SOCIALIZATION: A STUDY GUIDE REVIEW

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SOCIALIZATIONA STUDY GUIDE REVIEW

• TEST PREP
• STRUCTURE
• 45 QUESTIONS
• ONE SHORT ANSWER

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1. What is socialization?

• The lifelong social experience by which human
  beings develop their potential and learn culture.

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2. What is personality?

• The term used for a persons fairly consistent
  pattern of acting, thinking, and feeling.
• Social experience forms its foundation.

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3. What is behaviorism?

• The belief that behavior is NOT instinctive but
  learned that human behavior is rooted NOT in
  nature but in nurture!

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4. What is the nature vs. nurture debate?

• The question over the influence of biology/
  genetic factors in contrast to the impact of
  social experience (socialization) in human
  development.

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5. What were the findings of the Harlow
experiments on the effects of social isolation on
rhesus monkeys?

• The Harlow experiments to discover the effects of
  social isolation on rhesus monkeys showed that
  monkeys isolated for more than six months were
  highly anxious when returned to others of their
  kind.
• Conclusion Infant monkeys could recover from
  about three months of isolation. But by about
  six months, isolation caused irreversible
  emotional and behavioral damage.

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6. Regarding social isolation, what do the
cases of Anna, Isabelle, and Genie all have in
common?

• Taken together, the cases of Anna, Isabelle, and
  Genie provide strong evidence that social
  experience has a crucial role in forming human
  personality.

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7. What was Freuds focus?

• Personality id, ego, superego
• An idea in Freuds thinking that has special
  importance to sociology is his assertion that
  humans have basic, self- centered drives that
  must be controlled by learning the ways of
  society.

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8. What is the id?

• Freudian term
• Our basic human drives or needs which are
  unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction
• Is present at birth, making the newborn a bundle
  of demands
• Society opposes the self-centered id, which is
  why one of the first words a child learns is NO!

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9. What is the superego?

• Another Freudian term
• In Freuds model of personality, the part of the
  personality that represents the demands of
  society, balancing innate pleasure-seeking
  drives.
• Acts as our conscience - a moral sense of right
  and wrong!

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10. What was Jean Piagets focus?

• Cognition how people think and understand
• Not what you know but how you know it
• Aka the acquisition of knowledge
• Identified four stages of cognitive development
• Sensorimotor learning senses
• Preoperational ages 2 6 glass experiment
• Concrete-Operational ages 7 11 more than one
  symbol recognition (Today is ____ my
  birthday,too!)
• Formal Operational ages 12 level of human
  development at which individuals think abstractly
  critically fully embraces symbolism/ multiple
  symbol recognition

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11. What was the focus of Kohlbergs research?

• Moral Reasoning
• HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY PIAGET
• BUILT ON PIAGETS WORK IN STUDYING MORAL
  REASONING, THE WAYS IN WHICH INDIVIDUALS JUDGE
  SITUATIONS AS RIGHT OR WRONG
• CONCLUDED THAT MORAL REASONING, LIKE COGNITION,
  DEVELOPED IN STAGES
• Pre-Conventional Conventional Post-Conventional

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12. With which issue was Carol Gilligan
involved / concerned?

• Gender Issues / Equality
• Inclusion of girls in sociological studies
• Reacted to Kohlbergs male-only studies
• Extended Kohlbergs research
• Found that girls and boys typically use different
  standards in assessing situations as right and
  wrong.
• By ignoring gender, we end up with an incomplete
  view of human behavior.

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13. What did Mead mean by taking the role of
the other?

• Imagining a situation from another persons point
  of view

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14. What did Cooley mean by the term the
looking-glass self?

• People see themselves as they think others see
  them.

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15. What / who is a significant other?

• Parents
• Those people who are most important/ influential.

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16. What / who is a generalized other?

• Other factors, NOT people, influencing the
  socialization process
• Widespread cultural norms and values people take
  as their own.

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17. How did Erik Erikson view socialization?

• Believed that because we face challenges
  throughout the life course, development is
  actually a life-long process.
• Recognized eight distinct stages with each stage
  serving as preparation for the next.
• Infancy
• Toddlerhood
• Preschool
• Preadolescence
• Adolescence
• Young Adulthood
• Middle Adulthood
• Old Age

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18. What are the four recognized agents of
socialization?

• Family
• ImpactHAS THE GREATEST IMPACT ON SOCIALIZATION
• THE FIRST TO TEACH SKILLS, VALUES, BELIEFS
• EVEN TEENS CONTINUE TO PLACE THEIR GREATEST TRUST
  IN THEIR PARENTS
• See next three slides regarding
• School - Peer Group - Media

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18. Agents of Socialization, cont.

• School
• ENLARGES CHILDRENS SOCIAL WORLDS TO INCLUDE
  PEOPLE WITH BACKGROUNDS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THEIR
  OWN.
• TEACHES A WIDE RANGE OF KNOWLEDGE SKILLS
• FEATURES THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM HONORING
  COMPETITION, ACADEMIC SUCCESS, SOCIETAL VALUES,
  ETC.
• ARE MOST CHILDRENS FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH
  BUREAUCRACY
• RUNS ON IMPERSONAL RULES
• A STRICT TIME SCHEDULE
• JUST A NUMBER EX. JULIA 17
• THESE BEING THE HALLMARKS OF MANY ORGANIZATIONS
  THAT WILL EMPLOY THEM LATER IN LIFE.

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18. Agents of Socialization cont.

• Peer Group A SOCIAL GROUP WHOSE MEMBERS HAVE
  INTERESTS, SOCIAL POSITION, AND AGE IN COMMON.
• UNLIKE FAMILY SCHOOL, THE PEER GROUP LETS
  CHILDREN ESCAPE THE DIRECT SUPERVISION OF ADULTS.
• OFFERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS INTERESTS AND
  TOPICS NOT DONE WITH ADULTS

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18. Agents of Socialization cont.

• MEDIA IMPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS AIMED AT A VAST
  AUDIENCE
• SPREAD INFORMATION ON A VAST SCALE
• NEWSPAPERS gt RADIO gt TV
• IN THE U.S., IT HAS AN ENORMOUS EFFECT ON OUR
  ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR.
• HIGHEST RATE OF TV OWNERSHIP IN THE WORLD
• THE AVG. HOUSEHOLD HAS THE TV ON FOR 7 HRS. A DAY
• PEOPLE SPEND ALMOST ½ OF THEIR FREE TIME
  WATCHING

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19. What are the stages of the life course?

• Childhood approximately the first 12 years
• Adolescence aka the teenage years
• Adulthood 2 stages
• Early begins in late teens to early 30s
• Middle ranges from 40 60 years of age
• Old Age begins around mid-60s

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20. How do industrial societies typically
define/ treat people in old age?

• Not as respected as in more traditional
  societies
• Diminished role / importance in the family
• Seen as a burden
• Nursing home reality boom
• At times seen as vulnerable, an easy target for
  crime
• Money scams
• Car jackings
• Parking lot muggings

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21. What are the five stages of dying
according to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross?

• DENIAL NO, CANT BE ME
• ANGER THIS IS SO UNFAIR.
• NEGOTIATION BARGAINING WITH GOD
• RESIGNATION DEPRESSION
• ACCEPTANCE
• RATHER THAN BEING PARALYZED BY FEAR ANXIETY,
  THE PERSON WHOSE LIFE IS ENDING, SETS OUT TO MAKE
  THE MOST OF WHATEVER TIME REMAINS.

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22. What is anticipatory socialization?

• The term for when people model themselves after
  the members of peer groups they would like to
  join.

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23. What is a total institution?

• An institution to radically alter a persons
  personality or behavior.
• Examples of identifying features
• Staff members supervise all spheres of daily
  life.
• Inmates have standardized food, clothing, and
  activities.
• Formal rules dictate daily routines.

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24. Resocialization

• The process of eroding an old identity, then
  building a new identity.

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25. Rockdale

• What?
• Case study / prime example of the impact of the
  peer group on adolescent behavior
• 1996 syphilis outbreak in a well-off Atlanta
  suburb affect over 200 teenagers and revealed
  lives unknown to parents group sex, binge
  drinking, drugs, and violence
• Where?
• Conyers, Rockdale County, GA., USA
• When?
• 1996
• Between 3 7 pm.
• After parents went to bed
• Why? How?
• Lack of guidance, structure
• Lonliness gt seeking acceptance

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Happy studying!