Socialization- the lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.

• Occurs through human interactions that begin in infancy and continue through retirement.

Personality- A person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior.

The Role of Socialization: Nature vs Nurture-

• The Nature vs Nurture debate is over the relative importance of biological inheritance and environmental factors in human development.

• They now acknowledge the interaction of heredity and environmental factors in socialization.

Self- A distinct identity that sets us apart from others.

Looking-Glass Self- a concept used by Charles Horton Cooley that emphasizes the self as the product of our social interactions.

Three Phases of Developing Identity:

1. We imagine how we present ourselves to others.

2. We imagine how others evaluate us.

3. We develop feelings about ourselves as a result of those impressions.

George Herbert Mead- proposed three stages in the development of the self.

Preparatory Stage:

• Children imitate people around them.

• Children begin to understand symbols.

Play Stage:

• Children become more aware of social relationships.

• Children can pretend to be other people.

• Role taking: the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from the imagined viewpoint.

Game Stage:

• Children around the age of eight to nine no longer just play roles.

• Children grasp their social positions and the social positions of others.

Generalized Other- The attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in their behavior.

Significant Other- an individual who is most important in the development of the self, such as a parent, friend, or teacher.

Erving Goffman- suggested that many of our daily activities involve attempts to convey impressions of who we are.

Impression Management- The altering of the presentation of the self in order to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences.

Dramaturgical Approach- A view of social interaction in which people are seen as theatrical performers.

Face-work- the efforts people make to maintain the proper image and avoid public embarrassment.

Sigmund Freud’s early work in Psychology stressed the role of inborn drives. The self is a social product. The self has components that work in opposition to each other. Our natural impulsive instincts are in constant conflict with societal constraints. By interacting with others, we learn the expectations of society and select the behavior that is most appropriate.

Jean Piaget stressed the importance of social interactions. He found that newborns have no self in the sense of a looking-glass image. They are quite self-centered, demanding all attention be directed towards them. As children mature, they are gradually socialized into social relationships. Piaget’s cognitive theory of development: children’s thought progresses through four stages of development.

Sensorimotor Stage- Young children use their senses to make discoveries.

Preoperational Stage- Children begin to use words and symbols to distinguish objects and ideas.

Concrete Operational Stage- Children engage in more logical thinking.

Formal Operational Stage- Adolescents become capable of sophisticated abstract thought and can deal logically with ideas and values.

Rite of Passage- A ritual marking the symbolic transition from one social position to another. Rites of passage are ways to validate and/or dramatize changes in a person’s status.

Anticipatory Socialization- Processes of socialization in which a person rehearses for future positions, occupations, and social relationships.

Resocialization- The process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life. This typically involves considerable stress. It is particularly effective when it occurs within a total institution.

Total Institution- A term coined by Erving Goffman for an institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority. Examples: a prison, the military, mental hospitals, convents. All aspects of life are conducted in the same place under the control of a single authority. Any activities within the institution are conducted in the company of others in the same circumstances. The authorities devise rules and schedule activities without consulting the participants. All aspects of life are designed to fulfill the purpose of the organization.

Degradation Ceremony- an aspect of the socialization process within some total institutions, within which people are subjected to humiliating rituals.

The continuing and lifelong socialization process involves many different social forces that influence our lives and alter our self-images. The most important of these in the United States is family.

Other Agents of Socialization:

• School

• Peer Groups

• Mass Media and Technology

• Workplace

• Religion

• The State

Family Members- Are an important part of the social environment. All families engage in socialization. In the United States, social development also includes exposure to cultural assumptions regarding gender and race.

Gender Role- Expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females.

In some societies, girls are socialized mainly by their mothers and boys by their fathers.

Schools- have an explicit mandate to socialize people into the norms and values of our culture. Schools in the United States foster competition through rewards and punishments, such as grades and evaluations. Functionalists argue that schools fulfill the function of teaching children the values and customs of the larger society. Conflict theorists add that schools can reinforce the divisive aspects of society, especially those of social class.

Peer Group- As children grow older, peer groups increasingly assume the role of Mead’s significant others. Young people associate with others who are approximately their age, and who often enjoy a similar social status. The importance of peers or friends cannot be overstated. Gender differences are noteworthy among adolescents.

Media Innovations- such as radio, motion pictures, recorded music, television, and the Internet have all been important agents of socialization. Increasingly, socialization occurs online. Both in industrialized nations and developing areas, people have been socialized into relying on new communications technologies.

Learning to behave appropriately in an occupation is a fundamental aspect of human socialization. More and more young people work today. They seek jobs for spending money. Teenage employment in the United States is the highest among industrial countries. Socialization in the workplace changes with the shift from an after-school job to full-time employment. It continues throughout one’s work history.

Organized regulations stipulate the age one can drink, drive, vote, marry, and retire.