Sociology

Unit 3: Socialization

True or False?

• A. It has been proven that people’s personalities are not shaped by their environment.

• B. As long as a child’s basic physical requirements, such as food and clothing, are being met, he or she has no need of human contact to develop basic skills.

• C. People’s personalities are rarely shaped by their families and environments.

Key Terms• Personality• Heredity • Instinct • Aptitude • Feral-children• Socialization • Self• Looking-glass self• Role-taking• Significant others• Generalized others• I• Me

Think-Pair-Share

• In a list of ten items or less, how would you describe your personality?

Matryoshka dolls (nesting dolls) are Russian artifacts that reflect the idea of an individual as a unique person while also part of the whole.

Personality?

HonestCaring ResponsibleAdventurous Conscientious Dependable Patient

+ CourageousMr. Nick

• To social scientists, personality is the sum total of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that are characteristic of an individual.

• No two individuals have the same personality!

• Even your own personalities change over time.

Nature versus Nuture

Nature• Heredity – the

transmission of genetic characteristics

• Much of human behavior is based on instinct-unchanging, biologically inherited patterns

• More than 10,000 human instincts

Nurture• Behavior and

personality are the result of the social environment and learning

• Pavlov’s dog• Humans can be

mentally shaped to become anything

Think-Pair-Share

• If, on the day you were born, placed in a basket and set in the woods, and were to survive until your 13th birthday, what language would you speak?

• Feral Children – Wild or untamed children

• Not only is it important for children to learn language and culture, without close human contact and love, they can have stunted development and even die.

The Social Self

• Socialization – the interactive process through which people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of a society.

• Your self is your conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity separate from others.

Three Theories of Socialization

• John Locke – The Tabula Rasa• Charles Horton Cooley – The Looking-Glass Self• George Herbert Meade – Role Taking

John Locke

• Tabula Rasa– Each person is a blank slate at birth, with no

personality. People develop personality as a result of their social experience. Moreover, infants can be molded into any type of person.

Charles Horton Cooley

• The Looking Glass Self - Infants have no sense of person or place. Children develop an image of themselves based on how others see them. Other people act as a mirror, reflecting back the image a child projects through their reactions to the child’s behavior.

George Herbert Meade

• Role Taking – People not only come to see themselves as others see them but also take on (or pretend to take on) the roles of others through imitation, play, and games. This process enables people to anticipate what others expect of them.

• Significant Others – specific people, such as family members, who have a direct influence on our socialization.

• Generalized Other – Internalized attitudes and views of society.

• I – Unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component of personality.

• Me – The part of ourselves that is aware of expectations and attitudes of society—the socialized self.