1. Chapter 4: The Self and Interaction

2. What Is Human Nature?
The nature versus nurture debate: Are we the people that we are because of our genetics or our socialization? This debate asks which factor determines individual behaviors and traits.
Ultimately, both sides play a role in making us the people that we are.
Ask your students if they have ever been compared to a relative (for example, “You act just like your father when you’re angry!”). Ask them to speculate as to whether they learned this trait or if they believe it is biological. Some may talk about acting like an aunt that they have never met. Others may give examples of acting just like a sister—even though they were adopted from different biological families. Hopefully this will illustrate how difficult it is to tell which factor is influencing the behavior.

3. The Process of Socialization
Socialization is the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group.
The socialization process begins in infancy and lasts throughout the lifetime.
Language facilitates socialization.
We know that culture is passed from one generation to the next through language and communication, and socialization happens in a similar way. We are often told how to act or behave, which is how language facilitates this process. If people are deprived of socialization (for example, if they are raised in isolation), they may not exhibit behaviors that are typical of human beings. Children reared without much socialization are referred to as feral children, because their behaviors are almost similar to those of a wild animal rather than a child.

4. The Development of the Self
The self is our personal identity, which is separate and different from all other people.
Sociologists believe the self is created and modified through interaction in our lives.
In other words, when we get a positive response from other people, we might like the feeling we get and so will try to replicate that feeling. This might even help to shape our personality or our sense of self. Our interactions with other people may shape our own sense of self.

5. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
Sigmund Freud is usually associated with psychoanalysis, but his theories have also helped sociologists gain a better understanding of social behavior.
Freud developed the idea of the subconscious and the unconscious mind, which he believed control most of our drives, impulses, thoughts, and behaviors.
It is widely acknowledged that Freud was among the most important social thinkers of the twentieth century. Many of his ideas, from the Freudian slip to the ego trip, have become part of the common vernacular.
Freud was interested, not only in individual minds, but also in the way that mental processes have influenced the whole of history and culture.

6. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
Charles Cooley believed that one’s sense of self depends on seeing oneself reflected in interactions with others.
The looking-glass self refers to the notion that the self develops through our perception of others’ evaluations and appraisals of us.
In other words, we like getting a positive response from people, so we try to replicate our actions when the response we received was positive. We use others as a “mirror.” In this example, when we style our hair and look in the “mirror,” we wait for the person looking back to say, “That looks good,” and then we will determine that we like our style.

7. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
George Herbert Mead expanded Cooley’s ideas. Mead also believed that the self was created through social interaction and that this process started in childhood.
Mead believed that the self develops through several stages, including the preparatory stage, the play stage, taking the role of the significant other, and the game stage.
Mead believed that children began to develop a sense of self at about the same time that they began to learn language. The first stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self is the preparatory stage, wherein children mimic or imitate others. The second stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self is the play stage, wherein children pretend to play the role of a particular or significant other. The particular or significant other demonstrates the perspectives and expectations of a particular role, which the child learns and internalizes. The third stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self is the game stage, wherein children play organized games and take on the perspective of the generalized other.

8. For discussion: ask your students if they recall playing roles or imitating others when they were children. Did that have an impact on their current values, goals, or aspirations?

9. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
The acquisition of language skills coincides with the growth of mental capacities, including the ability to think of ourselves as separate and distinct and to see ourselves in relationship to others.
If you think about babies or very young children, they really don’t have a sense of autonomy until the are able to vocalize their ideas. At that point, they want to express their own ideas and want to be heard as an individual. [

10. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
Erving Goffman believed that meaning is constructed through interaction.
His approach, called dramaturgy, compares social interaction to the theater, where individuals take on roles and act them out for an audience.
As we mentioned in Chapter 1, Goffman was particularly interested in why we “act” differently in different contexts.

11. The Development of the Self (cont’d.)
Goffman saw social life as a sort of game, where we work to control the impressions others have of us, a process he called impression management.
According to Goffman, we work hard and go out of our way to present a favorable impression to the people around us.

12. The Thomas Theorem
W. I. Thomas stated that “if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” (This is now called the Thomas theorem.)
Because we encounter ambiguous situations every day, many meanings are possible. The way we define each situation, then, becomes its reality.
For example, suppose you’re walking down the street and you witness a woman slapping a man in public. What are the possible meanings of that situation? It could be a fight or spousal abuse; it could be a joke or a friendly greeting, depending on how hard the slap is. It could be that he has just passed out and she is hoping to revive him. Or the participants could be actors shooting a scene from a film. Each of these definitions leads to a different set of potential consequences—you might intervene, call the police, stand by and laugh, ignore them, summon paramedics, or ask for an autograph, depending on which meaning you act upon. Each definition of the situation lends itself to a different approach, and the consequences are real.

13. Agents of Socialization
Agents of socialization are the social groups, institutions, and individuals that provide structured situations where socialization occurs.
Major agents include:
Family
Schools
Peers
The mass media
Each of these agents of socialization (sometimes referred to as agencies of socialization) has a different impact on us depending on where we are in the lifespan. For instance, the family is very influential on young children, but older children and adults are heavily influenced by peers. We’ll talk more about each of these agents of socialization.

14. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
The family is the single most significant agent of socialization in all societies and teaches us the basic values and norms that shape our identity.
The family has a significant influence on children until they go to school. Family is often considered a primary agent of socialization, and school is the secondary agent. [

15. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
Schools provide education and socialize us through a hidden curriculum (a set of behavioral traits such as punctuality, neatness, discipline, hard work, competition, and obedience) that teaches many of the behaviors that will be important later in life.
Schools are often considered the secondary agent of socialization. This agent sometimes replaces the family as the most important agent, as children are now experiencing socialization from adults and other children outside of the family. [

16. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
Peers provide very different social skills and often become more immediately significant than the family, especially as children move through adolescence.
Peers are often the most influential agent of socialization for older children and adults. [

17. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
The media has become an important agent of socialization, often overriding the family and other institutions in instilling values and norms.
The media is likely the most controversial agent of socialization. We know that children and individuals do learn from the media, but there is no comparable society exactly like that in the United States that doesn’t have mass media, so it’s difficult to do a comparison or determine exactly how much impact the media has on us. [ 17

18. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
Resocialization is the process of replacing previously learned norms and values with new ones as a part of a transition in life.
Resocialization happens often—such as when we get a new job, enter or leave the military, or take on a new role (like becoming a spouse or parent).

19. Agents of Socialization (cont’d.)
A dramatic form of resocialization takes place in a total institution, which is an institution (such as a prison, cult, or mental hospital) that cuts individuals off from the rest of society so that their lives can be controlled and regulated.
Individuals often have a difficult time adjusting to a total institution and will face another difficult adjustment when going from the total institution back to mainstream society.

20. These might be examples of behaviors that you would see in a total institution. How are they different than what we might typically see in the dominant culture in society? How are they similar?

21. Statuses and Roles
A status is a position in society that comes with a set of expectations.
An ascribed status is one we are born with that is unlikely to change.
An achieved status is one we have earned through individual effort or that is imposed by others.
An ascribed status could involve race or sex. An achieved status could involve a professional position like manager or chief executive officer (CEO).

22. Statuses and Roles (cont’d.)
Our master status is a status that seems to override all others and affects all other statuses that we possess.
Roles are the behaviors expected from a particular status.
Oftentimes you will hear a person being called by his or her master status. For instance, you may hear people talking about “that black man.” In that example, the description “black” came before describing the person as a man. Black is likely to be the master status. You also hear things like “disabled individual” or “stupid kid.” The first word is usually the master status—it tends to be the status that people notice above all others. Roles are just the behaviors of individuals in that status.

23. Statuses and Roles (cont’d.)
Role conflict occurs when the roles associated with one status clash with the roles associated with a different status.
Role strain occurs when roles associated with a single status clash.
Either of these processes may lead to role exit.
Role conflict happens when a person has two different roles to perform and they conflict with one another. So, if you are a mother and a student, you might have class today and your child might have a soccer game at the same time. You have to choose between your two roles because they conflict with one another. With role strain, you have only one role, which conflicts with itself. For example, you are a student, so you know you are supposed to study tonight. However, there is also a party tonight. Your roommates pressure you to go to the party because “that’s what college students are supposed to do,” so you have to choose; the single role (college student) is pulling you in two different directions.

24. Emotions and Personality
Though we tend to believe that our emotions are highly personal and individual, there are social patterns in our emotional responses.
Many sociologists and social psychologists have studied patterns of emotional responses. They find that there are a limited number of responses that people generally give to any particular situation. It is likely that we learn what emotional responses are appropriate through our socialization.

25. Emotions and Personality (cont’d.)
Emotion work refers to the process of evoking, suppressing, or managing feelings to create a public display of emotion.
Both of these images show people engaging in emotion work. Have you ever had to engage in emotion work for your job or some other reason?

26. New Interactional Contexts
Sociologists are interested in interactions that occur in copresence (when individuals are in one another’s physical presence) and the way that modern technology enables us to interact with people very far away.
Relationships used to be based mainly on physical proximity (called territorial relationships), but we are now as likely to form nonterritorial relationships based on common interests and access to technology that keeps people together even when they are physically apart.

27. New Interactional Contexts (cont’d.)
Postmodern theorists claim that the role of technology in interaction is one of the primary features of postmodern life.
We are now exposed to many more sources that help us shape our sense of self than the generations before us were.
Postmodern theorists like Kenneth Gergen believe that interacting through technology exposes us to more information and diverse perspectives, which may shape our sense of self and socialize us in new ways. This is another reason why the media is a controversial agent of socialization.

28. Chapter 4: Participation Questions
In your opinion, what has a stronger influence in how a person “turns out”?
the person’s parents
the person’s genetics
These questions can be used with “clickers,” cell phones, or other audience response systems to increase participation in your classes. They can also be used to encourage discussion without technological input.

29. Chapter 4: Participation Questions
Which group do you think influences your taste in clothing or music the most?
family
friends
school
TV and other mass media
These questions can be used with “clickers,” cell phones, or other audience response systems to increase participation in your classes. They can also be used to encourage discussion without technological input.

30. Chapter 4: Participation Questions
Which group most strongly influenced your decisions about smoking cigarettes, using drugs, or drinking alcohol?
family
friends
school
TV and other mass media
These questions can be used with “clickers,” cell phones, or other audience response systems to increase participation in your classes. They can also be used to encourage discussion without technological input.

31. Chapter 4: Participation Questions
Given what you have learned about roles, if your boss calls and asks you to work during class time, you’ll know you’re experiencing
role conflict.
role strain.
ANS: A
These questions can be used with “clickers,” cell phones, or other audience response systems to increase participation in your classes. They can also be used to encourage discussion without technological input.

32. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 4