Socialization Flashcards
- Define socialization
- Debate the social and biological factors on developing the social self
- Explain how socialisation works
o Cooley’s looking-glass self
o Mead’s “I” and “Me”
o Agents of socialisation - Define rites of passage
- Describe the process of resocialisation in Total Institutions
- Evaluate if people are prisoners of socialisation
a
Debate the social and biological factors on developing the social self: Elaborate on Nature vs Nurture
Nature:
- Nurture is the social environment having an influence on us.
- Behaviour is determined by our inherited, genetic structure
- It is also called innate behaviour
- Social Environment: Interaction of heredity and environment shape human development
Nurture (The influence of heredity):
- Nature is what we have inherited.
- Behaviour is the result of learning and experience resulting from outside factors such as parents, media, peers and religion
- It is also called learned behaviour
Without social interaction humans
- will find it difficult to survive
- cannot develop a social self
Socialization occurs as a result of nature or nurture
What is definition of socialisation?
- Lifelong process in which people learn appropriate attitudes, values, and behaviours
- Evolves continually as it interacts with various agents of socialisation
- Society moulds its members into proper social beings
- People acquire cultural competency and through which society perpetuates the fundamental nature of existing social structures
What is the difference between primary and secondary socialisation?
Primary Socialisation
- socialisation that takes place during childhood
Secondary Socialisation
- dynamic socialisation that continues throughout our lives
Elaborate Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self
View of ourselves comes from contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us
- We imagine how our behaviours will look to others
- We interpret others’ reactions to our behaviours
- We develop a self-concept
- The self is product of social interactions with other people
- Social self is constructed as a result of this reflective process
What is the difference between primary and secondary groups?
What is a primary group?
- A primary group is typically a small social group whose members share closer, personal and enduring relationships.
- These groups are marked by members’ concern for one another, in shared activities and culture.
- Examples include the family, childhood friends, and highly influential social groups.
What is a secondary group?
- Secondary groups are where explicit exchange of commodities take place, exchanging labour for wages, services for payment and others.
- People in a secondary group interact on a less personal level than in a primary group.
- The relationships are temporary rather than long lasting.
- The secondary group is one in which you have chosen to be a part of. They are based on interests and activities.
- Relationships here are described as acquaintances.
Elaborate on Mead’s “I” and “Me”
“I” self
- Subjective sense of who we are
- Seeks self-fulfillment
- Part of self that is based on how others see you
- Made up of attitudes we internalise from interactions with others
- The self as object
“Me” self
- Objective part of who we are
- Questions how others might interpret our actions
- Understands symbols that others give us
- Seeks to find favourable reactions to our behaviours from others
- Part of self that is uniquely you – your personal reactions to the situation
- The active, spontaneous creative part of the self
- The self as subject
What are the stages of self (Mead)?
Preparatory/ Imitation stage
Play stage
Game stage
Elaborate more on preparatory/ imitation stage.
- Self is not present at this stage
- Child imitates the actions of others
- They don’t attribute meanings to their actions, nor do they understand the implications of their behaviour.
- As they grow older, children become more adept at using symbols
- Birth to 2/3 years of age
- Example: When adults laugh and smile, child laughs and smiles
Elaborate more on
play stage
- Self is developing at this stage
- Child takes the role of a single other, as if he or she were the other.
- Children develop skill in communicating through symbols and role taking occurs
- From 2/3 to 6 years of age
- Example: Child first takes the role of doctor, then the role of patient
How does the play stage work?
By playing roles, children see others as separate from themselves. They understand their actions can affect other people and vice versa
As they play, children:
- Take on a variety of roles
- Begin to appreciate the perspectives of other people
- Build up a sense of themselves as something that other people look at and make judgments about.
- First step in constructing a “Me”
- First exposure to taking on the roles of others and seeing themselves as others might see them
Elaborate more on
game stage
- Self is present at this stage
- Child considers the roles of two or more others simultaneously
- Children of about 8 or 9 consider several actual tasks and relationships simultaneously
- Have rules that specify the roles people play and the behaviour associated with those rules
- Example: In game of hide-and-seek, child takes into account the roles of both hider and seeker.
What is the theory of self (Mead)?
- Self begins as privileged, central position in a person’s world
- As the person matures, the self changes and begins to reflect greater concern about reactions of others
Significant others
- Individuals most important in the development of the self
What are some examples of agents of socialisation?
- Family
- School
- Peer groups
- Mass Media and Technology
- Workplace
- Religion and State
How does family affect as agent of socialization?
- Gender roles: Expectations regarding proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females
- Parents tend to pass on to their children the outlooks that are suited to their own experiences in the world.
How does school affect as agent of socialization?
- Teaches values and customs of larger society
- Traditionally socialized children into conventional gender roles
- Tracked into special programme (vocational compared to college preparatory classes)
- Strong association between students’ social class background and college application
What is the manifest and latent function of school?
What is the Manifest Function of the school?
- provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the adult world
What is the Latent Function of the school?
- prepare students to accept what teachers and administrators believe will be the students’ places in the social structure
How does peer groups affect as agent of socialization?
- As children grow older, peer groups increasingly assume role of Mead’s significant others
- Gender differences are noteworthy among adolescents
- The peer group socialises into gender (along with the mass media)
What is the manifest and latent function of peer groups?
Manifest:
- Act as a socialising agent
- Learn how they are expected to behave
- Socialise children to become independent from adult authority
Latent:
- Norms that made boys popular: athletic ability, cool and tough
- For girls, popularity based on: family background, physical appearance, ability to attract popular boys
Explain Rites of Passage.
- A means of dramatizing and validating changes in a person’s status.
- Many steps in the process of socialisation is marked by rites of passage
- Ceremonies or rituals that mark important transitions from status to status within the life cycle
Describe resocialization.
Occurs each time we learn something contrary to our previous experience
e. g. your lecturer encourages critical thinking in responding to questions
e. g. your lecturer requests from you rules on how he should conduct lessons ….
What is Total Institutions?
A place of residence and work where:
- A large number of like-situated individuals
- Cut off from the wider society
- For an appreciable period of time,
- together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life
Describe the process of resocialisation in Total Institutions
Degradation Ceremonies
- degrade the individual, take away the individual’s self in preparation for giving him/her a new one
Depersonalisation
- Individuals no longer called by their names
- Their possessions taken away
- Subject to many new rules
- Have to speak, look and act like every other
- Uniforms and haircuts
What are the limitations of resocialization in total institution and what are examples of successful resocialization?
- No total institution has the power to completely erase its inhabitants’ individuality
- Work best when newcomers want to be resocialised
Successful resocialisation:
Build up newcomer after tearing him/her down
Evaluate if people are prisoners of socialisation
Sociologists – No
- Although socialization is powerful and affects us all, we have a self.
- Established in childhood, continually modified by later experience, the self is dynamic.
- We can change even the self within the limitations of the framework laid down by our social location.
