family
The most basic and foundational agent
Functionalist interpretation:
– Families are the source of procreation and
socialization of children
– Source of emotional support
Variations of socialization:
– Class
– Race and Ethnicity
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The Family
Conflict Theorists:
– Socialization reproduces class in children from
the class of the parents
Symbolic Interactionists
– Through interactions with our parents, kin, and
siblings we are socialized
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The School
A significant agent—most Canadians spend
about 20 years in education
Issues:
– Single parent children
– Daycare for working parents
Schools are miniature societies: we learn
skills, punctuality, obedience to authority
figures
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The School
A Functionalist Perspective
Their functions:
1. teaching students to be productive members of
a society
2. transmission of culture
3. social control and personal development
4. selection, training, and placement of individuals
in social ranks
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The School
A Conflict Perspective
Children have varied experiences
dependent upon class, race, gender, and
ethnicity
Hidden curriculum concept: children learn
the capitalistic system in school
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The School
A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Socialization is a result of daily interactions
in the school setting
Here, students learn about their culture, the
nation, aggression and compliance, and
gender
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Peer Groups
Defined: a group of people who are linked
by common interests, equal social position,
and similar age (p. 111)
Their functions:
– Contribute to our sense of “belonging”
– Give some sense of freedom from family
– Teach social norms
– They reflect the larger culture in many ways
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Peer Groups
Question of Peer Pressure:
When we conform we are rewarded but
when we rebel we are punished
Issue: conflict between conformity to peers
or conformity to parents
Strong pressure to have things that other
children have is passed on to parents
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Mass Media
Media functions:
1. they inform us about events
2. they introduce us to a wide variety of people
3. they provide a variety of viewpoints of the world
around us
4. they make us aware of products and services
5. they entertain us by providing the opportunity
to live vicariously
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Mass Media
Estimates of exposure of Canadian children:
– 2 ½ hours a day watching TV
– 2 hours a day on computers, video games, or a
VCR
– Total: over 1600 hours a year
– In contrast, they spend 1200 hours a year in
school
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Mass Media
Issues:
– Children know more about media figures than
current events
– Reading skill decrease in U.S. children
– Effects: lower grades, read fewer books,
exercise less, and are overweight
– “Digital divide”: knowledge divide for those with
computers with those without
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Sociological Theories of Human
Development
Classical Symbolic Interactionism
Recent Symbolic Interactionism
Ecological Perspectives
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Sociological Theories of Human
Development
Overview:
– Meaning of self
Has such terms as I, me, my, mine, and myself
Self concept: the totality of our beliefs and feelings about
ourselves (p. 115)
Four Components of Self
1. the physical self ( I am tall or short)
2. active self (I am good at soccer)
3. social self (I am nice to others)
4. the psychological self (I believe in world peace)
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Classical Symbolic Interactionism
Origins in Cooley and Mead of the Chicago School
of Sociology
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
Looking-Glass Self:
1. We imagine how we look to others
2. We imagine how others judge our appearance
3. We develop a self-concept by evaluating if others are
positive we feel good but if we think they are negative in
their judgments, we feel bad
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Classical Symbolic Interactionism
George Herbert Mead (1963-1931)
Central concepts:
– Role-taking: the process by which a person
mentally assumes the role of another person in
order to understand the world from that person’s
point of view (p. 116)
– Significant others: those persons whose care,
affection, and approval are especially desired
and who are most important in the development
of the self (p. 117)
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Classical Symbolic Interactionism
Mead and Central concepts:
– Self: A unity of I (my active part) and Me (my passive
part)
– Stages of Development
1. Preparatory stage (no role)
2. Play (taking the role of another person)
3. Game (taking the role of others in many situations)
– Generalized other: the child’s awareness of the
demands and expectations of the society as a whole
or the child’s subculture (p. 118)
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Recent Symbolic Interactionist
Perspectives
Key Theory: Children create and recreate
constructs in their daily lives through the
organization and meanings of social
situations and collective practices
Key Concept:
– Orb Web Model: children’s cultural knowledge
reflects not only beliefs of the adult world but
also the unique interpretations and aspects of
their own peer culture
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Ecological Perspectives
Key theory: a child’s development is an
effect of a variety of social and cultural
contexts that a child is embedded within
Key Concepts:
– Microsystem: face-to-face contact (family)
– Mesosystem: indirect contact of another
person through the direct contact with a third
(fathers influence mothers who in turn influence
the child)
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Ecological Perspectives
Key Concepts:
– Exosystem: Indirect influence on a child from,
for example, a parent who, in turn, is influenced
by where she or he works
– Macrosystem: The child’s development is an
effect of the larger social system especially in
regard to public policy and child care legislation
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Social Psychological Theories of
Human Development
Freud and Psychoanalysis
Erickson and Psychosocial Development
Piaget and Cognitive Development
Kohlberg and the Stages of Moral
Development
Gilligan’s View on Gender and Moral
Development
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Freud and Psychoanalysis
Key Theory:
1. People have two basic tendencies
(instincts):
– To survive
– To procreate
2. That a child’s development is an effect of
factors from the id, the ego, and the
superego
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Freud and Psychoanalysis
Key Concepts:
– Id: the component of the personality that includes all of
the individual’s basic biological drives and needs that
demand immediate gratification
– Ego: the rational, reality-orientated component of
personality that imposes restrictions on the innate
pleasure seeking drives of the id
– Superego: The conscience that consists of the moral
and ethical aspects of one’s personality that comes from
parents, others, the whole society
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Erickson and Psychosocial
Development
Erik H. Erickson (1902-1944)
Key Theory: His was a developmental
theory of movement through 8 stages. Each
subsequent stage depended on the success
of transition from the previous one.
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Erickson and Psychosocial
Development
Key concepts or stages:
1. Trust vs. mistrust (birth to one)
2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-3)
3. Initiative vs. guilt (3-5)
4. Industry vs. inferiority (6-11)
5. Identity vs. role confusion (12-18)
6. Intimacy vs. isolation (18-35)
7. Generativity vs. self-absorption (35-55)
8. Integrity vs. despair (maturity to old age)
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Piaget and Cognitive Development
Key Theory: A theory of the development of
our cognitive skills. As we age, we change
how we think.
Key concepts (stages):
1. Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
2. Preoperational (2-7)
3. Concrete operational (7-11)
4. Formal operational (12- through adolescence)
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Kohlberg and Moral Development
Key Theory: A theory of the development of
our moral or ethical skills. As we age, we
change our moral behaviour.
Key concepts (stages):
1. Preconventional (7-10)
2. Conventional (10 through adulthood)
3. Postconventional (adult life but few attain it)
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Gilligan, Gender, and Moral
Development
Carol Gilligan (b. 1936)
Key Theory: We develop morally depending
on our gender.
Key concepts
1. Males: more concerned about justice, law, and
order
2. Females: more focused on relationships
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Gilligan, Gender, and Moral
Development
Women’s Moral Developmental stages:
1. Motivated by selfish concerns
2. Motivated by some responsibility for others
3. Motivated to do the best both for herself and for
others
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Gender and Racial-Ethnic
Socialization
Gender socialization: the aspect of
socialization that contains specific
messages and practices concerning the
nature of being female or male in a specific
group or society (p. 124)
Sources of gender socialization: family,
social class, schools, peers, media, and the
computer
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
Infancy and Childhood
Adolescence
Adulthood
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
Special term: Anticipatory socialization:
the process by which knowledge and skills
are learned for future roles (p. 125)
Infancy and childhood
Central concern: during infancy and
early childhood, family support and
guidance are crucial to a child’s developing
self-concept
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
Infancy and Childhood
Central activities: carefree play, safety,
and freedom from economic, political,
and sexual responsibilities
Issue: physical, emotional, and sexual
abuse and its negative outcomes for
children’s development
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
Adolescence
– In industrialized societies, this stage represents
a buffer between childhood and adulthood
– Common: emotional and social unrest
– Some struggle in conflict between parental
wishes and peer pressure
– Transition for upper and middle class families to
higher education
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization Through the Life
Course
Adulthood
– Two foci:
Work in the paid labour force
The development of intimate relationships that often result in
marriage and having children
– Key concepts
Workplace (occupational) socialization.
– Four phases:
1. career choice
2. anticipatory socialization
3. conditioning and commitment
4. continuous commitment
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Socialization Through the Life
Course
Adulthood
– Key concepts
Social Devaluation: wherein a person or group is
considered to have less social value than other
individuals or groups (p. 127). A frequent
phenomenon among elderly Canadians.
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Resocialization
Defined: The process of learning a new and
different set of attitudes, values, and
behaviours from those in one’s previous
background (p. 127)
Special term: total institution: a place where
people are isolated from the rest of society
for a set period of time and come under
control of the officials who run the institution
(p. 127)
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Resocialization
Voluntary
Involuntary
When we
receive a new
status of our
own free will
When we receive
a new status not
of our own free
will
Examples:
Examples:
Religious
conversion
Armed forces
conscription
Joining the
armed forces
Imprisonment
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Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada
Socialization in the Future
The family will continue to be the
foundational source of socialization
However, with these nuances:
– Isolation of the family without social support will
lay increased burdens on parents
– Likely will be an increase of child abuse
Increased use of computer technology may
further impact socialization
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