module 4

Question 1

what is socialization?

Answer 1

the lifelong process through which people learn about themselves and their various roles in society”
• an active process that is both bidirectional and lifelong. It is not simply the society that inscribes its values onto individuals during childhood
• includes the way individuals actively negotiate and recreate these values and expectations throughout their lifetime (this is where secondary socialization occurs).

Question 2

what does primary socialization do?

Answer 2

• Primary socialization shapes the development of children through broader cultural norms and values, and creates a sense of self and identity

Question 3

what does secondary socialization do?

Answer 3

• Secondary socialization is more specific formal training, such as the training you’re receiving in university, and occurs through processes of social interaction (e.g., taking courses, reading textbooks, and interacting with peers)

Question 4

are humans social by nature? what is behavior?

Answer 4

• humans are social by nature, it is also true that the environments we are expected to navigate change
  
  • behaviour, to a large degree, is contextual, and as such, we are constantly being socialized into various social expectations and constantly negotiating the demands of these various expectations.

Question 5

what are the agents of socialization?

Answer 5

family, media, peers

Question 6

how is family an agent?

Answer 6

most often our first, and most formative, agent of socialization since our families tend to have the most influence on us from an early age.

Question 7

which type of theorists believe family is the primary agent?

Answer 7

Functionalist theorists tend to argue for the primacy of the family as an agent of socialization as families are usually our longest-standing and most consistent contact with the outside world. When parents fail to provide basic care for their children, this can drastically affect their children’s ability to function in society

Question 8

what do post modern theorists argue?

Answer 8

• postmodern theorists argue that children are now more heavily influenced by other agents of socialization, such as the media. For postmodern theorists, socialization outside the family is not considered negative, just different than past generations because of changing social structures.

Question 9

what do schools carry in terms of agents of socialization?

Answer 9

because schools also have a social component, they also carry many latent (i.e., unintended) functions as well, such as learning about popularity, social status, dating norms, and social identity.

Question 10

what do conflict theorists argue?

Answer 10

Conflict theorists also argue that schools function latently to socialize us into class distinctions. While perhaps less popular in Canada, think of the different class associations of private schools like Waldorf or Montessori, or Ivy League schools like Yale, Princeton, or Harvard and how these work to construct upper- and lower-class divisions.

Question 11

what do peers operate as?

Answer 11

• peers operate as an important escape from the confines of family and school, and they tend to teach us social skills not offered by these more formal agents of socialization
Typically, peers teach us slang language not generally taught in school or the home; social authority, status, and pecking orders; ideas about love and dating; rebellion (e.g., smoking and drinking underage); and serve to create and reinforce our social identities.

Question 12

define peers?

Answer 12

“group of people who are linked by common interests, equal social position, and (usually) similar age” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2016, p. 94), and thus act as a mirror of our social status

Question 13

what do symbolic interactionists examine?

Answer 13

• Symbolic interactionists examine peer groups for the symbols of social status and “in-group” membership. While many of these rituals may not be conscious actions on the part of peers, they do function symbolically to establish social rank and membership.

Question 14

how do feminists examine peers?

Answer 14

• feminist and gender theorists examine peer groups for the ways in which they socialize us into gender norms and roles. Think back to dominant gender scripts learned and normalized through peer group interaction. Gender scripts normalized by peer groups are often learned more broadly from the media.

Question 15

what two things is the media? two functions?

Answer 15

• Media refers to “communications that target large audiences in print or in electronic format using audio and/or images”
  
  • Like many of the other agents of socialization it serves both manifest and latent functions. Some of its manifest functions include informing us about events and new products and acting as a means of entertainment. Likely, many of us look forward to watching our favourite shows in the evenings or on weekends as an escape from the demands and responsibilities of life.

Question 16

what are some latent functions of the media?

Answer 16

desensitization of violence, singular stories of culture, unrealistic body images, celebration of materialistic values, commercializations

Question 17

what would conflict theorists think of commercialization?

Answer 17

• conflict theorists would say it does, since at the end of the day these companies have their own best interests in mind. Companies don’t represent us in the same way that elected government official do, and yet the effects of commercialization are omnipresent.

Question 18

what is resocialization?

Answer 18

• Resocialization is the process by which existing social roles are radically altered or replaced

Question 19

what five things is the self?

Answer 19

public, fluid, fragmented, subjective, and social.

Question 20

symbolic interactionist view of self

Answer 20

• Symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead defines the self “as a reflexive process that includes a person’s subjective stream of consciousness as well his or her concept of self as a physical, social, and moral being”
for Mead and other symbolic interactionists, the self, by virtue of being in relation to others, must be social.

Question 21

According to Kuhn & McPartland (1954), our statements about our selves generally fall within the following three categories:

Answer 21

a mode, b mode, and c mode

Question 22

describe a mode

Answer 22

1. A modeincludes statements that refer to our physical selves. Common examples include statements such as the following: “I am tall,” “I have brown hair,” and “I am fat.”

Question 23

describe b mode

Answer 23

B modeincludes statements that refer to our social selves. Common examples include statements that speak to our social roles, status, identity categories, institutional membership, and other social markers such as the following: “I am a parent,” “I’m a Starbucks employee,” “I’m Muslim,” and/or “I’m Italian.”

Question 24

describe c mode

Answer 24

3. C modeincludes statements that refer to our reflexive selves. Common examples include statements that refer to ourselves in relation to others, and our preferences and aspirations such as the following: “I am an extrovert,” “I’m a democrat,” and “I’m good at math.”

Question 25

what do sociological theories do?

Answer 25

• Sociological theories of development focus on the ways humans develop a sense of self in relationship to others, emphasizing the socially created nature of social life.

Question 26

which theorists have the most to say about self?

Answer 26

• interactionist framework tends to have the most to say about the constructions of self because as we recall from Module 1, it is a micro- level theory, and therefore focuses more at the level of the individual. The other macro-level theories like feminism and conflict theory also add a window into understanding the self

Question 27

what models of self do symbolic interactionists do?

Answer 27

• the symbolic interactionist theories, which include Cooley’s looking-glass self, Mead’s role-taking model, and Goffman’s dramaturgical model

Question 28

what is cooleys looking glass self?

Answer 28

• Cooley’s concept of the looking-glass self “refers to the way in which a person’s sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others”

Question 29

what are the three steps of cooleys looking glass self?

Answer 29

(often unconscious) steps:

1. Children, as they begin to develop a sense of self, imagine how they appear to others
2. Next, they imagine how this perceived reality is judged by others as either favourable or unfavourable
3. finally, if this perceived reality is judged as positive, it will enhance our self-concept (e.g., I feel good about myself because I think others are judging me positively), and conversely, if it is judged as negative, it will diminish our self-concept (e.g., I feel bad about myself because I think others are judging me negatively).

Question 30

what is the mirror in cooleys concept function as?

Answer 30

• the mirror in Cooley’s concept functions as a metaphor for wider social acceptance. Since we have no pure access to what others really think of us, we can only imagine ourselves through the reflection of others, rendering our self-conceptions deeply tied to the social world.

Question 31

what does meads role taking model focus on?

Answer 31

• mead focuses on the social construction of the self through his role-taking model.
since we cannot experience ourselves directly, the self is essentially a social structure experienced through social roles.

Question 32

what is role taking?

Answer 32

role-taking is “the process by which a person mentally assumes the role of another person in order to understand the world from that person’s point of view”

Question 33

meads three stages?

Answer 33

Mead, our ability to occupy social roles undergoes three phases as we age: the preparatory, play, and game stage.

Question 34

describe meads preparatory stage

Answer 34

1. In the preparatory stage (0–3 years), children are preparing for role taking as they are not currently able to fully take on social roles. This is evidenced in the fact that much of infants and toddlers play at this stage is based on imitation

Question 35

describe meads play stage

Answer 35

2. It is only in the play stage (3–5 years) where children start to develop recognition of shared meanings through the use of language and other symbols and where they are able to see themselves in relation to others. Play in this phase is based largely on fantasy, where they practice the roles of others

Question 36

describe meads game stage

Answer 36

3. It is finally in the game stage (which begins in the early school years) where children are better ability to understand and occupy their own roles and where they understand the expectations of thegeneralized other. Kids over the age of seven start to understand the importance of position-specific roles

Question 37

what did goffman argue? (dramaturgical model)

Answer 37

• Erving Goffman, a Canadian sociologist and symbolic interactionist, argued like Cooley and Mead that the self is not an organic or static entity
  
  • the self is malleable in the sense that we are constantly adapting to different social contexts

Question 38

what is goffmans dramaturgical model?

Answer 38

• dramaturgical model argues that the self is best understood as a type of staged production and dramatic effect—in other words, we are like actors on a stage acting out social scripts.
  
  • Behaviour in this model is therefore shaped by the situations in which we interact, and the self, by extension, is who we are but also how we act. Goffman further divides his metaphor of a stage into front stage and back stage regions. He argues that it is in the front stage where we are trying maintain the most appropriate appearance.
  • He argues that it is in the back stage where we let our guard drop a little and where we sometimes contradict or violate the behaviour in the front stage