Socialization:
The Art of Becoming
PART SIX:
THE AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION:
OTHER AGENTS AND
RESOCIALIZATION
* What is Socialization?
• The varying institutions used by society to socialize individuals are known as
the Agents of Socialization.
• Among these are:
•
Other Agents of Socialization
•
•
•
The Workplace
•
Making a career choice leads to anticipatory
socialization into a career
•
Learning to behave appropriately in your chosen
workplace is a fundamental aspect of human
socialization
Religion
•
Develops a morality
•
Provides rites of initiation and passage
Government
•
More rites of initiation and passage
•
Socialization through laws
* What is Socialization?
• The varying institutions used by society to socialize individuals are known as
the Agents of Socialization.
• Among these are:
•
Other Agents of Socialization
•
Sports Teams
•
Socialization with peers
•
Development of ethics
•
Developing roles
•
Obedience to authority
•
Ability to take direction
* What is Socialization?
• A final type of socialization, experienced by about 2.5 million people in the United
States, involves being confined—usually against their will—in prisons or mental
hospitals
• This is the world of the total institution, a setting in which people are isolated
from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff.
• According to Erving Goffman (1961), total institutions have three important
characteristics.
• First, staff members supervise all aspects of daily life, including when and
where residents (often called “inmates”) eat, sleep, and work.
• Second, life in a total institution is controlled and standardized, with the
same food, uniforms, and activities for everyone.
• Third, formal rules dictate when, where, and how inmates perform their
daily routines.
• The purpose of such rigid routines is resocialization, radically changing
an inmate’s personality by carefully controlling the environment.
* What is Socialization?
• Resocialization in its most common form occurs each time we learn something
contrary to our previous experiences, such as going to work in a new job.
• It can be an intense experience, although it does not have to be.
• Erving Goffman used the term total institution to refer to places such as boot
camps, prisons, concentration camps, or some mental hospitals, religious cults, and
boarding schools, places where people are cut off from the rest of society and are
under almost total control of agents of the institution.
• For example, basic training in the military
• During the process of resocialization, a person entering the institution is greeted
with a degradation ceremony, which may include fingerprinting, shaving the head,
banning personal items, and being forced to strip and wear a uniform.
• In this way, his current identity is stripped away and a new identity is created.
* What is Socialization?
• Prisons and mental hospitals physically isolate inmates behind
fences, barred windows, and locked doors and limit their access to
the telephone, mail, and visitors.
• The institution becomes their entire world, making it easier for the staff
to bring about personality change—or at least obedience—in the
inmate.
• Resocialization refers to the process of learning new norms, values,
attitudes, and behaviors
• Resocialization in its most common form occurs each time we learn
something contrary to our previous experiences, such as going to work in a
new job. It can be an intense experience, although it does not have to be.
• Resocialization is a two-part process.
• First, the staff of an institution breaks down the new inmate’s existing
identity.
• For example, an inmate must give up personal possessions,
including clothing and grooming articles used to maintain a
distinctive appearance.
* What is Socialization?
• Prisons and mental hospitals physically isolate inmates behind
fences, barred windows, and locked doors and limit their access to
the telephone, mail, and visitors.
• The institution becomes their entire world, making it easier for the staff
to bring about personality change—or at least obedience—in the
inmate.
• Resocialization is a two-part process.
• First, the staff breaks down the new inmate’s existing identity.
• Once inside the walls, individuals also give up their privacy as
guards routinely inspect their living quarters.
• In the second part of the resocialization process, the staff tries to build
a new self in the inmate through a system of rewards and punishments.
• Having a book to read, watching television, or making a telephone
call may seem like minor pleasures to the outsider, but in the rigid
environment of the total institution, gaining such simple privileges
as these can be a powerful motivation to conform.
* What is Socialization?
• Prisons and mental hospitals physically isolate inmates behind
fences, barred windows, and locked doors and limit their access to
the telephone, mail, and visitors.
• The institution becomes their entire world, making it easier for the staff
to bring about personality change—or at least obedience—in the
inmate.
• Resocialization is a two-part process.
• The length of confinement typically depends on how well the
inmate cooperates with the staff.
• Total institutions affect people in different ways.
• Some inmates may end up “rehabilitated” or “recovered,” but
others may change little, and still others may become hostile
and bitter.
• Over a long period of time, living in a rigidly controlled
environment can leave some people institutionalized, without
the capacity for independent living.