1. Chapter 3 Socialization

2. Chapter Outline  Perspectives on Socialization  Agents of Childhood Socialization  Processes of Socialization  Outcomes of Socialization  Adult Socialization

3. Socialization  The ways in which individuals learn and recreate skills, knowledge, values, motives, and roles appropriate to their position in a group or society.

4. Perspectives On Socialization  Is heredity or environment the more important influence on behavior?  Although both influences are important, one view of socialization emphasizes biological development (heredity), whereas another emphasizes social learning (environment).

5. The Developmental Perspective  Some theorists view socialization as dependent on biologically determined physical and psychological maturation.  They see the development of many social behaviors as primarily due to physical and neurological maturation, not social factors.

6. The Social Learning Perspective  Emphasizes the child’s acquisition of cognitive and behavioral skills from the environment.  Considers socialization a process of children learning the shared meanings of the groups in which they are reared.  What is learned varies from group to group, however the processes by which social learning takes place are universal.

7. Interpretive Perspective  Views the child’s task as the discovery of the meanings common to the social group (such as the family or a soccer team).  This process requires communication with parents, other adults, and other children.  According to this perspective, development is a process of interpretive reproduction.

8. Components of Socialization 1. Agent - Someone who serves as a source for what is being learned, 2. A learning process. 3. A target - A person who is being socialized. 4. An outcome - Something that is being learned.

9. Agents of Childhood Socialization 1. Family 2. Peers 3. School

10. Children’s Living Arrangements, 2000 Arrangement% Working father/nonworking mother21 Married, both working41 Male-headed2.3 Female, previously married10 Female, never married5 Cohabiting couple4.1 Grandparents6

11. Instrumental Conditioning  A process wherein a person learns what response to make in a situation in order to obtain positive reinforcement or avoid negative reinforcement.  The person’s behavior is instrumental in the sense that it determines whether he or she is rewarded or punished.

12. Shaping  Learning in which an agent reinforces behavior that resembles the desired response and later requires increasing correspondence between the learner’s behavior and the desired response before providing reinforcement.  Involves a series of successive approximations in which the learner’s behavior comes closer to resembling the response desired by the reinforcing agent.

13. Punishment  The presentation of a painful or discomforting stimulus that decreases the probability that a behavior will occur.  Punishment is one of the major child rearing practices used by parents.

14. % of Parents who Use Physical and Psychological Punishment

15. Self-Reinforcement and Self- Efficacy  Children learn behavior through instrumental learning.  Some of these behaviors will remain extrinsically motivated, dependent on whether someone else will reward appropriate behaviors or punish inappropriate ones.  Other behaviors will become intrinsically motivated, performed in order to achieve an internal state that the individual finds rewarding.

16. Self-reinforcement  As children are socialized, they learn performance standards. –The child uses these standards to judge his or her own behavior and thus becomes capable of self-reinforcement.

17. Observational Learning  Refers to the acquisition of behavior based on the observation of another person’s behavior and of its consequences for that person.  By watching another person (the model) perform skilled actions, a child can increase his or her own skills.

18. Internalization  The process by which initially external behavioral standards (for example, those held by parents) become internal and subsequently guide the person’s behavior.  An action is based on internalized standards when the person engages in it without considering rewards or punishments.

19. Outcomes of Socialization  Outcomes of socialization include: –gender role –linguistic and cognitive competence –moral development –orientation toward work

20. Gender Role  Behavioral expectations associated with one’s gender.  Children learn gender appropriate behaviors by: –observing their parents’ interaction –Interacting with parents who reward behavior consistent with gender roles and punish behavior inconsistent with these roles.

21. Language  A child’s acquisition of speech reflects the development of the necessary perceptual and motor skills and the impact of social learning.

22. Main Components of Language – Sound system (phonology) – Words and their meanings (lexicon) – Rules for combining words into meaningful utterances (grammar)

23. Stages of Language Acquisition 1. Pre-speech - Up to about 10 months. Involves speech perception, speech production, and early intentional communication. 2. Word - 10 to 14 months. Involves the infant’s recognition that things have names. 3. First sentence - 18 to 22 months 4. Grammaticization - 24 to 30 months

24. Knowledge of Social Rules  To interact with others, people must learn social rules.  Norms are beliefs about which behaviors are acceptable and which are unacceptable in specific situations.  Without norms, coordinated activity would be difficult, and we would find it hard to achieve our goals.

25. Kohlberg’s Model Of Moral Development  Preconventional morality - Moral judgment based on external consequences of acts.  Conventional morality - Moral judgment based on social consequences of acts.  Postconventional morality - Moral judgment based on universal moral and ethical principles.

26. Preconventional Morality  Stage 1: Obedience and punishment orientation. –Rules are obeyed in order to avoid punishment.  Stage 2: Hedonistic orientation. –Rules are obeyed in order to obtain rewards for the self.

27. Conventional morality  Stage 3: “Good boy/nice girl” orientation. –Rules are obeyed to please others, avoid disapproval.  Stage 4: Authority and social-order maintaining orientation. – Rules are obeyed to show respect for authorities and maintain social order.

28. Postconventional Morality  Stage 5: Social-contract orientation. – Rules are obeyed because they represent the will of the majority, to avoid violation of rights of others.  Stage 6: Universal ethical principles. –Rules are obeyed in order to adhere to one’s principles.

29. Adult Socialization  In adulthood, socialization is concerned with equipping the individual to function effectively in adult roles.  Three processes: –role acquisition –anticipatory socialization –role discontinuity

30. Role Acquisition  The major roles we acquire as adults include spouse, parent, work roles, grandparent and retiree. –Midlife (40 to 60) involves several role transitions: marital (divorce, widowhood) parental (children leave home) work (entry or exit) caregiver (aging parents)

31. Anticipatory Socialization  Activities that provide people with knowledge about, skills for, and values of a role they have not assumed. –Usually works best for future roles that are highly visible. –Eases role transition if future roles are presented accurately. –Entails goal setting, planning, and preparation for future roles.

32. Role Discontinuity  When values and identities associated with a new role contradict those of earlier roles.  On entering a discontinuous role, we must revise our expectations and aspirations.