Sociology
Socialization
The Key to our humanity
Socialization
Get Notes outline
 Get books
 Read introduction on pg. 118

Social Experience: The key
to our Humanity

Socialization
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Lifelong social experience by which people
develop their human potential and learn
culture
Social Experience is also the foundation for
Personality
Person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting,
feeling, and thinking.
 Built by internalizing our surroundings

Nature vs. Nurture
18th c. debate over importance of two in
shaping human behavior
 Nature: helped by “Darwinism”

Thinking that human behavior is instinctive
or “simply our nature”
 Examples: Capitalism displays instincts of
“human competitiveness”, some people are
“born criminals”, women are “emotional.”
 This view increased Ethnocentrism….why?

Nature vs. Nurture

Nurture: Mmmmm…..tastes so good!
Idea that behavior is not instinctive but learned
 “Socialization”
 Doesn’t deny biology, just that people are also
developed based on their culture/surroundings
 To develop, people must have the opportunity
and challenges needed to stimulate themselves

Social Isolation Experiments
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Primates: Harlow’s experiments
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlJS8LeLWjs
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Findings
• Primates benefited from closeness and nurturing
• Long-term isolation is irreversible
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Isolated Children
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Read Stories
Importance

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Social experience is crucially important in development
of personality
People/primates can recover from short-term isolation
but there is still an unknown line causing permanent
damage
Lesson Closing
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Task #1
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Read article over Harlow
• Write a reaction paragraph to the article on how it
relates to Nature v. Nurture and Socialization
Bell Work

Write a reaction to the Article read yesterday
about Harlow and his experiments
Were they ethical? How important were they?
What did they discover? What did you learn?
 How is it related to Nature v Nurture

Freud’s Elements of
Personality
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Two opposing forces

Personality is shaped by these two opposed
forces creating an inner tension
• Eros: The life instinct
• Instinctual need (at birth) for sexual/emotional bonding
• Thanatos: The death instinct
• Aggression drive for survival

Model of Personality
• Combined basic needs w/ influence of society into 3
part model
Model of Personality
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Id: Human beings basic drives
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Ego: Persons conscious efforts to balance innate
demands of id w/ demands of society
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Unconscious and demands immediate satisfaction
Self-centered id opposed by society
Helps to avoid frustration by approaching world
realistically
Superego: Cultural values and norms internalized by
an individual.

Acts as conscience; develops as child becomes aware
of parental demands and understands to take cultural
norms into account
Freud
Read Section: pgs. 121-122
 Id and Superego will remain in Conflict but in a
well-adjusted person the ego manages these
two forces
 Critical Review

Ideas that we internalize norms and childhood
experiences have lasting importance are critical
today
 Some of work reflects sexist bias and is hard to
scientifically test

Jean Piaget: Cognitive Dev.

4 Stages of Development (Read thru section)
 Sensorimotor Stage
• Level of human development in which individuals experience the world
only through sensory contact

Pre-Operational Stage
• Level of human development at which individuals first use language and
other symbols

Concrete Operational
• Level of human development at which individuals first see causal
connections in their surroundings

Formal Operational
• Level of human development at which individuals think abstractly and
critically

Critical Review
 Showed human beings ability to shape social world is gradual and
results from both biological maturation and social experience
 May not apply to all people in a society (traditional)
Lesson Closing

Get w/ 6 o’clock partners


Write/Perform a skit that demonstrates the three
principles of Id/Ego/SuperEgo
Either pictionary, charades, or skit one of four
stages of development!
Graded on work time spend
 Candy for People who can correctly guess the
proper levels or principles


End of Lesson: Go Over 2nd Q Projects
Bell Work

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Present Skits/Charades Right Away
What are the two opposing forces Freud talks of
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What are the 3 parts of Freud’s personality model?
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Id, Ego, SuperEgo
What is socialization

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Eros: Life Instinct; need for emotional bonding
Thanatos: Aggression for survival
Lifelong social experience by which people develop their
human potential and learn culture
What do the studies of social isolation show us?

The crucial importance of social experience in
personality development or importance of nurture
Lawrence Kohlberg: Moral
Development
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Pre-conventional
 Young children experience world in terms of pain and pleasure.
 What is “right” is what feels right
Conventional
 Teen years; Right/wrong based on what pleases parents and
conforms to cultural norms
Post-conventional
 Move beyond society’s norms to consider abstract and ethical
principles
Critical Review
 Important b/c it presents moral developments (right/wrong) in
distinct stages (like Piaget)
 But theory based on research of only males
Gilligan: The Gender Factor
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Boys vs. Girls
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Boys have a justice perspective, relying on rules to
define right/wrong
Girls have a Care and responsibility perspective,
judging a situation w/ an eye toward personal
relationships
Critical Review


Important b/c it enhance our understanding of gender
issues
Doesn’t really address the issue of the origins of the
differences
Lesson Closing
Look at picture and read caption on pg.
126
 Task #2 Answer Your Turn pg. 126
 Task #3 Read/Answer Thinking about
diversity, pg. 124

Bell Work
Get Books/Folders
 Share Task #2
 Go over Answers to Task #3

Mead: The social Self
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The Self “POPCORN!!”
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Is a dimension of personality composed of an
individuals self-awareness and self-image
Emerges from social experience (interaction)
This social experience is based on exchange of
symbols and their meanings
Understanding intentions requires imagining the
situation from the others view
Looking Glass Self

Dev. By associate that means we view ourselves as
others see us.
Mead: The social Self

Self has a dual nature: By taking the role of
the other we become self-aware
One part of self is the subject;
active/spontaneous (I)
 Another part is the object, the we imagine
others see us.


Mead said all social experience has both

We do an action ( I-phase) and continue based
on how others respond (me-phase)
Mead: The social Self
Development of the Self (Stages)
 Look at Figure 5-1 pg.125

Imitation
 Play, in which children take the roles of
significant others (playing mom/dad)
 Games, where they take the role of several
other people at the same time
 Acquisition of the generalized other, defined as
widespread cultural norms/values used as
references in evaluating selves

Mead: The social Self

Critical Review
Important: Showed that symbolic
interaction is the foundation of both self
and society
 Criticized for ignoring the role of biology

Lesson Closing:
Create a Chart
Theorist
Freud
Piaget
Kohkberg
Gilligan
Mead
Erikson
Concepts/ Ideas
Importance
Criticisms
Bell Work: Fill in Chart
Theorist
Freud
Piaget
Kohkberg
Gilligan
Mead
Erikson
Concepts/ Ideas
Importance
Criticisms
Erickson: 8 Stages

Development occurs thru-out life by facing 8
Challenges
1.
Infancy: Challenge of Trust (Trust vs. Mistrust)
•
2.
Toddlerhood: Challenge of Autonomy
•
3.
(Doubt vs. Shame) Coping skills
Preschool: Challenge of Initiative
•
4.
Trust in world being safe
(Initiative vs. guilt) Learn to engage surroundings
Preadolescence: Industriousness vs. Inferiority
•
Proud of accomplishments or lack of
Erickson: 8 Stages
5.
Adolescence: Identity vs. Confusion

6.
Young Adulthood: Intimacy vs. Isolation
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7.
Need to form/maintain relationships
Mid. adulthood: Diff. Maker vs. self-absorption
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8.
Looking to est. an identity
Contributing to lives of others in family/world
Old Age: Integrity vs. Despair

Looking back w/sense of integrity/happiness
Erikson: 8 Stages

Critical Review
Viewed personality formation as a
lifelong process (think socializations
def.)
 Not everyone confronts challenges in
exact order; and not clear if failure in
one means failure later on!

Lesson Closing

Task #5?

Watch Video over socialization
• The Way We Live: Fitting In:
Socialization 0:27:19

Write 4-5 Things you learned that you
either sort of agreed w/ or disagreed
with
Bell Work
5 Minutes to finish up Chart information
 Finish Video: 13:30


Task #4:Write 4-5 Things you learned
that you either sort of agreed w/ or
disagreed with
Socialization

What is it again?


Lifelong social experience by which people develop their
human potential and learn culture
Agents of Socialization
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While every social experience has some impact, some
familiar are especially important
Family: Most important to most people
• Learning can result from intentional teachings and from the
environment that adults create for child
• Socialization w/in the family varies greatly across race/color lines

“Popcorn” read Race and Class Section (128)
Lesson Closing


Task # 6
Read Supplemental Lecture Material

The Cycle of Generations
• Answer 2 Questions

Task #7

Think of at least 2 children's games or toys and
write a paragraph on how they illustrate the
Socialization of appropriate social identities in
children.
• Bring Game or toy tomorrow for extra-credit
• Will share your answers tomorrow
Bell Work
Finish any of reading (Task 6)
 Finish up any thoughts on Children’s game


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Task #7
Present Task #7 Examples (games/toys)
Agents of Socialization
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School: Introduces students to being evaluated
according to universal standards
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Join w/ family in socializing children into gender roles
Schools also have a hidden curriculum
• Helps to learn important cultural values
• Examples: Sports develop strength/skills, drama/speech develop
speaking skills, school organization teaches bureaucratic rules
(time, order, discipline)

Read Applying Sociology and answer in folders

Task #8
Agents of Socialization
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Peer Groups: Members have interests, social
positions, and age in common
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Allows children to learn how to form relationships
on own; leading into Anticipatory socialization
• Process of social learning directed toward gaining a
desired position.

Read Last paragraph of pg.130 and think to
yourself of examples around you, or of you
Agents of Socialization

Mass Media: Impersonal communications
directed at a vast audience. Television/internet
esp. important today
T.V. provokes loads of criticism from both
liberals and conservatives
 Large share of U.S. adults are concerned about
extent of mass media violence


Read all of Mass Media portion pg. 131
Lesson Closing

Task #9: Squares socialization Activity
Both Participation points and grade
 Need to write a reflection on how this activity
showed principles of Socialization!

• Think about what you had to learn, conform to, etc
• Due at end of period
Bell Work
Finish Game
 Have 1st 5 ?s on back of notes ready to
answer
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5 minutes
Go over answers
Socialization & Life course
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Childhood
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Not grounded or founded in biology but in the culture of
that society
Became increasingly separate phase of life w/
industrialization
Becoming shorter today
• (read last paragraph pg.133)
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Adolescence
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“Buffer” zone b.t childhood/adulthood
Period of social/emotional turmoil reflecting culture
Time of social contradictions
• Not a child anymore, but not yet respected as an adult;
confusing?
Task #10
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Read In the times pg. 134

Answer ?s as task #10
Socialization & Life course
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Adulthood: Divided into several stages
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Early: up to age 40; Working toward goals set
earlier in life
• Often managing day to day affairs w/ conflicting
priorities
• Parents, partner, children, schooling, work, etc

Middle: 40-60
• Characterized mostly by reflectiveness
• Men/women face different challenges: aging, success,
health, family/personal lives
Lesson Closing

Read Supplemental Lecture material

“Socialization of Children”
• Answer 2 ?s for task #11

Task #12: Read/Answer ?s

Thinking about Diversity pg. 136
Bell Work

Task #12: Read/Answer ?s
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
Thinking about Diversity pg. 136
Work on #1-6 in packet!!!!!!!
Socialization and Life
Course
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Old Age (Read Section)
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Later years of adulthood and final stage of life itself
Diff. Societies attach diff. meanings
• Traditional=elderly valued
• Industrial= Elderly devalued b/c seen as out of touch

U.S. currently seeing increase in this population
• “Baby Boom”

Opposite exp. Of growing up; leaving roles that
provided social identity and satisfaction
Socialization and Life
Course

Death and Dying

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross described death as
having 5 stages
•
•
•
•
•
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First faces death w/denial
Anger; sees death as an injustice
Negotiation; imagines avoidance thru bargaining
Resignation; depressive acceptance
Acceptance; no longer fearful, accepts fate and finds
peace.
Recent trends have seen an openness w/death
• Financial planning and the taking off of art. Life
support are good examples
Life Course:
Patterns/Variations
Although linked to biological process of aging,
characteristics in each stage are socially
constructed
 Each stage presents characteristic problems and
transitions that involve learning something new
 General patterns relating to age are always
modified by social variables like
class/race/gender
 People’s life experiences vary depending on
when they were born. Cohort is a category of
people w/common characteristic, usually age

Re-socialization: Total
Institutions
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Total Institutions
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Purpose of Total Institutions is resocialization

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Setting in which people are isolated from the rest
of society and manipulated by an administrative
staff
Radically altering an inmate’s personality through
control of the environment
Two Stage process
Staff breaks down new inmate’s existing identity
 Staff tries to build a new self; thru env. control

Lesson Closing

Task #13: Read/Answer ?s

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Thinking it through pg. 138
Task #14: Read/Answer ?s

Cohorts or Generations in supplemental
lecture material