Chapter 4 - Socializing the Individual Flashcards
Heredity
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
Personality
Behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and values that characterize an individual
Nature Argument
INSTINCT
Unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern
Nurture argument
Behavior is a result of social environment and learning
Sociobiology
Systematic study of biological basis of all behavior
- all for nature
Aptitude
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
First born
Achievement oriented, responsible, conservative in thinking and defenders of the status quo
Later-born
More affectionate, more friendly, risk-takers and social and intellectual rebels
Parental characteristics that affect child
- age of parents when child is born
- level of education
- religious orientation
- economic status
- cultural heritage
- occupational background
How the cultural environment affects the child
- 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
Situation of Anna
- 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
Situation of Isabelle
- 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
Situation of Genie
- 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
Institutionalization
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
Socialization
Interactive process through which people learn up the basic skills, values, beliefs and behavior patterns of society
Self
Conscious awareness of possessing identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society
John Locke
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
Charles Cooley
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
Three step process of Charles Cooley
- ) we imagine how we appear to others
- ) we attempt to determine whether others view us as we view ourselves through their REACTIONS
- ) develop feelings about ourselves based on our perceptions
George Meade
Role taking - take on or pretend to take on the role of others
Two steps of role taking
- ) we internalize the expectations of people closest to us (significant others)
- ) expectations/attitudes of society guide us more
- generalized others
Generalized others
Attitudes, expectations and viewpoints of society
Three step process of role taking
- ) imitation (under 3) - don’t have a sense of self; mimic actions
- ) play (ages 3-6) - play and act out roles of specific people; trying to see world through someone else’s eyes
- ) organized games (over 6 or7) - require children to take roles; anticipate the actions and expectations of others
Parts of the self
“I” - unsocialized, spontaneous and self-interested component of personality
“Me” - aware of expectations and attitudes of society (socialized self)
Erving Goffman
Dramaturgy
Dramaturgy
Social interaction is like a drama being preformed on stage
Impression management
An effort people make to play their roles and manage the impressions that the audience receives - we change our selves to impress others
Albas and Albas study
College student’s reactions to exam scores were different depending on who they were with
Who focused on how we create our self?
Cooley and Meade
Who focused on how we changed our self depending on the audience?
Goffman
Agents of socialization
Specific individuals, groups and institutions that enable socialization to take place
Family as an agent of socialization
- 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.
Peer group as social agent
- 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
School as social agent
- class activities=basic knowledge
- extracurriculars=prepare for life in society
- transmits cultural values
- teachers become role models
Mass media as social agent
- 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
Re socialization
Break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms
Voluntary resocialization
People who assume a new status
Involuntary resocialization
Total institution
Try to change a person’s personality and behavior (remove a person’s identity
Total institution
Setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a time and are subject to tight control
