Transcript Lesson 2 - College of the Canyons

Lesson 2
Socialization
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Chapter Outline
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Perspectives on Socialization
Agents of Childhood Socialization
Processes of Socialization
Outcomes of Socialization
Adult Socialization
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Perspectives On Socialization
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Which is the more influential on
behavior, heredity or environment?
– Both factors influence the who
we become.
– However, some theorists believe
heredity is most important, while
others believe social influences
(culture and society) are more
important.
This argument has never been
completely resolved.
Consider the case of Genie
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Socialization
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The ways in which individuals learn and
recreate skills, knowledge, values, motives,
and roles appropriate to their position in a
group or society.
– Socialization makes us like most other
members of society in important ways.
– Socialization also produces our
individuality.
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Developmental Theory
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Socialization is dependent on biologically
determined physical and psychological
maturation.
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The development of many social behaviors
as primarily due to physical and
neurological maturation.
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Developmental Theory
Responsiveness to another person develops early in life.
By 16 weeks of age, a child smiles in response to a human
face. By 28 weeks, a child can distinguish caregivers from
strangers.
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The Developmental Perspective
– Studies show the age at which children
gain certain motor skills and social skills.
• By age one an infant enjoys watching
TV.
• By age one a child can run and has
good control of his/her hands.
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The Social Learning Perspective
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This perspective emphasizes that children gain their
cognitive and behavioral skills interacting with others and
their environment.
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Children must learn about the environment and learn the
language in order to communicate their needs to others.
– Children learn the shared meanings of the groups in
which they are reared.
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What a child learns depends on the group in which
he/she was raised.
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Interpretive Perspective
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A child must learn the meanings common to the social
group (e.g. the family, the neighborhood, the classroom).
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A child’s participation in cultural routines, which are
recurrent and predictable activities basic to day-to-day
social life.
– Get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, go to school.
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Learning the routines requires communication with
parents, other adults, and other children.
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Agents of Childhood Socialization
• Examples of common agents of socialization in an
industrialized society are:
1. Family
2. Peers
3. School
4. Media
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Family
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Family is an ascribed social institution and
socializing agent.
 The family is the single most significant agent of
socialization in all societies and teaches us the
basic values and norms that shape our identity.
 Research demonstrates that an emotionally
responsive caregiver is essential for normal child
development.
– The type, quality, and amount of care
determines the child’s outcome.
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Peers
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Peers provide very different social skills and often
become more immediately significant than the family,
especially as children move through adolescence.
Peer group socialization has been increasing over the
past century because young people are attending school
for longer periods of time.
Peer associations make a major contribution
to the development of the child’s identity.
– A child’s interaction with peers is spontaneous, open, and does
not need tact.
– Peer interaction is voluntary; not ascribed.
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Discussion Questions
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TRUE or FALSE?
 Adolescents resist parental directions and
prefer to follow the lead of their peers.
Explain your answer.
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What are the benefits and weakness derived
from following your peer?
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Schools
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School provide secondary, non-personal
socialization.
– Praise, blame, and privileges shape student
behavior.
– Traits taught in school facilitate social
interaction throughout life in a particular culture or
society (reading, writing, punctuality, etc.)
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Mass Media
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The mass media has become an important
agent of socialization, often overriding the
family and other institutions in instilling values
and norms.
 The American mass media plays a major role
in teaching Americans to buy and consume
goods and other values.
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Shaping
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Shaping is learning in which an agent initially
reinforces any behavior that remotely resembles
the desired response.
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Later on increasing correspondence between the
learner’s behavior and the desired response is
expected.
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Shaping
Shaping is a process through which many complex
behaviors, such as playing the viola, are learned.
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Punishment
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Definition: The presentation of a painful or discomforting
stimulus that decreases the probability that a behavior
will occur.
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Punishment is widely used in the United States. Our
culture is tolerant of or encourages its use.
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Punishment is one of the major child rearing practices
used by parents.
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Research indicates that punishment is effective in some
circumstances but not in others.
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True or False?
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A study demonstrated that:
– A verbal reprimand delivered as the child
engaged in a particular behavior was more
effective if the child was also given a
reason why it was wrong.
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Observational Learning
Observational learning is an
important process through which
children learn appropriate
behaviors.
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Internalization
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How initially external behavioral
standards can become internal and
guide behavior.
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Behavior is internalized when the person
engages in it without considering rewards or
punishments.
– When a person stands up for his/her own
beliefs, even when it is unpopular to do so,
he/she has internalized his/her beliefs.
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Outcomes of Socialization
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Outcomes of socialization include:
– Gender role
– Linguistic and cognitive competence
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Gender Role
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Gender role is a behavioral expectations associated
with one’s gender.
Children learn gender appropriate behaviors by:
– Observing their parents’ interaction
– Copying gender appropriate behavior
– Interacting with parents who reward behavior
consistent with gender roles and punish behavior
inconsistent with these roles.
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Language
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Using language to communicate with others
is a prerequisite for full participation in social
groups.
 A child’s acquisition of speech reflects the
development of the necessary perceptual and
motor skills and the impact of social learning.
 Recall Mead and Cooley’s “I” and the “Me”
 Proper use of pronouns is key!
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Knowledge of Social Rules
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To interact with others, people must learn social
rules.
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Norms are beliefs about which behaviors are
acceptable and which are unacceptable in
specific situations.
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Without norms, (1) coordinated activity would be
difficult, and (2) we would find it hard to achieve
our goals.
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Adult Socialization
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In adulthood, socialization is concerned with
equipping the individual to function effectively
in adult roles.
 Three processes:
– Role acquisition
– Anticipatory socialization
– Role discontinuity
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Socialization Later in Life
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Resocialization is the process of replacing
previously learned norms and values with
new ones as a part of a transition in life.
– Learn how to be a husband/wife,
employee, etc.
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Socialization Later in Life (cont)
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A dramatic form of resocialization takes place
in a total institution, which is an institution in
which individuals are cut off from the rest of
society so that their lives can be controlled
and regulated for the purpose of
systematically stripping away previous roles
and identities in order to create a new one.
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Resocialization (cont)
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Mortification of self, the most dramatic type
of resocialization, occurs in such institutions
as the military, POW camps, and mental
hospitals.
 Often involves “degradation ceremonies”
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