Socialization & Perception
Perception of people in our class
How do you appear in the eyes of those around you?
(List characteristics or qualities that others would use to describe
you)
Areas to Consider:
Personality
Popularity
Intelligence
Skills
Activities
Interests/Hobbies
Goals
Friendship
Clothing
Appearance
Now, we’ll see how others perceive us.
 Put your name at the top of a piece of
notebook paper.
 We’ll take a few minutes to pass the sheets
around
 Only POSITIVE responses…If you do not have
anything positive to say, don’t write anything down!
SILLY
POPULAR
SMART
SHY
Questions to Ponder:
1. Does the perception/opinion of your peers reinforce what you
already knew or does it change your perception in a certain
area(s)?
2. Do you think or care about what other people think of you?
3. Are these accurate descriptions?
Socialization into the Self and Mind
Charles Cooley (sociologist/professor at Univ. of Michigan) said,
“our sense of self develops from interaction with others”
Cooley coined the term “looking glass self”
the process by which our self develops through internalizing
others’ reactions to us
1. We imagine how we appear to those around us
2. We interpret others’ reactions (opinions)
3. We develop a self concept
teachers, coaches, boss, other family members
Things to Consider:
Development of “self” is not always accurate
We sometime misinterpret how others think about
us
Self concept is ongoing, lifelong process
We monitor how other react to us (think of us)
and modify ourselves
Childhood Development:
George H. Mead & Taking the Role of the Other
•Mead agree with Cooley; however, he also felt a person
needs to understand others to develop a concept of
themselves and who they want to be. In order to do this,
Mead believed people need to put themselves into the shoes
of someone else to completely understand how someone
feels and thinks thus anticipating how that person will act.
Mead’s 3 Stages for “Taking the Role of Others”
Three stages of development:
1. Preparatory stage (under 3 years) - child
imitates basic behaviors without
understanding
2. Play stage (3 – 6 years) - imitates and
understands the role of the “significant other”
(e.g. children play at being parents, doctors,
police office, etc.)
3. Game stage (6 +) - imitates and understands
the role of “generalized other” (children
understand rules of game, different positions,
etc.)
Play Stage
 Playing “cops & robbers” or “doctor & patient”
 Understands the roles of each “significant other”,
but is limited in the roles they can play
Game Stage
 Child must understand the role of not only
themselves, but of those around him/her
 E.g. baseball:
 A little boy playing 1st base on a tee-ball team must
be able to anticipate what the pitcher will do, what
the hitter will do, what the catcher will do, and
respond accordingly (the “generalized others”)
 Learn: the function of the organization (team)
and the role they play in the organization
(position)
Cognitive Development
Piaget’s Stages of Childhood Development
Jean Piaget
 Swiss Philosopher
and psychologist…
focused on
epistemology
Piaget studied the natural process of how children
learn to reason; after years of testing Piaget
concluded children clearly go through 4 stages to
develop their ability to reason
•Studied his own children to better understand
Basic Theories…
1. The child used "schemas" to master and gain information
about the environment
2. The sophistication of a child's cognitive structures increase
as the child grows and develops, as does the child’s
schemas
We understand the world through schemas…e.g. rattles
 We assimilate new objects into preexisting schemas…e.g.
dad’s watch
 We accommodate objects that do not fit by changing our
schemas…e.g. beach balls
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Development
1.
Sensorimotor Stage (infancy)
2.
Preoperational Stage (pre-school)
3.
Concrete Operational Stage (childhood)
4.
Formal Operational Stage (adolescence)
Sensorimotor Stage
 Birth to Age 2
 Child interacts with environment through physical
actions (sucking, pushing, grabbing, shaking, etc.)
These interactions build the child's cognitive structures
about the world and how it functions or responds.
 Peek-a-boo
 Out of sight out of mind…or at least existence
 The here and now is all that exists for infants
Object Permanence is discovered (things still exist while out of
view).
Emerges between the ages of 7-12 months
Representational Thought
18-24 months: children will begin to visualize something
they’ve seen or experienced in their mind
Preoperational Stage
 Ages 2-7
 Understands past and present
 Symbols develop however children do not understand
common concepts such as size or causation
 Conservation - a given quantity does not change even
when its appearance is changed
 This is why - according to Piaget, children are egocentric -
they have no sense of varied perspectives (cannot take the
role of the other)
Preoperational Stage
Egocentrism
Concrete Operational (Reasoning) Stage
 Ages 7-12
 Reasoning abilities are more developed, but remain
concrete
 Can now understand numbers, size, causation
 Can take the role of the other
 Classification & Seriation (ability to sort by size)
 Reversibility - can identify relationships between
categories
Formal Operational (reasoning) Stage
Age 12 - adulthood
 Deductive Reasoning / Hypothetical Thinking
 Abstract thought & problem solving
Development of Personality
Testing Personalities
 Aim to assess characteristics
and identify psychological
disorders
 Objective vs. Projective
 Objective tests provide a limited
number of questions with
responses - paper or computer
based
 Projective tests are unstructured
and require interpretation on the
part of the person being tested
Where do you fall on the Big 5?
 Log on to the computer and
navigate to the following website:
 http://www.personalitytest.org.uk/
 Take the 41 question survey and
write down your results for each of
the 5 categories
Rorschach Inkblot Tests
Hermann Rorschach
How is the test implemented?
 Psychiatrist will have a patient look at 10 inkblots
individually.
 The cards are placed in your hands in the sequence I will
show you.
 You are told you can do whatever you like with the cards
and to respond as to what you see.
 The psychiatrists will take notes as you respond.
1.
3.
4.
5.
Examining the Results:
 Your responses should not be overly sexual, or
negative…for instance, it is better to see two rabbits
playing than two vampires fighting.
 Butterflies, people holding hands, leaves, mountains,
etc are all generally considered to be “safe” responses
The Thematic Apperception Test
The “TAT” Test
TAT Tests
 Thematic Apperception Test is an example of
a projective test.
 The test claims to tap a subject's unconscious
to reveal
 repressed aspects of personality
 motives and needs for achievement
 power and intimacy
 problem-solving abilities
Write A Story…
 For the next 5-7 minutes, I will show you a picture.
 You need to write a story about what you fantasize the
picture is about…
 What has led up to the event shown ?
 What is happening at the moment ?
 What the characters are feeling and thinking, and ?
 What the outcome of the story was.?
Sigmund Freud
was an
Austrian
physician who
founded the
psychoanalytic
school of
psychiatry.
Freud believed personality consisted of 3 elements:
The Id
The Ego
The Superego
The Id – inborn drives (impulses) that seek self
gratification
The id is pleasure seeking:
Food – Sex - Attention
The Superego – the conscience (our moral part)
Provokes guilt/shame or pride/satisfaction
The Ego – part of personality that maintains balance
between our impulses (id) and our conscience
(superego)
The ego balances the id so we aren’t out of control
from our inborn drives but also keeps the superego
in check so we aren’t to stringent or rigid
The Office:
Michael: id (childish and impulsive)
Dwight: superego (moralistic)
Jim: ego (sensible and balance – drive the office)
Two and a Half Men:
Charlie: id (pleasure seeking lifestyle)
Alan: Superego (straight-laced)
Jake: ego (stuck in the middle)
Freud and Sociology
Sociologists object to Freud’s view that inborn and
subconscious motivations are the primary reason
for human behavior
This contrasts the basic ideas of sociology
Moral
Development
Lawrence Kohlberg
 Expands on Piaget –
focuses on moral
development
 Identifies stages that we
move through as “moral”
social beings
4. Post-Conventional Stage
3. Conventional Stage
2. Pre-Conventional Stage
1. Amoral Stage
Moral
Development
Amoral Stage
1.
2.
3.
Totally egocentric
No concept of moral
right or wrong
Kids want to be
fulfilled regardless
of the moral cost.
Pre-Conventional Stage
 Kids learn a fear of
punishment/obedience
 Focus is on selfinterest
 Usually develops in
early childhood
(preschool)
Conventional
Stage
 Kids learn to
conform to others
 Rules and laws are
upheld based on
norms
 Obedience without
question
 Usually begins
around middle
school
Post-Conventional Stage
 “The Social Contract”
 Young adults develop their own
ideas on important issues
 Alternatives (from parents) are
considered
 Ideas are based on accepted
principles
 Usually occurs around collegeage
1.Tamara has five tests in one day. She is a good student but did not have time to study for her
French test. She knows the person next to her is also a good student. This girl has copied from
Tamara on occasion. Tamara decides to look at the other girl’s test for the questions she doesn’t
know. Besides, thinks Tamara, “I never should have five tests in one day anyways.”
2. Scott thought about leaving school early and going to a baseball game. He stayed in school
because he was afraid of getting caught.
3. Juanita’s friends were at the mall, and someone suggested they do a little shoplifting just to
see if they could get away with It. Juanita wouldn’t participate and said stealing is wrong.
4. Muhammad lives with his mother in a poor section of the city. His mother is quite Ill and
needs outpatient services daily at a hospital some miles away from their home. Muhammad
steals a car to take his mother to the hospital.
5. Martina, a young woman living in a war-torn region of the world, distributes food to orphans
living In the streets. This activity is actually against the law. She frequently has to deceive the
authorities In order to keep these children alive.
6. Grant wants to spend time after school volunteering at the hospital. However, he is a good
basketball player, and practice interferes with this volunteer program. The coach and other
teammates pressure him to play. Grant decides to play with the team.