CHAPTER 3

1. SOCIALIZATION: FROM INFANCY TO OLD AGE CHAPTER 3

2. Why is social experience the key to human personality? • What familiar social settings have special importance to how we live and grow? • How do our experiences change over the life course?

3. SOCIAL EXPERIENCE: THE KEY TO OUR HUMANITY • SOCIALIZATION • The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture • Socialization is basic to human development

4. PERSONALITY • A person's fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling • Built by internalizing our surroundings • Humans need social experience to learn their culture and to survive

5. Human Development: Nature And Nurture • Humans depend on others to provide care needed • Physical growth • Personality development

6. The Biological Sciences: The Role of Nature • Charles Darwin • Human behavior was instinctive – our “nature” • U.S. Economic System reflects “instinctive human competitiveness” • People are “born criminals” • Women are “naturally” emotional and men are “naturally” more rational

7. People trying to understand cultural diversity also misunderstood Darwin • European explorers linked cultural differences to biology • Viewed members of less technological societies as less evolved – “less human” • Ethnocentric view helped colonization

8. The Social Sciences: The Role of Nurture • John B. Watson (1878-1958) • Behaviorism • Held that behavior is not instinctive but learned • People are equally human, just culturally different • Human behavior is rooted in nurture not nature

9. Social scientists are cautious about describing any human behavior as instinctive • Human life depends on the functioning of the body • Whether you develop your inherited potential depends on how you are raised • Nurture matters more in shaping human behavior • Nurture is our nature

10. Social Isolation • Ethically, researchers cannot place human in total isolation to study what happens • Harry & Margaret Harlow (1962) • Studied rhesus monkeys • Found that complete isolation for even six months seriously disturbed development • Unable to interact with others in a group • Confirmed the importance of adults in cradling infants • Isolation caused irreversible emotional and behavioral damage

11. What new understanding of the familiar ad campaign “Have you hugged your child today?” do you gain from the Harlow research? • What do studies of isolated children teach us about the importance of social experience?

12. Studies of Isolated Children • Anna • Social isolation caused permanent damage • At age eight, mental development was less than a two year old • Began to use words at age ten • Because mother was mentally retarded, perhaps Anna was similarly challenged

13. California Case • Childhood isolation resulting from parental abuse • At age 13, mental development of a one year old • Became physically healthy with intensive treatment • Language ability remained that of a young child

14. Critical Review • Evidence points to the crucial role of social experience in forming personality • Humans can sometimes recover from abuse and short-term isolation • There is a point at which isolation in infancy causes permanent developmental damage

15. Understanding Socialization • Socialization is a complex lifelong process • Six researchers made lasting contributions to our understanding of human development

16. Sigmund Freud’s Elements of Personality • (1856-1939) Lived at a time most Europeans considered human behavior biologically fixed • Studied personality and eventually developed the theory of psychoanalysis

17. Basic Human Needs • Biology plays a major part in human development • Humans have two basic drives • Eros – need for bonding “life instinct” • Thanatos – aggressive drive “death instinct” • Opposing forces operating at an unconscious level, generating deep inner tension

18. Freud’s Model of Personality • Id • Human being’s basic drives • Unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction • Society opposes the id, which is why one of the first words a child usually learns is “no” • To avoid frustration, the child must learn to approach the world realistically

19. Ego • A person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure seeking drives with the demands of society • Arises as we gain awareness of our distinct existence and face the fact that we cannot have everything we want

20. Superego • The cultural values and norms internalized by an individual • Operates as our conscience • Begins to form as a child becomes aware of parental demands and matures as the child comes to understand that everyone’s behavior should take account of cultural norms

21. Personality Development • To the Id, the world is a jumble of physical sensations that bring pleasure or pain • As the superego develops, moral concepts of right and wrong are learned • Id and superego remain in conflict • Managed by the ego in a well-adjusted person • Conflicts not resolved in childhood may surface later on as personality disorders • Competing demands of self and society result in a compromise called sublimation • Changes selfish drives into socially acceptable behavior

22. Critical Review • Critics charge that Freud’s work present humans in male terms and devalues women • Theories are difficult to test scientifically • Influenced everyone who later studied human personality • Importance to sociology • We internalize social norms • Childhood experiences have a lasting impact on our personalities

23. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development • (1896-1980) • Studied human cognition • How people think and understand • Identified four stages of cognitive development

24. Sensorimotor Stage • The level of human development at which individuals experience the world only through their senses • First two years of life • “Knowing” to very young children amounts to what their senses tell them

25. The Preoperational Stage • The level of human development at which individuals first use language and other symbols • Between two and six, attach meanings only to specific experiences and objects • Lack abstract concepts • Cannot judge size, weight, or volume • About age 7, children are able to think more abstractly

26. The Concrete Operational Stage • The level of human development at which individuals first see causal connections in their surroundings • Between ages 7 and 11, focus on how and why things happen • Attach more than one symbol to an event or object

27. The Formal Operational Stage • The level of human development at which individuals think abstractly and critically • About age 12, begin to reason in the abstract rather than think only of concrete situations • As capacity for abstract thought is gained, young person also learns to understand metaphors

28. Critical Review • Freud saw the ability to engage the world unfolding in stages as the result of biological maturation and social experience • Do people in all societies pass through all four of Piaget’s stages? • Living in a traditional society that changes slowly probably limits the capacity for abstract and critical thought

29. Using Piaget’s concepts, can you explain why young children will reach for a nickel rather than a dime?

30. Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development • 1981 • Studied moral reasoning • How people come to judge situations as right or wrong • Development occurs in stages • Preconventional Level • Young children experience the world in terms of pain and pleasure • “Rightness” amounts to “what feels good to me”

31. Conventional Level • Appears in the teens • Young people lose some of their selfishness • Learn to define right and wrong in terms of what pleases parents and conforms to cultural norms • Postconventional Level • People move beyond society’s norms to consider abstract ethical principles • Think about ideas such as liberty, freedom, or justice • May argue what is lawful may not be right

32. Critical Review • Kohlberg explains moral development in terms of distinct stages • May not apply to people in all societies • Many people in the US do not reach postconventional morality • All research subjects were boys • Research cannot be generalized

33. Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Gender and Moral Development • Compare the moral development of boys and girls • Two sexes use different standards or rightness • Girls • Have a care and responsibility perspective • Judge a situation toward personal relationships and loyalties

34. Impersonal rules have long governed men’s lives • Personal relationships are more relevant to women’s lives

35. Critical Review • Gilligan’s work sharpens understanding of human development and gender issues in research • Work does not answer whether nature or nurture is responsible in gender differences

36. George Herbert Meade’s Theory of the Social Self • George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) • Developed theory of Social Behaviorism • The Self • The part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image • Mead proposed seeing the self as the product of social experience

37. The self develops only with social experience • Rejected the idea that personality is guided by biology (Freud) or biological maturation (Piaget) • Self develops only as individual interacts with others • Without interaction, body grows, but no self emerges • Social experience is the exchange of symbols • Humans find meaning in action by imagining people’s underlying intentions

38. Understanding intention requires imagining a situation from the other’s point of view • All symbolic interaction involves seeing ourselves as others see us • Taking the role of the other • The I and the Me • By taking the role of the another, we become self-aware • Two parts of self • Subject – Active and spontaneous – “I” • Objective – the way we imagine others see us - “Me”

39. Development of the Self • Key is learning to take the role of the other • Infants can only do this through imitation because of limited social experience • As children learn to use language and other symbols, the self emerges in the form of play • Assumes roles modeled on significant others • People who have special importance for socialization • Everyday life demands that we see ourselves in terms of cultural norms as any member of our society might • Generalized Other • Widespread cultural norms and values we use as a reference in evaluating ourselves

40. Critical Review • Mead’s work explores the essence of social experience itself • View is completely social – no biological element • “I” and “Me” work together, unlike the “Id” and “Superego” locked in continual combat

41. Have you ever seen young children put on their parents’ shoes, literally putting themselves “in the shoes” of another person? • How does this help children learn to “take the role of the other?”

42. Erik H. Eriksons Eight Stages of Development • (1902-1994) • Broader view of socialization • Face challenges throughout the life course • Stage 1 • The challenge of trust (versus mistrust • Birth to about 18 months • Gain a sense of trust that the world is safe

43. Stage 2 • Toddlerhood – The challenge of autonomy (versus doubt and shame) • Up to age three • Failure to gain self control leads to doubt in abilities • Stage 3 • Preschool – The challenge of initiative (versus guilt) • Four and five year olds • Learn to engage their surroundings or experience guilt at having failed to meet expectations

44. Stage 4 • Preadolescence – The challenge of industriousness (versus inferiority) • Between ages six and thirteen • Feel proud of accomplishments of fear they do not measure up • Stage 5 • Adolescence – The challenge of gaining identity (versus confusion) • Teen Years • Struggle to establish identity; almost all teens suffer confusion in establishing identities

45. Stage 6 • Young Adulthood – The challenge of intimacy (versus isolation) • Challenge of forming and keeping intimate relationships • Balancing the need to bond with the need to have a separate identity • Stage 7 • Middle Adulthood – The challenge of making a difference (versus self-absorption) • Challenge of middle age is to contribute to the lives of others • Failing leads to self-centeredness or becoming caught up in own limited concerns

46. Stage 8 • Old Age – The challenge of integrity (versus despair) • Near the end of life, people hope to look back on accomplishments with a sense of integrity • Those self-absorbed, old age brings a sense of despair over missed opportunities

47. Critical Review • Personality formation as a lifelong process • Success at one stage preparing to meet the next challenge • However, not everyone faces these challenges in the exact order • Nor is it clear that failure to meet a challenge means doom in later stages

48. AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION • FAMILY • SCHOOL • PEER GROUP • MASS MEDIA

49. Family • May be the most important socializing agent • Nurture in early childhood • Responsibility falls on parents and other family members • Not all family learning results from intentional teaching • Also learn from the environment created by parents

50. Race and Class • Family also give children a social identity • Societies define race in various ways • Social class position plays a large part in shaping a child’s personality • Research shows that class position affects amount of money parents spend on children and what they expect of them • All parents act in ways that encourage their children to follow in their footsteps • Enrichment activities represent cultural capital • Advances children’s learning