Socialization

Chapter 4

  1. Socialization = process where one acquires an identity, behavior and learns culture
  1. infants are made into cooperative, knowledgeable members of society
  1. learn values, norms, skills, who they are, where they belong
  • How important is socialization?
  • How does socialization occur?
  • Who is responsible for socialization?
  • How does socialization change over the life cycle?
  1. Nature vs. Nurture
  1. Biological Determinism
  1. who we are is determined by our genes
  2. Behavior driven by drives and instincts
  1. warfare and violence—aggressive instinct
  2. mass behavior—herding instinct
  3. homemaking—nesting instinct
  4. love of child—maternal instinct
  1. “born criminal”—phrenologists claimed could tell whether an individual had criminal tendencies by skull
  1. behavior predetermined—attempts to rehabilitate individuals or to reform society are largely futile
  1. Environmental Determinism
  1. Behaviorists believe that behavior is changeable – based on surroundings
  2. Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, and B.F. Skinner –all behavior is learned
  1. Pavlov’s dogs and salivation
  2. Skinner taught mice complex mazes and pigeons to play ping-pong
  3. Watson believed in tabula rasa
  1. Tabula rasa = “blank slate”—what people become is dictated by their environment
  2. Socialization is all powerful
  1. Contemporary—both now applied—how genes and environments interact
  1. genes are foundation – environment gives opportunities
  2. Margaret Mead

i.tested belief that women are nurturing by nature and men are aggressive

ii.Arapesh—males were as mild-mannered and nurturing as females; men took care of kids (hated to hear babies cry)

iii.Mundugumor—women were as hot-tempered, combative, and uncaring as men; women who rescued abandoned infants were ridiculed; kids were a burden

iv.Tchambuli—women took care of business matters while men primped and gossiped in their clubhouses; men/boys in constant romantic turmoil but no woman pined for love

v.Arapesh and Mundugumor did not distinguish between the sexes; Tchambuli did but it was opposite our own

vi.Shows that behavior is learned—socialization

vii.Western societies—men suited to strenuous labor; Africa—no concept of weak, delicate women (construction); Balinese—big shoulders and biceps are ugly so men as slender as women; Toda of India thought women incompetent of housework; Iranians think women are cool and logical, men are emotionally volatile; Russia—nearly all physicians are female; Anglo-Saxon used to have weaving as a highly skilled job only for men, but once the loom and other machines made the job easy then it became women’s work

  1. Personality
  1. birth order – affects personality, motivation, skills
  1. 1st—more achievement-oriented, cooperative, cautious
  2. last born—more affectionate, friendly, creative, and tend to be better in social relationships
  3. middle child –rebel to try to get attention or the pleaser who doesn’t get noticed
  1. characteristics of parents
  1. age of parents
  2. level of education
  3. religion
  4. economic status
  5. cultural heritage
  1. Cultural Environment
  1. type of gov’t
  2. geography
  3. religion
  1. Isolation
  1. Anna—born to unmarried woman, enraged grandfather, only allowed to live in attic room with minimum of care. Fed only enough milk to keep her alive with no human contact—not spoken to, loved, bathed, or held.

discovered at age 6 in 1938—could not walk, talk, feed self, expressionless face,

learned to feed herself, walk, brush her teeth, but when she died at 10 was only beginning to show signs of language

  1. Isabelle—born to an unmarried, deaf/mute woman, grandfather kept mother and daughter in a dark room. Communication only through gestures, she did not learn to speak, but did have mother’s contact.

Found at 6 ½ years—crawled and grunted, ate with hands

Thought to be deaf/mute like mother until have several months of intensive training she began to speak—vocabulary—eventually developed to age level

i. difference is with mother’s contact

  1. Genie—confined to empty room, strapped to a potty chair or a straight-jacket-like sleeping bag every day. Emotionally disturbed father only let mother feed her milk, cereal, and occasionally an egg, but no contact allowed. If Genie attempted to attract attention by making noise, her father would beat her with a wooden bat. His interaction was through barking and growling at her. Only toys consisted of an empty cottage cheese container and empty spools of thread.

at age 13 (1970), battered and nearly blind mother took her to LA Welfare office

looked about 6 or 7 and only weighed 59 pounds

could not chew solid food, control her bowels, walk normally, talk beyond a few utterances (“stopit” and “nomore”)

did not react to any stimulation

never progressed beyond the level of a 2 year old in grammar

learned to bathe and dress but still had problems with toilet

left side of brain (controls speech and logic) did not function normally—due to lack of exposure to language

eventually sent to a mentally retarded home where she remains today

  1. Process of Socialization
  1. Psychosexual Development: Freud
  1. human behavior guided by unconscious motives (impulses, passions, fears)
  2. childhood experiences shape adult personality
  3. socialization as a struggle/battle between child and parent
  1. inborn sexual and aggressive urges vs. standards for proper behavior
  1. 5 stages of psychosexual development:
  1. oral stage –1st year: infants take outside world into selves—sucking
  2. anal stage – 2ndyear: attention to controlling body and its parts—potty training
  3. phallic stage – 3-6: seek to demonstrate their power over world; discover genitals and differences in sexes
  4. oedipal conflicts occur: desire to possess parent of opposite sex creates rivalry with parent of same sex (only in child’s mind)
  5. latency stage – 7-12: sexual urges dormant, interest shifts to developing skills for mastering the environment
  6. genital stage – 13+: desires reemerge and young person begins to seek mutually gratifying sexual relationships and mature love

e. personality—3 interrelated parts developed during the 5 stages

  1. id = primitive, sexual, and aggressive urges inborn
  2. ego = rational part of personality that deals with outside world (channels id’s impulses into socially acceptable activities and keeps superego from demanding too much)
  3. superego = internal representation of society’s norms and values (conscience)
  1. Cooley and Mead—emergence of self (Who I am)
  1. Looking-Glass Self = how we develop an image of ourselves based on how we think others see us (Cooley)
  1. 1st we imagine how we appear to others

ii. 2—based on their reactions to us, we figure out if they see us how we see do

iii. 3rd—we use what they think to develop how we feel about ourselves

infant has no sense of self or place, learns through interaction who parents are, where lives, what to do—child develops sense of self from interaction that reflects who child is

great deal of responsibility on parents

  1. Mead—role-taking forms basis of socialization process

i. first—internalize expectations of others closest to us = significant others

play stage = children play at being different people—learn to see selves through other people’s eyes

ii. as older—expectations and attitudes of society more important = generalized other

game stage = participate in relationships with others where structure and rules are involved

  1. “I” = unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component of personality
  2. “Me” = part of identity that is aware of expectations and attitudes of society
  1. Agents of Socialization--Family, Friends, School, Media, Religion
  1. Family—most of early socialization (40s, 50s, 60s kids with mothers and siblings)
  1. 80s and 90s—not dependent on immediate family

i. 50% of kids 13 and under spend most of time with someone other than a parent

  1. size, composition, and socioeconomic circumstances change
  2. Styles of Parenting:

i. Authoritarian = parents see obedience as a prime virtue

ii. Permissive = parents see self-expression as a prime virtue

iii. Authoritative = parents fall between allowing self-expression but having rules and limits

  1. Kohn’s study comparing working- and middle-class parents

i. working-class parents tend to be “traditional”

kids neat and clean, obedient and respectful

focus on conformity to standards

ii. middle-class parents tend to be “developmental”

want children to communicate, be eager to learn, to cooperate, and be “happy”

value self-control

  1. some parenting style related to structure

i. e.g. single mothers tend to be more permissive;stepparent too authoritarian or too permissive-----social class usually affects more than structure

  1. Peer/Friends
  1. creative and communal aspects of socialization
  2. kids create own, private culture with adult aspects
  1. sharing and social participation, dealing with fears, confusions, and conflicts, resisting adult rules and authority
  1. first friends us. Siblings
  2. friendship is egalitarian—not governed by status or dependency
  3. importance of peers increases into adolescence

i. popularity, who friends are, stratification begins, cliques

  1. School
  1. legal minimum of 180 days per year
  2. individuals into active members of society, appropriate behavior, dealing with issues, career skills, time management, responsibilities
  3. Conflict sociologists think sorting process of vocational and college prep classes is unfair—closes doors and perpetuates socioeconomic inequality
  4. Introduction to large, impersonal organizations and time schedule of work
  1. Media
  1. TV/music/internet is a huge part of our lives—children spend 2-3 hours\day
  2. TV: 111 million household/113 million Cable: 71 millionSatellite: 27 million Internet: 72 million DVD: 96 million Americans own one

i. 2006 stats show the use of the above + music and video games are increasing

  1. children lack the accumulated background knowledge adults use when watching TV—may misunderstand or think is real
  2. less sensitive to pain and suffering
  3. more fearful of world
  4. more likely to be aggressive
  5. children who have unlimited viewing and supervision show poorer comprehension of plots, greater confusion of fantasy and reality, and lower levels of general info
  6. some shows have positive influence: Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, Sesame Street
  7. Difference between Tom & Jerry violenceand Power Rangers violence