SOCIALIZATION

SOCIALIZATION

• Biological processes which stimulate children’s physical development

• While biological processes are occurring, children are talked to and handed by caregivers who provide them with food and protect them from physical harm

THE PROCESS OF SOCIALIZATION

• Long and complicated process of social interaction through which the child learns the intellectual, physical, and social skills needed to function as a number of the society

• Observation and imitation → self identity → conception of who we are

• Fichter: Socialization is a process of mutual influence between a person and his fellowmen → results in an acceptance of, adaptation to, patterns of social behavior

Socialization’s Two Points of View

• Objective – society acting upon the child• Subjective – takes on the “habits of the

society”– Society transmits its culture from one

generation to the next and adapts the individual to the accepted and approved ways of organized social life

Functions of Socialization

1. To develop the skills and disciplines which are needed by the individual

2. To instill the aspirations and values and the “design for living” which the particular society’s processes

3. To teach the social roles which individuals must enact in society

• From infancy – an individual becomes “socially broken”

• An immigrant – the person becomes sociologically “naturalized

Importance of Socialization

• Socialization is vital to culture.– Society transmits culture to succeeding

generations– Example: Cultural disintegration during Dark

Ages

• Socialization is vital to personality.–Plays a vital role in personality formation

and development– The element of isolationism affects the

personality development of an individual– Example: The Case of Isabelle

Importance of Socialization

• Socialization is vital to sex-role differentiation.–Provides every individual the expected role

he or she is to play in the society according to their sexes– In early years, it is believed that differences

between boys and girls, men and women, were “inborn” and “natural”.–Biological factors

Importance of Socialization

• Men – endowed with instincts for hunting, fighting, organizing

• Women – ability to bear children, instincts of gentleness, domesticity

• Margaret Mead – world renowned anthropologists; studied primitive societies of sex roles– Exhibit A : men and women were equally

maternal towards children– Exhibit B: men and women were fierce and

aggressive– Exhibit C: women were more dominant;

men were submissive

• Mead concluded masculine and feminine behavior was not inborn but was learned

• Upbringing may have more impact than biology in shaping sex roles

The Social Frame of Reference

• Social experiences of the individual as its content

• Culture becomes “internalized”, “imbibes” by an individual “from the inside” and continues to influence his conduct

• Example: values, ideas → results of the socialization process

• Interpret current happenings in the light of his past experiences

• A storehouse in which a person readily finds how he is expected to behave in the usual and frequently repeated situations of social life

• Fichter: Social experience is:– common to all human beings–unique to each person– specific to a particular culture and society– Example: Friendship and the Primary Group

– unique manner in different culture –kiss on the cheek, embrace, shaking hands

SOCIAL LEARNING

• Shared knowledge which has social significance

• The difference between simple learning and social learning is not in who learns, or in how he learns, but what he learns.

• There is the drive – the biological impulse, subconscious wish, or conscious desire – to acquire certain satisfactions.

• Cue – is the characteristic of the idea, object, or situation to which the person is drawn.

• Response – the interaction between the learner and the thing learned. It is what occurs when the particular drive in the individual is coordinated with particular cue in the object.

• Reward – refers to any object or even which strengthens or makes easier the responses of the individual in striving to learn.

The following are some of the numerous sub-processes in social learning:1. Imitation – is the human action by which one

tends to duplicate more or less or exactly the behavior of others.– Children “ape” their parents

2. Suggestion – is a process outside the learner. It is found in the works and actions of those who are attempting to change the behavior of the learner.– Suggestion from the conscious and

deliberate persuasion

3. Competition – is a stimulative process in which two or more individuals vie with one another in achieving knowledge.– Example: Children desire to obtain for the

approval of others– Competitive learning is a clear indication

that people tend to learn and to conform to the approved ways of behaving in society and to shun the ways that are disapproved.

• Contact and Communication – are essential prerequisites of social learning–Human life is quite different from that of

other animals because people are able to use languages or symbols systems to communicate.

• Symbol is anything that is used to represent something else.

COMPONENTS OF SOCIALIZATION

• The process of social interaction has at least four major components:1. Goals and motivations – are often related

and used interchangeably. • Goal is the state of affairs one wishes to

achieve.• Motivation is a person’s wish or

intention to achieve a goal.

2. Contexts – where a social interaction takes place makes in what it means.– Edward T. Hall identified three elements

that define the context of a social interaction:

1. Physical setting or place2. Social environment3. Activities surrounding the interaction –

preceding it, happening simultaneously with it, and coming after it

3. Norms – refer to rules that regulate the process of social interaction.– Rules for proper behavior that guides

people in their interactions– Patterns are quite predictable

TYPES OF SOCIAL INTERACTION

I. Focused – two or more individuals agree (explicitly or implicitly) to sustain an interaction with one or more particular goals in mind.– Example: two people playing cards,

enjoying a conversation

II. Unfocused Interaction – interaction happens only simply because two or more people happen to be in each other’s presence.– Example: two people waiting in a doctor’s

waiting room cannot help noticing each other’s clothing, posture, behavior, and other characteristics

–Has little by way of goals other that to catalogue other people and make a decent impression on them.–Almost unconscious part of daily life

Four basic types of focused interaction

A. Exchange – when people do something for each other with the expressed purpose of receiving a reward or return– Example : Employee and Employer

relationship• Employee: salary• Employer: gratitude

B. Cooperation – is a form of social interaction in which people act together to promote common interests or achieve shared goals.– Example: Teamwork exhibited by

basketball players

Four Types of Cooperation by Robert A. Nisbet

1. Spontaneous Cooperation – oldest, most natural, and most common form of cooperation– Arises from the needs of a particular

situation– Example: Stand-by’s may chase and run a

robber

2. Traditional Cooperation – is a form of cooperation that is tied to custom and passed on from one generation to the next– Example: barn raising, bayanihan

3. Directed Cooperation - characterized by a joint effort that is under the control of people in authority.

4. Contractual Cooperation – is a form of planned cooperation in which each person’s specific obligation are clearly spelled out.• Example: Agreement between an author

of a book and the publisher

AGENCIES OF SOCIALIZATION

• Family• Peer groups• Media• School• Work place– Resocialization and Desocialization

• Church • Neighborhood

Stages of Socialization

1. Erik Erikson (psychological development)– The feelings of people develop toward

themselves and the world around them– Eight (8) stages of human development – crises– Growth and successful resolution at each stage

depend on the growth and degree of resolution at each stage

Eight Stages of Human Development

1. Infancy – trust versus mistrust2. Early Childhood – autonomy versus shame and

doubt3. Play Stage – initiative versus guilt4. School age – industry versus inferiority5. Adolescence – identity versus role confusion6. Young Adulthood – intimacy versus isolation7. Middle Adulthood – generativity versus stagnation8. Old Age – integrity versus despair

2) Sigmund Freud – Theory of psychoanalysis– What happens to people during childhood

affects them later as adults– If problem during early stages (oral :

mouth; and anal : anus)were not satisfactorily resolved, a person could become arrested (fixed) at that stage.

3. Jean Piaget – Thinking or cognitive development stages– The process of learning to talk, to think, and to

reason (social and psychological phenomenon)– Through interaction with their

environment, children acquire new ways of thinking and new schemes

– Involve increasingly greater complexity of thought and shift from egocentric perspective to perspective which take others into account

• Outlined the process and stages into following1. Sensorimotor2. Language acquisition3. Concrete operations4. Abstract thinking

4. George H. Mead – the founder of symbolic interaction perspective in sociology, developed a theoretical scheme of conceptualizing the development of the social being or self.– Children appear to be unable to

understand anyone else’s perspective except their own

• Mead points out the stages (play and game) involved in being able to maintain a personal perspective and at the same time to take others’ perspective into account.–Play is a stage of social development when a

child can imitate or play at being another person.–Game is a stage when they are able to

understand multiple perspectives including the abstract perspective of the generalized other.

5. Lawrence Kohlberg – (moral development)– Formulated six (6) stages of moral

development1. A child first judges the morality of an act by

its physical consequences.2. The child begins to realize that conforming

to rules can bring rewards, not just the avoidance of punishment.

3. The child progresses to a level known as “good child morality” – when they judge the morality of an act according to how much it conforms to the standards of other individuals, thereby gaining their approval and good will. Ideas about right and wrong behavior develop.

4. The stage that emphasizes law and order, strict compliance and conformity to the social order is accepted as right and any deviation as wrong. Emphasis is on one’s doing his duty.

5. The person recognizes that while it its important to adhere to social rules, it is also possible to change those rules if such as change would benefit greater number of people.

–Morality is seen as rooted in basic human rights such as life and liberty.

6. A person internalizes ideals of justice, compassion, and equality and conforms both these ideals and to social standards.

• Source:– Textboook: Introduction to Sociology and

Anthropology by Dr. Epitacio S. Pilapis