Sociology: Chapter 4-1
“Socializing the Individual”
“Personality Development”
Standards: 7.1, 7.3
Personality Development
 Personality: sum total of behaviors,
attitudes, beliefs, and characteristics (Who
we are)
 -How we adjust to our environment
 -Personality is developed over the course of
a lifetime
 Children = Quick Change
 Adults= Slower change
Nature vs. Nurture
 Nature:
 -Heredity: Passing of genetic characteristics
from parent to child (Ex: Hair color)
 -Instinct: unchanging biologically inherited
behavior pattern
– Laughter, hunger,war…
– *10,000 Instincts
Nature vs. Nurture
 Nurture: Environment
 -Social Learning: John B. Watson: Psychologists
 Said that he could take 12 healthy infants and
“turn” them into whatever he wanted
 Contemporary: Reject debate: BOTH Nature and
Nurture have important impact on Personality
 *Sociobiology: Exception: Study of
BIOLOGICAL basis of social behavior
 Only looks at NATURE: Edward O. Wilson
Personality Development
 Birth Order: People w/ siblings see world different
than single child
 First Born:
 -Achievement oriented
 -Cooperative
 -Cautious
 -Conservative
 Later Born:
 -Affectionate
 -Friendly
 -Creative
 -Risk Takers
Parental Characteristics
 -Level of Education
 -Religious/Moral codes
 -Economic: Occupational




background
The Cultural Environment
-Culture: Strong influence
on personality
U.S.: Competitive,
Assertive, Individual
IK: Uganda (Adupa-right)
– Pre WWII: Nomads/
Mountains (Strong
Families)
– Post WWII: moved to a
more barren land
(Competitive/Cruel)
Lo’ono: IK Story
 In his 1972 account of the Ik, a mountain people in northeastern Uganda,
American ethologist John B. Calhoun wrote of the fate of an old blind woman
named Lo’ono, one of hundreds of Ik forcibly relocated by the Ugandan
government from their ancestral homeland to a desolate area of the Kidepo
Valley. Cut off from their cultural roots and, more significantly, food, the Ik
responded to their plight by developing a horrifying insensitivity to human
suffering.
So it was that when Lo’ono one day had the misfortune of falling into a ravine
and gravely injuring herself, the entire village crowded around the edge of the
chasm to laugh and jeer at her. Broken, she writhed on the ravine floor and
pleaded for help. And still her people laughed, tossing sticks and pebbles at her
as she lay near death.
 Calhoun told the story as a warning. The Ik weren’t an inherently evil tribe, he
wrote. Prior to their relocation, they were renowned for their warmth, kindness
and hospitality. But fed a steady diet of misery and despair and little else, this
is what they became: a heartless mob howling at the misfortune of those even
less fortunate.
 What happened to Lo’ono and her people, Calhoun warned, can happen to any
of us.
Heredity
 Heredity: Characteristics present at birth
 -Body Type
 -Hair, Eye, Skin Color
 -Aptitude: Capacity to learn a certain skill
 Some CAN BE learned
 Drives:
 -Eat
 -Other: Biological
Child Isolation
 Children who have suffered severe cases of
isolation…
 -posses few human characteristics
 -have no reasoning ability
 -no “manners”
 -could not control human voluntary and
involuntary muscles
Examples of child isolation
 Anna: 1938: One of earliest in U.S.
 -was kept in attic w/o human contact
 -Died at the age of 10 w/o language skills
 Isabelle:
 - Confined WITH mother in a dark room
 -Kept there for over six years
 *Eventually caught up to age group intelectually
 Kingsley Davis: Reason: “Mothers Love”
Most Famous case of child isolation
 Genie: 1970; 13 years old
 -Confined from 20 months






in a small bedroom
-Was tied to a potty chair
-Wrapped in a sleeping
bag
-Beaten when she made
noise
*Never progressed past a
4 yr old mentally
Institutionalization: 1945
study: Rene Spitz
33% of children died from
“lack of love”
Sociology: Chapter 4-2
“The Social Self”
Standards: 5.2, 6.6
Socialization
 Socialization: Process
through which Individuals
learn basic skills, values,
beliefs, and behavior
appropriate for society
 Self: Conscious awareness
of having a distinct
identity
 John Locke: English
Philosopher
 -Tabula Rasa: “Clean
Slate” Defended by
Watson: Every child is
born with NO personality.
A child develops a
personality through his/her
life experiences
Looking Glass Self
 Charles Horton
Cooley
 -Looking Glass Self:
Developing an image
of oneself based on
how we think others
see us
 -”How do they react to
my behavior?”
Role Taking
 George Herbert Mead:





Interactionist
Role Taking:
Take roles of others in
society to better
understand what YOUR
expectations are
*Usually start with closest
relationships
Ex: Playing “house”
If you are the
mother/father, then you
have expectations for
other members. This will
help children understand
their role in the family
“Others” and parts of self
 Significant Others:
 Closest relationships… Immediate family, close friends,








and etc…
Generalized Others: Rest of society
PARTS OF THE “SELF”
I: Spontaneous, un-socialized
Me: Aware of expectations, socialized
Read p. 110-111
Erving Goffman
Dramaturgy: Social interaction is like a drama being
played out on stage…people judge each other’s
“performances”
Impression Management: “Presentation of Self”
Sociology
Chapter 4 Section 3
“Agents of Socialization”
Standards: 5.2, 6.6
Agents of Socialization
 Agents of Socialization: Individuals,
groups, and Institutions that provide
situations in which socialization occurs
 Primary Agents in the U.S.
 1. Family
 2. Peer Groups
 3. School
 4. Mass Media
The Family
 1. The Family: Structured
 Most important early in life (0-
adolescence)
 Principal agent of all children
 Socialization can be deliberate and
unconscious
 -Deliberate: Honesty
 -Unconscious: Profanity
The Peer Group
 Peer Group: Loose
 Primary group composed of people of same
age and background
 *Becomes very important during
adolescence
 -Focus on skills needed to “fit in” to
subculture
 *Group goals can be “at odds” with society
School
 School: Highly structured: for order
 Takes up big part of time: 13-20 years
 -Deliberate socialization
 -Class activities/subjects
 -values/ patriotism (see pledge)
 *Peer groups also present
 *Family encouraged to get involved
School
 I Pledge Allegiance
 To The Flag
 Of the United States of America
 And to the Republic
 For Which it Stands
 One Nation
 Under God (Added later)
 Indivisible
 With Liberty
 And Justice
 For All
 *You recite this every Monday. When was the last
time that you REALLY thought about the words?
Mass Media
 Mass Media: TV, Newspapers, Radio,
Magazines, Internet…etc
 Unconscious (Debatable)
 T.V. Most influential:
 -98% of Homes = 7 hrs a day
 -Positive: Exposes people to things that they
might not see otherwise
 -Negative: Violence: Impact of “Pop” Culture
 Read “The Function of Fairy Tales” p. 114
Other Agents…
 1. Religion: Structured value code
 2. Organizations:
 -Boy Scouts
 -Little League…
 … I Trust in God
 I Love my country and will respect its laws
 I will play fair and strive to win
 But win or lose, I will always do my best
Other Agents of Socialization









3. Total Institution:
-Isolates people from the rest of society
-Prison
-Monastery
-Psychiatric Hospital
Aim to Resocialize
Recsocialization: Break w/ past experiences
Learn NEW values
*Forcibly Change Personality
Agents of Socialization Project
 Objective: To be able to recognize and discuss different aspects of the










sociological “Agents of Socialization” Std 6.6
Process: 2 Class Periods
1. The class will be broken into groups.
2. Each student in the group will be responsible for gathering information,
pictures, and etc. about their specific agent of socialization.
3. Groups will be given supplies to carry out group tasks
-Posterboard: STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY
-scissors
-markers
-glue/tape
4. Students will make a collage(visual aid) by using the materials above.
5. After the posters are finished. The students will discuss their reasoning for
using the pictures that they chose to the rest of the class