1. Ch. 4: Socialization & The Life Course

2. The Role of Socialization
Socialization: lifelong process in which people learn appropriate attitudes, values, and behaviors
Personality: person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior

3. Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation
Interaction of heredity and environment shape human development
Extreme Isolation: Isabelle
Extreme Neglect: Romanian Orphans
Primate Studies
Social attachments develop from need for warmth, comfort, intimacy

4. The Influence of Heredity
Minnesota twin family study
Twins have similar intelligence test scores when reared apart in roughly similar social settings
Different scores when reared in different social settings

5. The Self and Socialization
View of ourselves comes from contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us
Self: distinct identity that sets us apart from others
Not a static phenomenon
Interest in how individual develops and modifies sense of self as a result of social interaction

6. Sociological Approaches to the Self
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
View of ourselves comes from contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us
Looking-glass self: the self is product of social interactions with other people

7. Sociological Approaches to the Self
Mead: Stages of the Self
Preparatory stage: children imitate people around them
As they grow older, become more adept at using symbols
Play stage: children develop skill in communicating through symbols, and role taking occurs

8. Sociological Approaches to the Self
Mead: Stages of the Self (continued)
Game stage: children of about 8 or 9 consider several actual tasks and relationships simultaneously
Generalized other: attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in his or her behavior

9. Table 4-1: Mead’s Stages of the Self9

10. Sociological Approaches to the Self
Mead: Theory of the Self
Self begins as privileged, central position in a person’s world
As the person matures, the self changes and begins to reflect greater concern about reactions of others
Significant others: individuals most important in the development of the self

11. Sociological Approaches to the Self
Goffman: Presentation of the Self
Impression management: individual learns to slant presentation of self to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences
Also known as dramaturgical approach
Face-work: need to maintain proper image of self to continue social interaction

12. Psychological Approaches to the Self
Freud
Self is a social product
Natural impulsive instincts in constant conflict with societal constraints
Personality influenced by others (especially one’s parents)
Self has components that work in opposition to each other

13. Psychological Approaches to the Self
Piaget
Emphasized stages through which human beings progress as the self develops
Cognitive theory of development: four stages in development of children’s thought processes
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational

14. Table 4-2: Theoretical Approaches to Development of the Self14

15. Agents of Socialization
Continuing and lifelong socialization process involves many different social forces
Family
Gender roles: expectations regarding proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females

16. Agents of Socialization
School
Teaches values and customs of larger society
Can also reinforce divisive aspects of society

17. Agents of Socialization
Peer Group
As children grow older, peer groups increasingly assume role of Mead’s significant others
Gender differences are noteworthy among adolescents

18. Table 4-3: High School Popularity
Source: Suitor et al. 2001:445. 18

19. Agents of Socialization
Mass Media Technology
Media innovations are important agents of socialization
Concerns about teen use of Internet; however, use of technology not always negative
New communication technologies in developing countries

20. Agents of Socialization
Workplace
Learning to behave appropriately within occupational setting is a fundamental aspect of human socialization
Religion and State
Government and organized religion impact life course by reinstituting some rites of passage

21. Socialization throughout the Life Course
Rites of passage: means of dramatizing and validating changes in status
Life course approach: looking closely at social factors that influence people throughout their lives
Terms youthhood, emerging adulthood, and not quite adult coined to describe the prolonged ambiguous status that young people in their 20s experience

22. Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization
Anticipatory socialization: person “rehearses” future occupations and social relationships
Resocialization: discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones during transitions in one’s life

23. Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization
Total institution: regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority
Degradation ceremony: ritual in which individual becomes secondary and rather invisible in overbearing social environment

24. Role Transitions throughout the Life Course
Socialization is a lifelong process
Levinson: One transitional stage begins when individual gradually enters adult world
Midlife crisis: stage where men and women realize they have not achieved basic goals and ambitions

25. The Sandwich Generation
Sandwich generation: adults who simultaneously try to meet needs of their parents and their children

26. Adjusting to Retirement
Phases of Retirement
Preretirement
Near phase
Honeymoon phase
Disenchantment phase
Reorientation phase
Stability phase
Termination phase

27. Adjusting to Retirement
Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)
When older people congregate in areas that have gradually become informal centers for senior citizens
Often emerge as singles and young couples move out and older people move in
Residents of some of these communities threatened by gentrification

28. Social Policy and Socialization: Child Care around the World
Looking at the Issue
In the US, 73% of employed mothers depend on others to care for their children
30% of mothers who aren’t employed have regular care arrangements
Researchers found high quality child-care centers do not adversely affect socialization of children
Few can afford to have a parent stay at home

29. Social Policy and Socialization: Child Care around the World
Applying Sociology
Interactionists favor studies assessing quality of child care outside of home; micro level of analysis
High-quality day care not equally available to all families
Conflict perspective notes child care costs are burden for lower-class families
Feminist perspective questions low status and wages of day care workers

30. Social Policy and Socialization: Child Care around the World
Initiating Policy
Policies vary throughout the world
When policymakers decide child care is desirable, must determine degree to which taxpayers subsidize it