SocializationChapter 5

Socialization – the complex, lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture

describes the ways that people

come to understand societal norms and expectationsto accept society’s beliefsto be aware of societal values (expectations)acquire a sense of self or social identity

Socialization is different based on race, gender and class

Socialization is not the same as socializingWhich is interacting with others, like family, friends, and coworkers for the purpose of companionship and entertainment.

Sociology or Psychology?

psychologists are focused on how the mind influences that behavior

tend to look inward (mental health, emotional processes)

sociologists study the role of society in shaping behavior

while sociologists tend to look outward (social institutions, cultural norms, interactions with others)

Sociology vs. PsychologyEXAMPLE

A sociologist studying how a couple gets to the point of their first kiss on a date might focus her research on cultural norms for dating, social patterns of sexual activity over time, or how this process is different for seniors than for teens. A psychologist would.

A psychologist would more likely be interested in the person’s earliest sexual awareness or the mental processing of sexual desire.

5

Learning Personality, Morality and Emotions

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – came up with psychoanalysis (and he was crazy)•id – Freud’s term for our inborn basic drives•ego – Freud’s term for a balancing force between the id and the demands of society•superego – Freud’s term for conscience, the internalized norms and values of our social groupsFreud and the Development of Personality

In thE UPCOMING VIDEO IDENTIFY WHICH CHARACTER REPRESENTS EACH

ELEMENT OF PERSONALITY.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scON9BThgZk

Wants whatever feels good at the time, with

no consideration

for the reality of the situation.

“Look at me!Look at me!Look at me now!It is fun to have fun!”

The superego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical

restraints placed on us by our

caregivers.

“They should not be hereWhen our mother is not!Put them out! Put them out!”Said the fish in the pot.”

Its the ego's job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration

the reality of the situation.

“Then our mother came inAnd she said to us two,“Did you have any fun?Tell me. What did you do?”. . .Should we tell her about it?Now, what SHOULD we do?Well . . .What would you do if your mother asked you?”

10:009:008:007:006:005:004:003:002:001:00:30:15:14:13:12:11:10:09:08:07:06:05:04:03:02:01

Wants what it wants when it wants it

Wants to follow the rules, and the moral standards in the culture

• Has to make the decision of which “voice” to follow

The id is the primitive mind, it contains the basic needs and feelings

Stores and enforces the rules, it will deny pleasure to follow the rules

•Understands that you can’t always get what you want

An overactive id can also cause a person to be uncaring of others feelings

If the superego is too strong it can result in a person who feels guilty all the time and is too obsessed with obtaining perfection

If the ego is too strong it can result in an adult that is rational and efficient, but also cold and boring

id superego ego

Revisit your understanding of the elements of personality.Identify, describe, and explain 2

conflicts of ID and superego that you either experience or witness on a regular basis.

Sociology, 12th Edition by John MacionisCopyright 2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Jean PiagetCognitive Development

Cognition– How people think and understand

Stages of development– Sensorimotor stage: Sensory contact understanding – Preoperational stage: Use of language and other

symbols – Concrete operational stage: Perception of causal

connections in surroundings– Formal operational stage: Abstract, critical thinking

Sociology, 12th Edition by John MacionisCopyright 2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Critical Evaluation of Piaget

•Differed from Freud, viewing the mind as active and creative.

•Cognitive stages are the result of biological maturation and social experience.

•Do people in all societies pass through Piaget’s four stages?

Kohlberg, Gilligan, and the Development of Morality

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (used only boys in studies)• amoral stage (0-7) – there is no right or wrong, just personal needs

to be satisfied

• preconventional stage (7-10) – learned rules, follow them to stay out of trouble; right and wrong based on what pleases parents, teachers and friends

• conventional stage (10-?) – morality means to follow the norms and values they have learned

• postconventional stage (maybe never) – most people don’t reach this stage; reflect on abstract principles of right and wrong and judge a behavior according to these principles

Psychologist Carol Gilligan (opposed Kohlberg) -• women: more likelty to base morality on personal relationships

• men: morle likley use abstract principles to define right and wrong

Socialization into the Self and Mind

•socialization – the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group–the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and actions thought appropriate for them

•self – the unique human capacity of being able to see ourselves “from the outside”; the view we internalize of how others see use

•looking-glass self – a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops though internalizing others’ reactions to us

•taking the role of the other – putting oneself in someone eles’s shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks and thus anticipating how that person will act

•significant other – an individual who significantly influences someone else’s life

•generalized other – the norms, values, attitudes, and expectations of people “in general”; the child’s ability to take the role of the generalized other is a significant step in the development of a self

Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self

The looking-glass self is a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops though internalizing others’ reactions to us. It contains three elements:

1. We imagine how we appear to those around us. (EXAMPLE: We may think that others perceive us as witty or dull.)

2. We interpret others’ reaction. (EXAMPLE: We come to conclusions about how others evaluate us. Do they like us for being witty? Do they dislike us for being dull?)

3. We develop a self-concept. (EXAMPLE: Based on our interpretations of how others react to us, we develop feels and ideas about ourselves. A favorable reflection in this social mirror leads to a positive self-concept, a negative relection to a negative self-concept.)

The looking-glass self and three-step process in continuous and repetitious. We constantly change our self-image, even in old age.

Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self

How much value one sees in oneself is greatly affected by socialization and how you believe you are seen by society.

Mead and Role TakingGeorge Herbert Mead (1863-1931), symbolic interactionist, was a University of Chicago sociologist who wrote about taking the role of the other (putting self in someone else’s shoes to understand how someone else feels and thinks and to anticipate how that person will act.)

Mead and Role Taking

Three stages of taking the role of the other:

1.imitation (under age 3; no sense of self; imitate others): Children under three can only mimic others. They do not yet have a self of self separate from others, and they can only imitate other people’s gestures and words. (This stage is actually not role taking, but it prepares the child for it.)

2.play (ages 3-6; play “pretend” others… Xena, Spiderman, etc.): From about the age of 3 to 6, children pretend to take the roles of specific people. They might pretend that they are a firefighter, a wrestler, the Lone Ranger, Supergirl, Xena, Spiderman, and so on. They also like costumes at this stage and enjoy dressing up in their parents’ clothing , tying a towel around their neck to “become” Superman or Wonder Woman.

3.games (after about age 6 or 7; team games or “organized play”; learn to take multiple roles): Organized play, or team games, coincides roughly with the early school years. The significance for the self is that to play these games the individual must be able to take multiple roles. One of Mead’s favorite examples was that of a baseball game, in which each player must be able to take the role of all the other players. To play baseball, the child not only must know his or her own role but also must be able to anticipate who will do what when the ball is hit or thrown.

Mead and Role Taking

• Mead on “I” vs. “Me”… “Not only the self but also the human mind is a social product.” We cannot think without symbols and we get symbols from society. The mind, like language, is the product of society.

• “I” – the self as subject• “Me” – the self as object

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

4 Stages of Reasoning

1. The sensorimotor stage (from birth to about 2): understanding is limited to direct contact with the environment; do not know that their bodies are separate from the environment; no understanding of cause and effect2. The preoperational stage (from about age 2 to age 7): develop the ability to use symbols; do not understand common concepts such as size, speed, or causation; only understand things from their view

• The concrete operational stage (from the age of about 7 to 12): reasoning become more developed; understanding remains concrete; understand numbers, causation, and speed; can take the role of the other and participate in team games; without concrete examples, cannot talk about concepts such as truth, honesty , or justice. (Example: can explain something specific is a lie but cannot explain what truth itself is.)

• The formal operational stage (after the age of about 12): capable of abstract thinking; can reach conclusions based on general principles and use rules to solve abstract problems; become young philosophers.