1. Socializing the Individual

2. Personality Development
Personality- sum total of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that are characteristic of an individual
Changes over time
Slower rate as an adult

3. Nature v. Nurture What determines your personality & behavior?
Environment or biology?
Nature-
Human behavior based on instinct
Nurture
Based on environment & learning
Pavlov- dogs & bell
Sociobiology- study of biological basis of all social behavior
Behavior and culture-genetics
*most sociologists believe that personality & behavior come from both biology & environment

4. Development Heredity Birth order Parents Culture Physical features
Aptitude (can be learned and inherited)
Parents have the potential to encourage/discourage the development of certain skills
Birth order
Parents
Age, education, religion, economics, etc.
Culture
Certain characteristics that are common in one large society
Example- America- competitiveness & individualism

5. Isolation & childhood Feral children- living in the wild
Children who have isolated environments don’t develop fully
Language, physical appearance, social norms
Anna
Confined to attic by grandfather
Poor treatment & lack of food
Little human contact
Found at the age of 6- taught to walk and perform daily tasks
Died at the age of 10

6. Isabelle Genie Lived in a dark room with her deaf mother
Comfort of mother, but never learned to speak
Behaved like an infant
Found at age of 6 and taught to speak and eventually reached the ability to join her age group
Why was she more successful?
Genie
Lived for 13 years in a small room
No noise or beaten
Social & psychological skills of a 1 year old when found
Never reached more than the ability of a 3rd grader

7. Institutionalization
Little interaction with adults
Given food and shelter, but little else
Seen in orphanages

8. Socialization
Interactive process through which people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of a society
Self- conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates you and your environment from others
3 socialization theories
Locke & The Tabula Rasa
Cooley & The Looking Glass Self
Mead & Role Taking

9. Agents of Socialization
Family
Peer group
School
Mass media

10. Resocialization
Total institution- setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and are subject to tight control
Prisons, boot camp, psych hospitals
Resocialization- involves a break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms
Strip away all individualism
Uniforms, haircuts, etc.