Chapter 4: Socializing The Individual Flashcards
Transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to children
Heredity
Behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that characterize an individual
personality
Unchanging, biologically inherited behavior patterns
Instinct
Behavior is a result of social environment and learning
Nurture argument
Systematic study of biological basis of all social behavior
Sociobiology
Capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a specific body of knowledge
Aptitude
Parent responses encourage/ discourage developmental of aptitude
environmental factors
- Parental reinforcement may effect traits such as shyness, sociability, and aggression.
- Provides you with biological needs but culture determines how you meet those needs.
- Setting limits on individuals
- Inherited characteristics limit what is possible.
Factors in Personality development ( Heredity)
Achievement oriented, responsible, conservative in thinking and defenders of the status quo
First born
More affectionate, more friendly, risk takers and social and intellectual rebels
Later born
- Age of parents when children are born.
- Level of education.
- Religious orientation.
- Cultural heritage.
- Economic status.
- Occupational background.
Parental characteristics
- 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.
The cultural environment
- Born to an unmarried mother.
- Grandfather kept her in an attic room.
- Given minimal care.
- Undernourished and Emaciated.
- No human contact.
- At 6-years old could not talk, walk, or feed herself.
- Learned to walk, feed herself, brush her teeth, and talk in simple phrases.
- Died at 10 years old.
Anna
- Found at the same age as Anna.
- Kept in dark room with her deaf mother.
- Did not learn to speak.
- Found at 6 years old acted like an infant.
- Began to speak after training.
- After 2-years reached level of her peers.
Isabelle
- Discovered in 1970 she was 13 years old.
- Confined from age of 20 months to small bedroom.
- Beaten if she made noise.
- Father interacted by acting like angry dog.
- Did not learn to talk.
- Had skills of 1 year old when found and could not stand straight.
- 8 years of training and did not progress past 3rd grade student.
Genie
- 1945 study by Rene Spitz (children living in an orphanage)
- Given food and medical care.
- Given 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.
- Could speak in complete sentences.
Institutionalization
Interactive process through which people learn the basic skills, values and beliefs and behavior patterns of a society
Socialization
Conscious awareness of possessing identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society.
Self
The Tabula Rasa:
- Each child is born a clean slate.
- We are all born without a personality.
- Acquire personality as result of social experiences.
- Could be molded into a particular personality.
John Locke
The Looking- Glass Self:
- Interactionist perspective.
- Defentition: An interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others.
- Child is influenced by primary group.
Charles Cooley
Three Step Process:
- 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.
Charles Cooley
Role taking:
- Role taking= take on, or pretend to take on the role of others.
- First: we internalize the expectations of people closest to us (significant others)
- Second: expectations/ attitudes of society guide us more.
- Generalized others: attitudes, expectations and viewpoints of society.
George Meade
Three step process: Imitation (under 3)- don't have a sense of self; mimic actions. Play (under 3-6)- play and act out roles of specific people; trying to see world through someone else's eyes. Organized games (over 6-7)- require children to take roles; anticipate the actions and expectations of others.
George Meade
Parts of Self:
- “I” : unsocialized, spontaneous and self- interested component of personality.
- “Me” : aware of expectations and attitudes of society (socialized self)
George Meade
Dramaturgy: social interaction is like a drama being performed on a stage.
Impression management: an effort people make to play their roles and manage the impressions that the audience receives.
- Because we are worried about impressing others, we change ourself that we display .
Erving Goffman
College students reactions to exam scores were different depending on who they were with.
Albas and Albas study
Specific individuals, groups and institutions that enable socialization to take place.
Agents 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…
Family
- Primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and similar social characteristics.
- Influential during pre-teen and early teen years.
- Focus is the subculture of the group.
Peer group
- Class activities= basic knowledge.
- Extracurriculars= prepare for life in society.
- Transmits cultural values.
- Teachers become role models.
School
- Instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact.
- Television has the largest influence.
- Negatives:
- Effect of violence: leads to more aggressive behavior.
- Presents image of society limited to white middle class.
- Positives:
- Education tool.
- Expands the viewers world.
- Negatives:
Mass Media
- Break down past experiences and the learning of new values and norms.
- Voluntary:
- People who assume a new status.
- Involuntary:
- Total institution: setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a time and are subject to tight control.
- Try to change a persons personality and behavior ( remove a persons identity )
- Voluntary:
Resocialization
Under 3: Don’t have a sense of self; mimic actions.
Imitation
Under 3-6: Play and act out roles of specific people; trying to see world through someone else’s eyes.
Play
Over 6-7: Require children to take roles; anticipate the actions and expectations of others.
Organized Games
Unsocialized, spontaneous, and self- interested component of personality.
“I”
Aware of expectations and attitudes of society (socialized self)
“Me”
Social interaction is like a drama being performed on a stage.
Dramaturgy
An effort people make to play their roles and manage the impressions that the audience receives.
Impression Management
