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© Copyright 2010 Alan S. Berger 1

Socialization

What happens in socialization is that the social world is internalized within the child. The same process, though perhaps weaker in quality, occurs every time the adult is initiated into a new social context or a new social group. Society, then, is not

only something “out there,” in the Durkheimian sense, but it is also “in here,” part of our innermost being.

Peter L. Berger, Invitation to Sociology


Socialization: The Key to Our

Humanity and personality

• Socialization is the lifelong social experience

by which individuals develop their human

potential and learn culture.

• Social experience is also the foundation for the

personality, a person’s fairly consistent

patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.




In the nineteenth century there was an intense debate

regarding the relative importance of nature (biology) and

nurture (socialization) in the shaping of human behavior.

Modern sociologists view nurture as much more important

than nature in shaping human behavior.

Studies of twins (including identical twins) shows that

socialization and heredity both contribute to human

development

The Nature vs Nurture debate continues




• Research on the effects of social isolation has

demonstrated the importance of socialization.

All the evidence points to the crucial role in

social development in forming personality.

• Harry and Margaret Harlow’s experimental

work with rhesus monkeys.

• Studies of isolated children such as Anna,

Isabelle, and Genie


Creating a sense of self : Cooley

• The Self and Socialization

• The formation of the self – the set of concepts we use in defining who we are – is a central part of the socialization process.

• The self emerges in the course of interaction with other people and represents the ideas we have regarding our attributes, capacities, and behavior. It typically includes an egocentric bias.

• Charles Horton Cooley’s notion of the looking-glass self highlights the point of view that our consciousness arises in a social context –, the idea that self-image is based on how others respond to us.


Creating a sense of self : Mead

• George Herbert Mead maintained that we gain a sense

of self by acting toward ourselves in much the same

fashion that we act toward others.

• Mead envisioned this process as a series of

stages: In the play stage, the child plays roles

modeled on significant others;

• followed by the game stage and then the

generalized other stage.



● The self is a dimension of personality composed of an

individual’s self-awareness and self-image.

● It emerges from social experience.

● This social experience is based on the exchange of

symbols.

● Understanding someone’s intentions requires imagining

the situation from that person’s point of view, a process

called taking the role of the other.



• The “I” is the self as subject.

• The “me” is the self as object.

• The self develops through several stages:

• Imitation.

• Play, in which children take the roles of significant others.

• Games, in which they take the roles of several other people at the

same time.

• Acquisition of the generalized other, defined as widespread

cultural norms and values we use as references in evaluating

ourselves.

• He may be criticized for ignoring the role of biology in the

development of the self.

• Self-image is differentiated from self-conception. Self-esteem

is governed by reflected appraisals, social comparisons, and

self-attribution. Personal efficacy is another aspect of self-

evaluation

• Conclusion: Mead showed that symbolic interaction is the

foundation of both self and society




Creating a sense of self : Goffman

Erving Goffman emphasized the presentation of self through

a process he called impression management; his point of

view is embodied in what Goffman called the

dramaturgical approach.

He studied a series of total institutions starting with a mental

hospital


Creating a sense of self : Goffman

• Dramaturgical approach: studies interaction as

if we were all actors on a stage

• Impression management: altering presentation

of self to create distinctive appearances and

satisfy particular audiences

– Face-work: efforts people make to maintain a

proper image and avoid public

embarrassment


Creating a sense of self: Freud

Sigmund Freud’s theory of Personality

● The personality is shaped by two opposed forces:

eros, the life instinct, and thanatos, the death instinct.

● The personality includes three basic components:

The id, the human being’s basic drives.

The ego, a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society.

Note who different this is from the contemporary use of “having a big ego” which really means a very positive self image

● The superego, the operation of culture within the individual


Creating a sense of self: Freud

• Freud believed that we internalize norms and his

idea that childhood experiences have lasting

importance in the socialization process remain

critical.

Some of his work has been criticized as reflecting a sexist

bias.


Stages of Personality Development :

Kai Erickson

Stage 1 — Infancy: the challenge of trust (versus

mistrust).

Stage 2 — Toddlerhood: the challenge of autonomy

(versus doubt and shame).

Stage 3 — Preschool: the challenge of initiative

(versus guilt).

Stage 4 — Preadolescence: the challenge of

industriousness (versus inferiority).



Kai Erickson

Stage 5 Adolescence: the challenge of gaining identity (versus confusion)

Stage 6 —Young adulthood: the challenge of intimacy (versus isolation).

Stage 7 — Middle adulthood: the challenge of making a difference (versus self-absorption).

Stage 8 — Old age: the challenge of integrity (versus despair).



Jean Piaget

• Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development

– sensorimotor stage, the level of human development in

which individuals experience the world only through

sensory contact

– preoperational stage, the level of human development in

which individuals first use language and other symbols.

– concrete operational stage, the level of development at

which individuals first perceive causal connections in their

surroundings.

– formal operational stage, the level of human development

at which individuals think abstractly and critically.



Jean Piaget

• Piaget showed that human beings’ ability to shape

their social world unfolds gradually as the result of

both biological maturation and social experience.

• His theory may not apply to people in a

society.


• Primary interest in Moral development.

• Kohlberg suggests that the moral development of children passes through 3 stage

• preconventional,

• conventional,

• postconventional stages.

• Kohlberg’s model presents moral development in distinct stages.

• Critique: his theory is based on research using exclusively male subjects.



Carol Gilligan • Primary interest: The gender factor

• Gilligan found that boys’ moral development reflects a justice model which stresses formal rules, whereas girls put more emphasis on caring and responsibility and less on the rules.

• Critique; Gilligan’s work enhances our understanding of gender issues.

• However, she does not adequately address the issue of the origin of the gender-based differences that she has identified.


Socialization and the Life Cycle

• Socialization throughout The life cycle

– Socialization is a continuing, life-long process. All societies have to deal with the life cycle that begins with conception and ends with death.

– Role socialization involves anticipatory socialization, altering roles, and exiting from roles.

– The life cycle consists of childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, later adulthood, and death

– Americans are grappling with the issue of euthanasia, and the hospice movement provides a more humane approach to the dying experience.


Theories of Socialization Erickson

• Resocialization: Total Institutions.

– Total institutions are settings in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff.

– Their purpose is resocialization: radically altering an inmate’s personality through deliberate control of the environment.

– This is a two-stage process:

• The staff breaks down the new inmate’s existing identity.

• The staff tries to build a new self.

• Social interaction is the process by which people act and react in relation to others. Social structure guides human behavior rather than rigidly determining it.



• And don’t forget the process of socialization into specific institutions such as schools, Jobs, the Military.

• Although linked to the biological process of aging, essential characteristics of each stage of the life course are socially constructed.

• Each stage presents characteristic problems and transitions that involve learning something new and, in many cases, unlearning what has become familiar.

• General patterns relating to age are always modified by social variables such as race and gender.

• People’s life experiences vary depending on when they were born. A cohort is a category of people with a common characteristic, usually their age.



• Childhood became an increasingly separate phase of life with industrialization; it is currently becoming shorter. – Child Labor: Industrialization prolongs childhood and

discourages children from work.

– Adolescence is often a period of social and emotional turmoil reflecting cultural inconsistency. It is a time of social contradictions when people are no longer children but not yet adults. Like all phases of the life course, it varies with class position.

– Adolescence and the Development of Self Among High School Students: Adolescence is a time when people are concerned about identity. Grace Kao documented the importance of racial and ethnic stereotypes in students’ developing sense of self.



• Adulthood is divided into several stages:

– Early adulthood involves working toward goals set

earlier in life.

– Middle adulthood is characterized by greater

reflectiveness.

– Old age begins in the mid-sixties. The U.S. is

currently experiencing an increase in the elderly

population.



• Death and Dying

• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identifies five stages in coming to accept death:

• denial,

• anger,

• negotiation,

• resignation

• acceptance.

• Today fear and anxiety about death are common, but greater acceptance is likely in the future.

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