chapter 3 socialization. society makes us human feral children isolated children institutionalized...

Chapter 3

Socialization

Society Makes Us Human

• Feral Children

• Isolated Children

• Institutionalized Children

• Deprived Animals

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Socialization into the Self and Mind

• Cooley and the Looking Glass Self– Imitation, Play, Team Games

• Mead and Role Taking– Imitation– Play– Team Games


Cooley: Looking-Glass Self

█ View of ourselves comes from contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us

Looking-glass self: The self is product of

social interactions with other people

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Mead: Stages of the Self

█ Preparatory Stage: Children imitate people around them

– As they grow older, children become more adept at using symbols

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█ Play Stage: Children develop skill in communicating through symbols and role taking occurs

– Role taking: Process of mentally assuming perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint

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█ Game Stage: Children of about 8 or 9 consider several actual tasks and relationships simultaneously

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-Mead used the game of baseball as an example of this stage


█ Generalized others: Children of about 10 begin to take the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole into account.

Mead and Role-taking

The self is divided into “I” and “Me”:

• “I” represents the unique traits of each person.

• “Me” is composed of the demands of others and the awareness of those demands.

• “I” develops first. “Me” is formed during first three stages of self development.

Mead: Theory of the Self

█ Self begins as privileged, central position in a person’s world

█ As the person matures, the self changes and begins to reflect greater concern about reactions of others

Significant others: Individuals most important in the development of the self

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Goffman: Presentation of the Self█ Impression management: Individual

learns to slant presentation of self to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences

– Also known as dramaturgical approach

Face-work: Need to maintain proper image of self to continue social interaction

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Psychological Approaches to the Self█ Sigmund Freud

– Self is a social product– Natural impulsive instincts

in constant conflict with societal constraints

– Personality influenced by others (especially one’s parents)

– Self has components that work in opposition to each other

Art to come

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Human development occurs in three states that reflect different levels of personality:

– Id: Present at birth; Pleasure principle

– Ego: Develops over the first few years; Reality principle

– Superego: Develops in a preschool child; Morality principle

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Personality Development

To the id, the world is a jumble of physical sensations that bring pleasure or pain

As the superego develops, moral concepts of right and wrong are learned

Id and superego remain in conflict

Managed by the ego in a well-adjusted person

Psychological Approaches to the Self█ Piaget

– Emphasized stages that humans progress through as the self develops

– Cognitive theory of development: four stages in development of children’s thought processes

Social interaction key to development

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Jean Piaget (1896-1980)Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget used five key concepts to explain how cognitive development occurs:– Schema– Assimilation– Accommodation– Equilibrium– Equilibration

Socialization into the Self and Mind

• Piaget and the Development of Reasoning– The sensorimotor stage– The preoperational stage– The concrete operational stage– The formal operational stage

• Global Aspects of the Self and Reasoning


Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) - children understand the world through sensory contact and immediate action.

2. Preoperational stage (age 2 to 7) - children begin to use words as symbols and form mental images.

Conservation and Reversibility Problems

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

3. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11) - children think in terms of tangible objects and events.

4. Formal operational stage (12 and up) - adolescents begin to think about the future and evaluate different courses of action.

The Life Course█ Rites of Passage: Means of dramatizing

and validating changes in a person’s status

█ Life Course Approach: Looking closely at social factors that influence people throughout their lives

Most difficult socialization challenges occur in later years

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Socialization into Emotions

• Global Emotions

• Following “Feeling Rules”

• What We Feel

• Research Needed

• Society Within Us: The Self and Emotions as Social Control


Society Within Us

• The Self and Emotions as Social Control

• Are We Free?

• Expectations of Family and Friends

• Social Mirror


Socialization into Gender

• Learning the Gender Map

• Gender Messages in the Family

• Gender Messages from Peers

• Gender Messages in the Mass Media– Advertising– Movies and Television; Video Games– Anime


Agents of Socialization

• The Family– Social Class and Type of Work

• The Neighborhood

• Religion

• Day Care

• The School and Peer Groups

• The Workplace


Socialization Through Life

• Childhood - Birth to ~12 yrs

• Adolescence - 13 to 17 yrs

• Transitional Adulthood - 18 to 29 yrs

• The Middle Years - 30 to 65 yrs– Early Middle Years - 30 to 49 yrs– Later Middle Years - 50 to 65 yrs



Transitional Adulthood: A New Stage in the Life Course

Who has completed the transition?

Socialization Through Life

• The Older Years (about age 65 on)– The Transitional Older Years– The Later Older Years

• Sociological Significance of Life Course– Does Not Merely Represent Biology– Social Factors Influence Life Course– Social Location Very Significant


Are We Prisoners of Socialization?

• Sociologists Do Not Think So– We have a self

• Individual behavior is hard to predict

• Individuals Are Actively Involved in the Construction of the Self


chapter 3 socialization. society makes us human feral children isolated children institutionalized...

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