1. SOCIALIZATION

2. Learning Goals:  Define and understand the process of Socialization  Identify the Agents of Socialization  Reflect on how the Agents of Socialization have influenced your life

3. IF YOU WERE TO EXAMINE YOURSELF AS A PERSON IN OUR SOCIETY – WHAT FACTORS DO YOU THINK WERE/ARE MOST IMPORTANT IN YOUR SOCIALIZATION?

4. Socialization:  It is the process where a person learns the physical, mental, and social skills needed to survive in their society  Strongly influences the kind of person you become  Examples: Walking, Talking, Potty Training, Obeying laws and rules…  If is a learned behaviour – (agents of socialization)  The most critical time during childhood to early adulthood

5. Studying Socialization Sociologists focus on how people learn the basic rules and attitudes of human behaviour that are considered “acceptable”. By learning and practicing these rules, we are accepted as full members of society Example: “Don’t pick your nose” or “Treat people of all ethnic backgrounds fairly”.

6. Studying Socialization Psychologists focus more on the development of the human personality, and the acquisition of those personal characteristics that make the individual unique. Example: “How self-confident an individual is”.

7. Studying Socialization An anthropologist sees socialization as the means by which permanent human societies are produced. These are processes that lead to “a uniquely human way of the life centered on marriage, family, and the household”.

8. Gender Socialization  The learning of behavior and attitudes considered appropriate for a given sex.  Boys learn to be boys and girls learn to be girls. This "learning" happens by way of many different agents of socialization.  Examples:  A parent who buys male children trucks while buying female children dolls is engaging in gender socialization.  Henslin (2004:66) suggests that the fact that parents let their preschool boys roam farther from home than their preschool girls illustrates the how girls are socialized to be more dependent.

9. Boy in pink nail polish sparks online outrage  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/13/ear lyshow/living/parenting/main20053508.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/13/ear lyshow/living/parenting/main20053508.shtml Example of Social Expectations and Gender Socialization in the Media

10. AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION

11. What are the “agents” of socialization?  The numerous individuals, institutions and organizations that influence and shape an individual’s socialization. Family School Peer Groups Media Religion Workplace Total Institutions

12. Primary agents of Socialization  The means by which an individual learns the most basic or primary norms and values of society  The family probably has the strongest influence on a person’s self image.  i.e. The difference between right and wrong, manners and gender roles

13. Secondary agents of socialization  Agents that socialize a person after childhood  ie. peers, clubs, sports teams

14. Family  First agent of socialization “the primary agent”  We learn language, communication skills, basic survival techniques, and normal rules of acceptable behaviour

15. Family: Sibling Rivalry  Family teaches us how to “get along” with other people, beginning with parents, siblings and extended families  Teaches us about ourselves and our own personal qualities

16. School  Makes us deal with formal rules  Teaches us academic skills needed to properly function in society  To socialize us and cooperate with strangers

17. What do you learn in school?  Rules about being punctual, being organized, neat, when to speak and when to listen  How to speak in a formal manner  Respect for authority  Gender roles (intentional vs. unintentional)

18. Peer Group  Social group where members are about the same age, share common interests and social position  Opportunity to experiment with things that are discouraged by family

19. Peer Groups and Gender Roles  Reinforced in the peer group  Male teenagers feel pressure to develop athletic skills and perceived toughness  Female teenagers feel pressure to concentrate on their physical appearance and adopt mature social concerns (environment, poverty)

20. Media  Advertising tries to persuade the audience they can have it all.  Unrealistic gender roles are created  Excessive exposure makes individual susceptible to stereotyped concepts of gender

21. Religion  Communicate beliefs about gender roles  Appropriate sexual contact  Collective responsibility of society  The afterlife  Raises moral questions

22. Workplace  Learn specialized language  Specific procedures, rules, and codes  Commitment to employer  Interaction with colleagues, customers and competitors  Team-building exercises

23. Total Institutions  Goal is to wipe out all prior socialization  Ex: boot camps, prisons, religious cults  Attempts to remove individuality and replace it with a common group identity  Identical clothes, haircuts, strict rules and routines

24. The Breakfast Club A Film Study