Notes: Socialization, Self, and Foundational Theories (Freud, Cooley, Mead, Fanon)
Socialization, development, and the impact of early interaction
Opening example of extreme social neglect: a little girl raised with almost no human interaction, kept in a cage, fed but not spoken to or educated; CPS intervened around ages 11–13; language acquisition and normal socialization were severely impaired; later-life functioning largely dependent on assisted living due to lack of socialization.
This case illustrates how crucial early social interaction is for normal development and language learning.
It also foregrounds the idea that language and social engagement are foundational to what we become as social beings.
Skin-to-skin contact after birth: emphasized as a critical first experience between infant and caregiver, even in cesarean and surrogate births.
Early contact helps establish safety, understanding of resource availability, and forms the basis for later communication patterns.
Talking to and engaging with the infant from birth is linked to better language development and social bonding.
Personal account about talking to a baby: a mother’s practice of treating the child as a person, not a baby, and the observed effects on the child’s future verbal skills and social confidence.
Language-rich interaction from infancy correlates with advanced linguistic development (e.g., a three-year-old who talks circles around age peers).
This anecdote supports the broader point: prime times of engagement shape later communication abilities.
Language and bilingual development: language exposure in early childhood shapes multilingual competence.
Example: cousins raised with one parent speaking Japanese and the other English achieved fluency in both languages; similar outcomes observed when multiple languages are spoken at home.
Key takeaway: consistent language exposure from caregivers supports multi-language proficiency; children may take longer to start speaking but can achieve fluency across languages.
Core sociological question: What is the self, and how is it formed?
Sociologists argue that the self is created and modified through ongoing interactions with others, not formed in isolation.
Infants learn aspects of identity (e.g., race, gender) through language, social reinforcement, and behavior management, rather than in a vacuum.
This ties into broader debates on nature vs. nurture and the role of social context in shaping self-concept.
The self and the concept of socialized identity:
Self-concept is rooted in interaction with others and the meanings assigned by others to us.
The development of self is ongoing and shaped by social engagement across the lifespan.
Freud: psychoanalysis and structural theory of the mind
Psychoanalysis centers on the subconscious/unconscious mind guiding drives, impulses, thoughts, and behavior.
The iceberg analogy is used to illustrate that much of mental life lies below the surface of conscious awareness.
Three parts of the mind:
ext{Id}: basic, inborn drives; source of instinctive psychic energy.
ext{Ego}: the realistic part that balances desires with social reality.
ext{Superego}: internalized societal demands; includes the ego ideal and internalized moral standards.
The ego mediates between the id, superego, and the external world, influencing conscious behavior.
Psychosexual stages of development (Freud): four distinct stages (birth to adulthood) according to the speaker
The stages are described as occurring between birth and adulthood, with the last stage beginning around age 12.
The stage structure is mentioned as four stages in this discussion; the speaker notes the book discusses five stages but emphasizes the four-stage framing here.
Personality quirks may arise if a child becomes fixated at a stage (e.g., oral fixations like chewing gum or smoking understood as a symbolic need to keep something in the mouth).
The discussion acknowledges Freud as foundational in psychology, noting his controversial points and ongoing influence, with caveats about how modern psychology treats his ideas.
Contemporary reception: Freud is one of the foundational figures, and although not all points are accepted verbatim today, his influence remains in the way we think about unconscious drives and developmental stages.
Charles Cooley and the looking-glass self
Early Chicago School sociologist who argued that the sense of self depends on how we see ourselves reflected in our interactions with others.
The looking-glass self arises from the three-step process:
We imagine how our actions appear to others.
We imagine others’ judgments of us.
We experience a feeling about ourselves based on our perception of others’ judgments.
The key idea: repeated social feedback contributes to self-concept, reinforced by social media and exposure to similar others.
Frantz Fanon and the white gaze
Fanon’s work focuses on how people of color navigate the gaze of white society and how this shapes self-presentation and behavior in social contexts.
The concept aligns with the looking-glass self by highlighting how imagined perceptions of others influence self-understanding.
Fanon’s framework emphasizes the ongoing mental process of evaluating how one is viewed by others, particularly in racialized contexts.
George Herbert Mead and the development of the self (Chicago School)
Mead argued that the self is created through social interaction, beginning in childhood with language development.
Three stages of the development of the self:
Preparatory stage: children mimic or imitate others.
Play stage: children pretend to take the roles of a particular or significant other, internalizing the perspective and expectations associated with that role.
Game stage: children learn to engage with multiple roles and understand broader social structures; includes understanding the perspectives of others who matter in a given context.
The Thomas theorem and the definition of a situation
The idea that a definition of a situation becomes real in its consequences when people act on it as if it were true.
Definition of a situation: an agreement among people about what is going on in a given circumstance, which coordinates action and helps realize goals.
This concept underpins social constructs and how collective belief shapes social reality.
Social constructs and race as an example
Race is presented as a social construct that has real consequences despite not being a biological/genetic fact that is visible in DNA alone.
The idea: social categories (race, ethnicity) are shaped by collective agreement, time, place, and social context, with tangible effects on people’s lives.
Language as foundational to self and socialization
The recurring emphasis throughout the material is that language and social interaction are central to how we form self-identity and social understanding.
Language exposure, communication style, and the quality of early verbal engagement are repeatedly linked to cognitive and social development.
Practical and ethical implications discussed in the material
The importance of early nurturing, responsive caregiving, and social interaction for healthy development and language acquisition.
The ethical concern around neglect and isolation and the long-term consequences for an individual’s ability to function in society.
Recognition that social constructs like race have real-world consequences that require critical reflection on how societies define and respond to difference.
The interplay between individual development and societal structures highlights the responsibility of caregivers and institutions to foster healthy socialization.
Connections to prior learning and real-world relevance
The material ties together theories of the self with practical observations about child development, language acquisition, and socialization patterns.
It connects foundational sociological theories (Cooley, Mead, Fanon, Thomas) with developmental psychology (Freud) and contemporary understandings of social constructs.
Real-world examples (e.g., bilingual households, skin-to-skin practices, and neglect cases) illustrate how theory translates into everyday life and policy considerations.
Summary takeaway
Our sense of self is not created in isolation; it emerges through ongoing social interaction, language exposure, and culturally shaped feedback from others.
Foundational theories (Freud’s psychodynamics, Cooley’s looking-glass self, Mead’s stages of the self, Fanon’s racialized gaze, and the Thomas theorem) provide different lenses to understand how individuals interpret themselves and their worlds.
Early experiences, especially in infancy and early childhood, have lasting effects on language, social skills, and identity.
Key terms to remember
Skin-to-skin contact
Looking-glass self
Id, Ego, Superego
Psychosexual stages (Freud)
Preparatory stage, Play stage, Game stage (Mead)
Significant other, Generalized other (Mead’s framework mentions significant others; the transcript notes “particular significant other” in the described stage)
Definition of a situation, Thomas theorem
Social construct (with race as a primary example)
The white gaze (Fanon)
Language development and bilingualism
Self-concept and social feedback loops
Numerical references mentioned in the transcript (for study clarity):
Age ranges involved in the neglect case: between 11 and 13 years old.
Initial life stages in Freud’s psychosexual framework: development occurs from birth toward the early years (and beyond), with the final stage starting around the age of 12.
Early childhood development emphasis: stages and language acquisition are discussed in the context of ages 1 to 5 for the early psychosexual discussion.
Real-world implications and ethical considerations highlighted
Early social deprivation has demonstrable negative effects on motor and language development and long-term social functioning.
Supportive caregiving, language-rich environments, and early social interaction are essential for optimal development.
Societal structures (e.g., race categories) have tangible consequences that must be scrutinized and understood within the broader social and historical context.