Socialization

Question 1

What is socialization and why is it important?

Answer 1

1. Socialization is the process by which people learn to function in social life and become aware of themselves as they interact with others; operates through a variety of social institutions (“agents of socialization”)
2. People can become fully human only if they undergo socialization

Question 2

What are the theories of how a sense of self develops during childhood?

Answer 2

1. Freud: infants begin to form a self-image when their demands aren’t immediately met and eventually learn how to behave appropriately and develop a moral sense of right and wrong and a personal conscience containing cultural standards forms
2. Cooley’s symbolic interactionism: we are able to imagine how we’re perceived by others and use these judgements to develop a self-concept or a set of feelings and ideas about who we are
3. Mead: “called the impulsive aspect of the self the I, and the objective, social component of the self the Me”
   a) children begin learning to use language and other
   symbols by imitating the significant others (people
   who play important roles in the early socialization
   experiences of children) in their lives
   b) next, children pretend to be other people by role-
   playing in games such as “house”, “school” or “doctor”
   c) at around 7, children learn how to take different
   roles while playing complex games
   d) finally, they begin taking the role of the generalized other (a person’s image of cultural standards and how they apply to them)

Question 3

What is the self?

Answer 3

Refers to your ideas and attitudes about who you are as an independent being

Question 4

What is biological determinism?

Answer 4

States that the greater part of who we are is determined by our genes (“social darwinism”); From a sociological perspective it isn’t accurate, most of who you are is determined throughout your life, not biologically

Question 5

What is the name of the category if people born in the same range of years?

Answer 5

Age Cohort

Question 6

What is a generation?

Answer 6

An age cohort that shares unique formative experiences during the first few decades of their life and help shape a collective identity and set of values

Question 7

What are the six currently alive generations today?

Answer 7

1. “The Greatest Generation”(1900s-1928) - endured the Great Depression and WWII
2. “The Silent Generation”(1929-1945) - traditionalist and not very innovative
3. “Baby Boomers”(1946-1965) -
4. Generation “X” (1966-1981)
5. “Millennials”(1982-1994)
6. Generation “Z” (1995-2021)

Question 8

What is someone’s social environment?

Answer 8

Is composed of others to whom individuals must adapt (change our actions to maximize the degree to which an environment satisfies our needs and interests) to satisfy their own needs and interests

Question 9

What are the steps of the process of socialization? (cooperation/resistance)

Answer 9

1. in any environment, a person acts on the basis of their existing personal characteristics
2. environment responds to their actions
3. 2 shapes the person’s conducts by either reinforcing existing patterns (cooperation) or encouraging change (resistance)

Question 10

What are the different theoretical traditions’ views on socialization?

Answer 10

1. Functionalism - helps maintain orderly social relations while minimizing individual freedom
2. Conflict theory and feminism - emphasize the discord that occurs based on this process for different social groups
3. Symbolic interactionism - focus on how individual creativity allows individuals to attach meanings of their social environments and can modify the values and roles that authorities try to teach them

Question 11

What comprises the primary socialization of a person?

Answer 11

1. Process of acquiring the basic skills needed to function in society during childhood (learning language and our place in the world)
2. Usually takes place in the family

Question 12

What comprises the secondary socialization of a person?

Answer 12

1. Socialization outside the family after childhood

2. Schools COME BACK LATER

Question 13

What does the “hidden curriculum” of schools mean?

Answer 13

Teaches students behaviors and trait to be a “good citizen” (punctuality, respect for authorities, etc)

Question 14

What is determinism?

Answer 14

Degree to which a person’s behavior, attitude, and other personal characteristics are determined by a specific factor
a) Are we free to be who we want to be? Who are
you allowed to be anything?
b) How strong are the structures that you live in?
c) Who are you allowed to be? Which roles can you have?

Question 15

What is agency?

Answer 15

a) How much will do you really have amongst social
structures?
b) Agency is the capacity to influence what happens
in one’s life
c) Sociologists argue that individuals have the
capacity to resist the messages that our socializing
agents gives us (social interactionism)
d) “Look a certain way, act a certain way” how do people resist that?

Question 16

Marketing schemes and media manipulation

Answer 16

a) What is the norm? (culture = “it seems normal”
b) Rites of passage and rituals (today aren’t as
strong culturally and are largely influenced by the
media)
c) shifting norms for “girls” from “nice” or “pretty” to
“sexy”
d) People’s self-conceptions are subject to more flux now than they were even a few decades ago

Question 17

Internal and external social control

Answer 17

Social control: the ways in which the social system attempts to regulate people;s thoughts, feelings, appearance, and behaviour
Internal social control: regulates people through socialization and shapes people’s minds so they come to regard deviant actions as undesirable
External social control: regulates people by imposing punishments and offering rewards