Chapter 4 - Socializing the Individual

Question 0

Heredity

Answer 0

Transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to children

• provides you with biological needs but culture determines how you meet those needs
• setting limits on individuals
• — inherited characteristics limit what is possible

Question 1

Personality

Answer 1

Behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and values that characterize an individual

Question 2

Nature Argument

INSTINCT

Answer 2

Unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern

Question 3

Nurture argument

Answer 3

Behavior is a result of social environment and learning

Question 4

Sociobiology

Answer 4

Systematic study of biological basis of all behavior

- all for nature

Question 5

Aptitude

Answer 5

Capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a specific body of knowledge

• environmental factors: parent responses encourage/discourage development of aptitude
• parental reinforcement may effect traits such as shyness, sociability and aggression

Question 6

First born

Answer 6

Achievement oriented, responsible, conservative in thinking and defenders of the status quo

Question 7

Later-born

Answer 7

More affectionate, more friendly, risk-takers and social and intellectual rebels

Question 8

Parental characteristics that affect child

Answer 8

• age of parents when child is born
• level of education
• religious orientation
• economic status
• cultural heritage
• occupational background

Question 9

How the cultural environment affects the child

Answer 9

• each culture gives rise to certain personality types (model personalities)
  U.S. = competitiveness, assertiveness, and individualism
• gender differences
• subcultural differences
• region of country or type of neighborhood
• influence of social environment

Question 10

Situation of Anna

Answer 10

• born to an unmarried mom
• kept in an attic
• given minimal care
• undernourished and emancipated
• no human contact
• at 6 years- could not talk, walk, or feed herself
• learned to walk, feed herself, brush her teeth, and talk in simple phrases
• died at ten years of age

Question 11

Situation of Isabelle

Answer 11

• Found at same age as Anna: 6
• kept in dark room with deaf mother
• did not learn to speak
• acted like an infant
• began to speak after training
• reached the level of her peers after two years

Question 12

Situation of Genie

Answer 12

• discovered in -1970- 13 years old
• confined from age of 20 months to small bedroom
• beaten if she made noise
• father interacted by acting like an angry dog
• did not learn to talk
• had skills of 1 year old when found and could not stand straight
• after 8 years for training, did not progress past a 3rd grade student

Question 13

Institutionalization

Answer 13

1945 study by Rene Spits (children living in an orphanage)

• given food and medical care
• little human contact
• 1/3 of children died within 2 years
• survivors: less than 25% could walk or dress by themselves or use a spoon
• 1 could speak in complete sentences

Question 14

Socialization

Answer 14

Interactive process through which people learn up the basic skills, values, beliefs and behavior patterns of society

Question 15

Self

Answer 15

Conscious awareness of possessing identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society

Question 16

John Locke

Answer 16

The Tabula Rasa

• each child is born a “clean slate”
• we are all born without a personality
• acquire personality as a result of social experiences
• could be molded into particular personality

Question 17

Charles Cooley

Answer 17

The Looking-Glass Self

• interactionist perspective
• • an interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others
• three step process
• child is influenced by primary group

Question 18

Three step process of Charles Cooley

Answer 18

1. ) we imagine how we appear to others
2. ) we attempt to determine whether others view us as we view ourselves through their REACTIONS
3. ) develop feelings about ourselves based on our perceptions

Question 19

George Meade

Answer 19

Role taking - take on or pretend to take on the role of others

Question 20

Two steps of role taking

Answer 20

1. ) we internalize the expectations of people closest to us (significant others)
2. ) expectations/attitudes of society guide us more
   - generalized others

Question 21

Generalized others

Answer 21

Attitudes, expectations and viewpoints of society

Question 22

Three step process of role taking

Answer 22

1. ) imitation (under 3) - don’t have a sense of self; mimic actions
2. ) play (ages 3-6) - play and act out roles of specific people; trying to see world through someone else’s eyes
3. ) organized games (over 6 or7) - require children to take roles; anticipate the actions and expectations of others

Question 23

Parts of the self

Answer 23

“I” - unsocialized, spontaneous and self-interested component of personality

“Me” - aware of expectations and attitudes of society (socialized self)

Question 24

Erving Goffman

Answer 24

Dramaturgy

Question 25

Dramaturgy

Answer 25

Social interaction is like a drama being preformed on stage

Question 26

Impression management

Answer 26

An effort people make to play their roles and manage the impressions that the audience receives - we change our selves to impress others

Question 27

Albas and Albas study

Answer 27

College student’s reactions to exam scores were different depending on who they were with

Question 28

Who focused on how we create our self?

Answer 28

Cooley and Meade

Question 29

Who focused on how we changed our self depending on the audience?

Answer 29

Goffman

Question 30

Agents of socialization

Answer 30

Specific individuals, groups and institutions that enable socialization to take place

Question 31

Family as an agent of socialization

Answer 31

• most important agent
• socialization can be deliberate or unintended
• – unintended may have a greater impact
• may be different from family to family
• – single parents, family relationships, subgroups they belong to, etc.

Question 32

Peer group as social agent

Answer 32

• primary group composed of individuals of roughly the same age and similar characteristics
• influential during pre-teen and early teen years
• focus is the subculture of the group

Question 33

School as social agent

Answer 33

• class activities=basic knowledge
• extracurriculars=prepare for life in society
• transmits cultural values
• teachers become role models

Question 34

Mass media as social agent

Answer 34

• instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact
• television has the largest influence
• – negatives:
  - effects of violence - leads to aggressiveness
  - presents image of society limited to white middle class
• – positives:
  - educational tool
  - expand viewers world

Question 35

Re socialization

Answer 35

Break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms

Question 36

Voluntary resocialization

Answer 36

People who assume a new status

Question 37

Involuntary resocialization

Answer 37

Total institution

Try to change a person’s personality and behavior (remove a person’s identity

Question 38

Total institution

Answer 38

Setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a time and are subject to tight control