1. Socialization
Unit 2 - b

2. Your Name and who you are
Your name might tell you the following:
Your gender
Your ethnicity – Physical characteristics
Possibly your age
Example: What comes to mind when you hear the name Jennifer?

3. Socialization Describe yourself: Age? Name? Ethnicity?
Physical characteristics?
likes?
dislikes?
Hobbies?
Strengths (school, sport, art…)?
Interests?
values?
personal history?
Now, imagine you were switched at birth with another baby in the maternity ward and went home with the ‘wrong’ family and were raised by them.
How might you be different?

4. The Nurture Side of Things!
Socialization – lifelong process through which we learn all the knowledge, skills and attitudes we need to survive and prosper
Sociologist: focus on how we learn the basic rules and attitudes of human behaviour (don’t pick your nose)
Psychologists: focus on the development of the human personality – those characteristics that make each individual unique (self-confidence)
Anthropologist: focus on the process by which permanent human societies are produced. (A uniquely human way of life centered on ‘marriage’, ‘family’, and ‘household’)

5. Socialization continued
Key process in the development of the individual
Necessary for the continuation of society
Affects virtually every aspect of our lives
example: 1) Hunger patterns (when we eat)
2) Perception of the world around us (Arctic peoples have many
words for ‘snow’)

6. Components of Socialization
Develop the ability to
think ahead and act
according
Components of Socialization
We learn:
Language
How to eat
To practice hygiene
Gender roles
To deal with emotions
Anticipatory Socialization
Secondary Socialization
Primary
Socialization
Lean how to function
in groups (schools)
How to follow the
behaviours society
expects of us while
acting in group
situations

7. Components of Socialization cont.
Resocialization: Deliberate attempt by society to replace aspects of an individual’s socialization with new learnings
In prisons, society tries to change inmates’ learned behaviour to more
appropriate, law-abiding ones

8. Agents of Socialization
How might a person develop if cut off from normal human contact at an early age?
Ferals: Children raised by wild animals (unrealistic)
Isolates: raised in human households but were severely neglected physically, socially and emotionally
Anna year old found hidden in a second floor storage room tied into a chair
Genie 1970:
13 year old had
been kept locked
in a room with
only a potty seat

9. Agents of Socialization - Family
Primary Socialization – 1st Agent of socialization
Most influential ages 0-6, after 20
Norms
Gender roles
What are our own special unique qualities
Vital in the development of the self
The socialization we get at home is not
always correct

10. Agents of Socialization - School
Secondary Socialization – group rules
Dealing with formal rules
Preparation for the adult world
Manifest function – visible purpose of school
- to learn academic skills
Latent function – hidden purpose
- to learn how to understand
and cooperate with strangers
- learn rules about being on
time, being neat, when to
talk, respect for authority

11. Agents of Socialization – Peer groups
Most influential between ages 10-20
Social group where members are the same age
and share the same interests and social position
Provide opportunities to do things not usually
encouraged by one’s family
Peer pressure: values and behaviour,
sexual attitudes, gender roles

12. Agents of Socialization - Media
Function: Commercial – designed to make money
by obtaining as many customers as possible
Attract customers by setting out an unrealistic
view of life (cop drama: suspense, romance,
tragedy and justice fits into 52 minutes)
Advertising – attempts to persuade us that we
can ‘have it all’ Gender roles are created and
reinforced, whether realistic or not
example: average model 5’9”, 123 lb
average women 5’4”, 144lb

13. Agents of Socialization - Religion
1996 – approx 86% of Canadians indicated that
they had some sort of religious faith
- 30% reported weekly attendance at
a religious service
Religious activities communicate beliefs about
gender, appropriate sexual conduct, the afterlife,
responsibility for one another in society, values
and morals (usually reinforced by the family)

14. Agents of Socialization –Workplace
Most people take up paid employment at some
time
Already learned the importance of punctuality,
appropriate dress, respect for authority at school
Must learn specialized language, procedures,
rules as they relate to our jobs
Must learn how to deal with colleagues,
competitors, customers, students
Teambuilding activities

15. Agents of Socialization – Total Institutions
Intended to wipe out old socialization and
Replace it with new
Boot camp – for young offenders
Prison – convicted felons
Destructive religious cults
Monasteries
Military
Emphasis on removing individuality and
replacing it with a common group identity
- identical hair cuts
- identical clothing
- strict enforcement of rules about
daily activities and schedules

16. Total Institutions - Asylums
Degradation ceremonies – intended to weaken a person’s current identity so that a new one could be put in its place – many have since been abolished
Common in all Total Institutions:
All aspects of life are closely supervised by staff
Members have no choice regarding food or sleeping arrangements
Formal rules about virtually all aspects of daily routine