Chapter Four

1. Chapter Four Socialization

2. “Traditional” Dating Guidelines • A man should not sit down until the woman is seated. • A man should always pull out the woman’s chair for her and see that she is served first. • A man should never let a woman carry anything heavy • A should always open a door for woman and let her pass in front of him

3. What’s “okay” for today? • What is today’s dating etiquette? • What are some key differences between now and previous generations? • Why do you think these changes exist? • Are these changes good or bad?

4. Section One The importance of socialization

5. Socialization and Personality • Nearly all the human social behavior we consider natural and normal is learned. • Socialization • Definition: The cultural process of learning to participate in group life • Examples?

6. Harry Harlow’ Experiment • Rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth. • These infants were offered a wire monkey “mother” and a soft/fluffy monkey “mother”. • The infants always preferred the soft/fluffy, even when the wire monkey became their only source of food.

7. How do monkeys react to isolations? • Infant monkeys need intimacy, warmth, physical contact and comfort. • Infant monkeys raised in isolation became distressed, apathetic, withdrawn, and hostile.

8. Can we generalize from monkeys to humans? • Human babies denied close contact usually have difficulty forming emotional ties with others. • Touching, holding, stroking, and communicating appear to be essential to normal human development. • The most important learning occurs early in life.

9. Case Studies Anna Isabelle • Anna was the 2nd child to her unwed mother • Kept in a small room and given only milk to drink for 5 years • When found: Her legs were skeleton-like, her stomach was bloated, she had seldom been moved or held. • She could not walk or talk. • Mother was deaf since age of 2 • Lived with her mother in a dark room, secluded from the rest of the family • Found at the age of 6 ½ • Physically ill from malnutrition and lack of sunlight • Reacted like a wild animal and communicated with her mother with gestures; made gutteral noises

10. Outcomes Anna Isabelle • Lived in a county home for children where she learned to walk and understand simple commands. • Transferred to a school for disabled children where she made some further progress, but was well below her peers in terms of development • Died at the age of 10 • Received intensive program of rehabilitation • In 2 years, she had caught up developmentally with her peers

11. The Internet and Social Growth Do you think the Internet can stunt your social growth?

12. Section Three Agents of socialization

13. The Family and Socialization • Within the family the child learns to: • Think and speak • Internalize norms, beliefs, and values • Form some basic attitudes • Develop a capacity for intimate and personal relationships • Acquire a self-image

14. Socialization in Schools • How do schools socialize students? • Hidden Curriculum • The informal and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school • Examples?

15. Peer Group Socialization • Peer group • Set of individual of roughly the same age and interests • How do peer groups contribute to socialization? • Opportunity to engage in give-and-take relationships • Experience conflict, competition, and cooperation • Experience in self-direction • Make own decisions • Experiment with new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving • Engage in activities that involve self-expression

16. Do friends or family have more influence on young people? • According to Judith Harris, peers are more important than parents in socializing children. • Why do you think this is?

17. The Mass Media and Socialization • Mass media • Means of communication designed to reach the general population • Display role models for children to imitate • Offer ideas about the values in their society

18. What influence does the media have on us? • Interview Scene • (Start at 2:17)

19. What about violence in the mass media? • Based upon hundreds of studies involving over ten thousand children, most social scientists now conclude that watching aggressive behavior on TV significantly increases aggression.

20. Other Agents of Socialization • Sports • Through sports, men and women learn concepts of self that stay with them in their later lives • The attitude that “sports build character” runs deep in the culture • A place where many ideas about gender differences are formed and reinforced • Example: For men, success or failure as an athlete can be a major part of a man’s identity

21. Other Agents of Socialization • Religion • Children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as their parents • Even those who renounce the religion of their youth are deeply affected by the attitudes, images, and beliefs instilled by early religious training • Religious socialization influences a large number of beliefs that guide adults in how they organize their lives, including beliefs about moral development and behavior, the roles of men and women, and sexuality, etc.

22. Section Two Socialization and the self

23. Theoretical Perspectives on Socialization • All 3 theoretical perspectives agree that socialization is needed if cultural and societal values are to be learned. • Symbolic Interactionism offers the most fully developed perspective for studying socialization.

24. Functionalist Perspective • Functionalism stresses the ways in which groups work together to create a stable society. • Example- schools and families socialize children by teaching the same basic norms

25. The Conflict Perspective • The conflict perspective views socialization as a way of perpetuating the status quo. • Example: Women work “pink collar” jobs or homemakers

26. Symbolic Interactionism • In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead developed the theSymbolic Interactionistperspective that challenged the belief that human nature is biologically determined. • Instead believe that human nature is a product of society

27. Symbolic interactionism uses a number of key concepts to explain socialization: • The self-concept • The looking-glass self • Significant others • Role taking • The imitation stage, the play stage, the game stage • The generalized other

28. Self-concept • Self-concept • An image of yourself as having an identity separate from other • Children learn to judge themselves in terms of how they imagine others will react to them. • Other people serve as mirrors for the development of the self. • Looking-glass self • A self-concept based on our idea of others’ judgment of us

29. Looking-Glass Self • 3-stage process that is constantly taking place: • We imagine how we appear to others • We imagine the reaction of others to our (imagined) appearance • We evaluate ourselves according to how we imagine others have judged us. • The result is a positive or negative self-evaluation • Significant others are the people whose reactions are most important to your self-concept

30. Role Taking? • Assuming the viewpoint of an other person and using that viewpoint to shape the self-concept • The ability for role taking is the product of a 3-stage process • Imitation stage • Play stage • Game stage

31. Imitation Stage • Mead’s first stage in the development of role taking; children begin to imitate behaviors without understanding why

32. Play Stage • Mead’s second stage in the development of role taking; children act ways they imagine other people would

33. Game Stage • Mead’s third stage in the development of role taking; children anticipate the actions of others based on social rules

34. When do we start acting out of principle? • During the game stage, a child’s self-concept, attitudes, beliefs, and values gradually come to depend less on individuals and more on general concepts. • Generalized other • An integrated conception of the norms, values, and beliefs of one’s community or society emerges

35. What is the self? • The “self” is composed of two parts: • “Me” • The part of the self formed through socialization • “I” • The part of the self that accounts for unlearned, spontaneous acts

36. Section Four Processes of socialization

37. Desocialization and Resocialization • Symbolic interactionism views socialization as a lifelong process. • They describe 4 processes associated with socialization after childhood • Desocialization • Resocialization • Anticipatory socialization • Reference groups

38. Desocalization • The process of giving up old norms, values, attitudes and behaviors • How does desocialization prepare people for new learning? • Often means the destruction of old self-concepts of personal identity • This can be accomplished by • Replacing personal possession with standard-issued items • Use of serial numbers to identify people • Loss of privacy

39. Resocialization • The process of adopting new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors • How does resocialization begin? • Once the self-concept has been broken down, resocialization can begin.

40. Anticipatory Socialization • The voluntary process of preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors • May occur in people who are moving from one stage of their life to another

41. Desocialization- • The unlearning of previous normative expectations and roles. • Example- single to married • Resocialization- • Learning a new set of norms, attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours • Example- Prison • Anticipatory Socialization- • Social learning that prepares us for the roles we are likely to assume in the future. •  Example- Preparing for the workforce. • Source: http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/mskinner/Sociology/Socialization/desocialization.htm