1. Chapter 4: Socialization
Section 1: The Importance of Socialization

2. Chapter 4 “I Can” Statements
I can define socialization, and identify ways it changes throughout the life cycle.
I can explain how the self-concept if formed.
I can identify the goals of socialization.
I can identify the major agents of socialization and evaluate the role each plays.

3. Intro to Socialization
Click here for an intro video
Socialization – cultural process of learning to participate in group life, and takes place through cultural transmition.
Nature vs. Nuture – this is the nurture side of the argument.
Nearly all aspects of social life are learned.
Begins at birth, continues throughout life.
Enables people to fit into all kids of social groups, and adjust to new situations.
The most important learning occurs early in life.
Walking, talking, emotions, attitudes, beliefs, values, etc.

4. How do we know socialization is important?
Can’t exactly create an experiment where we intentionally isolate children from human contact to see how they develop.
Harry Harlow (psychologist) conducted studies on monkeys
Wire monkey mother – demonstrated a need for connection, closeness, and contact.
Monkeys that were isolated, and became adults became distressed, withdrawn, hostile, abnormal sexual patters, ignored/abused their babies
Can we generalize from monkeys to humans?
Lawrence Casler (1965) The development growth rate of institutionalized children – who receive – less physical contact than normal – can be improved with only twenty minutes of extra touching a day.
Harlow's Monkey Experiments

5. Case Studies on Isolated Children: Anna and Isabelle, Genie
Second born to unmarried mother
Mother kicked out by Dad, desperately returned.
In fear of her father, she kept Anna locked away in the 2nd floor bedroom of the farmhouse
For 5 years, received only milk.
When discovered, couldn’t walk, talk, almost no sign of intelligence, barley alive due to malnutrition.
1.5 years after being discovered, in foster care, she learned to walk, understand commands, and feed herself. (Speech still that of a 1 year old)
At age 7, development of 19mo, social maturity of a 2 yr old.
At 8, she had the social development of a 2 year old
Died at age 10.

6. Continued – Isabelle Born to an unmarried, deaf woman.
Mother hid with Isabelle in a dark room, until discovered at the age of 6 and ½.
By age 8, she was on par with her peers – by 14 she participated in all normal school activities. (after intensive therapy)
What was the difference?

7. Genie Wiley Genie Wiley - An Introduction TLC Documentary Segment
Nova: Secret of the Wild Child
Critically acclaimed, multiple Emmy Award Winning Documentary
1994

8. Section 1 Review Define socialization.
Why is it important?
Who are Isabelle, Anna, and Genie Wiley?

9. Section 2: Socialization and the Self
Which Approach?
Symbolic Interactionism (most fully developed perspective for studying socialization
The self concept is developed by using other ppl as mirrors for learning about ourselves
Functionalism; each “function” (family/school, etc.) work together to socialize children by teaching the same things.
Conflict Theory; socialization is a way to perpetuate the statue quo.
When socialized, ppl accept their social status, thus help preserve the system. Before they can learn what is happening, they are already accepting of their status, allowing power to remain w/the higher classes

10. Symbolic Interactionism and Socialization
How does symbolic interactionism help us understand socialization?
Key Concepts
The self-concept
The looking-glass self
Significant others
Role taking (the imitation stage, play stage, the game stage)
The generalized other

11. Where does the self-concept come from?
Charles Horton Cooley
Self-concept (1902) – an image of yourself as having an identify separate from other people.
Realized children could recognize the ways people react to their behavior.
Children used these reactions to jude themselves in terms of how they imagine other will react to them – others serve as mirrors for the development of the self.
The looking-glass self – a self concept based on our ideas of others judgment of us.
What this if you don't understand -- it'll help

12. How does the looking-glass process work?
1. We imagine how we appear to others. (What is our perception of how others see us?
2. We imagine the reaction of others to our (imagined) appearance.
3. We evaluate ourselves according to how we image other have judged us.
Unconscious – positive or negative self-evaluation
Can easily be distorted, possibly damaging.
George Herbert Mead (1934); some ppl are more important than others – Significant others.

13. What is role taking? Internal conversations
Role taking allows us to see ourselves through the eyes of others
We take the viewpoint of others, and respond to it
How does the ability for role taking develop?
(Mead) Three-stages
Imitation state, play stage, game stage

14. Three Stages of Role Taking
Imitation Stage
Begins around yrs old
Child imitates (without understanding) the physical/verbal behavior of significant others
Play Stage – the stage during which children take on roles of others one at a time.
3-4; who do children “play” as?
Game Stage – children learn to engage in more sophisticated role taking – can consider the roles of multiple ppl simultaneously
Everyone has a specific role to play
This is the stage that children learn to gear their behavior to the norms of the group

15. When do we start acting out of principle? – What is the Self?
Generalized other – an integrated conception of the norms, values, and beliefs of one’s community or society – emerges.
Children eventually stop doing things to please others, and do so because it seems wrong (or right).
What is the Self?
(Mead) “Me” and “I”
Me – created through socialization; accounts for predictability and conformity
I – accounts for spontaneity, unpredictability, and creativeness
Me/I conversations occur all the time. The “I” is first to react to a situation, the “Me” offers a rationalization.

16. Video Overview
Children in Action - Stages of Development

17. Section 3: Agents of Socialization
Doc in Google Classroom

18. What are the primary agents of socialization? List 4 of them
Section 3 Review
What are the primary agents of socialization?
List 4 of them
Are there others?
Try to think of one.

19. Primary Agents of Socialization
In the United States, the primary agents of socialization include the family, the peer group, the school, and the mass media.

20. The Family
The most important agent of socialization in almost every society.
Primary importance rests in its role as the principal socializer of young children.
Children first interact with others and learn the values, norms, and beliefs of society through their families.

21. The Family
Socialization in a family setting can be both deliberate and unintended.
Deliberate: Intended socialization activities. Ex., father teaching children about the importance of telling the truth.
Unintended: Can have an even greater effect on children than deliberate attempts at socialization. Ex., a father explains the importance of being polite. However, the child witnesses the father being impolite. Is the child likely to follow what the father says or what the father actually does?

22. The Family The socialization process differs from family to family.
Families come in all shapes and sizes (family size, family make-up [single parent], race, ethnicity, religion, geographic region).
All these differences affect the way a family socializes its children.

23. The Peer Group
As children grow older, forces outside of the family increasingly influence them.
Children begin to relate more and more to their peer groups.
Peer Group: A primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and similar social characteristics.

24. The Peer Group
Peer groups are particularly influential during the pre- teenage and early teenage years.
Winning peer acceptance is a powerful force in the lives of young people.
To win this acceptance, young people willingly adopt the values and standards of the peer group.
Young people often shape themselves into the kind of person they think the group wants them to be.

25. Peer-Group Socialization vs. Socialization Within the Family
The norms and values imparted by the family usually focus on the larger culture.
Parents often become alarmed if they come to believe that the norms and values of the peer group are more important to their children than those of society as a whole.
In peer groups, the focus is the subculture of the group.
Peer-group goals are sometimes at odds with the goals of the larger society.

26. The School School occupies large amounts of time and attention.
Between the ages of 5 and 18, young people spend some 30 weeks a year in school.
The school plays a major role in socializing individuals.
Much of this socialization is deliberate.

27. The School
Class activities are planned for the deliberate purpose of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and other skills.
Extracurricular activities such as school dances, clubs, and athletic events, are intended to prepare the student for life in the larger society.
Schools also attempt to transmit cultural values, such as patriotism, responsibility, and good citizenship.

28. The Mass Media
Influential agent of socialization that involves no face-to- face interaction.
Mass Media: Instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact between those sending the information and those receiving it.
Major forms of mass media are books, films, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, radio, and television.

29. The Mass Media
Television probably has the most influence on the socialization of children.
98 percent of homes in the United States have television sets, with an average of more than two sets per home.
Most children watch an average of about 28 hours each week.

30. Social Class: Opportunities for Socialization
Numerous studies show connections between social class and socialization.
Melvin Kohn’s research found that working-class parents focus on their children’s obedience to authority, whereas middle-class parents showed greater concern about the motivations for their children’s behavior.
Our social class affects us in many ways that we do not anticipate and may not even recognize.
Social class affects not only the type of experiences we have, but also their quality and quantity.

31. Neighborhood
Sociologist William J. Wilson looked at how inner- city poverty brought with it the disadvantages of poor schools, weak social structures, high crime rates, and rampant drug use.
Wilson argued that poor people are truly disadvantaged because their community offers few role models for anything else.

32. Wilson Continued
Children who grow up in those communities are likely to make poor decisions.
Studies have shown that neighborhood has significant negative effects on IQ, teen pregnancy, and high school drop out rates.

33. Neighborhoods also influence economically privileged children.
Children who grow up in more affluent neighborhoods often do better in school, have lower rates of teen pregnancy, and higher IQ scores.
Neighborhoods can also predict how far you may go in school, showing that the higher the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood, the higher the educational attainment.

35. Section 4: Process of Socialization
Symbolic Interactionism; socialization is a lifelong process because changes occur and new skills/behaviors are learned.
4 processes happen after childhood
Desocialization
Resocialization
Anticipatory socialization
Reference groups

36. How does desocialization prepare ppl for new learning?
Total institutions – places in which ppl are separated form the rest of society and controlled by officials in charge.
Mental hospitals, rehab facilities, cults, prisons, military, etc.
Goal: to permanently change the individuals involved.
Step 1: Desocialization – process of giving up old norms, values, attitudes, and beliefs; destruct old self-concepts
Step 2: Resocialization – process of adopting new norms, etc.
Rewards/Punishments
How does this apply to those not in a total institution?

37. Anticipatory Socialization
Anticipatory Socialization – the voluntary process of preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.
When does this occur?
How do we do it?
Reference Group – group whose norms and values are used to guide behavior; group with whom you identify.