Socialization

Chapter 4: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2012
(see also: Sociology, Robertson, 3rd ed. , chapter 5, 1987)

A PROCESS:

Nature vs. Nurture

• Monkeys and artificial moms: desire warmth over food.

• Sociobiology: Edward O. Wilson.

1. Sexual behavior and species survival--reproductive strategies, fidelity.

• Gender: Biological or Social?
  • What is it: (see Jody O'Brien, Social Prisms, Pine Forge Press,1999)
    • Secondary Sex Characteristics (genitalia)
    • Reproductive Organs
    • Hormonal Levels
      • estrogen, progesterone, testosterone
      • correlated well with occupation and social environment
    • Chromosomal Structure
      • XY equals boy
      • XX equals girl
      • But, 5 types rather than two: XXY, XYY, XXYY
• Eli H. Newberger, M.D.: "The Men They Will Become" (explores the roots of male character)
  • A baby boy, according to the author, has traits but no character. At each stage of development, he argues, particular characteristics (attachment, honesty, self-control, sportsmanship, generosity, courage) are either nurtured or thwarted. Along the way, intrinsic biological drives combine with parenting and gender-polarizing influences to create either the qualities that we admire or those we deplore and fear.
  • Dr. Newberger teaches Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Maternal and Child Health at Harvard School of Public Health.
  • Resource: Newberger's web site: www.elinewberger.com.

THE SELF

• What is it?

1. Separate or individual
2. Reflexive: Self as object
3. Continually changing, yet perceived to be stable

• Consciousness: Awareness of one's self in a particular context.

C. H. Cooley: LOOKING-GLASS SELF

(see also: Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner's, 1902, pp. 179-185.

• 3 stage process: Imagine and prepare, Present and imagine response, Modify based on interpretation.
• Imagination and Interpretation.
• Need "they" to be "I"

G.H. Mead:

(see also, "The Dead Sociologists' Index" pages on Mead" and C. J. Bittner on Mead and the social self)

learning roles, specific to general, LANGUAGE-Symbolic interaction, MIND as a SOCIAL PRODUCT. LEARN to respond to what others have in mind vs what they do (dog).

1. Preparatory/imitation: learn symbols, acquire behavior repertoire (transcript), awareness of others. Yet no firm linkages, self-centered view. Basic communication skills. (see also: The Society Pages)
2. Play: Identify with specific others, ROLE TAKING, start to realize the perspective of others, conforming, gender roles. SIGNIFICANT OTHERS.
3. Game: Multiple roles and tasks, simultaneously, expectations and roles of others, RULES and organization of activity.

Erving Goffman

• Situational self
(Presentation of Self in Everyday Life)
• Trust and acceptance
• Impression Management
  • Gyn Exam: Stages, Teamwork, Props: Depersonalizes and desexualizes.
    • Markers to separate encounters
    • Brackets to "frame" distinct, focused encounters: boundaries (remove "self" from out of the ordinary encounters)
  • "Studied non-observance of embarrassing events" ("civil inattention")
  • Performances: Impression "Given" vs "Given off": The "Con"
• Face work
  • Picking up a date
  • Ace-Bomber
  • Looking busy at work, -paying attention in class
• Behavior in Public Place: Self/Body as vehicle.
• Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, (Spectrum Book), 1963.
• Other Goffman resources: http://www.sociosite.net/topics/sociologists.php#GOFFMAN
• About Goffman: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html

Psychological studies

Freud:

Erikson:

Piaget: Cognitive development

• Sensorimotor: 0-2, sensory and physical contact, no language-no thinking, little differentiation-self/world, discover feet, no sense of results of their acts, object permanence. End-see world as stable
• Preoperational: 2-7, lack ability to do simple mental operations, no understanding of abstract concepts-speed, weight, value. Bigger is heavier, nickel more than dime, water and container volume, trees waving make the wind, Today is my birthday vs Wednesday. LIKE Mead: Egocentric: can't take perspective of others--How many brothers do you have--1, how many does your brother have--0. Back to Mead.
• Concrete operational: 7-12, reason about concrete situations, but not abstract or hypothetical. Basic adult functioning: calculate, causality, quantity BUT NOT death, justice etc. in abstract--only tied to specific experience. Develops sense of others perspective. Back to Mead.
• Formal operational: adolescence, abstract thought, theories, hypothesis, morality, goals, alternative social relations, philosophic reasoning and questioning: If God-why evil, If parents know best-why do they make mistakes. Back to Mead.

Learning to Feel:

• Specific reflexive reactions: pleasure, surprise, disgust, curiosity; then joy, anger, sadness, fear.
• By 2--concern for others: tenderness and affection (but no sense of separate other).
• 5-6--sense of others, Looking-glass self: confidence, insecurity, pride, jealousy, envy.
• Finally, with sense of others--sympathy and empathy with specific others, then as teenager, coupled with abstract thought: whole categories-the "Oppressed", deepening awareness of self and others--romantic passion.

Moral development:

LIFE CYCLE and The Life Course:

Resocialization:

• Conversion Experience
• TOTAL INSTITUTION
  • Intentional effort.
  • Goffman (Asylums, New York, Doubleday, 1961)--Characteristics:

  1. Limited, controlled space
  2. Single authority
  3. Little privacy
  4. Little self determination
  5. Always with others in same position (new recruits)
  6. Rules and activities out of individual control

  • Life serves the institutional purposes
  • Loss of individuality
  • Degradation Ceremony: Symbolic and physical stripping away of old self followed by a process of rebuilding in the interests of the institution
  • ZIMBARDO: Stanford County Prison
    • Social Structure and Identity

    
    YouTube: https://youtu.be/sZwfNs1pqG0 (transcript)see also, the clip at http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=18557&title=Stanford_Prison_Experiment

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION

These Social Groups and Organizations Profoundly Shape our Sense of Self: We emerge as individuals within their midst.  As Social Being we are always a part of the social context in which we "find our selves."

FAMILY:

• Primary, informal introduction into formal society, unconscious training, habit training: impose schedules.
• REVERSE SOCIALIZATION (top)
• GENDER ROLES--"Toys for Boys"
• See the resources on Gwen Sharp's "Course Guide for Introduction to Sociology."

WORKPLACE:

• Full-time and Adulthood
• Introduction to Adult REALITY
• Goals
• Occupational: Career choice, Anticipatory Socialization (inherit or choose)

1. Conditioning (accepting unpleasant)
2. Commitment (pleasurable)
3. Continuous Commitment-integration into identity.

• Post-Industrial Society: Technological change and Economic restructuring==> Resocialization.
• Becker and Geer: "The Fate of Idealism in Medical School"

The STATE:

• Impact in industrial society
• Decline of the family as sole socializing agent
• PARENS PATRIAE: Care giving, regulations and laws.
• RIGHTS OF PASSAGE.

ISSUE: CHILD CARE

By 2000 70% moms work. Day Care=functional equivalent of family, Expands experience, yet formal. Concerns:

• CONFLICT: Middle-class orientation and values, lack of support for those most needy--"family problem", individual solution, ghetto jobs--high turnover, Who regulates?
• FUNCTIONALISM (necessity for economic expansion, dysfunction: Impact on Family)
• INTERACTIONISM (impact on self development-positive and negative).

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/010/socializ.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated: Monday, August 28, 2017 10:10