CHAPTER 3: SOCIALIZATION

Objectives:What is meant by gender socialization and

how the family, media, and other agents of socialization teach children to act masculine and feminine based on their sex.

Describe some of the gender messages in the family and mass media and discuss how these messages contribute to social inequality between men and women.

List the major agents of socialization in American society.

Define the term ‘resocialization’ and provide examples.

TWENTY STATEMENT TEST

What were some of your responses to the TST?

Why do you think you answered the 20 questions that way?

What might influence those answers?

SOCIALIZATION INTO GENDERGender Socialization: the ways in which

society sets children into different courses in life because they are male or female.

Family are first to teach symbolic division of gender (ie: pink/blue; Barbie/GI Joe)

Peers are also powerful influences in developing gender socialization

Mass media also reinforces gender roles: the behaviors and attitudes considered appropriate because one is a female or a male.

--advertising, tv, movies, video games

ASSIGNMENT…

Find one example of gender socialization in an advertisement/TV show/Movie and email it to me (or if it is a paper ad…bring it to me) and write a paragraph to go with it about how it promotes gender socialization and your opinion on gender socialization.

Email: mlewis@pleasanthillschools.com

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATIONAgents of socialization: people or groups that

affect our self-concept, attitudes, behaviors, or other orientations toward life

Agents:--Family--Neighborhood--Religion--Day Care--School--Peer Groups--Sports and Competitive Success--Workplace

FAMILYfirst group to have impactdevelops sense of selfvalues and beliefsgives us idea of who we are and what we

deserve out of lifeStudies have found that social class status

determines how parents treat children at play--working class: more likely to set limits

and use physical punishment--middle class: develops curiosity, self-

expression and self-control and more likely to reason with children

NEIGHBORHOOD

Poor Neighborhood—more likely to get in trouble with the law, become pregnant, to drop out of school and end up facing a disadvantaged life

Affluent Neighborhoods—watch out of children better, know the children and parents, help to keep children out of trouble

RELIGION

helps develop values in societyextends to many aspects of lifeteaches not only beliefs, but also ideas

about what kinds of dress, speech, and manners are appropriate for formal occasions.

DAY CAREdefined as: any care other than by the mother—

including care by other relatives and the fatherChildren who spend more hours in day care

have weaker bonds with their mothers--they are more likely to fight, to be cruel, and to be “mean”

Children who spend less time in day care are more cooperative and more affectionate to their mothers

--this hold true regardless of quality of day care, social class, or gender of child

Positive side: children in day care have higher language skills

THE SCHOOL

provides latent functions (unintended consequences) for socialization

children learn a broader perspective that allows them to see beyond the family and it values

Reflect and reinforce social class, economic and political systems (ie: rich kids go to private school, learn skills that “match their position”; blue collar kids are less likely to take college prep classes)

Example of school as socialization agent: Page 82, Cultural Diversity

PEER GROUPS

Peer Group standards tend to dominate our lives (ie: music, clothing, etc)

Kids typically separate themselves by sex and develop group norms--The norms that made boys/girls popular:

--boys: athletic ability, coolness, toughness

--girls: family background, physical appearance (clothing/makeup),

ability to attract popular boys

SPORTS AND COMPETITIVE SUCCESS

Powerful socializing agentTeaches not only physical skill, but also values

(ie: teamwork)Boys: gain stature in masculinity = more

prestige among peers--encouraged to form instrumental

relationships—those based upon what you can get out of them

Girls: socialized to construct their identities on meaningful relationships, not competitive success

--this is starting to change (sports becoming more apart of girls socialization)

THE WORKPLACE

learn not only skills, but also different perspectives of the world

The more you participate in a job, the more it becomes part of your identity.

_________________________________Twenty Statement Test (TST)…looking

back at your answers, do you think your socialization by these agents influenced your answers?

RESOCIALIZATION

Resocialization: the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Can occur each time we learn something contrary to our previous experiences (ie: a new boss that does things differently)

Can also be very intense (ie: joining AA or a cult)

TOTAL INSTITUTIONS AND DEGRADATION CEREMONIES

Total Institutions: a place in which people are cut off from the rest of society and are almost totally controlled by the officials who run the place (ie: Prison)

Degradation Ceremony: term coined by Garfinkel to describe an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual’s self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place. (ie: perp walk, having hair cut