SOCIALIZATION: FROM INFANCY TO OLD AGE Chapter 3 SOCIALIZATION: FROM INFANCY TO OLD AGE

Socialization: From Infancy to Old Age Learning Objectives LO 5.1 Describe how social interaction is the foundation of personality. Nature vs. nurture, isolated children. LO 5.2 Explain six major theories of socialization. LO 5.3 Analyze how the family, school, peer groups, and the mass media guide the socialization process. LO 5.4 Discuss how our society organizes human experience into distinctive stages of life. LO 5.5 Characterize the operation of total institutions.

The Power of Society How conscious is one’s decision to spend time in front of the television? People with less than a high school diploma watch considerably more television—spending roughly twice as much time per week in front of the screen—than people who have earned a college degree. Although we tend to think we make choices about television watching (as well as our use of other mass media), society guides our behavior in this respect as it does in so many others.

Social Experience is the Key to Our Humanity Socialization Lifeline social experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn patterns of their culture Personality fairly consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting built through internalization LO 3.1 Describe how social interaction is the foundation of personality.

Human Development: Nature vs. Nurture Biological sciences: The role of nature Elements of society have a naturalistic cause Social sciences: The role of nurture Most of who and what we are as a species is learned Nature or nurture? It is both, but from a sociological perspective, nurture matters more. Human infants display various reflexes—biologically based behavior patterns that enhance survival. The sucking reflex, which actually begins before birth, enables the infant to obtain nourishment. The grasping reflex, triggered by placing a finger on the infant's palm, causing the hand to close, helps the to maintain contact with a parent and, later on, to grasp objects. The Moro reflex, activated by startling the infant, has the infant swinging both arms outward and then bringing them together across chest. This action, which disappears after several months of life, probably developed among our evolutionary ancestors so that a falling infant could grasp the body hair of a parent.

The personalities we develop depend largely on the environment in which we live. When a child’s world is shredded by violence, the damage (including losing the ability to trust) can be profound and lasting. This drawing was made by a child living through the daily violence of the civil war in Syria. What are the likely effects of such experiences on a young person’s self-confidence and capacity to form trusting ties?

Social Isolation and Abuse Affects Development Effect on nonhuman primates: Harlow's experiments Six months of complete isolation caused irreversible emotional and behavioral damage. The personalities we develop depend largely on the environment in which we live. When a child's world is shredded by violence, the damage (including losing the ability to trust) can be profound and lasting.

Isolation’s Effect on Children Case Studies: Feral children, Anna, Isabelle, Genie, Oxana Isolation left children damaged. Supported critical periods of development Success after intensive treatment was related to mental functioning and age at rescue.

Institutionalized Children Neglect and abuse = inadequate development Brain changes Confirmed by PET Scans Orphanages studies Much damage permanent

Understanding Socialization: Theories Sigmund Freud Jean Piaget Eric H. Erickson George Herbert Mead Carol Gilligan LO 3.2 Explain six major theories of socialization.

Sigmund Freud's Elements of Personality 2 basic opposing drives Eros…life instinct Thanatos….aggressive “death instinct” The id: Basic drives The ego: Efforts to achieve balance The superego: Culture within

Elements of personality Developing personality Freud Elements of personality Eros Thanatos Developing personality Id Ego Super ego

Jean Piaget: Cognitive Development Studied cognition How people think and understand Identified four stages of development Sensorimotor stage: Sensory contact understanding Preoperational stage: Use of language and other symbols Concrete operational stage: Perception of causal connections in surroundings Formal operational stage: Abstract, critical thinking

Lawrence Kohlberg: Stages of Moral Development Built on Piaget's work on moral reasoning Ways in which individuals judge situations as right or wrong Preconventional Young children experience the world as pain or pleasure Conventional Teens lose selfishness as they learn to define right and wrong in terms of what pleases Parents and conforms to cultural norms Postconventional Final stage, considers abstract ethical principles

George Herbert Mead: Social Self Social behaviorism …. How social experience develops a personality Self- composed of self-awareness and self-image develops Not present at birth Need social experience Symbols & imagination Exchange of symbols Imagination of intentions empathy Imagining another point of view Take on the role of other Self is not present at birth; it develops Self only develops with social experience Social experience is exchange of symbols Seeking meaning leads people to imagine other people's intention Understanding intentions requires imaging the situation from the other's point of view

Cooley: Looking-Glass Self I and Me: The self has two parts Self-image based on how we think others see us Imagination + reaction + interpretation and experience = self

Carol Gilligan: Gender and Moral Development The two sexes use different standards of rightness. Boys develop a justice perspective. Formal rules define right and wrong Girls develop a care-and-responsibility perspective. Personal relationships define reasoning

Gilligan Boys develop a justice perspective. Formal rules define right and wrong Girls develop a care-and-responsibility perspective. Personal relationships define reasoning The two sexes use different standards of rightness.

Eric H. Erickson: Stages 1–4 Stage 1 – Infancy: trust Stage 2 – Toddlerhood: autonomy Stage 3 – Preschool: Initiative Stage 4 – Preadolescence: Industriousness Challenges occur throughout the life course.

Erickson: Stages 5-8 Stage 5 – Adolescence: Identity Stage 6 – Young adulthood: Intimacy Stage 7 – Middle adulthood: Making a difference Stage 8 – Old age: Integrity

Agents of Socialization Settings affect the socialization process The family The school The peer group The mass media LO 3.3 Analyze how the family, school, peer groups, and the mass media guide the socialization process.

The Family The family is the most important socializing agent. Teaches children skills, values, and beliefs Love + care = happy well-adjusted child

The Family: Race and Class Through the family, parents give a social identity to children. Racial identity, ethnicity Social position Religion, social class

Agents of Socialization: The School Through school, children are socialized in various ways. Experience diversity Are exposed to hidden curriculum Begin gender socialization Accumulate cultural capital Experience diversity Racial and gender clustering Are exposed to hidden curriculum Informal, covert lessons Experience first bureaucracy Rules and schedule Begin gender socialization From grade school through college, gender-linked activities are encountered Accumulate cultural capital

Agents of Socialization: The Peer Group Peers = members with interests, social position, age in common Influenced by anticipatory socialization Allow escape from direct adult supervision sense of self beyond family Often govern short-term goals Allow escape from direct supervision of adults Help development of sense of self that goes beyond the family May highlight difference between young and old attitudes creating a“generation gap” Often govern short-term goals: parents influence long-term plans Are often Influenced by anticipatory socialization

Agents of Socialization: The Mass Media Mass media - for delivering impersonal communications to a vast audience. Televisions in the United States Hours of viewing television Adverse effects of extensive viewing Television is popular in high and middle-income countries, where almost every household owns at least one TV set. Source: International Telecommunication Union (2012); TVB (2012). Televisions in the U.S. 97% of households have at least one TV Hours of viewing television Average household = 7½ hours per day As they grow, children spend as many hours in front of a television as they do in school or interacting with their parents. Extensive television takes time away from interaction with parents and peers, as well as exercise and other activities that are more likely to promote development and good health. Almost half of individuals' free time More than 70%of children claimed that parents do not limit the amount of time they spend in front of the screen

Agents of Socialization: Television and Politics Liberal critics Racial and ethnic minorities have been excluded or stereotyped throughout television history. Conservative critics dominated by a liberal cultural elite that espouses political correctness.

Television and Violence Violence in mass media About 2/3 of parents say that they are “very concerned” that their children are exposed to too much media violence. About 2/3 of TV content contains violence; characters show no remorse and are not punished.

Television and Violence Rating systems and control TV rating system adopted in 1997 Televisions manufactured after 2000 have a “V-chip” (parental control). Concern with violence and the mass media extends to the world of video games, especially those popular with young boys. Among the most controversial games, which include high levels of violence, is The Sopranos: Road to Respect.

Socialization and Life Course Each stage of life is linked to the biological process. Societies organize the life course by age. Stages present problems and transitions that involve learning. Other factors shape lives: Race, class, ethnicity, and gender. LO 3.4 Discuss how our society organizes human experience into distinctive stages of life.

Socialization and the Life Course Childhood Adolescence Adulthood Childhood (birth through 12) The “hurried child” Adolescence (the teenage years) Turmoil attributed to cultural inconsistencies. Adulthood Early: 20-40, conflicting priorities Middle: 40-60, concerns over health, career and family Old age (mid-60s and older) More seniors than teenagers Less anti-elderly bias Role exiting Old Age

The Life Course: Patterns and Variations Each stage of life is linked to aging, but the life course is largely a social construction (e.g., cohort) . Stages of the life course present certain problems and transitions involving new learning. A cohort is a category of similar-age people who share common life experiences. Just as audiences at Rolling Stones concerts in the 1960s were mainly young people, so many of the group’s fans today are the same people, now over age sixty. Mick Jagger (top) recently turned seventy.

Dying Elisabeth Kubler Ross 5 distinct stages Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Acceptance

Total Institutions A setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff Erving Goffman Staff supervises all daily life activities. Environment is standardized. Formal rules and daily schedules are established. Staff breaks down identity. Goffman: “Abasements, degradations, humiliations, and profanations of self” Staff rebuilds personality using rewards and punishments. Staff breaks down identity Goffman: “Abasements, degradations, humiliations, and profanations of self” Staff rebuilds personality using rewards and punishments Institutions affect people in different ways Some develop an institutionalized personality LO 3.5 Characterize the operation of total institutions.

Total Institution

Are We Free Within Society? Society shapes how we think, feel and act. If this is so, then in what sense are we free? “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change The world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” --Margaret Mead