Chapter 4: SOCIALIZATION UNIT 2: THE INDIVIDUAL AND

SOCIETY (Cont.)

Desocialization vs. Resocialization

• Desocialization:– The process whereby people are stripped of the

values and self-conceptions acquired in the past.

• Resocialization:– The process of learning new norms, values,

attitudes, and behaviors.

The Case of Total Institutions

Total Institution:An institution in which the entire scope of the

inmates’ lives is controlled by the institution to serve the institution’s goals.

Resocialization into such institution involves a complete change of personality.

Ex: boot camp, prisons, concentration camps, convents, some religious cults, and some boarding schools.

Boot Camp

Convent School

Personal Identity Kit

Personal Identity Kit

The Case of Total Institution (cont.)

• A person entering a total institution is greeted with a DEGRADATION CEREMONY.– Ex: fingerprinting, photographing, shaving head,

and banning the person’s personal identity kit.

The Case of Total Institution (cont.)

• Total institutions are extremely effective in stripping away people’s personal freedom.– Ex: using walls, bars, or other barriers.

The Case of Total Institution (cont.)

• Total institutions suppress preexisting statuses counting only on the current role.

• Total institutions suppress the norms of the outside world, replacing with their own rules, values and interpretation of life, including the entire lives of the residents.

The Case of Total Institution (cont.)

• Total institutions control the information which helps the institutions shape the inmates’ ideas and picture of the world.

• Total institutions control the rewards and punishment.

The Case of Total Institution (cont.)

• No one leaves a total institution unscathed, for the experience leaves and indelible mark on the individual’s self that colors the way he or she sees the world.

Occupational Socialization

• The learning of attitudes, behaviors, that is necessary to recognize and sustain competence within a context of employment.

• It includes skills acquired through training, informal norms, and peer-group values and relationship.

Occupational Socialization (cont.)

• When people are socialized to a new job individually, they are more likely to depend much on the “superior”.

Occupational Socialization (cont.)

• When people are socialized to a new job in group, the peer relations and informal group norms play important roles in encouraging them toward organization’s goals.

Occupational Socialization (cont.)

• Anticipatory Socialization:– For the freshmen, more pressure is put by

themselves to form good socialization with the people in their new work place. They always find more information about their company before they start their new work. In this case it really helps the new employees to adapt and equip themselves well in their new job field.

Occupational Socialization (cont.)

• Anticipatory Socialization gives 4 very difficult tasks:– Coming to terms with the reality of bureaucratic

organization.– Learning to cope with resistance to change within

the organization.– Resolving ambiguity related to their work.– New employee must learn how to get ahead in

their organization.

Socialization in Gender

• Gender socialization:– The way in which society sets children onto

different courses in life because they are male or female.

– Male >>> active and independent.– Female >>> passive and dependent.

Socialization in Gender (cont.)

• Gender Role:– The behaviors and attitudes that are considered to

be appropriate because one is male or female.– Male >>> can go out at night.– Female >>> is not allowed to go out.

Gender, the Family and Sex-Linked Behavior

• Psychologist Susan Goldberg and Michael Lewis conducted a research on 6-month-old infants and their mother.

• They concluded that boys were more active and independent, while girls were passive and dependent.

• Ex: children are given different toys based on their sex.

Gender and the Mass Media

• Advertising:– Male >>> dominant and rugged.– Female >>> sexy and submissive.

• Example:– The cowboy in Marlboro.– Semi-clad female selling automobiles.

Gender and the Mass Media (cont.)

• Television:– Male characters outnumber female characters

even in cartoons.– Male >>> dominant and high-ranked.– Female >>> passive and indecisive.– The more TV people watch, the more restrictive

idea they have on women’s role.

Gender and the Mass Media (cont.)

• Music:– Male >>> aggressive, domineering.– Female >>> sexy, dependent, affectionate, and

submissive.– Female >>> irrelevant, background ornaments of

male action only.

Gender and the Mass Media (cont.)

• Media Images, Gender Roles, and Peer Groups:– Out of the images in the media, boys would pick

sex and violence.– Boys >>> uses the media images to discover who

they are.– Media Images can produce both gender equality

and perpetuate myth and inequality.