1 Socialization and the Construction of Reality Chapter 4 Lecture PowerPoint © W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

2 Socialization: The Concept You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2  Socialization is the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as a member of that society.

3 Limits of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 3  The concept of socialization is useful for understanding how people become functioning members of society. However, it cannot explain everything about a person’s development and personality. Biology is also a very important component. It is a combination of biology and social interactions that makes us who we are.

4 “Human” Nature You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 4  Do we need social experience to survive? Are we born with the knowledge, knowhow to survive, to acknowledge others, communicate, etc.? We are largely shaped by interaction, such that without society the human part of human nature would not develop. The cases of Anna and Isabelle both support the need for human interaction (nurture) for developing human nature.

5 Theories of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 5  George Herbert Mead Developed a theory about how the social self develops over the course of childhood Infants know only the “I,” but through social interaction they learn about “me” and the “other” They develop a concept of the “generalized other,” which allows them to apply norms and behaviors learned in specific situations to new situations

6 Theories of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 6  Mead stressed the importance of imitation, play, and games in helping children recognize one another, distinguish between self and other, and grasp the idea that others can have multiple roles.

7 Theories of Socialization  Imitation – they can only copy a significant other, cannot take role  Play – they can take the role of another, often a parent  Game – they learn how to take the role of many others in one situation, such as a baseball game

8 Theories of Socialization  The generalized other represents an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings  Society’s norms and values are internalized and used to evaluate ourselves.

9 Table 4.1 | Mead’s Stages of Social Development

10 Theories of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 10  Charles Horton Cooley theorized that the “self” emerges from our ability to assume the point of view of others and imagine how those others see us.

11 Theories of Socialization  Charles Horton Cooley: “The Looking- Glass Self”  How we believe others perceive us affects our self-feeling. It does not matter what they truly think of us, only what we believe they think of us.  “What is perceived as real is real in its effects.”

12 Theories of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 12  Eric Erikson Established a theory of psychosocial development that identifies eight stages that span a person’s lifetime Each stage involves a specific conflict that a person must resolve in order to move on to the next stage

13 Figure 4.1 | Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Personality Development (pt. 1)

14 Figure 4.1 | Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Personality Development (pt. 2)

15 Agents of Socialization You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 15  Families, school, peers, the media, and total institutions are all important socializing agents or environments.  A total institution is an institution in which one is totally immersed that controls all the basics of day-to-day life. Resocialization occurs when you change your environment

16 Social Interaction You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 16  Status refers to a recognizable social position that an individual occupies  Role conflict describes the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles, two or more roles belonging to two or more statuses  Role strain is the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status  Role conflict describes the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles, two or more roles belonging to two or more statuses

17 Social Interaction  Status set refers to all the statuses you have at any given time  Ascribed statuses are statuses that are involuntary, such as age, race, and sex  Achieved statuses are voluntary, such as college student, parent, drug dealer, or peace activist  Master status is the status that stands out or overrides all others

18 Social Interaction You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 18  Gender roles Set of behavioral norms associated primarily with males or females in a given social group or system. Gender theorists argue that gender roles can be more powerful and influential than other roles that people fill.

19 The Social Construction of Reality You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 19  Social construction People give meaning or value to ideas or objects through social interactions. Ongoing process that is embedded in our everyday interactions.

20 The Social Construction of Reality You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 20  Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory based on the idea that people act in accordance with shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions.  Three Tenets: humans act on ideas, concepts and values on the basis of the meaning those things have for them these meanings are products of social interaction meanings are filtered and modified through an interpretive process by each individual

21 The Social Construction of Reality  Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory views social life as a theatrical performance in which we are all actors on metaphysical stages with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets. Front stage refers to the performance that we allow people to see Backstage is what goes on behind the scenes

22 Reader: “On Face Work”  one’s own face and the face of others are constructs of the same interaction  A person’s face is not connected to or in her body but is located in the flow of the encounter. It is constructed from the interaction created by the participants

23 Reader: “On Face Work”  opening means to signal the start of an encounter  Civic inattention means refraining from directly interacting with someone until an opening bracket has been issued

24 The Social Construction of Reality You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 24  Ethnomethodology is an approach to studying human interaction that focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a mutually shared social order.

25 The Social Construction of Reality You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 25  Harold Garfinkel developed a method for studying social interactions, called “breaching experiments,” which involved having collaborators exhibit “abnormal” or “atypical” behaviors in social interactions in order to see how people would react.

26 Socially Unacceptable  Listen to Professor Carleton analyze is socially unacceptable behavior  This is just like your paper assignment  Take notes