Socialization Chapter 3 Henslin’s Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach (Rubinfield and Zumpetta)

Socialization

Chapter 3Henslin’s Sociology: A Down

to Earth Approach(Rubinfield and Zumpetta)

The Debate:

There has been an ongoing debate over whether nature (heredity) or nurture (social environment) most determines human behavior

What is human nature?

Although both “nature” and “nurture” influence human behavior, studies of feral, isolated and institutionalized children indicate that social interaction is indispensable to human development and ultimately it is society that makes people “human”.

Skeels and Dye Experiments:

In the 1930’s, and again in the 1050’s, sociologists H. M. Skeels and H. B. Dye performed two studies.

The first study determined that institutionalized infants given loving care and attention by mentally retarded woman scored significantly higher on IQ testing.

When the same group of children was re-examined

twenty-one years later, it was found that they were far more successful adults than the control group of children who had not been given the supplemental nurturing care as children.

Natural Language:

Studies of isolated children demonstrate that human beings have no ‘natural language’. Language must be learned through social contact and interaction.

Charles Horton Cooley:(1864-1939)

‘The Looking Glass Self’

The process by which a sense of self develops

• We imagine how we appear to those around us

• We interpret other’s reactions - are we being evaluated positively or negatively?

• We develop a self-concept - feelings and ideas about ourselves

George Herbert Mead:(1863-1931) Play is crucial to the developing self In play, children learn to take the role of others

understanding how someone else feels and sees events and thinks and to anticipate how that person will act.

Mead found through simple experiments with children that this ability to take the role of others develops slowly as we grow.

Stages in taking the role of others:

Imitation –Children under the age of three can only imitate the actions of others. This stage is actually not role taking but prepares children for the next stage.

Play – Ages 3-6 children pretend to take the roles of specific people.

Games – Organized play and team games roughly coincide with the early school years.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980):

Studied how we learn to reason

The four stages of childhood: Sensorimotor – Birth till 2 years of age Preoperational – 2 till 7 years of age Concrete Operational – 7-12 years Formal Operational- after the age of 12

Sensorimotor: During this stage the infants understanding is

limited to direct contact with the environment. They do not even realize that their bodies are

separate form the environment around them.

They can nor recognize ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ and do not realize that their actions cause things to happen.

Preoperational Stage:

During this stage, children develop the ability to use symbols however they still do not understand common concepts such as size, speed and causation.

Concrete Operational Stage:

Although reasoning abilities are more developed and children in this stage can now understand numbers, causation and speed, and are able to take the role of others, without concrete examples, they are unable to talk about concepts such as truth, honesty, or justice.

Formal Operational Stage:

After the age of twelve, most children are capable of abstract thinking.

They can talk about concepts, come to conclusions based on general principles and see rules to solve abstract problems.

Lawrence Kohlberg:

The development of morality is significant in what a humans become.

Kohlberg concluded through many studies that we go through stages as we develop morality.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development:

Amoral Stage (Birth – 7): no right or wrong Preconventional Stage (From 7-10): Have

learned rules and follow them to stay out of trouble

Conventional Stage (after 10) Begin to follow the norms and values that have been taught to them

Postconventional Stage: Kohlberg says most don’t reach – people reflect on abstracts

Carol Gilligan: Studied gender differences in morality

Because Kohlberg’s studies were performed only with male participants, Gilligan performed a follow up study with both sexes represented. She concluded that woman evaluate morality in terms of personal relationships while men thought more along the lines of abstract principles that define right and wrong.

Later retesting by Wark and Krebs (1996) found no difference between genders and found both men and woman used both personal relationships and abstract principles when making moral judgments.

Sigmund Freud(1855-1939) Three elements to personality.

• ID – each child is born with the element focused on self gratification. The id operates throughout life and seeks immediate fulfillment of basic needs: attention, safety, hunger, sex etc.

• EGO- as children develop and learn to act based on the norms and other constraints that may block their desires, a conflict arises. To help adapt to these constraints an ego developed. It is the balancing force between the ID and the demands society places on it.

• Superego – the conscience of the personality, the superego represents culture within us.

A balancing act is ongoing between these personality elements throughout our lives.

Socialization’s significance:

Socialization is critical not only to the development of the mind but the emotions as well – affecting not only how people express their emotions, but also what emotions they may feel.

Gender Socialization:

How a male or female is brought up within a society and impacted by family, the media, societal institutions and other agents of socialization that teach children from birth to act ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ based on their sex alone.

What are ‘gender messages’?

Our parents own gender orientations so deeply embedded in them that they also teach us gender roles, the behaviors and attitudes considered appropriate for our sex, without being aware of what they are doing.

Also reinforced by• Mass media• Video Games• Peer Groups

We are each born into a society where ‘male’ and ‘female’ are significant symbols.

Gender is a primary basis used for social inequities

What are the major socialization agents in the US?

The Family and Social Class The Neighborhood Religion Day Care Schools Peer Groups Workplace Sports

What is resocialization?

The process of learning new norms and values and attitudes and behaviors.

What are Total Institutions ?

Total Institutions are places in which people are cut off from the rest of society and are almost totally controlled by the officials who run the place.

Socialization as a lifelong process…

Each stage in our lifecourse require specific and varying needs…

• Infancy 0-2

• Childhood 2-12

• Adolescence 13-17

• Young adulthood 18-29

• Early Middle Years 30-49

• Middle Years 50-65

• Older Years 65 and older

Significance of Social Location:

•Social Class

•Race

•Gender

Are we prisoners of our socialization?

Individuals can and do exercise a great deal of freedom over which agents of socialization to follow, and which cultural messages to accept or reject from those agents of socialization

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