Socialization

Socialization

Socialization

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Socialization is the lifelong process through which individuals acquire their

· Self identity, and learn the

· Physical,

· Mental;, and

· Social skills

 

Needed in order to survive in society.

 

In other words, it is a process that teaches the

· Norms,

· Values, and

· Other aspects of a culture to new group members.

 

 

 

Socialization enables individuals to

· Learn

· Norms,

· Values,

· Language,

· Skills &

· Beliefs of their particular society.

 

Socialization-continues throughout the life process starting at

· Birth,

· Childhood,

· Adolescent,

· Teenage

· Young adult

· Adult

· Maturity

· Old age

· Death.

Also, socialization—enables society reproduce itself

· Socially as well as

· Biologically

· From generations to generation.

 

Sociologists and Psychologists have studied socialization for decades. They have analyzed how people become socialized.

 

Socialization theory claims that the person we become is the result of our social environment. According to sociologists Parsons, we accept and integrate the values of the group as our own. These social values constantly surround us, but they often go unexamined.

 

At what point in our lives does socialization take place?

 

Parson and others argued that most socialization occurs during childhood.

Brim refers to this early socialization as

· Primary socialization—parents are their children’s first teachers; they pass on values, rules, language, religious beliefs and unending list of social norms.

However, socialization—is also reciprocal because children also influence their parents. Because socialization—is an unending cycle, we are at times the “socializer” and other times the “socialized.” Socialization continues throughout out lives .

 

Secondary Socialization—

As you experience life changing events like going to

· College,

· Beginning a career, or

· Getting married—new socialization occurs.

 

At each stage of life, we encountered new

· Norms,

· Values, and

· Expectations.

 

We learn to accept and integrate them as we adapt to our social environment.

 

Each individual operates, in part, on the basis of personality.

 

Personality—is a consistent pattern of

· Behavior,

· Feelings, &

· Beliefs in a given person.

Personality include three main component

 

1. Cognitive Component—consists of thought, belief,

· Perceptions,

· Memory,

· And other intellectual capacities.

 

2. Emotional Component—consists of love, hate, envy,

· Sympathy,

· Anger,

· Pride, and,

· Other feelings

 

3. Behavioral Component—-consists of skills, aptitude (ability, capacity)

· Competence, and,

· Other abilities.

 

i.e., Nobody is born a great mathematician

People may be born with the potential to become one—but what they actually become is primarily the product of their environment.

 

Socialization differs greatly from

· Society to

· Society.

 

How much of our unique human characteristics come from heredity and how much from social environment?

 

The Nature Vs Nurture

 

In the 20th century, social scientists began to fight biologists—belief that “nurture,” like philosopher John Locke, proposed that our environment influences the way we

· Think,

· Feel, &

· Behave.”

 

Supporters of this idea assert that socialization molds us like pieces of clay, particularly during early childhood. Many nurture theorists believe that a social process teaches

· People who they are and

· How they fit into their world.

 

Each of us is a product of two forces:

(1) heredity, referred to a “nature,” and

(2) the social environment, referred to as a Nurture>”

 

Whereas, biology dictates our

· Physical make-up,

the social environment determines

· How we develop and behave.

 

 

Nature VS Nurture

The belief that The belief that the way in which we

Genetic& biological think, feel, & behave are results

Heredity are the of our environment.

Primary causes of

Human behaviors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Sociologists focus on

· How human beings—design their own culture &

· Transmit it from—

· Generation to generation through the socialization process.

 

Most Sociologists disagree that biological principles can be used to:

· Explain all human behavior.

 

According to Sociologists—the social environment probably has a greater effect than

· Heredity in terms of personality development.

 

Children need to be surrounded by people who

· Care for them,

· Interact with them and

· Provide for their basic needs. This is essential for complete growth and development.

 

 

 

Problems Associated with Social Isolation

 

Isolated Children

 

Social scientists have documented cases in which children were deliberately raised in isolation circumstances.

 

Let’s look at Children that were raised in isolation

 

First child that they studied was name Anna

 

Anna—was born 1932 to an unmarried, mentally impaired woman. She was an

· unwanted child.

 

Anna was kept in an attic-like room in her grand-fathers house. Her mother, worked on the

· farm all day &

· often went out at night,—gave Anna just enough care to kept her alive;

· she received no other care.

 

Attempts to socialize Anna had only limited success, but in that time

· She was able to learn some words and phrases, although she could never speak sentences.

· She also learned to use building blocks,

· To string beads,

· To wash her hands and brush her teeth,

· To follow directions, &

· To treat a doll with affection.

 

By the time of her death at almost 11 she had reached the level of socialization of a child of two or three.

 

The 2nd Child Isabelle

 

She was about six. Her grandfather had kept her and her mother—a deaf-mute—in a dark room most of the time.

 

When Isabelle was discovered, she feared men.

 

At first it was though that she was deaf, for she did not appear to hear the sounds around her; and her only speech was a strange croaking sound.

 

Unlike Anna, Isabelle was trained by a skilled team of doctors and psychologists.

 

After a slow start, she went through the stages of learning that are typical of the first six years of life.

· By the time she was 8—she had reach a normal level of intellectual development &

· Was able to attend school with other children. Her greater success seems to have been related to the fact that her mother was present during her isolation.

 

The third child

Genie—almost four decades later, Genie was found in 1970 at the age of 13. She had been

· Locked in a bedroom alone, she was strapped down to a

· Child’s potty chair or

· Straitjacketed into a sleeping bag, since she was twenty months olds.

 

She had been fed

· Baby food &

· Beaten with a wooden paddle when she cried.

 

Genie had not heard the sounds of human speech

· Because no one talked to her & there was no

· Television or

· Radio in her home.

Genie was placed in a pediatric hospital, where the medical doctors and psychologists described her condition.

 

At the time of her admission she was un-socialized.

· She had never been toilet trained &

· Had no control over her urinary or

· Bowel functions.

· She was unable to chew solid food &

· Had the weight,

· Height and appearance of a child half her age.

Extensive therapy was used in an attempt to:

· Socialize Genie &

· Develop her language abilities.

These efforts met with limited success: In the early 1990’s Genie was living in

· Board-and-care home for retarded adults.

 

Child Maltreatment

 

However, neglect is the most frequent form of child maltreatment. It occurs when children’s basic needs—including

· Emotional warmth &

· Security,

· Adequate shelter,

· Food,

· Health care,

· Education,

· Clothing, &

· Protection—are not met, regardless of cause.

 

Theories of Human Development

 

Psychological Theories of Human Development

 

The first Psychological Theorist that we are going to discuss is Sigmund Freud.

 

Sigmund Freud—lived in the Victorian era—when biological explanations of human behavior were prevalent.

 

It was an era of extreme sexual repression &

· Male dominance.

 

Freud’s Theory—was greatly influenced by these

· Cultural factors—as reflected in the importance he assigned to

· Sexual motives—in explaining behavior.

Freud based his ideas on the belief that—people have:

Two basic tendencies:—the urge to:

· Survive &

· The urge to procreate.

 

According to Freud—human development occurs in three stages—that reflect different levels of the personality.

 

1. Id—is concerned with one’s own needs & desires. It tend to be self

Centered. It is selfish, irrational, or anti-social, & unconscious. The id operates on the pleasure principle—the principle of having whatever feels good. It is also the component of personality that includes—all of the individual basic biological drives & needs that demand immediate gratification.

2. Ego—is the component of personality that representing

· Reason &

· Common sense.

It is conscious rational part of the personality that

· Thinks,

· Plans, & protects

· Decides.

Here infants discover that their desires are not always go to be met by others.

 

3. Supergo—is the dimension of the self representing the standards of society. At about four or five years of age—the superego roughly begins to develop. It contains all of the ideas about what is

· Right &

· Wrong

That we learn from those close to us—particularly our parents.

Example—see handout

 

Jean Piaget

 

Psychologists Jean Piaget—devote his life work to examining

· How children think.

Piaget was not interested in

· What children think (the content of their thinking), but rather in

· How children think (the mental processes they use to understand their

—-observations &

—-experiences).