Chapter 4
Socialization and Development
Socialization


Social interaction that teaches the child
the intellectual, physical, and social skills
needed to function as a member of
society.
Each child slowly acquires a
personality— the patterns of behavior
and ways of thinking and feeling that are
distinctive for each individual.
Deprivation and
Development


Human infants need more than just food
and shelter if they are to function
effectively as social creatures.
Children who aren’t provided physical,
mental, or emotional stimulation often
develop attachment disorder—they re
unable to trust people and to form
relationships with others.
Moral Development


Research suggests that not every person
is capable of thinking about morality in the
same way.
Just as our sense of self and our ability to
think logically develop in stages, our
moral thinking develops in a progression
of steps as well.
 Class experiment…..
Cooley’s: Looking-Glass Self

The process through which we develop a
sense of self (Entirely a Social Product):
 We imagine how our actions appear to
others.
 We imagine how other people judge
these actions.
 We make a self-judgment based on the
presumed judgments of others.
Freud’s View of the Self
The self has three separately functioning parts:
 id - the drives and instincts every human
inherits, but which remain unconscious for the
most part.
 Superego - society’s norms and moral values
as learned primarily from our parents.
 ego - tries to mediate in the eternal conflict
between the id and the superego, and to find
socially acceptable ways for the id’s drives to be
expressed.
Agents of Socialization

The Family
 Primary means of socialization in most
societies
 Varies according to geography,
subculture, class, religion, ethnicity and
different lifestyles of parents
Agents of Socialization

The School
 Early interaction with others
 Building social and inter-personal skills
 Early experience in institutional
environments
Agents of Socialization

Peer Groups
 Great influence in lifestyle issues
 Social support
 Social pressure to conform
The Mass Media



98.2% of all households in the U.S. have
television sets, with an average of 2 sets per
home.
Schoolchildren watch an average 2 1/2 hours of
television on school days and 4 hours and 20
minutes on weekends.
By the time most people reach the age of 18,
they will have spent more waking time watching
television than doing anything else.
Deviant Behavior and Social Control
Normal and Deviant Behavior



Norms and values make up the moral code of a
culture.
The moral code of a culture - The symbolic
system in terms of which behavior takes on the
quality of being “good” or “bad,” “right” or
“wrong.”
Deviant behavior is behavior that fails to
conform to the rules or norms of the group in
question.
What is deviant behavior?
What is Deviant Behavior?

From the sociological perspective,
deviance is seen as relative to the values
of any given culture. However, there are
certain acts that are almost universally
accepted as being deviant.
 Genocide
 Parent-child incest
Functions of Deviance



Prompts the group to organize in
order to limit future deviant acts.
Helps clarify for the group what it
really does believe in.
Teaches normal behavior by
providing examples of rule violation
Theories of Crime and
Deviance
Biological Theories
of Deviance
Psychological
Theories of Deviance
Sociological Theories
of Deviance

Biological Theories of Deviance




People are born criminals
Criminals are evolutionary throwbacks whose
behavior is more apelike than human
Driven by their instincts to engage in deviant behavior
Believed that certain criminal types could be identified
by their head size, facial characteristics and even hair
color.
Psychological Theories of Deviance

Downplay biological factors and emphasize instead the
role of parents and early childhood experiences, or
behavioral conditioning, in producing deviant behavior.

Assume that the seeds of deviance are planted in
childhood and that adult behavior is a manifestation of
early experiences rather than an expression of ongoing
social or cultural factors.

Behavioral Theories
 People adjust and modify their
behaviors in response to the rewards
and punishments their actions elicit.
 Something that leads to a favorable
outcome, we are likely to repeat that
action.



Strain Theory
Robert K. Merton (1938, 1969)
believed that American society pushes
individuals toward deviance by
overemphasizing the importance of
monetary success while failing to
emphasize the importance of using
legitimate means to achieve that success.
The Importance of Law
What is the legal code?
Legal code
 The formal rules, called laws, adopted
by a society’s political authority.
 The code is enforced through the use of
formal negative sanctions when rules
are broken.
Explanatory
Approaches
Conflict
Consensus

Consensus approach


Assumes that laws are merely a formal version of the
norms and values of the people.
Functionalist model for explaining a society’s legal
system.

Conflict approach

Assumes that the elite use their power to enact and
enforce laws that support their own economic
interests and go against the interests of the lower
classes
Crime in the United States

A Crime is behavior that violates a society’s legal code.

Violent crime

An unlawful event such as homicide, rape, and
assault that may result in injury to a person.
 Aggravated assault
 Rape
 Murder
 Robbery

Property crime
 An unlawful act that is committed with the
intent of gaining property but that does not
involve the use or threat of force against an
individual.
 Larceny
 Burglary
 Motor vehicle theft are examples of property
crimes

Violent Crime

In addition to homicide and rape, other violent crimes
such as aggravated assault and robbery have an
effect on American households.

White-Collar Crime
 Refers to the acts of individuals who,
while occupying positions of social
responsibility or high prestige, break the
law in the course of their work for the
purpose of illegal personal or
organizational gain.
Victimless Crime
 Acts that violate those laws meant to enforce
the moral code.
 Examples:
 The use of narcotics
 Illegal gambling
 Public drunkenness
 The sale of sexual services
Would you consider Prostitution
a victimless crime?
Question

From the following list, what do you feel should
be the most important function of prison?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Punish people for crimes they
committed.
Rehabilitate criminals.
Protect society by locking away
criminals.
Warn to would-be lawbreakers.
Make people pay back society for
crimes they committed.
Goals of Imprisonment

Prisons exist to accomplish at least four
goals:
 separate criminals from society
 punish criminal behavior
 deter criminal behavior
 rehabilitate criminals
and Federal Institutions,
1925–2004
Average Time Served for
Various Types of Crime
U.S. Homicide Solution
Rates
Crimes Reported to the
Police
Will Be Arrested for a Known
Crime
Likelihood That Someone Will Be
Sent to Prison for a Known Crime