1. The Role of Socialization
Environment and Heredity

2. Socialization
Socialization: continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behaviour, and social skills appropriate to his/her social position.

3. What is the Role of Socialization?
What makes us who we are?
Is it determined by genetics?
Or is it our environment?

4. Divide into groups of 3 or 4
Create a list of 5 reasons to justify each position
NATURE VS
NURTURE

5. Nature vs. Nurture Debate
Traditional clash over the relative importance of biological inheritance and environmental factors in human development
Heredity vs. environment
Most social scientists have moved beyond this debate
Acknowledge interaction of these variables in shaping human development

6. Nature: Influence of Heredity
Oskar
Jack
Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia
maternal grandmother
strict Catholic upbringing
Member of Hitler Youth
Learned to hate Jews
Trinidad
Jewish father
Joined Israeli kibbutz (collective settlement) at 17
Served in Israeli army

7. Brothers reunited in middle age
Similarities
Differences
wearing wire-rimmed glasses and moustaches
wore pocket shirts with epaulets
like spicy foods and sweet liqueurs
are absent-minded
have a habit of falling asleep in front of the TV
Think it’s funny to sneeze in a crowd of strangers
Flush the toilet before using it
Store rubber bands on their wrists
Read magazines from back to front
Dip buttered toast in their coffee (Holden 1980)
Jack = workaholic
Oskar = enjoyed leisure time
Jack = traditional liberal who was much more accepting of feminism
Oskar = traditionalist who was domineering toward women
Jack = extremely proud to be Jewish
Oskar = never mentioned his Jewish heritage

8. Heredity and Environment
Separated twins studies
Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research
Similarities
Characteristics (temperament, voice patterns, and nervous habits) = linked to heredity
Tendency toward leadership and dominance
Difference
Attitudes, values and types of mate chosen, drinking habits = linked to environment
Need for intimacy, comfort, and assistance

9. Sociobiology
Systematic study of the biological bases of social behaviour
Apply Charles Darwin’s principles of natural selection to study social behaviour
Assume that particular forms of behaviour become genetically linked to a species if they contribute to its fitness to survive
In its extreme form, sociobiology suggests that all behaviour is the result of genetic or biological factors and that social interactions play no role in shaping people’s conduct.

10. Sociobiology continued…
Focus on how human nature is affected by the genetic composition of a group of people who share certain characteristics
Many sociologists are highly critical of sociobiologists’ tendency to explain, or seemingly justify, human behaviour on the basis of nature and ignore its cultural and social basis.

11. Nurture: Environment and the Impact of Isolation
The Case of Isabelle
Lived in almost total seclusion until age 6
Darkened room
Only contact with deaf, mute mother, and grandparents who kept her hidden
Discovered by Ohio authorities when her mother escaped the grandparents

12. Isabelle Socialization Reactions Communication
Could not speak
Croaking sounds
Simple gestures to communicate with mother
Socialization
Deprived of interaction and socialization experiences
Saw few people
Reactions
Initially showed strong fear of strangers
Reacted like a wild animal
As grew accustomed became apathetic

13. Training Isabelle
At first believed she was deaf, but soon became to react to sounds
Specialists develop a systematic training program to help her adapt to human relationships and socialization
Quickly passed over six years of missed development

14. Isabella’s progress Speaking in complete sentences
Few days
Speaking first words
2 months
Speaking in complete sentences
9 months
Identifying words and sentences
9 years
Ready to attend school with others children
14 years
6th grade and well adjusted

15. Cases of neglect Romania (former communist Eastern Europe)
Romanian orphanages
Babies in cribs 18 or 20 hours
Feeding bottles, little adult care for 1st 5 years
Many orphans fearful of human contact
Prone to unpredictable antisocial behaviour
Huge adjustment problems for 20% of orphans adopted to NA families

16. Importance of Early Socialization
Not enough to care for an infant’s physical needs
Parents must also concern themselves with children’s social development

17. Primate Studies Harlow’s experimentation – rhesus monkeys
Raised away from their mothers and away from contact with other monkeys
Fearful and frightened, did not mate
artificially inseminated female became abusive mother

18. Harlow’s “Artificial Mothers”
Two substitute mothers
Cloth-covered replica
Wire-covered that had the ability to offer milk
Went to wire one for milk but spent more time clinging to cloth “mother”
Monkeys valued the artificial mother that provided a comforting physical sensation more than the one that provided food.
Appears that the infant monkeys developed greater social attachments from their need for warmth, comfort, and intimacy.