1. Chapter 3: Socialization
Melanie Hatfield
Soc 100

2. Socialization
Socialization: The process by which people learn their culture. They do so by entering and disengaging from a succession of roles and becoming aware of themselves as they interact with others.
Wild Boy of Aveyron
Orphanage vs. Nursing home

3. Rhesus Monkey Research
Emotional development requires affectionate cradling

4. Freud’s Theory
Proposed the first social-scientific interpretation of emergence of the self:
Id - the part of the self that demands
immediate gratification
Superego - personal conscience
Ego - balances the conflicting
needs of the id and the superego

5. Criticisms of Freud’s Theory
The connections between early childhood development and adult personality are more complex than Freud assumed.
Freud shows gender bias in his analysis of male and female sexuality.
Freud neglects socialization after childhood.

6. Cooley: “looking-glass self”
When we interact with others, they gesture and react to us.
We can imagine how we appear to them.
We judge how others evaluate us.
From these judgments we develop a self-concept.

7. Mead: 4 Stages of Role Taking
Children learn to use language and other symbols by imitating important people in their lives.
Children pretend to be other people.
Around age 7, children play games that require them to take the role of other people.
Once a child can think in this way, she can begin the fourth stage which involves taking the role of the generalized other.

8. Gilligan and Gender Differences
Carol Gilligan’s research demonstrated that sociological factors help explain differences in the sense of self that boys and girls usually develop.
Parents and teachers pass on different cultural standards to boys and girls.
Much research shows that girls develop lower self-esteem than boys.

9. Columbine School Shooting

10. Families
The family is the most important agent of primary socialization, which is the process of mastering the basic skills required to function in society during childhood.
Characteristics of the family as an agent of socialization:
Small group
Frequent face-to-face contact
High motivation of parents to care for children.

11. Schools
Schools are largely responsible for secondary socialization, or socialization outside the family after childhood.
Instructing students in academics and vocational subjects is just one part of the school’s job.
In addition a hidden curriculum teaches students what will be expected of them in the larger society after they graduate.

12. Adolescent Job Preferences and Projected Jobs in Paid Labor Force, U.S., 2005

13. Peer Groups
From middle school through adolescence, the peer group is often the dominant socializing agent.
Peer groups help children and adolescents separate themselves from their families and develop independent sources of identity.
They are especially influential in lifestyle issues such as appearance, social activities, and dating.

14. The Mass Media
The mass media includes TV, radio, movies, videos, CDs, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and books.
The fastest growing in usage is the Internet, but TV still takes up the most time.

15. Top Four Waking Activities of American Women and Men, Ages 18-24

16. Number of Internet Users, 1996-2005

17. The Mass Media
The mass media gives youth many choices in their socialization influences.
But they choose some influences more than others.
Gender roles

19. Initiation Rites: Three Stages
Separation from one’s old status and identity (ritual rejection).
Degradation, disorientation, and stress (ritual death).
Acceptance of the new group culture and status (ritual rebirth).

20. Adult Socialization The development of the self is a lifelong process.
When people go through different periods of their lives, they must learn new roles.
It requires people to think of themselves in new ways and redefine who they are.

21. The Flexible Self Factors that contribute to the flexible self:
Globalization
Growing ability to change our bodies and hence our self-conception

22. Plastic Surgery in the U.S.

23. Identity and the Internet
The Internet is further complicating the process of identity formation today.
People are forming virtual communities, which are associations of people, scattered across the country or the planet, who communicate via computer and modem about subjects of common interest.
This has made to self more flexible.

24. Dilemmas of Childhood and Adolescent Socialization
In preindustrial societies, children were thought of as small adults.
From a young age, they were expected to conform as much as possible to the norms of the adult world.
Only in the last century did the idea of childhood as a distinct and prolonged stage of life become universal in the West.

25. The Emergence of Childhood and Adolescent Socialization
The idea of childhood emerged when and where it did because of social necessity and social possibility.
Prolonged childhood was necessary in societies that required better educated adults to do complex work, because children needed a chance to prepare for adult life.
Prolonged childhood was possible where improved hygiene and nutrition increased the human lifespan, which is more common in wealthier and more complex societies.

26. Problems of Childhood and Adolescent Socialization
Declining adult supervision and guidance.
Increasing media influence.
Declining extracurricular activities and increasing adult responsibilities.

27. Declining Adult Supervision and Guidance
According to Patricia Hersch, “American society has left its children behind as the cost of progress in the workplace.”
More adults are working longer hours than ever before, having less time to spend with their children than they used to.

28. Increasing Media Influence
Declining adult supervision leaves youth more susceptible to the influence of mass media.
In an earlier era, family, school, church, and community usually taught young people consistent beliefs and values.
Now the mass media and peer groups often pull young people in different directions, leaving them uncertain about what constitutes appropriate behavior.

29. Declining Extracurricular Activities
Extra curricular activities are important for adolescent personality development.
You can learn something about your physical, emotional, and social capabilities and limitations; about what you are made of; and about what you can and can’t do.
Many spend fewer hours per week on extracurricular activities associated with school than a generation ago.

30. Negative Effect of Employment on Grades among Full-Time College Students Who Work

31. The Sociological Compass