Culture Letter Write a letter that could be distributed to teenage visitors from other cultures who will be spending a week with an American Family. First brainstorm to determine what types of information you think would be necessary to help guest feel more comfortable. Topics can include material concepts such as places to visit, typical foods, technology, and transportation. As well as nonmaterial concepts such as rules, family systems, and traditions.

Connecting Socialization to Norms Proper Manners for Dating A man shouldn’t sit down at the table until the woman is seated. A man should always pull out a woman’s chair for her. A man should never let a woman carry anything heavy; only a small package and her coat. A man should help a woman put on and take off her coat. A man always leads when dancing. A man should always open a door for a woman. When walking on a sidewalk, the man should be closer to the street.

What are the proper dating manners of today? Are they similar to those listed here? In what ways are they different then those listed? How does tech effect manners? Who taught you the proper manners of dating? Why do you think these manners change? Is the change good or bad?

Importance of Socialization

Socialization and Personality Socialization- the process of learning to participate in a group Nearly all the human social behavior we consider “natural” and “normal” is learned. Human beings at birth are helpless and without knowledge of their society’s ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Socialization begins at birth and continues throughout life. Freshman adjust to high school. College graduates adapt to the “real world”.

Socialization The most important socialization occurs early in life. Psychological case studies reveal that without prolonged, intensive social contact, children don’t learn to walk, talk, or love or develop a set of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors.

How do we know socialization is important? So how do you prove that socialization is important to humans? You set up an experiment in which one group of babies is raised by their mothers like normal and you have another group of babies taken from their mother. Obviously this experiment could never be done. It is considered unethical. But we have a good idea of what would happen based on an experiment done on monkeys.

Monkeys and Socialization Harry Harlow devised a famous experiment that showed the negative effects of isolation on rhesus monkeys. Infant monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth and were given two artificial moms. One, just wires, but provided milk. The other had a soft cloth to simulate a mom’s fur. The babies always chose their cloth mom and only went to the other to feed. Harlow thus proved that these monkeys needed intimacy, warmth, comfort and physical contact more than food.

Monkeys and Isolation Regardless these infant monkeys were raised in isolation. Neither of their two fake moms were real. So they still missed out on their socialization. These monkeys became distressed, apathetic, withdrawn, and hostile as adults. As mothers, they either rejected or ignored their babies. Sometimes they even physically abused them.

Case Studies on Isolated Children Anna was the second child born to her unmarried mother. At first her grandpa forced her mother to take Anna and leave home, but desperation brought them back. Anna’s mother feared that the sight of Anna would anger her father, so she kept Anna in a small room on the second floor of the house. For five years Anna only received milk to drink. When finally found, she was barely alive, Her legs were skeleton like, and her stomach bloated from malnutrition. Apparently she was hardly ever moved from one position to another and her clothes and bedding were filthy. She didn’t even know what it was like to be held or comforted. When found she could not walk or talk and shoed few signs of intelligence.

She was then sent to a school for learning disabled children. At 7, her mental age was only 19 months and her social maturity was that of a 2 yr old. She progressed slightly in the following years; eat normally, dress herself, and had the speech level of a 2 yr old. She passed away at the age of ten.

Isabelle Kept in isolation. Her mother was deaf. Communicated through simple gestures. Key difference from Anna, was the intensive training from professionals. Another factor could have also been the fact that she was confined with her mother for company.

Questions Define the term socialization. What did Harlow’s research on rhesus monkeys reveal? Did the case studies on Anna and Isabelle support Harlow’s conclusions? Why or why not? Do you think sociologists have over emphasized the importance on social contact in learning? Why do you think that?

Interdisciplinary Activity The Code of Ethics for psychology and sociology both are very clear about the ethical restraints of using human subjects for research. How do you feel about the appropriateness of animal research? Consider the effects on the animals as well as the benefits gained by research. Do you think animal research is ethical or unethical? Why or why not? Would you make it illegal to conduct research on animals completely or just in specific instances? If in specific instances, which ones and why?

Conflict Resolution You see an article with the headline: “Parents charged with denying food, medical care to 7 yr old.” You read the article an realize that this girl weighed 38 pounds, was skin and bones, had a protruding stomach from starvation, and was covered with sores and scratches on her body. Her father earns over $75,000 a year, and her stepmother will be charged with injuring and endangering this child, a felony if convicted. Literally starving to death, the little girl was often seen rummaging in garbage cans at school. She apparently endured over six months of this abuse before authorities acted on her behalf.

Do you think this little girl will be able to overcome her early abuse?