IMRAN AHMAD SAJID

SOCIALIZATION

Social Experience is the Key to our Humanity

• Human infants are born without any culture. They must be transformed by their parents, teachers, and others into cultural and socially adept animals.

• The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization .

• During socialization, we learn the language of the culture we are born into as well as the roles we are to play in life.

• We also learn and usually adopt our culture's norms through the socialization process.

For instance, girls learn how to be daughters, sisters, friends, wives, and mothers. In addition, they learn about the occupational roles that their society has in store for them.

Socialization

• Transforms Biological Organisms into Social Beings

• “Self”

• Our recognition that we are at once distinct and part of a whole

Definition

• Socialization is the process by which older members of a society teach their way of life to the young.

• From the point of view of a young girl or boy, socialization is also the process of developing a personality.

Macionis, 2012• Socialization refers to the lifelong social experience by

which people develop their human potential and learn culture.

Socialization [is a] process by which people, especially children, learn acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for a given environment.*

*"Socialization." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

• Socialization [is] the process whereby an individual learns to adjust to a group (or society) and behaves in a manner approved by the group (or society).

Encyclopedia Britannica

• Socialization …. [is] the process whereby people learn to conform to social norms.

Penguin Dictionary of Sociology

Socialization: Nature vs Nurture

• Biological Sciences: Role of Nature– Charles Darwin’s: Human behaviour is instinctive and

is natural. – People are born criminals, women are emotional, men

are rational, women are emptional, colonialism is justified.

• Social Science: Role of Nurture*– John B. Watson: Human behaviour is not instinctive

but learned. – Everywhere, people are equally human, differing only

in their cultural patterns. – Nurture is nature.

*take care of young thing

If socialization makes us….

• Then what does isolation do?

What if you are isolated from other human being?

• Harry and Margaret Harlow (1962) experiments on monkeys. – Complete isolation for six months

seriously disturb the monkey’s development.

– Monkey’s with artificial mother: did better

– Conclusion: contact comfort is a variable of overwhelming importance in the development of affectionalresponse

– Adults affectionate Cradle is important for infants.

When brought back in group, those monkeys were Passive, anxious, and fearful

Understanding Socialization

1. Sigmund Freud

2. Jean Piaget

3. Lawrence Kohlberg

4. Carol Gilligan

5. George Herbert Mead

6. Erik Erikson

Socialization refers to the lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture.

Macionis, 2012

1. SIGMUND FREUD:ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY

• 1856-1939 people thought human behaviour is biologically fixed

• Basic Human Needs– Two basic human needs present at birth

– Need for sexual and emotional bonding, “life instinct”or eros (god of love)

– Aggressive drive, “death instinct” or thanatos (god for death)

• These opposing forces operate on unconscious level and create inner tension

•Personality: a person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling (Macionis).

• Freud combined basic needs and influence of society into a model of personality with three parts:

1. The Id (Latin for “it”):

2. The Ego (Latin for “I”)

3. The Superego (Latin for Beyond or above the ego)

The Id

• Id represents the human being’s basic drives, which are unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction.

• Motivates for bundles of demands for attention, touching and food.

• BUT, society opposes self-centred id

The Ego

• To avoid tension, a child must learn to approach the world realistically.

• This is done through ego.

• Ego represents a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society.

• Ego arises as we become aware of our existence and face the fact that we cannot have everything we want.

The Superego

• The superego is the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual.

• It operates as our conscience, telling us why we cannot have everything we want.

Video Clip

Personality Development

• Initially, children can feel good only in physical way (e.g. being held and cuddled)

• After three or four years, they feel good or bad according to how they judge their behaviour against cultural norms.

• Culture, in the form of superego, represses selfish demands, forcing people to look beyond their own desires. Often the competing demands of self and society result in a compromise that Freud called sublimation.

• Sublimation redirects selfish drives into socially acceptable behaviour. For example, marriage makes the satisfaction of sexual urges socially acceptable, and competitive sports are an outlet for aggression.

Conclusion from Freud

• We internalize social norms.

• Childhood experience have a lasting impact on personality.

2. JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLE

1SENSORIMOTOR

STAGE0-2 years Experience the world only

through senseTouching, tasting, smelling, looking, listening.

2PREOPERATIONAL

STAGE

2-6 years Use language and other symbolsBegin to think about the world and use imaginationLack abstract concepts

Today is Wednesday… No today is my birthday.

Glass experiment

3CONCRETE

OPERATIONAL STAGE

7-11 years See causal connection in surroundingHow and why things happen

Today is Wednesday… Yes and its also my birthday

4FORMAL

OPERATIONAL STAGE12+ years Think abstractly and

critically Understand metaphors.

Swiss Psychologist

Conclusion from Piaget

• We are not passive receivers of culture.

• Mind is active and creative in socialization.

3. LAWRENCE KOHLBERG’S THEORY OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Built on Piaget’s work.

• Studied “How individuals judge situations as right or wrong.”

1 PRE-CONVENTIONAL STAGE

Young Children • Experience the world in terms of pain or pleasure

• Right is what feels good to me.

2 CONVENTIONAL STAGE Teen Years • Define right and wrong in terms of what pleases parents and conforms to cultural norms.

• Assess situation to make judgment.• Stealing food to feed hungry is not

the same as stealing an iPhon to sell for pocket money.

3 POST-CONVENTIONAL STAGE

Adulthood • Move beyond society’s norms. • Consider abstract ethical principles. • Think about Liberty, freedom or

justice • What is legal still may not be right.

• Kohlberg’s research was focused on boys only.

4. CAROL GILLIGAN’S THEORY OF GENDER AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT

BOYS GIRLS

1 Have a Justice Perspective. Have a Care and ResponsibilityPerspective.

2 Rely on formal rules to define right and wrong

Judgment based on personal relationships and loyalties.

3 Impersonal rules dominate men’s lives at workplace

Personal relationships are more relevant to women’s lives as mothers and caregivers

4 Rules-Based Male reasoning is superior Person-Based female reasoning is not superior

Childhood is a time to learn the principles of right and wrong. According to Gilligan, however, boys and girls define what is “right” in different ways.

• How does Gilligan’s research show the importance of gender in socialization process?

• Do you think boys are subject to some of the same pressures and difficulties as girls? What about the fact that a much smaller share of boys than girls make it to college? Exp

• Can you think of ways in which your gender has shaped the development of your personality?

5. GEORGE HERBERT MEAD’S THEORY OF THE SOCIAL SELF

• Self is the part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image.

• The self is not there at birth, it develops. The self is not part of the body and it does not exist at birth.

• The self develops with social experience, i.e. through interaction with others. Without interaction, the body grows but no self emerges.

Click here for video clip

• As we interact with others, the people around us become a mirror (the looking glass) in which we can see ourselves.

• What we think of ourselves, then, depends on how we think others see us.

• e.g., if we think others see us as clever, we will think of ourselves in the same way. But if we feel they think of us as clumsy, then that is how we will see ourselves.

• Charles Horton Cooley use the phrase “the looking glass self” to mean a self-image based on how we think others see us.

The “I” and “Me”• Throughout our lives, we take the role of others. • By taking the role of other, we become self-aware. Another

way of saying this is that the self has two parts. • I:- One part of the self operates as the subject, being active

and spontaneous. Mead called the active side of the self the “I” (the subjective form of the personal pronoun).

• ME:- The other part of the self works as an object, that is, the way we imagine others see us. Mead called the objective side of the self the “Me” (the objective form of the personal pronoun).

• All social experience has both components. We initiate an action (the I-phase, or subject side, of self), and then we continue the action based on how others respond to us (the Me-phase, or object side, of self).

How self Develops?

• The key to developing self is learning to take the role of the others.

• At preparatory stage, infants can only imitateothers around them. Using gestures, hand clap, raising eyebrows, etc.

• There are three significant activities through which the self is developed: 1. Language,

2. Play, and

3. Game.

1. Language

• Language develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through symbols, gestures, words, and sounds.

• Language conveys others' attitudes and opinions toward a subject or the person.

• Emotions, such as anger, happiness, and confusion, are conveyed through language.

Self takes one other role in one situation

• Play develops self by allowing individuals to take on different roles, pretend, and express expectation of others.

• Play develops one's self-consciousness through role-playing.

2. Play

• Games develop self by allowing individuals to understand and adhere to the rules of the activity.

• e.g., cricket and football (based on rules)

Self takes roles of many others in one situation

3. Game

• Game involves taking the role of specific people in just one situation. Everyday life demands that we see ourselves in terms of cultural norms as any member of our society might.

Taking roles of many others in many situations

Conclusion

• No matter how much the world shapes us, we always remain creative beings, able to react to the world around us.

• We play a key role in our own socialization.

• whether you described yourself in terms of social roles or personal qualities?

• A-mode responses are the type of physical characteristics : “I am a blonde”; “I am short”; I am a resident of Garhi Baloch.”

• B-mode responses describe socially defined statuses usually associated with group membership of some sort: “I am a college student”; “I am a Muslim”; I am an Pakhtoon.”

• C-mode responses describe styles of behavior or emotional states: “I am a happy person”; “I am a country music fan”; “I am a fashionable dresser.”

• D-mode responses are more general than individual: “I am part of the universe”; “I am a human being.”

• You may have some difficulty deciding how to categorize some of your responses—for example, where does “I am an American” go—in A, B, or D? Use your best judgment. Count the number of each type of response. Now compare the totals—which category got the most responses?

• Those with more B-mode responses base their self-concept on group membership and institutional roles.

• Those with more C-mode responses see themselves as more independent, and define themselves according to their individual actions and emotions rather than their connections to others.

• It is likely that there are few (if any) people whose responses fall predominantly in the A or D mode.

• Those with more A-mode responses may feel that they have a “skin deep” self-concept, based more on their appearance to others than on their internal qualities.

• Those with more D-mode responses are harder to categorize, and may feel uncertain about the source of their sense of self.

• Socialization refers to the lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture.

Macionis, 2012

6. Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development

Life passes through 8 stages of psycho-social development

Each stage involves a challenge to balance two competing forces. Successful reconciliation of these forces in each stage results in a corresponding virtue (favourable outcome of a stage)

1. INFANCY

TRUST VS MISTRUST

• Can I trust the world?

• Immediately after birth, infants face the first of life’s challenges: to establish a sense of trust that their world is a safe place.

Birth – 18 months

Hope

If caregivers are consistent source of food, comfort, and affection an infant learns Trust—that others are dependable and reliable

If the caregivers are neglectful or abusive, the infant learns mistrust—that the world is an undependable, unpredictable, and possibly dangerous place.

2. TODDLERHOOD AUTONOMY VS SHAME

• Is it OK to be Me?

• Child start moving on their own at this age.

• They like to explore the world around them.

• The child asks, can I explore the world if I wish so?

• Children also develop their 1st interest at this age.

2 to 3 years

Will

3. PRESCHOOL

INITIATIVE VS GUILT • Is it OK for me to Do, Move and Act? • Children start learning to master the world around them. • They know that things fall down, not up. That round things roll, they

learn to zip and tie, etc. • At this stage, children want to begin and complete their own

actions for a purpose.

3 o 5 years

Purpose

4. PREADOLESCENCE INDUSTRY VS INFERIORITY• Can I make it in the World of People and things? • Becoming more aware about themselves as Individuals. • Work hard at being responsible, being good, and doing

it right. • Learn complex skills: reading, writing, telling time, and

formal values.

6 to 11 yearsCompetence

If children are encouraged to make and do things and are then praised for their accomplishments, they being to demonstrate industry by being diligent, persevering at tasks until completed, and putting work before pleasure.

If children are rediculed or punished for their efforts or if they are incapable of meeting their teachers’ and parents’ expectations, they develop feelings of inferiority about their abilities.

5. ADOLESCENCE• IDENTITY VS ROLE CONFLICT

• Who am I and What Can I Be?

• Adolescent is now concerned with how they appear to others.

• What are my religious and social values? What is expected of me? What can I be? What might be the best occupation for me?

• Initially, they experience some role confusion–mixed ideas and feelings about the specific ways in which they will fit into society

12 to 18 yearsFidelity*

* loyalty to an allegiance, promise, or vow

• Identity Crisis • Adolescence forges past experiences with

anticipation of future. • What have I got and what am I going to do with

it? • One’s personal ideologies are now chosen for

oneself. • When adolescent has balanced both perspectives

of “what have I got?” and “what am I going to do with it?” he or she has established his/her identity.

Past Present Future

• Most individuals resolve identity crisis during their twenties.

• For genius, identity crisis stage is longer.

• Gandhi and Martin Luther King resolved their conflicts at ages 30 and 25 respectively.

6. YOUNG ADULTHOOD

INTIMACY VS ISOLATION

• Can I Love?

• Young adults want intimate relationships.

• We are sometime isolated due to intimacy.

• Once identity is established, people are ready to make a long-term commitment to others. They become capable of forming intimate, reciprocal relationships (e.g. close friendships or marriage) and willingly make the sacrifices and compromises that such relationships require.

19 to 40 yearsLove

7. MIDDLE ADULTHOOD

• MAKING A DIFFERENCE VS SELF-ABSORPTION• Can I Make My Life Count? • People at this stage are concerned with guiding the next

generation and performing socially valued work. • Can I guide the next generation? Can I contribute to the

Society?

40 to 65 years

Care

If a person contributes in this stage, a sense of Generativity is resulted. (a sense of accomplishment and productivity).

A person who is self-centered and unable or unwilling to help society move forward at this stage develop a feeling of Stagnation—dissatisfaction with relative lack of productivity.

8. OLD-AGE

INTEGRITY VS DESPAIR • Is it OK to Have Been ME? • People at this stage look back at their lives and

accomplishments• We contemplate our accomplishments and are

able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading a successful life.

• If we see our life as unproductive, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, we become dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often leading to depression and hopelessness.

65 to death Wisdom*

*completeness, Wholeness

6. Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development

– the challenge of trust vs mistrust

– the challenge of autonomy vs doubt and shame

– the challenge of initiative vs guilt

– the challenge of industriousness vsinferiority

– the challenge of gaining identity vs confusion

– the challenge of intimacy vs isolation

– the challenge of making a difference vs self-absorption

– the challenge of integrity vs despair

Stage Basic Conflict Important Events Outcome

Infancy (birth to 18 months)

Trust vs.

MistrustFeeding Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide

reliabilty, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.

Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)

Autonomy vs.

Shame and

Doubt

Toilet Training Children need to develop a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence. Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.

Preschool (3 to 5 years)

Initiative vs.

GuiltExploration Children need to begin asserting control and power over the

environment. Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose. Children who try to exert too much power experience disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.

School Age (6 to 11 years)

Industry vs.

InferioritySchool Children need to cope with new social and academic

demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.

Adolescence (12 to 18 years)

Identity vs.

Role

Confusion

Social Relationships Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.

Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years)

Intimacy vs.

IsolationRelationships Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with

other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.

Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)

Generativity

vs. StagnationWork and Parenthood Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast

them, often by having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.

Maturity(65 to death)

Ego Integrity

vs. DespairReflection on Life Older adults need to look back on life and feel a sense of

fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Agents / Agencies of Socialization

• In general, Agents are people involved in our socialization while Agencies represent the organizations involved in our socialization.

Agents of Socialization

1. Family

2. School

3. Peers

4. Mass Media

5. Religion

1. Family

• Should parents get the credit when their children turn out to be good kids and even go on to accomplish great things in life?

• Should they get the blame if their children turn out to be bad?

• No parent deserves all the credit or blame for their children’s successes and failures in life, but the evidence indicates that our parents do affect us profoundly.

• The ways in which our parents socialize us depend on many factors,

• two of the most important of which are our parents’ social class and our own biological sex.

SOCIAL CLASS:

• How people see and treat you depends on your social class.

• Working-class parents socialize children in obedience and respect for authority. They favor spanking as a primary way of disciplining their kids when they disobey.

• Middle-class parents emphasize independence and creativity.

GENDER:

• Parents raise their daughters and sons quite differently as they interact with them from birth.

• Parents help their girls learn how to act and think “like girls,” and they help their boys learn how to act and think “like boys.” That is, they help their daughters and sons learn their gender (Wood, 2009).

• For example,

– they are gentler with their daughters and rougher with their sons.

– They give their girls dolls to play with, and their sons guns.

– Girls may be made of “sugar and spice and everything nice” and boys something quite different, but their parents help them greatly, for better or worse, to turn out that way.

• Percentage Believing That Obedience Is Especially Important for a Child to Learn at home

Source: Data from World Values Survey, 2002.

2. Schools

• Schools socialize children by teaching them their formal curriculum but also a hidden curriculum.

• The formal curriculum is the “three Rs”: Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.

• But there is also a hidden curriculum that schools impart, and that is the cultural values of the society in which the schools are found.

• To help you understand the hidden curriculum, pretend you could wave a Magic Stick and start your own society.

• Because you would probably want children to grow up loving their country and respecting your authority, you realize their schooling needs to help them grow up this way.

• Q. What would you do in the schools to make sure this happens?

• Write a few ideas down on a separate sheet of paper.

• First, --Respect Authority.

– Sit in rows, please their teachers,

• Second, --positive history of the country’s past.

• Third, --sing songs to praise their country.

Japan: Schools, Kumi

3. Peers

• All my friends have a cell phone, why can’t I have it?

• Friends are an important part in our life, especially in adolescence. – Peer group is a social group whose members have

interests, social position, and age in common.

• peers influence our tastes in music, clothes, and so many other aspects of our lives.

• We rely on them for fun, for emotional comfort and support, and for companionship.

• Children learn how to form relationships on their own.

• Peer also offer a chance to discuss interests that adults may not share with their children or permit (e.g. music, drug, and even sex).

• The downside is called peer pressure.

• After we reach our 20s and 30s, our peers become less important in our lives, especially if we get married.

4. Mass Media

• Mass Media are the means for delivering impersonal communications to a vast audience.

• “Media” is from “medium” which means “middle” media connects people.

• Media shapes how we think (Attitude*). • Television shows, movies, popular music,

magazines, Web sites, and other aspects of the mass media influence our political views; our tastes in popular culture; our views of women, Mullah, and Khwaja-sara; and many other beliefs and practices.

* personal view of something

• Commercials can greatly influence our choice of soda, shoes, mobile sim service, soap, shampoo, dress, and countless other products

• Boys favour video games, girls lean towards music

• Television makes children more passive and less likely to use their imagination.

• Aggressive behaviour and watching TV

• A key question is the extent to which media violence causes violence in our society?

5. Religion

• Religion exerts considerable influence on our beliefs, values, and behaviors.

• Religious Preference vs Religiosity • Religious preference (e.g., Protestant, Catholic, or

Jewish, Sunni, Shia, Wahabi) • Religiosity (e.g., how often people pray or attend

religious services). • Both these aspects of religion can affect your values

and beliefs on religious and nonreligious issues alike, but their particular effects vary from issue to issue.– E.g. – Abortion (practice/not practice) – Female Education (allowed/not Allowed) – Female Head of State (allowed/Not Allowed)