W4 Socialization

Socialization

What is Socialization?

• Socialization is the lifelong process through which people learn about themselves and their various roles within society and in relation to one another

• Socialization includes learning the norms, values, and language of a shared culture, as well as the knowledge, understandings and experiences that help shape our social and personal identities

  • Social identities: who we are in terms of the social groups we consider ourselves to be a part of

  • Personal identities: the ways we consider ourselves to be unique individuals

• This learning is contingent on other people - thus, it is a deeply social process and is based on social interaction

The Self and Society

• Sociologists use the term self to refer to our knowledge of ourselves as entities separate and distinct from others

• The term self-concept refers to an individuals sense of who they are based on their perceived similarities and differences from others

• Our self-concept is subjective because each of us has our own perception of the unique collection of traits, talents, feelings, and experiences we possess

• Our self-concept is also deeply social: it is through interactions with others and our internalization of cultural standards (the generalized other) that we come to develop meanings, shared understandings and bases of comparison

• The self can be described through the personal-social identity continuum: the range of traits you possess that emphasize the way you see yourself as a unique individual on one end and those that underscore your membership in a group on the other end

Nature vs. Nurture

• On the extreme end of "nature", evolutionary theorists advocate biological determinism, the belief that all human behaviour is controlled by our genetic makeup

• On the "nature" side we have methodological behaviourism, a school of thought centered on environmental influences. Beyond a few rudimentary reflexes and emotions, all behaviour can be attributed to learning

• Most scientists concede that both matter, although the extent to which each matter remains an empirical question

• Epigenetics: mechanisms like your behaviours and the environment that can bring about changes in gene expression

Twin Studies

• Researchers regard twins as "natural experiments" that help us determine the effects of nature versus nurture

• Identical twins share essentially 100 percent of their genes. And when raised together, identical twins also share the sae family environment. So if both common genes and common environment contribute to twins' similarity, how much does each matter? How much do genes and environment shape our lives?

• Researchers at the Minnesota Centre for Twin and Family Research have followed twins since birth, measuring them over their lives on things like personality, physical health, cognitive functioning, and substance use

• Published research based on MCTFR studies favour the side of the argument, claiming support for genetic influences, given greater similarity in outcomes for identical twins than non-identical (fraternal) pairs

Three Identical Strangers (2018)

• An interesting documentary about a  case of research done on triplets is Three Identical Strangers - watch the trailer

• The film is sociologically relevant to both debates about nature vs. nurture and research ethics

• While initially it seems like nature is winning out, the way each brother was raised in their adoptive family ends up being very important

Research Ethics

• History is replete with examples of how people have been mistreated in a variety of medical, military, and research contexts

• For instance, 1,500 sets of twin children were taken against their will in Nazi Germany, where they were subjected to abusive procedures and surgeries

• In the case of the triplets in the film, no informed consent was given. In research, informed consent means voluntary agreement to participate in research based on a full understanding of the research and of the possible risks and benefits involved

• In professional sociological research, any research with human subjects must be approved by the university's research ethics board, which evaluates the risk to participants and whether the researcher is doing everything they can to mitigate that risk

Agency and Human Development

• What about the role of the individual? Are we just passively taking in the influences from our genes and our environment?

• The bio-ecological theory of human development stresses the importance of human agency and considers human development to be an ongoing, evolving, and reciprocal process between individuals and their wider structural environments

• Micro and macro-level forces shape our development

• Individuals are also active agents

Symbolic Interactionism and the development of Self

• As you will recall from Week 2, symbolic interactionists are interested in how people create meaning through face-to-face interaction

• Therefore, symbolic interactionists are particularly interested in socialization processes

• Therefore, symbolic interactionists are particularly interested in socialization processes

• Two key thinkers in this tradition are George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) and Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)

• Another we'll discuss later in lecture is Howard Becker (1928-2023)

Children's Development Through Play

• Mead pointed out that we are not born with a self. The self develops within and through our interaction with others, which is evident through children's play and games

• Preparatory stage: recognition of and imitation of significant others

• Play stage: taking on the role of others, seeing that people exist in relation to each other

• Game stage: accounting for several roles simultaneously: e.g. in a baseball game, each player must understand the other positions and their roles and anticipate their actions. This is when a child develops a sense of a generalized other

The I and the Me

• Mead also distinguished between two parts of the self

• The "I" is the relatively uninhibited and spontaneous self that is unique to the person

• The "Me" is the socialized self or the internalized set of attitudes that we gain from role-taking and interacting with others based on societal expectations

• Both are social and both are important

The Looking Glass Self

• Cooley proposed the concept of the looking glass self to describe the sense of ourselves that we develop based on our perceptions of how others view us

• The people in our lives are like mirrors, or a looking glass. When interacting with them, we "see" ourselves mirrored back

• Those perceptions may be accurate or inaccurate, but still impact our self image

• Some people have more of a looking-glass self-orientation (LGSO) and are more dependent on others' perceptions

Agents of Socialization

• Agents of socialization are the groups, social institutions, and/or social settings that have the greatest amount of influence on the developing self. Principal agents of socialization include the family, the school, the peer group, and the mass media

• Primary socialization refers to the earliest form of socialization, which begins at birth and focuses on the informational and emotional development that takes place within the first 7-8 years of a child's life; families are key to this

The Family

• One cultural universal might be that family is the first and often most important agency of socialization

• Families provide most aspects of early socialization: language acquisition, what and how to eat, personal grooming, and wider societal expectations about how to behave

• Functionalists would say that the family's role is to provide support and guidance along the path to becoming productive and responsible adult members of society

• Two key functions of the family are to develop children's self-esteem (evaluation of their self-worth) and interpersonal trust (perception that one can trust and rely upon others who have their best interests at heart)

The Family as a "Gender Factory"

• Families produce gender expectations - one might think of the family as a "gender factory"

• Girls are often expected to become primary caregivers to children and elderly parents, while boys are expected to become primary breadwinners in the economic sphere

• Accordingly, parents often teach girls about caring and the need to be cared for, while boys learn the importance of problem solving and becoming independent. Parents are more attentive to daughters, more likely to help them, more likely to comfort them

• Parents play a role in dressing children in ways that conform to their assigned  gender; decorating their bedrooms in gendered ways

Narratives of Children's Gender Socialization from Fathers Who Take Parental Leave in South Korea

• The norm in most countries is for mothers to take parental leave

• When fathers take parental leave, they are acting against gender roles. Does this mean they have a more egalitarian approach to gender socialization for their children?

• Sociologist Youngcho Lee (2024) interviewed fathers who take parental leave and found three types of fathers

  • "committed" fathers proactively and consciously context gender boundaries

  • "conflicted" fathers hold flexible views about men and women's roles when they take leave but still hold rigid views about children's gender socialization

  • "receptive" fathers were somewhere in between: they had egalitarian views, but weren't as proactive as committed fathers

Father's Narratives of Gender Role Socialization

• Committed Father: "I try not to use gendered language to children. […] My wife and I have decided to educate our children this way, but […] they do learn in from their friends and teachers at preschool."

• Conflicted Father: "There should be no distinction between women's roles and men's role […] I hope [my son] also embodies some more traditional understanding of manliness, [so I tell him things like] 'men shouldn't cry,' 'you need to go to the military to protect the country.'"

• Receptive Father: "At the very least, I think my child is growing up without stereotypes that it is mom's job to feed him, change his diaper, or do housework"

The School

• When apart from their families, children spend much of their time in school, where they learn to read and write, along with various other lessons based on processes of socialization

• Students learn from their teachers and classmates about personal management: how to cooperate with others, respect the rights of others, assume personal responsibility, and work independently.

• Social interactions with teachers and peers play a central role in the transmission of cultural values and norms that are deemed important

• Because schools tend to reinforce existing structures, processes, and practices in society, they also help maintain the differential treatment of particular social groups based on gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity

• Sometimes this is called the hidden curriculum: the unwritten and implicit norms, values, and beliefs that we learn in school

Early Preschool Environments and Gender: Effects of Gender Pedagogy in Sweden

• Again, like leave-taking fathers, its interesting to see what happens when a school goes against the norm

• Its also interesting to see what happens in a country known for gender egalitarianism: Sweden was ranked 5th in the world by the World Economic Forum in 2024 (for comparison, Canada was #36 and the US was #43)

• Participants came from two kinds of preschool settings, with some participants attending a preschool with several specific school policies and practices aimed at actively creating a gender-neutral environment and other participants attending more typical Swedish preschools

• e.g., teachers in the gender-neutral school would say "let's have all the children play together at the table" instead of "let's have all the girls play in the costume area"

Results: Gender Socialization in Preschools

• The study found that children in the gender-neutral preschool had greater interest in playing with unfamiliar children of another gender

• They also had a reduced tendency to assume that unfamiliar boys' and girls' characteristics would align with cultural beliefs; e.g. less likely to match girls with dresses and boys with trucks

• However, the children in the gender-neutral school did not show that they were less likely to identify someone by their gender, and they wore equally likely to choose same-gender playmates among their classmates

The Peer Group

• The peer group is a group of individuals who share particular characteristics, such as grade level at school, age, or extracurricular activities

• The peer group is a principal source of social comparison, in that individuals evaluate their own appearance, merit, and abilities in comparison with others

• Social comparisons will inform us whether we are "good looking", "smart", "short" or "athletic"

Becoming a Marijuana User

• Back in 1953, the sociologist Howard Becker argued one has to learn how to become a marijuana user through social interaction

• We might assume that because marijuana has chemical effects on the body, getting high is purely a physiological process

• However, based on interviews with 50 marijuana users, Becker posited that an individual will only be able to use marijuana for pleasure when they:

  • Learn to smoke it in a way that will produce real effects

  • Learn to recognize the effects and connect them with drug use

  • Learn to enjoy the sensations they perceive

Beckers Marijuana Study

• Learning the technique: users have to be taught how to smoke: how to get the drug, how to inhale it

• Learning to perceive the effects: being high consists of two elements: the presence of the symptoms caused by the chemical effects of the drug and the recognition of these symptoms as being connected to the drug. Users learn to connect hunger or physical sensations or a laughing fit with the drug

• Learning to enjoy the effects: the sensations are not automatically or necessarily pleasurable; users learn through interaction that being hungry or feeling paranoid should be interpreted as enjoyable

• This peer learning can be applied to other drugs, including caffeine

Leaning to Interpret the Effects

• Around 2007, a police officer in Michigan stole marijuana from a drug arrest, baked it into brownies, and called 911 because he thought he was dying

• While this is a humorous example, Becker would say if the cop has been socialized - if he had learned the proper technique and to perceive and enjoy the drug - he wouldn’t have freaked out

Statuses and Roles

• A status is a recognized social position held by an individual in a society. It is a position that exists over time regardless of which individual people happen to occupy that position at any given moment

• Examples of statuses include student, professor, caretaker, mother, machinist, prime minister, and brother

• A status always exists in relation to others - for example, you can only be a brother/sister in relation to your siblings

• Roles, on the other hand, are the behaviours expected of certain statuses

Achieved and Ascribed Statuses

• Ascribed statuses are social positions that people inherit at birth or acquire involuntarily over the life course (for example, male, Black, mother, widow)

• Achieved statuses are social position that people obtain through their own actions (e.g., husband, graduate, lawyer, criminal)

• A status set is the sum total of all statuses a person holds at any given time

• A master status is the most influential of all the statuses in a persons status set

Ascribed and Achieved Statuses: The Mark of a Criminal Record

• People tend to accept that employers should not only judge applicants based on achieved statuses, not just ascribed ones

• Race is an example of an ascribed status, while having a criminal record is an achieved one

• The sociologist Devah pager (2003) ran an experiment in Milwaukee where black and white job applicants applied for the same jobs, where one of the black applicants and one of the white applicants pretended to have a criminal record

• Pager found that white applicants with a criminal record were more likely to be called back than black applicants without criminal records

• In this case, race is a master status - it matters more than a criminal record

Role conflict and Role Strain

• Role conflict refers to a situation in which incompatible role demands exist as a result of two (or more) statuses at the same time

• Role strain refers to a situation in which incompatible role demands exist within one status

• For example, role conflict for women who are both employed and mothers can emerge when wor conflicts with caregiving, or caregiving conflicts with work

• Role strain might emerge for you as a student when you have multiple deadlines in one week

Resocialization

• Resocialization involves a person radically altering their identity by giving up an existing status in exchange for a new one

• Resocialization can be voluntary, such as when a person decides to leave a place of employment in order to retire, raise a family, or care for elderly parents

• This process can also be involuntary if the individuals involved have little choice but to undergo resocialization

• For example, in a total institution like prison, it is next to impossible for inmates to maintain their former personal or social identities, which rely on meaningful interactions and agency

Removing The Mask: College Men and Post-COVID Resocialization

• The COVID pandemic dramatically altered student learning and transition to postsecondary

• Typical patterns of development and skills related to interpersonal relationships, conflict management, social skill building, and sense of belonging have been disrupted by the COVID response

• Charlie Potts (2023) asks, "how do college men perceive masculinity as they experience social reengagement on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic?"

Results: Resocialization after COVID

• "it feels like my freshman year for a second time. Every day is like learning a new campus environment. Its almost a lot to keep up with."

• "one thing I associate as an ideal quality for men is being adaptable, but most of us aren't. like you should know how to change and adjust to whatever life throws at you. But when its all new every day and you don’t even know what you're supposed to be doing or how you should be acting, it's stressful."

• "you feel behind socially and you're panicking like you're behind in class but its more pervasive"

• "some men definitely have this fear of losing some masculinity through all this. They have anger towards school, anger at the government, and they are upset that things we want to do are taken away from us. I mean, I get it. But acting like a jerk doesn't make anything better"

• A functionalist would interpret this lack of norms among social upheaval as a sign of anomie