Socializing the Individual
Chapter 5
Introduction
 What
comes to mind when
you hear the term personality?
Introduction
When sociologists use the term personality,
they are referring to more than an individual’s
most striking characteristics.
 For social scientists, personality is the sum of
behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that are
characteristic of an individual.
 Our personality determines how we adjust to
our environment and how we react in specific
situations.

Introduction
 People’s
personalities continue to
develop throughout their lifetimes.
 Some traits seem to remain basically
constant throughout a person’s life,
while other traits undergo dramatic
changes.
 Ex. Personality
develops more during
childhood than in adulthood.
Nature vs. Nurture
There is a heated debate among social
scientists as to whether nature or nurture
determines a personality.
 Some argue that heredity- the transmission of
genetic characteristics from parents to
children- determines personality.
 Others suggest that social environmentcontact with other people- determines
personality.

Nature vs. Nurture
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The nature viewpoint held sway throughout the 1800s,
saying that much of human behavior is instinctual in
origin.
An instinct is an unchanging, biologically inherited
behavior pattern.
Supporters claim that instinctual drives were responsible
for practically everything- laughing, motherhood, warfare,
religion, capitalism, and even the creation of society itself.
By the early 1900s, social scientists claimed to have
identified more than 10,000 human instincts.
Nature vs. Nurture
 From
the nurture point of view a
person’s behavior and personality are
the result of his or her social
environment.
 Never has this been more apparent
than in an important set of
experiments.
Ivan Pavlov
 Russian
scientist Ivan Pavlov found that
instinctual behavior can be taught.
 Pavlov trained dogs to salivate at the
sound of a bell after they were given food
immediately after hearing a bell.
 Eventually, the bell rang, but they were
not fed and the dogs continued to
salivate.
Nature vs. Nurture
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Sociobiology- emerged in the 1970s and is the
systematic study of the biological basis of all social
behavior.
Sociobiologists argue that such varied cultural
characteristics and behavioral traits as religion,
cooperation, competition, slavery, territoriality, and
envy are rooted in the genetic makeup of humans.
In general sociobiologists argue that most of human
social life is determined by biological factors.
Nature vs. Nurture
Most social scientists assume that personality
and social behavior result from a blending of
hereditary and social environmental influence,
with environmental factors having the most
influence.
 Heredity, birth order, parents, and the cultural
environment are among the principal factors
that social scientists see influencing personality
and behavior.

Heredity
Everyone has certain characteristics that are
present at birth such as, body build, hair type,
eye color, and skin pigmentation.
 Hereditary characteristics also include
aptitudes, which is the capacity to learn a
particular skill or acquire a particular body of
knowledge.
 Most social scientists believe aptitudes can be
learned as well as inherited.

Heredity
 Heredity
also plays an important role in
shaping human personalities by setting
limits on individuals.

ex. If you have little musical aptitude, you will
probably not become a great musician.
 Inherited
characteristics place limits on
what is possible, but they do not
determine what a person will do.
Birth Order
 Our
personalities are also influenced by
whether we have brothers, sisters, both,
or neither.
 Children with siblings have a different
view on the world than children who
have no brothers or sisters.
 People born first or last have different
perspectives than those in the middle.
Birth Order
First-born children tend to be achievement
oriented and responsible than are later-born
children.
 Later-born children, on the other hand, tend to
be better in social relationships and to be
more affectionate and friendly.
 Studies have shown that first-born children
tend to be more conservative while later-born
children are often social and intellectual rebels.

Parental Characteristics

Personality development of children is also influenced
by the characteristics of their parents.
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Ex. Parental age when bearing children can have a bearing
child’s development.
Some parental characteristics that can influence a
child’s personality are;
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Level of education
Religious orientation
Economic status
Cultural heritage
Occupational background
The Cultural Environment
 Culture
has a strong influence on
personality development.
 Each culture gives rise to a series of
personality traits- model personalitiesthat are typical of members of that
society.

Ex. Competitiveness, assertiveness, and
individualism are American personality
traits.
Institutionalization
Sociologists have also studied the human
development of children living in institutions
such as orphanages and hospitals.
 In 1945 psychologist Rene Spitz studied the
effects of institutionalization on a group of
infants in an orphanage.
 The infants were fed and given proper medical
care, but otherwise had little or no human
contact.

Institutionalization
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The nurses, although well-trained and efficient,
had little time to hold, hug, and talk to the
children.
Within two years, about a third of the children in
the study had died.
Of the children who survived, fewer than 25%
could walk by themselves, dress themselves, or
use a spoon.
Only one child could speak in complete
sentences.
The Social Self
Chapter 5 Section 2
Introduction
At birth, humans know nothing about the norms
of society.
 Only through interaction with their social and
cultural environments do they transform
themselves into participating members of
society.
 The interactive process through which people
learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior
patterns of a society is called socialization.

Introduction
A
number of theories exist to explain
how people become socialized and
develop a sense of self.
 Self is your conscious awareness of
possessing a distinct identity that
separates you and your environment
from other members of society.
John Locke: The Tabula Rasa
Locke, and English philosopher from the 1600s
insisted that each newly born human is a tabula
rasa or clean slate.
 Locke claimed each of us is born without a
personality and we acquire that personality as
a result of our human experiences.
 Locke believed that he could shape a newborn
by giving it any characteristic he chose.

John Locke: The Tabula Rasa
 Today, most
sociologists think of
socialization as a process by which
individuals absorb the aspects of their
culture with which they come into
contact.
 Through the socialization process, they
develop the sense of being distinct
members of society.
Charles Horton Cooley: The Looking-Glass
Self
Cooley is most noted for his theory on how
someone develops a sense of self.
 The looking-glass self refers to the interactive
process by which we develop an image of
ourselves based on how we imagine we appear
to others.
 Other people act as a mirror, reflecting back
the image we project through their reactions
to our behavior.

Charles Horton Cooley: The Looking-Glass
Self
 According
to Cooley, the development of
the looking-glass self is a three step
process.
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First, we imagine how we appear to others.
Second, based on their reactions to use, we
attempt to determine whether others view us as
we view ourselves.
Finally, we use our perceptions of how others
judge us to develop feelings about ourselves.
Charles Horton Cooley: The Looking-Glass
Self

Because the world appears as one mass to a
newborn, interaction with the primary group
(parents, brothers, sisters, other family
members, friends) is key to growth of the
child.
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Ex. Parents who think little of a child’s ability will
likely give rise to children who feel inferior.
Even though this process starts early in life, it
continues throughout life.
George Mead: Role-Taking
 Mead
developed further ideas related to
Cooley’s theories.
 According to Mead, seeing ourselves as
others see us is only the beginning.
 Eventually, we not only see ourselves as
others see us, we take on or pretend to
take the roles of others.
George Mead: Role-Taking
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This act of role-taking forms the basis of the
socialization process by allowing us to anticipate what
others expect of us, which allows us to learn to see
ourselves through the eyes of others.
According to Mead, we first internalize the
expectations of our significant others (parents,
siblings, relatives, etc.)
As we grow older significant others become less
important, as the expectations of society start to
guide our behavior and reinforce our sense of self.
George Mead: Role-Taking
 Mead
referred to the internalized
attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of
society as the generalized other.
 Because children are not automatically
capable of role-taking, Mead said they
must develop the necessary skills through
social interaction (activities outside the
home).
George Mead: Role-Taking

Mead visualized role-taking as a three-step process
involving imitation, play, and games.
 Under 3 years of age, children lack a sense of self so
they can only imitate the actions and gestures of
people in their immediate environment. Mimicking
is not role-taking.
 At 3, children begin to play and act out roles of
specific people (dress up, play house, play
doctor/nurse). They are attempting to see the
world through someone else’s eyes.
George Mead: Role-Taking
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At school age, children being to take part in organized
games, which require children to not only play a role, but
also anticipate the actions and expectations of others.
Because it requires internalizing the generalized other, the
game stage of role-taking most closely resembles real life.
According to Mead, the self consists of two related partsthe “I” and the “me”.
The I is the unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested
component of personality and self-identity.
The me is the part of ourself that is aware of the
expectations and attitudes of society- the socialized self
George Mead: Role-Taking
In childhood, the I component of personality is
stronger than the me component.
 Through socialization, the me gains power be
acting together with the I and bringing actions
in line with the expectations of society.
 The me never totally dominates the I.
 To develop into a well-rounded member of
society, a person needs both aspects of the
self.

Agents of Socialization
Chapter 5 Section 3
Introduction
Sociologists use the term agents of
socialization to describe the specific
individuals, groups, and institutions that
enable socialization to take place.
 In the U.S., the primary agents of socialization
include;

family
 peer group
 school
 mass media.

The Family
The most important agent of socialization in
almost every society.
 Its primary importance rests in its role as the
principal socializer of young children.
 Socialization can be deliberate or unintended.
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Ex. A father telling his children about the
importance of telling the truth, but he notices
many instances where his father is not honest
with others.
The Family
Belonging to different subgroups can
determine the way children are socialized.
 Different subgroups may include; racial or
ethnic group, social class, religious group, and
geographic region.
 African-American, middle class, Baptists from
the south may socialize their children
differently from Italian American, working class,
Catholics from the Midwest.

The Peer Group
As children grow older, forces outside of the
family increasingly influence them.
 In particular, children begin to relate more and
more to their peer groups, which are a
primary group composed of individuals of
roughly equal age and similar social
characteristics.
 Peer groups are particularly influential during
pre-teenage and early teenage years.

The Peer Group
 The
norms and values imparted by
the family usually focus on the larger
culture, whereas peer groups focus
on subculture of the group.
 Peer-group goals are sometimes at
odds with the goals of larger scale
society.
The School
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Between the ages of 5 and 18, young people
spend some 36 weeks a year in school.
Because of this, school plays a major role in
socializing individuals.
Class activities are planned for the deliberate
purpose of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic,
and other skills.
Extracurricular activities are intended to prepare
the student for life in the larger society.
The School
A large amount of unintentional
socialization also occurs within the school.
 Teachers may become models for students
in such unintended areas as manners of
speech or styles of dress.
 Each school contains many different peer
groups that influence the habits of their
members.

The Mass Media
Unlike the others, mass media socialization
involves no face-to-face interaction.
 The mass media are instruments of
communication that reach large audiences with
no personal contact between those sending
the information and those receiving it.
 The major forms of mass media are books,
films, the Internet, magazines, newspapers,
radio, and television.
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The Mass Media
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Of these, TV probably has the most influence on
the socialization of children.
Stats;
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98% of households own a TV (most own 2 or more)
Children watch an average of 28 hours of TV/week
Watching TV is the primary after-school activity for 617 year olds (spend twice as much time watching TV
as they spend in school)
More Stats…
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By age 18, most children will have witnessed
200,000 fictional acts of violence.
16,000 of these are murders.
Studies have found a connection between violence
and aggressive behavior among young people.
Studies also argue that because TV violence
appears painless or not harmful, it invites viewers
to be less sensitive to the suffering of others.
The Mass Media
A long-standing criticism of TV is that it
presents an image of a society limited to
white middle-class values.
 The life experiences of many racial, religious,
and economic groups are often either
ignored or portrayed in a negative light.
 On the positive side, TV can be a powerful
educational tool.

Resocialization
A total institution is a setting in which
people are isolated from the rest of society
for a set period of time and are subject to
tight control.
 Prisons, military boot camps, monasteries,
and psychiatric hospitals are examples.
 Socialization in a total institution differs
from the process found in most other
settings.

Resocialization
 Total
institutions are only concerned with
resocializing their members.
 Resocialization involves a break with past
experiences and the learning of new
values and norms.
 In most cases, total institutions are
directed at changing an individual’s
personality and social behavior.
Resocialization
This is accomplished by stripping away all
semblance of individual identity and replacing it
with an institutional identity- uniforms,
standard haircuts, and so on.
 The individual is denied freedoms of the
outside world.
 Once the person sense of self is weakened, it
is easier for those in power to convince that
person to conform to new patterns of
behavior.
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