Socialization
How we become who we are…
Nature vs. Nurture (Review)
• Twin Studies
• Monkey Studies (Harlow Experiments)
• Isolated/Feral Children
– Genie – Introduction
– Genie – Follow-up
– Feral Children
Basic Conclusions
• The limits of certain and physical and mental
abilities are established by heredity (such as
sports ability and math ability), but basic
orientations to life such as attitudes are the
result of environment
• Thus, for some parts of life, the blueprint is
drawn by heredity; but even here, the
environment can redraw those lines. For
other parts, the individual is a blank slate and
it is entirely up to the environment to
determine what is written on it.
How do we develop a self?
• Symbolic Interactionist
theories on self
development.
– Charles Horton Cooley –
The Looking-Glass Self
– George Herbert Mead –
Role Taking
– Irving Goffman Dramaturgy
Cooley on Socialization
• The “Looking-Glass Self”
– I am not what I think I am.
– I am not what you think I
am.
– I am what I think you think I
am.
Cooley on Socialization
• We imagine the way we
appear to others.
• We then imagine others’
judgment of that
appearance.
• And finally, we react to that
imagined judgment.
Mead on Role Taking
• 2 Stages in the Development of the Self
– Play Stage: Taking the role of significant
others
– Game Stage: Taking the role of the
generalized other
Taking the Role of Significant Others
Play
Stage
Taking the Role of the Generalized Other
Game
Stage
Agents of Socialization
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Family
Friends/Peers
Education
Religion
Media
• Which is most important?
Impact of Media as an Agent of
Socialization
• 87% of American households have more
than one television
• 50% of children have televisions in their
room
• The average American child watches 28
hours of television a week
• By the age of 18 the average American
child will have seen 16,000 simulated
murders and 200,000 acts of violence
Impact of Media as an Agent of
Socialization
• In 1972, the Surgeon General released a
report based on a review of existing literature
and specifically commissioned research. The
report concluded that “there was strong
evidence to indicate that over several
measures of aggressive behavior there was a
significant and consistent correlation
between television viewing and aggressive
behavior. Second, the report concluded, on
the basis of experimental evidence that there
was a directional, causal link between
exposure to televised violence and subsequent
aggressive behavior by the viewer.”
NIMH Report
• 10 years later, the National Institute of Mental Health
released the following: “After ten more years of
research, the consensus among most of the research
community is that violence on television does lead to
aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who
watch the programs. This conclusion is based on
laboratory experiments and on field studies. Not all
children become violent, of course, but the correlations
between violence and aggression are positive. In
magnitude, television violence is as strongly
correlated with aggressive behavior as any other
behavioral variable that has been measured. The
research question has moved from asking whether or not
there is an effect to seeking explanations for the effect.”
Other Research
• During the next 10 years, research had
uncovered several new findings…
– The effects are not gender specific (both boys and
girls are affected)
– The amount of violence had not decreased since
the Surgeon General’s report in 1972.
– Viewers were learning more than aggressive
behavior from violent programming…may learn to
identify with the victims of crime leading to fear and
apprehension about being a victim of crime.
Commission on Youth and Violence
(American Psychological Association 1993)
Six Conclusions on Youth and Violence
• Universal exposure
• Strong correlations with aggression and
desensitization
• May be lifelong consequences
• Even those that do not become violent are
impacted:
– Fear of being victimized
– Behavioral apathy
– Increased appetite for violence
• Distorted views of violence against women
• Effects can be mitigated
American Psychiatric Association
• In 1996, the American Psychiatric
Association released a statement
claiming, “The debate is over.”
– The statement referenced the National
Television Violence Study which found—
• The majority of all television programming
contains violence
• Perpetrators of violence were unsanctioned in
73% of violent scenes
• Commercial programming for children is 50-60
times more violent than prime-time programming
for adults
What the Public Wants?
• The response from media executives is
frequently that they are just giving the
public what it wants. In response to this
claim, the AMA conducted a study that
found that 75% of adults with children
have walked out of a movie or turned off
the television because the
content was too violent.
Further Support
• In the wake of these reports, the Centers
of Disease Control and the National
Academy of Science have come forward
with support for these findings.
Judiciary Committee on Media Violence
• The study takes a different approach—it starts
with the premise that violent media can be
harmful to children and then asks the following
questions:
– Do the motion picture, music recording and
electronic game industries promote products they
themselves acknowledge warrant parental caution
in venues where children make up a substantial
percentage of the audience?
– And, are these advertisements intended to attract
children and teenagers?
• After a comprehensive 15-month study, the
researchers concluded that the answer to both
questions is ‘yes.’