1. Socialization Initial personality development The social self
Agents of socialization

2. Personality Development
Nature vs. Nurture
Nature – much of human behavior & personality is instinctive & caused by heredity
Twin studies, parent-child bonds, sociobiologists
Nurture – behavior & personality dictated by social environment & experience
Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura
4 main factors influence personality development: heredity, birth order, parents, and cultural environment

3. Parental Characteristics
Heredity
Physical characteristics (hair & eye color)
Aptitudes – capacity to learn & gain skills
Birth Order
First-borns tend to be achievement-oriented; more conservative
Later-borns tend to be stronger socially (friendly & affectionate); more risk-taking
Parental Characteristics
Age, education level, religion, economic status, job
Different expectations & ways of relating to their children

4. Cultural Environment
Determines basic types of personalities that will exist in that society (through models)
Common U.S. traits = competitiveness, assertiveness, individualism
Iks of Uganda (pg. 101)
How we experience that culture affects our personalities
Gender, SES, ethnic background

5. Agents of Socialization
Agents of socialization – individuals, groups & institutions that shape our socialization
4 main agents in our society:
Family, peers, school, mass media
Total institutions & resocialization

6. Family Peers Most important socialization at young age
Deliberate (teaching kids to say “please” & “thank you”) or unintended (kids watching what their parents DO)
Traits of family affects socialization of children
Number of family members, SES, religion, etc.
Peers
Peer group – primary group of people of similar age & social characteristics
Most important socialization in late childhood & adolescence
Conform to group values & standards to win acceptance

7. School
Important throughout childhood (large amount of time spent there)
Involves socialization from peers & adults
Deliberate (teach information, skills, & larger cultural values) & unintended (look to teachers’ or peers’ behavior as a model)
Mass Media
Mass media – instruments of communication that reach large audiences w/o personal contact
Books, movies, TV, internet
TV & internet = most influential

8. Resocialization in total institutions
Total institution – one that isolates people from the rest of society & controls behavior
Prisons, monasteries, boot camp, psych. hospitals
Socialization is different in these settings
Resocialization – breaking with past experiences & learning new values & norms
Strip away old identity & replace with new one
Uniforms, controlled behavior patterns, standard hair cuts, etc.

9. The Social Self
Socialization – interactive process through which people learn skills, values, & behavior patterns of society
Different theories on how we experience a sense of “self”
Locke: The Tabula Rasa
Cooley: The Looking-Glass Self

10. Tabula Rasa = Clean Slate
No personality at birth – we acquire it through social experience
Extreme view, but many sociologists agree people absorb elements of themselves from their social surroundings
The Looking-Glass Self: others help us see ourselves
interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we image other people view us
3 step process:
Imagine how we appear to others
Imagine & analyze their reaction to us
Develop feelings about ourselves