Chapter 5

Socialization Key Terms

• SocializationThe processes whereby we learn to behave according to the norms of our culture.

• IdAccording to Freud, the part of the human personality from which all innate drives arise.

• SuperegoAccording to Freud, the part of the human personality that internalizes the moral codes of adults.

• EgoAccording to Freud, the part of the human personality that is the individual’s conception of himself or herself in relation to others.

• BehaviorismA theory stating that all behavior is learned and that this learning occurs through the process known as conditioning.

• ConditioningThe shaping of behavior through reward and punishment.

• Feral childA child reared outside human society.

• Role takingTrying to look at social situations from the standpoint of another person from whom one seeks a response.

• Significant otherAny person who is important to an individual.

• Generalized otherA person’s internalized conception of the expectations and attitudes held by society.

• Agencies of socializationThe groups of people, along with the interactions that occur within those groups, that influence a person’s social development.

• Agents of socializationIndividuals who socialize others.

• Anticipatory socializationSocialization that prepares an individual for a role that he or she is likely to assume later in life.

• Peer groupAn interacting group of people of about the same age that has a significant influence on the norms and values of its members.

• ResocializationIntense, deliberate socialization designed to change major beliefs and behaviors.

• Total institutionA setting in which people undergoing resocialization are isolated from the larger society under the control of a specialized staff.

• IdentificationThe social process whereby an individual chooses role models and attempts to imitate their behavior.

• Gender socializationThe ways in which we learn our gender identity and develop according to cultural norms of masculinity and femininity.