Chapter 5 - Socialization and Interaction

Question 1

Socialization

Answer 1

An individual learns and comes to accept the ways of a group or a society the person is part of. Starts in childhood and continues over the life span.

Question 2

Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)

Answer 2

The Looking Glass: our self imagine reflects how others respond to us, we develop a self concept by interacting with others

Question 3

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

Answer 3

• the self develops over time an ability to take oneself as an object through a process called “taking the role of the other” 

• Mead also distinguished between the I (the part of the self that is unconscious, creative, unpredictable and an immediate reaction) and the Me (the organized set of other’s attitudes assumed by the individual)

Question 4

Erving Goffman (1922 - 1982)

Answer 4

“Preformer”
- Dramaturgy: social life is a series of dramatic performances

- impression management: when people interact with others they use a variety of techniques to control the image that they want to protect.

- Front stage: the social performance is designed to define the situation for those observing it
- a public performance
- Back stage: people express themselves in ways that are suppressed on the front stage - performing off stage or in (semi) privacy. “Is where the performer can relax, she or he can drop there front forgo speaking there lines, and step out of character.”

Question 5

Picca & Feagin: experiment Goffman’s theory


Answer 5

Found that what white college students do and say (with regard to racist views) depended on whether they were in the front or backstage. 
Front: would be super polite in terms with coloured people.
Backstage: acted the opposite as front, make jokes and mock with closest friends

Question 6

Childhood Socialization: The Family

Answer 6

• Parents are called primary agents of socialization because children acquire their first knowledge of language, norms and values within the family
  
- Parents also engage in anticipatory socialization with their children, teaching them what we be expected of them in the future. 


Question 7

Childhood Socialization: Schools and Teachers

Answer 7

• as children mature, other people and organizations becoming socializing forces.

• after parents and family, schools and teachers are the most important agents of socialization.

Question 8

Childhood Socialization: Peers

Answer 8

• a good deal of socialization at school takes place informally through interaction with fellow schoolmates

• as children mature they spend an increasing amount of time in the company of friends

• peer socialization is increasingly likely to conflict with what is being taught at home and in the schools.

Question 9

Childhood Socialization: Gender

Answer 9

• Gender socialization is the transmission of norms and values about what boys and girls can and should do.
  
- this process starts even before babies are born
  
- gender difference (and expectations of behaviour) are reinforced by clothes and toys.

Question 10

Childhood Socialization: Mass Media and New media

Answer 10

• until recently, much of the emphasis on the role of the media in socialization focused on television

• as children mature, more of their socialization takes place via the computer smartphones, video games and other new emerging technologies.

Question 11

Childhood Socialization: Consumer Culture

Answer 11

• One needs to be socialized in order to consume

• socialization of this type takes place (mainly) in consumption sites (malls, shopping sites on the internet)
  
- this type of socialization reinforces lessons about race, class and gender.

Question 12

Adult Socialization: The Workplace

Answer 12

• Increasing numbers of workers change jobs and even careers with frequency
• Resocialization is the process of unlearning old behaviours and norms ( the old job career) and learning new behaviours and norms (the new job or career)

Question 13

Adult Socialization: Total Institutions

Answer 13

• a total institution is a closed all encompassing place of residence that is set off rom the rest of society
• the primary purpose if resocialization
• examples are prisons and the military

Question 14

Other Agents of Adult Socialization

Answer 14

• Changes in values and norms, family changes, geogrpahi changes (moving, migration) and changes with aging (retiree)

Question 15

Interaction

Answer 15

A social engagement involving two or more individuals. Key building block for macroscopic social phenomena, such as networks and groups.

Question 16

Superordinate - Subordinate (Simmel)

Answer 16

Examples: Between teacher and student in a class room, judge and defendant in the courtroom and guard and prisoner in jail

Question 17

Reciprocity and Exchange

Answer 17

A rational process where those involved seek to maximize rewards and minimize cost.

Question 18

Reciprocity

Answer 18

Means that those engaged in interaction expect to give and receive awards of equal value.

Question 19

Doing Interaction (Ethnomethodology)

Answer 19

Interaction is something that people “do”, something they accomplish on a day to day basis. Must know and use practices to carry a successful interaction. (E.g. - walking with someone is a form of interaction)

Question 20

Interaction order

Answer 20

(Erving Goffman)A social domain that is organized and orderly but created informally and governed by those involved in the interaction. (e.g. a clique)

Question 21

Status & Role

Answer 21

Status: a position in society someone occupies
Role: what is expected of someone in that status

Question 22

Different Forms of Status

Answer 22

1. ) Ascribed: given at birth(gender)
2. ) Achieved: earned an accomplished (student, spouse, parent)
3. ) Master: status that is dominant or all defining

Question 23

Role Conflict & Role Overload

Answer 23

Roles can be consistent
Role Conflict: Conflicting expecations
Role Overload: more expectations than one can handle

Question 24

Primary & Secondary Groups

Answer 24

Primary: small, personal, face to face interaction
Secondary: large and impersonal, ties are weak