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Why is socialization important?
- Learning to become________.
- Socialization is pervasive
- *it happens all he time, whether consciously or unconsciously
- socialization has tremendous personal consequences (both good and bad)
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Socialization
- denotes the idea of process
- something that's ongoing
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Theoretical views of socialization
- the functional view: inheriting culture
- The conflict view: passing on advantage
- the symbolic interactionist view: constructing the social self
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The functional view: inheriting culture
- socialization is one of the primary means by which culture (incl knowledge) is passed from one generation to the next. (CONTINUITY)
- * How societies self- perpetuates
- socialization occurs not only primary schools and 2dary schools and professional school, but even among countercultures & subcultures engaging in illicit activity.
- EX: Barbara Heyl (1977)
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Socialization's function to:
- society: ensure that norms, customs, practices are transmitted
- indv: enables to be useful/ integrated to their society
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Barbara Heyl (1977)
- studied a house of prostitution devoted to training new prostitutes
- used tape recorded training sessions, interview with the novices, and rptd visits and interviews with the madam
- found a relatively formal process in which the madam discussed various physical skills and strategies with the novice prostitutes along with the client management skills, teaching them the "sales pitch" & strategies for "hustling" clients to encourage them to spend more.
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The conlict view: Passing on advantage
- socialization is the means by which the rich and the powerful pass on their advantages to their children
- socialization experiences tend to both justify and reproduce the status quo
- puts people in their rightful place. but the rightful according to whose definition?
- Ex: Patricia Allat (1993)
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Patricia Allatt (1993)
- studied middle-class English families & identified ways parents attempt to pass on advantages to their children
- she found parents used both both their economic capital & social capital to give their children advantages
- *economic capital- the monetary resources available t them
- -parents paid for the private schooling when dissatisfied with public schools
- *social capital- acquired social competence, self confidence and social networks offering support.
- - parents helped kids with hw & intervened with teachers when children ran into trouble in school
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Social channeling
- much socialization takes the form of social channeling
- social channeling is a process of socialization in which children of the rich are prepared for and directed towards positions of privilege in society while children of the poor are prepared for and directed into low prestige positions of subservience
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The symbolic interactionist view: constructing the social shelf
- how do we reach a self understanding?
- nature vs. nurture debate:
- psychology/ developmental perspective:
- "disorder" inherent to the indv
- personality: explained as biological/ sexual
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Social inheritance
- Our very personal notions of "who am i?" are in fact inherently social
- personality-> behavior-> social reaction
- social rxns -> self perception-> behavior
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Looking-glass self (Cooley, 1902)
- Seeing yourself as others see you
- 1. imagine how others see
- 2. interpret rxns of others
- 3. development of a self-concept in interaction with others
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The symbolic interactionist view: Constructing the social self
- Preparatory stage: the first stage of child's social development, where behavior is largely imitation of others, with little use symbols and lmtd role-taking
- Play stage: here indv learn to evaluate themselves & other social objects from the point of point view of particular significant others. indv with whom they are interacting such a mother or father
- Game stage: have children to take on the role of multiple others at the same time- EX: several people playing a game
- Adult stage- the final stage in which indv in capable of taking on the role of the generalized other, assessing behavior in terms of the norms & values of the broad society & responding to abstract principle & symbols
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Studying socialization
- What is socialization? (definition)
- Why does it happen? (theory)
- How does it happen? (processes/agents?)
- What are the consequences? (effects)
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Formal & socialization
- Formal socialization: is socialization occurring in setting intentionally designed for socialization
- Informal socialization: is socialization in which peers & more experienced members train newcomers as they carry out their roles.
- EX: Lisa Gundry & Denise Rousseau (1994)
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Socialization in a work setting
- Gundry & Rousseau (1994)
- Socialization in the workplace is important
- Critical incidents can be potent communicators of an organization
- Knowledge of "company culture": formal and informal norms
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Early socialization
-Early socialization is important because children are so impressionable
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Learning Obedience
- Harry Gracey (1995) examined a day kindergarten classroom
- Findings:
- both the phys setting of the classroom & structuring of he day by the teacher teach students obedience
- The room is carefully organized by the adults
- with specific activities to be conducted in different areas
- as few possible permitting spontaneous student behavior
- The day is partitioned into the periods, each having a specific kind appropriate activity
- sharing time
- play time
- work time
- clean-up time, and
- rest time
- with specific activities programmed for each time by the teacher.
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Learning obedience
- children are rewarded for learning by role meaningless sounds in rituals oaths and songs like the Pledge to the Flag and the Lord's Prayer
- spontaneous expressions of creativity & student-initated activities are discouraged or even punished as inappropriate behavior
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Differential socialization
- socialization can be different depending on social characteristics
- race
- social class
- gender
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Socialization by the family: class differences
- why are these socialization patterns so different for people in different social classes
- one possibility is that parents tend to teach children the lessons they have learned from their own lives
- what are the likely differences in lessons learned by people in different social classes
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Learning Gender from peers
- Michael Messner (1990)
- interviewed 30 male former athletes
- he found that sport activities helped to shape their own masculinity
- "for many, sports was "just what you did... and if you didn't there was something wrong with you"
- it became natural to equate masculinity with competition, physical strength, and skills- all of which were measured in sports that only boys could play
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Gender on the playground
- Elem schools are a place were children learn some of their most-lasting lessons about gender and gender differences.
- they must claim their own gender identity and resist labels "sissy" or "tomboy"
- genders used to sort children into activities
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borderwork
- borderwork refers to the interactions into between genders that tends to strengthen & perpetuate gender boundaries
- activities often lead to same gender-terms
- contest between the sexes
- chasing (most often boys chasing girls)
- invasions (where boys or girls intrude upon the play of others)
- rituals of pollution ("cooties")
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Adolescent socialization
- Education: learning social class
- Anticipatory socialization
- Schafer, olex & Polk (1970) study of tracking
- granfield (1991) studied effects of class on socialization in college
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anticipatory socialization
- socialization for a status that occurs before the person occupies the social status
- much adolescent socialization is anticipatory
- many statuses require extensive socialization before a person occupies the status
- EX: the training of med drs. or other professionals
- The educational system is devoted in lg part to anticipatory socialization for roles in society
- Anticipatory socialization lets ppl learn more about the status & its role obligations before they commit to it
- gives them an opportunity to change their minds about entering that status
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Schafer, Olexa, Polk (1970) study of tracking
- studied one middle-class and one working-class high school
- both school had a college prep track and a general track
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Who gets assigned to the " college prep track"
- Blacks and students from blue-collar families were much less likely to be assigned to the college prep track
- -students from blue-collar homes = 48%
- -students from white-collar homes = 83%
- -blacks = 38%
- -whites = 71%
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Effects of tracking
- being placed in the college prep track increased grades and lowered dropout rates more than
- -IQ
- -Past performance
- -Social class background
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How does being in the lower track affect performance?
- self-image: students stigmatized, embarrassed, disheartened, and lost faith in themselves
- a student subculture that placed little value on academic performance and rewarded antagonistic and disruptive behavior
- teachers expected less, attempted less challenging lessons, gave lower grades in the belief that those students did not deserve the same grades as the college prep students
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Adult socialization
- resocialization in a total institution
- formal and informal socialization in work settings
- socialization during unexpected life stage transition
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Resocialization
a process of unlearning old norms, then learning new ones req by the new social environment
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Degradation ceremony
- a ritual in which someone experience negative , often extremely embarrassing events in the presence of others.
- degradation ceremonies are a routine part of the socialization process in total institutions, such a prison
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Socialization during unexpected life transitions
- socialization for dying
- critical incidents and rites of passage
- socialized to fail
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Socialization for dying
- the process of learning to "go" properly
- sociologists identified common stages people go through as they near death.
- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1969) interviewed and identified 5 stages of grieving people typically experience
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5 stages of grief
- 1- denial. they simply cannot believe it is happening to them
- 2- anger. at this point ppl begin to realize it is actually happening to them, but they see it as a gross injustice
- 3- bargaining. ppl seek to postpone their death by changing their behavior, looking for new treatments, and even making promises to God.
- 4-resignation,often accompanied by severe depression
- 5-acceptance in which ppl come to terms with their death and attempt to make the most of the remaining time available to them to care of business with relatives & friends before they die
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Understanding socialization for dying
- by understanding those stages, dying ppl, their families, and health professionals who deal with the dying may better empathize with th e patient as they go through varios emotionl states & help them through the grieving process
- health practioners often try to help the dying patient through these stages, helping them to come to terms with their impending death and to fulfill the obligations they have to their family and friends
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Critical incidents & Rites of Passage
- Anselm Strauss (1969) identified a # of critical incidents in a person's life that may cause them to rethink who they are and even to realize that, "I am not the same as I was, as I used to be..."
- institutional turning pts:
- Rights of passage: ceremonies making important transitions in life (EX: being single-> being married)
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Socialized to fail
- socialization into marginal soc & econ existence
- the learn that they have failed. Their view of themselves begins to mirror the view of them by society. They lose the self-confidence to try obtain better jobs.
- their failure becomes a self becomes self-fulling prophecy as they being avoid to avoid those few opportunities they may have for better jobs, fearing that will once again fail to meet the challenge
- from such dead-end jobs & the low esteem society & the man himself place on him having them, the working are prepared for future
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