1. What is it? How do we learn what we learn?
Socialization
What is it?
How do we learn what we learn?

2. Socialization How we learn to be part of a group or society
The lifelong social experience through which individuals develop their personality and learn culture.
Socialization

3. Primary Socialization
Primary socialization is the learning we experience from the people who raise us.
Physical needs must be met to thrive (food, clothing, and shelter)
Caregivers must teach norms, values, and language.
Inadequate primary socialization can lead to troubled adulthood
Primary Socialization

4. Socialization

5. Nature vs Nurture Nature = Heredity/Genetics
Nurture = How the child is raised
Parents pass down characteristics (Genetics)
Birth Order affects perspective and personality (First born vs Middle vs Baby)
Parental Characteristics (Old vs Young parents)
Cultural Characteristics (Cultures tend to produce unique personalities)
Nature vs Nurture

6. Nature vs Nurture Nature states that Darth Vader was just born evil.
Nurture states that Darth Vader learned to be evil.

7. Darth Vader Anakin Skywalker
Loss of mother Loss of home Social Isolation Loss of Wife and kids Disfigurement
Good home
Jedi Powers
Friends
Hobbies
Family
Steady Employment
What caused him to turn evil? Was it the terrible things that happened to him or was it in his nature all along?

8. Researchers have theories about personality development
Despite differences and criticisms they shape sociological thought it different ways
Developmental Stages

9. English philosopher and political theorist during the late 1600s
Proposed the idea of Tabula Rasa “Blank Slate”
We are born without personality
Experience creates our personality
John Locke

10. Freud’s theory of Personality Development
Sigmund Freud – biological and sociological factors combine to shape personality
Id: primitive desires
Selfish
Superego:  social conformity
Conscience
Ego: resolves the conflicts
Decision maker
Freud’s theory of Personality Development

11. Mead’s Theory of Social Behaviorism
George Herbert Mead - people develop self-images through interactions
Self is the product of social experience.
We see ourselves as others see us
We also take on roles of others by imitation, role playing, games, etc
Mead - the key to self-development is understanding the role of the other person(s)
Mead’s Theory of Social Behaviorism

12. Cooley’s Theory of the Looking-Glass Self
Charles Horton Cooley - personality develops through interactions with others
looking-glass self - a self-image that is based on how we imagine others see us
Based on “imagination” – can be false or true
Cooley’s Theory of the Looking-Glass Self

13. Significant other - ANYONE whose opinions matter to us and influence our thinking, about ourselves. 
Not just romantic

15. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget – the way children think changes as they mature physically and interact with the world
Piaget’s Four Periods of Development:
Stage 1: Sensorimotor Period (birth -2 years): children learn by using their senses and moving around.
Stage 2: Preoperational Period (2-7 years): children keep getting better at symbolic thought, but can’t yet reason.
Stage 3: Concrete Operational Period (7-11 years): children start performing mental operations or working real or tangible problems and ideas through in their minds.
Stage 4: Formal Operational Period (11+ years): children apply mental operations to abstract concepts or they start to think in abstract, systematic, and logical ways.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

17. Criticisms of Development Theories
Each of the theories of development has flaws.
Freud’s theories have always been seen as very male-centered.
Piaget’s theory is useful, but not all people reach the formal operational stage.
How are personalities formed?
How much does nature/nurture affect your personality?
Criticisms of Development Theories

18. Agents of Socialization
Agents of socialization - People, groups, and experiences that influence our behavior and self-image
Family is the agent of socialization with the most impact
Birth-Teenagers – children rely on parents or caregivers for basic necessities, nurturing, and guidance
Determines race, language, religion, class, and political affiliation
School introduces children to new knowledge, order, bureaucracy, and students from family backgrounds different from their own
Agents of Socialization

19. Agents of Socialization
Peer Groups – usually the same age and have interests and social position in common
Children break from their parents’ and learn to make friends and decisions on their own
Peer pressure can be difficult to resist
Mass Media – communication that directs messages and entertainment at a wide audience
Newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the internet, and movies are all forms of mass media
Profoundly influence children
Stereotypes, explicit images, and unrealistic or even unhealthy beauty standards shape the way children think about themselves and their world
Agents of Socialization

20. Conflicting Agents of Socialization
Agents of socialization can teach conflicting lessons
Family teaches children to respect their elders
Friends teach that respecting adults is not cool
Conflicting Agents of Socialization

21. Conflicting Agents of Socialization
Read the handout about Isolated Children, Isolated Monkeys, and Institutionalized Children and answer the following questions on the back of that paper.
How important is primary socialization to an individual?
How important is primary socialization to a society?
Looking back, what had the most impact on your development as a child?
Conflicting Agents of Socialization

22. Primary socialization is received in childhood
Resocialization - learning new norms and values when joining a new group or when life circumstances change
Enables people to adapt
Newly learned things may contradict what previously learned things
Examples?
Retirement – What do I do now?
College – What do I do now?
Divorce – Free and single again!?!
Death of a friend or spouse – How do I move on?
Resocialization

23. Anticipatory Socialization
The groups we wish to belong to may guide our actions, beliefs and values.
By acting like “them” we seek acceptance into their group.

24. The Social Construction of Life Stages
Sociologists generally divide a person’s life into five stages: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and dying
Socially constructed
different societies apply different definitions and assumptions to each stage
The Social Construction of Life Stages

25. We are taught to think for ourselves and make decisions
A total institution is an organization or setting that has the following characteristics:
Residents are not free to leave
All actions are determined and monitored by authority figures
Individuality is discouraged
Examples
prisons
mental hospitals
military
In these total institutions, part of the resocialization process includes the loss of some decision-making freedom
Total Institutions

26. Expected attitudes and behaviors for boys and girls are different
A gender role is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and personality characteristics expected and encouraged of a person based on his or her sex.
Influence of Biology?
Experts disagree on Nature v Nurture
Boys and girls process language differently.
Boys use half, girls use whole brain.
Girls tend to learn to speak and read earlier than boys
Gender Socialization

27. Influence of Family?
Families will socialize their babies in culturally appropriate ways
Boys wear blue, girls wear pink
G.I. Joes vs Barbies
Influence in Education?
Traditional expectations continue in school
Boys got more attention in the past, girls dominate now
Current methods favor girls’ learning styles now, boys more likely to struggle
Young boys are more active than girls – Get in trouble more
Gender Socialization

28. Influence on Career Choices
Meet the Parents (2000) – Ben Stiller gets laughs by being a male nurse
Why is this funny?
We laugh because nurses are a “female” profession
Girls will be steered towards “girl” jobs and vice versa
What are some “girl” and “boy” jobs?
Example: 
Women in traditionally male jobs can hit a glass ceiling keeping them from reaching promotions
Men in traditionally female jobs are viewed as more qualified than women and benefit from a glass escalator promoting them more quickly than women
Influence on Career Choices