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SOCIALIZATION

SOCIALIZATION

Process whereby a helpless infant gradually becomes self aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of the culture into which he or she was born.

Socialization is the process of learning the social practices, attitudes, values and norms of the society.

SOCIALIZATION

Socialization begins shortly after birth and lasts throughout the life-cycle, connecting generations.

It allows for social reproduction of the society in general and allows for continuity of certain social structures.

It is most intense and plays crucial role in development of self in childhood.

Entering new statuses requires learning appropriate roles for them.

Experiences can change our expectations, beliefs and personality.

IDENTITY AND SELF Identity – the understandings people hold about who they

are and what is meaningful to them. A term that reflects connection of individual with his/her self-conscious.

Modes of identity: Psychophysiological identity: integrity and continuity

of physiological and psychological processes and features of the organism (i.e. in immunology ability of the organism to recognize own and alien cells)

Social identity: experience and awareness of belonging to social groups and communities. Identification with social transforms biological species in social individual and personality, through evaluation of social connections and belonging in terms “we” and “others”. Characteristics that other people attribute to an individual. Markers that indicate who that individual is.

IDENTITY AND SELF

Self-identity: sets us apart as distinct individuals. It is an integrity and continuity of life activities, life targets, motifs and purposes of the person, awareness of one’s actions. This is not a particular feature or character of the individual, but rather his/her self being reflected through her biography. It is revealed not so much in human behavior or his/her reactions to others, but in ability to maintain and continue a narrative, history of Self capable of keeping its integrity despite minor changes of its separate components.

SOCIALIZATION

Biological strain (inheritance) Surroundings Culture Group experience Individual experience

SOCIALIZATIONAgents of socializationGroups or social contexts in which significant processes of socialization occur. ex: family, schools, peer relationships, mass media, and workSocial rolesSocially defined expectations that a person in a certain social position followsPeer groupConsist of children of a similar age.Age-gradesPeer group formalizes age grades. Specific ceremonies or rites that mark the transition of men from one grade-age to another (mainly male).

SOCIALIZATION

Socialization practices vary significantly from society to society

Socialization practices are similar within members of the same society

We socialize our children in much the same way as our parents socialize us.

SOCIALIZATION

Significant actions of parents have major impact on their children’s socialization

Would you threaten or praise?Would you try to make a child self-reliant or dependent?

SOCIALIZATION Formal and informal socialization:

In class, structured, controlled, directed by adult teachers

Involved imitation of what others do, say; experiment and repetitive practice

EARLY SOCIALIZATION

ADULT SOCIALIZATION

When two adult people are living together for a long period of time;

When people migrate to other countries;

Resocialization

In some circumstances, involving a marked alteration in the social environment of an individual or group, people may undergo processes of resocialization. Resocialization refers to a restructing of personality and attitudes, consequent on situations of great turmoil or stress.

Successful or unsuccessful socialization?

SOCIALIZATION THEORIES: PIAGET

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT: PIAGET

Sensorimotor Stage: (ages 0-2) Infants learn mainly by touching objects, manipulating them and physically exploring their environment.Preoperational Stage: Ages 2-7. Mastery of language and become able to use words to represent objects and images in a symbolic fashion.Egocentric: (ages 2-7) Tendency of the child to interpret the world exclusively in terms of his own position.Concrete operational stage (Ages 7-11): Children master abstract, logical notions.Formal operational stage: (ages 11-15) Grasp highly abstract and hypothetical ideas.

4 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY (1864-1929)

THE LOOKING GLASS SELF THEORY

THE MIRROR SELF

• We imagine the way the ‘Others’ see us;

• We imagine how ‘Others’ evaluate our representation of the ‘Self’;

• We develop through the evaluations made by ‘Others’

SELF (Mind) is an internal conversation, and thinking can be explained sociologically.Mind is SOCIAL and society is a mental construct.

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD (1863-1961) To interact, people have to interpret the meanings

and intentions of actions of the others; An individual derives his/her “Self” through the

experience of interpretation of the actions of others and “taking on the role of the other”;

Self – allows for social control to be taken in in the form of self-control;

Generalized other – understanding by a person of the acceptable and expected actions and thoughts in a certain society; this is our connection to society;

ROLE TAKING

Children socialize through: Imitation (gestures, words) Play (specific roles) Games (multiple roles) Generalized Other (roles in groups)

DEVELOPMENT OF SELF

Self is developed through an internal conversation between:

I – the subject of action, creative personality

Me – self as a n object, how others see me, reflecting, normative self, fulfillment of expectations of the significant others

Self – I + me, active and reflexive personality, able of evaluating actions and constructing reality through actions

Each socialized person is a society in miniature.

ZIGMUND FREUDTHE STRUCTURE OF SUBCONSIOUS

Personality is fundamentally social, develops in conflict between ID and Super-Ego

ID – unconscious, urges, pleasure, cauldron of seething excitement, at birth

EGO – conscious, reality/rational principal allows adaptation to environment

SUPEREGO – self-punishment, guilt and feeling good, control and influence form other people, at early age

GENDER SOCIALIZATIONThe learning of gender roles through social factors such as the family and the media.•Freud: The learning of gender differences in infants and young children is centered on the possession or absence of a penis. In repressing erotic feelings towards the mother, the boy identifies with the father and becomes aware of his male identity.

•Chodorow: Learning to feel male or female derives from infant's attachment to parents at an early age. Boys gain a sense of self through radical rejection of their closeness to their mother. Male identity is formed in separation; thus men later in life unconsciously feel that they are endangered if they become involved in close emotional relationships with others. Men have repressed these needs, and adopt a more manipulative stance toward the world.

GENDER SOCIALIZATION

Girls do not experience a sharp break from mother which portrays female dependence. Women feel the opposite; absence of a close relation to another person threatens their self-esteem.

These patterns are passed on from generation to generation, because of the primary role women play in the early socialization of children.

Gilligan: personality is defined through the images adult women and men have of themselves and their attainments. Women define themselves in terms of personal relationships and judge their achievements by reference to the ability to care for others. Men see their own emphasis on individual achievement.

LIFE COURSE

Social and biological in nature, influenced by cultural differences and also by the material circumstances of people's lives in given types of society.•Childhood life course: the long period of childhood that we recognize today shows society's child centered culture that is separate from traditional roles, where childhood was much shorter, and children began working at a young age.•Teenager life course: in some cultures there is no teenager stage. Western societies teenagers try to follow adult ways but are treated in law as children.•Young adult life course: Specific stage in personal and sexual development in modern societies.•Mature adulthood life course: "Make" own life rather then planned by others. Greater freedom. Midlife crisis: unsatisfying jobs, and grownup children.•Old Age Life course: not as respected in modern times as traditional society. Now poorer in old age, no longer living with family, retired, and difficult to makes the final period of life rewarding.

ERICSSON AND AGE CRISES

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