1. Socialization
AND ITS AGENTS

2. Consider Your Social Roles
When you came to school today, you took on the role and behaviours of a student.
What expectations are involved with being a student?
How did you come to know and understand them?
When you return home, you assume the role and behaviours of a member of your household.
How did you ‘negotiate’ your boundaries?

3. The process is called socialization…
How to talk
How to cooperate in games
Knowledge of current affairs
How to read and write
Table manners and etiquette
How to earn a living
How to relate to a future spouse
How did you acquire the knowledge and skills listed here?
Were you taught by one person or several?
Were you taught in a formal way, or in a less structured way?

4. SOCIALIZATION
Socialization is the active process whereby human beings become members of society:
- Develop a sense of self, or individual identity
- Learn to participate in social relationships with others.
Primary socialization occurs in childhood while Secondary socialization occurs after childhood.

5. Its Effects

6. Types of Socialization

7. Types of Socialization

8. ADOLESCENT SOCIALIZATION
 Adolescence is the stage of life between childhood and adulthood in which independent statuses and roles are learned
- Adolescence involves anticipatory socialization, during which aspirants to particular roles begin to see what it will be like to function in those roles and act accordingly
 Adolescence often involves conflict with elders.
 Adolescence is a product of industrialization and mass education
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

9. Agents of Socialization
Which was most responsible for the following?
Dating
How to read & write
Eating in a restaurant
Choosing your clothing
Attending a prom/dance
Relating to children
Liking a particular band
The Family
School
Peer Group(s)
Media

10. Most Important Agent: Family

11. AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION: THE FAMILY
The family is well suited to socialization because its members are in intimate, face-to-face contact and parents are usually highly motivated to socialize their children well
Families are not, however, always efficient agents of socialization - parents may reproduce negative modeling they experienced as children
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

12. Rank Your Concerns Rank the following concerns as:
A – A great deal C – Not very much
B – Quite a bit D – Hardly at all
Money A B C D
Health A B C D
Time A B C D
What more out of life A B C D
Children A B C D
Job A B C D
Recognition A B C D
So much change A B C D
Loneliness A B C D
Sex life A B C D
Marriage/relationship A B C D
Looks A B C D

13. TOP TWELVE CONCERNS OF CANADIANS
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

14. The School Experience

15. GENDER SOCIALIZATION 1. Sex = Biological maleness or femaleness.
2. Gender = Cultural expectations of masculinity and femininity.
Most differences between sexes are cultural not biological
From birth, parents treat girls and boys in “gender appropriate” ways - As they grow up, boys and girls face different expectations, are assigned different tasks, and learn about typical male and female domestic and occupational roles
The mass media and other institutions reinforce gender roles.

16. Impact of Family and School

17. Peer Group

18. AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION: PEER GROUPS
Peer groups (people of similar age and status) are unique in that they are not controlled by adults.
Peer groups are increasingly important sources of socialization because tradition and inner conviction are fading as significant guides to action, while parents’ experiences are insufficient guides to action in an era of rapid change.
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

19. The Media

20. THE SELF AND SOCIALIZATION
In the course of socialization, one develops a self awareness of ideas and attitudes about one’s personal and social identity.
Among the important early theorists who analyzed the development of the self are Cooley, Mead, and Goffman.
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

21. G. H. Mead
Apply the idea of the socialized self to the interaction between the high school stereotypes that interact in the film Breakfast Club.
- How does one develop into a “Princess” or “Jock” etc.?
- Do real high school students use these labels for each other? Why?
- How much does media influence the choice/use of these labels?

22. MEAD’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES III
Human communication is symbolic interaction. That is, we communicate by using symbols: gestures, objects or sounds that stand for something else and whose meaning depends on shared understandings – Remember the Symbolic Interactionist Theory?
Taking the role of the other – attempting to anticipate how others see you – is an essential developmental skill that develops in stages
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

23. MEAD’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES II
According to Mead, we first become aware of ourselves as social objects, as a me in the eyes of others
Accompanying the me is the subjective side of the self, the I, which initiates action
All social experience involves an “internal conversation” in which the I initiates action and the me reflectively takes the role of the other, reassessing and modifying action

24. MEAD’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES II
Egocentric stage: inability to take the role of others
Imitative stage: ability to take the role of one other
Play stage: ability to imaginatively take the role of several others
Game stage: ability to develop a generalized impression of the behaviour people expect and a sense of one’s place in the group
Ability to conceptualize a view of society in general, its cultural norms and values: the generalized other
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

25. COOLEY’S “LOOKING GLASS SELF”
We imagine how our appearance, manners, and presentation of self are seen by others
This results in feelings about the self (e.g., pride, embarrassment); the reactions of others are like a mirror in which we see ourselves
The first images of self come from significant others (important people in early development, e.g., parents) and the primary group (the site of intimate, face-to-face interaction, e.g., the family)
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

26. Consider “The Breakfast Club”
How do the characters provide a mirror to each other about the ways they present themselves?
How do they refer to each other through the story?
How seriously to they take each other’s feedback?
You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning...We were brainwashed.

27. GOFFMAN: DRAMATURGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
► Goffman likened socialization to theatrical performances in which people play roles according to society’s scripts while audiences remain alert for slips that might reveal the individual’s “true” character
► “Front stage” people engage in “impression management,” seeking to project a favourable image -“Backstage” people step out of their roles
► People thus creatively draw on symbolic resources rather than being entirely shaped by them
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

28. GOFFMAN & “Breakfast Club”
What evidence is there if Goffman’s dramaturgy in the film “Breakfast Club”?
Do the characters seem to be playing a ‘script’ for a particular social role? Is it realistic?
Is there a ‘Brain’ or a ‘Jock’ in our school?
Is there a status difference?
Do the characters in the film ‘slip’ out of their social roles?
Do students here try to keep from ‘slipping out’ of their roles?

29. Social Elements of Identity

30. Social Elements of Identity

31. Social Elements of Identity