CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY
Socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. Socialization occurs through human interaction and helps us to discover how to behave properly. It provides for the transmission of a culture from one generation to the next. Socialization ensures the long-term continuance of a society. Personality is influenced by socialization and environmental factors interacting with hereditary factors. Case studies, such as those of Isabelle and Genie, and primate studies support the importance of socialization in development. Conversely, twin studies have addressed the influence of hereditary factors on personality development.
The self is a distinct identity that sets us apart from others. It continues to develop and change throughout our lives. Sociologists Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead (pioneers of the interactionist approach), and Erving Goffman have all furthered our understanding about development of the self. Cooley’s looking-glass self results from how we present ourselves to others and how others evaluate us. Mead developed a process by which the self emerges: the preparatory stage, the play stage, and the game stage. Instrumental to Mead’s view are the generalized other (attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society) and significant others (individuals most important in development of the self). Goffman suggested that many of our daily activities involve attempts to convey impressions (impression management) of who we are. His view has been termed the dramaturgical approach.
Psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, stressed the role of inborn drives in the development of the self. Child psychologist Jean Piaget identified four stages of personality development in his cognitive theory of development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational). Piaget viewed social interaction as key to development.
Sociologists use the life course approach in recognizing that biological changes mold, but do not dictate, human behavior. We encounter some of the most difficult socialization challenges and rites of passage in the later years of life. Two types of socialization occur: anticipatory socialization (refers to the process of rehearsing for future roles), and resocialization (refers to discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones). Resocialization is particularly effective when it occurs within a total institution, an institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority. Goffman identified four common traits of total institutions. Goffman suggested people often lose their individuality within total institutions.
Lifelong socialization involves many different social forces and agents of socialization. Family is considered the most important of the socialization agents. Schools are another agent of socialization concerned with teaching students the values and customs of the larger society. Peer groups often serve as a transitional source to adulthood. The mass media have an impact on the socialization process that sociologists have also begun to consider. Workplaces can serve as socialization agents by teaching appropriate behavior within an occupational environment. Additionally, social scientists have increasingly recognized the importance of religion and the state as agents of socialization because of their growing impact on the life course.
/LECTURE OUTLINE CHAPTER 4
I. The Role of Socialization
• Nature v. nurture debate has shifted to general acceptance of interaction between the
variables of heredity, environment, and socialization.
A. Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation
• The need for human interaction is evident in actual case studies.
1. Isabelle and Genie: Two Cases
• Isabelle lived in seclusion for six years. Could not speak and reacted
animal-like to strangers. After systematic socialization training was
developed, Isabelle became well adjusted.
• Genie was confined in isolation from the age of 20 months until she was
found at age 13. No one had spoken to her and there was no TV or radio
in the house. Despite extensive therapy, she never achieved full language
ability.
2. Primate Studies
• Harry Harlow tested rhesus monkeys for the effects of isolation and
concluded that isolation had a damaging effect on the monkeys.
B. The Influence of Heredity
• Twins studies reveal that both genetic factors and socialization experiences are
influential in human development. Example: Oskar Stohr and Jack Yufe.
• The validity of twin studies has been questioned because of small sample sizes.
II. The Self and Socialization
• The self is a distinct identity that sets each of us apart from others. The interactionist
perspective is useful in understanding development of the self.
A. Sociological Approaches to the Self
1. Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
• The self is a product of social interactions with others. Three phases:
(1) we imagine how we present ourselves to others; (2) we imagine how
others evaluate us; and (3) we develop a feeling about ourselves.
Example: a student’s reaction to a teacher’s criticism.
2. Mead: Stages of the Self
• The preparatory stage consists of children imitating people around
them. Children begin to understand the use of symbols.
• The play stage consists of children pretending to be other people, like an
actor “becoming” a character. Role taking is the process of mentally
assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined
viewpoint.
• During the game stage, children grasp their own social positions, as well
as everyone else’s position around them.
• The term “generalized other” refers to the attitudes, viewpoints, and
expectations of others in society that an individual takes into account
before acting in particular way. Example: children learning manners.
3. Mead: The Theory of the Self
• Children picture themselves as the focus of everything around them. As
people mature, the self changes and begins to consider the reactions of
others.
• Mead used the term “significant others” to refer to those individuals who
are most important in the person’s development.
4. Goffman: Presentation of the Self
• Impression management involves an individual slanting his or her
presentation of the self to create a distinctive appearance and to satisfy
particular audiences.
• The dramaturgical approach is based on people behaving as actors by
putting forth an image believed to be pleasing to others.
• Goffman’s face-work involves people trying to maintain or save an
image or face. Example: feigning employment to avoid embarrassment.
B. Psychological Approaches to the Self
• Freud stressed the role of inborn drives. Self has components that work in
opposition to each other. Part of us seeks limitless pleasure, while another part
seeks rational behavior.
• Piaget found that newborns have no sense of a looking-glass self. In his theory
of cognitive development, Piaget identified four stages of child development:
(1) sensorimotor stage (child uses senses to make discoveries),
(2) preoperational stage (child begins to use words and symbols),
(3) concrete operational stage (child engages in more logical thinking), and
(4) the formal operational stage (adolescent is capable of sophisticated abstract
thought, and can deal with ideas and values in a logical manner.).
• Social interaction is the key to development.
III. Socialization and the Life Course
A. The Life Course
• Celebrating rites of passage is a means of dramatizing and validating changes in
a person’s status.
• Socialization continues through the life course. Some of the most difficult
socialization challenges are encountered in the later years of life.
B. Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization
• Anticipatory socialization refers to a person rehearsing for a role they will likely
assume in the future. Example: high school students preparing for college by
looking at college Web sites.
• Resocialization refers to discarding the former sense of self and behavior
patterns and accepting new behavior patterns. Example: prisons, indoctrination
camps, and religious conversions.
• Goffman suggested resocialization is particularly effective in a total institutional
environment (prisons, mental hospitals, and military organizations).
• Individuality is often lost in total institutions as the individual becomes
secondary in the environment and experiences the humiliations of degradation
ceremonies.
IV. Agents of Socialization
A. Family
• Most important socializing agent. Parents minister to the baby’s needs by
feeding, cleansing, carrying, and comforting.
• Parents guide children into gender roles deemed appropriate by society.
B. School
• Explicit mandate to socialize children to societal norms.
• Functionalists indicate schools fulfill a function by socializing children, whereas
conflict theorists suggest schools reinforce divisive aspects of society, especially
social class.
Example: A teacher praising boys may reinforce sexist attitudes.
C. Peer Group
• As a child grows older, family becomes somewhat less important in social
development, while peer groups increasingly assume the role of Mead’s
significant others.
D. Mass Media and Technology
• Television can be both a negative and a positive influence on children.
• Additional impact of the Internet, cell phones, and pagers.
E. Workplace
• Learning to behave appropriately within an occupation.
• The U.S. has the highest level of teenage employment of all industrialized
nations.
• Workplace socialization changes when a person shifts to full-time employment.
F. Religion and the State
• State-run agencies increasingly influential in life course.
• Government and organized religion have reinstituted some of the rites of
passage once observed in earlier societies.
V. Social Policy and Socialization: Child Care around the World
A. The Issue
• Day care centers have become the functional equivalent of the nuclear family.
Seventy-three percent of employed mothers depend on others to care for their
children, and 30 percent of mothers who aren’t employed have regular care
arrangements.
B. The Setting
• Research suggests good day care benefits children.
• No significant differences in infants who had received extensive nonmaternal
care vs. those cared for solely by their mothers.
C. Sociological Insights
• Conflict theorists raise concerns about the cost of day care, especially for lower class families.
D. Policy Initiatives
• Sweden and Denmark subsidize childcare for one-third to one-half of children
under age three.
• In the U.S., where government subsidies are much more limited, child care can
cost up to $10,000 per year, per family.
/KEY TERMS CHAPTER 4
Anticipatory socializationProcesses of socialization in which a person “rehearses” for future positions, occupations, and social relationships.
Cognitive theory of developmentJean Piaget’s theory that children’s thought progresses through four stages of development.
Degradation ceremonyAn aspect of the socialization process within total institutions, in which people are subjected to humiliating rituals.
Dramaturgical approachA view of social interaction in which people are seen as theatrical performers.
Face-workThe efforts of people to maintain the proper image and avoid public embarrassment.
Gender roleExpectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females.
Generalized otherThe attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in his or her behavior.
Impression managementThe altering of the presentation of the self in order to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences.
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.
Looking-glass selfA concept that emphasizes the self as the product of our social interactions with others.
PersonalityA person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior.
ResocializationThe process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life.
Rite of passageRitual marking the symbolic transition from one social position to another.
Role takingThe process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint.
SelfA distinct identity that sets us apart from others.
Significant otherAn individual who is most important in the development of the self, such as a parent, friend, or teacher.
SocializationThe lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.
SymbolA gesture, object, or word that forms the basis of human communication.
Total institutionAn institution that regulate all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority, such as a prison, the military, a mental hospital, or a convent.
/CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY
Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another. Social structure refers to the way a society is organized into predictable relationships. Both social interaction and social structure are central to understanding how different aspects of behavior are related to one another. Our response to someone’s behavior is based on the meaning we attach to his/her actions. Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within a society.
Sociologists use the term status to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society. A person can hold a number of statuses at the same time. An ascribed status is assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics, generally at birth. An achieved status is attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts. A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position within society.
A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person. Role strain is a term used to describe the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establishment a new role and identity is referred to as role exit.
A group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and consciously interact. Groups play an important part in a society’s structure. Much of our social interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions. Sociologists have made distinctions between the various types of groups. A primary group is a small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. Primary groups play a pivotal role both in the socialization process and the development of roles and statuses. Secondary groups are formal, impersonal groups in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding. In-groups are groups to which people feel they belong, whereas out-groups are groups to which people feel they do not belong. A reference group is used as the standard by which individuals evaluate themselves or their own behavior. A coalition is a temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal. Some coalitions are intentionally short lived.