Socialization

1
Socialization

• Process, agents, and outcomes

2
Definition

• Socialization is a process by which people learn
  to be members of society (Berger)
• It is a lifelong process that is most intensive
  in early childhood
• It is an interactive process

3
Accomplishments

• Identity (self-concept)
• Internationalization of social expectations
• Social interaction (cognitive and emotional
  skills, expectations for different situations)
• Roles
• Norms
• Result people are able to avoid deviant
  behaviour, work, form and sustain close
  relationships, and rear children themselves

4
Primary Socialization

• Occurs from birth through adolescence
• Family is the most important agent
• It is both intentional and unintentional
• It is largely imposed, although there is some
  reciprocity in parent-child interactions

5
Secondary Socialization

• Adult socialization
• Occurs throughout the life cycle as people
  anticipate and adjust to new experiences
• It is a reciprocal process

6

• It is based on previous experience
• Difference from primary socialization both more
  choice and more limits (based on previous
  experience)

7
Anticipatory Socialization

• Acquisition of values and orientations found in
  statuses and groups in which one is not yet
  engaged but which one is likely to enter
  (Merton)
• Effectiveness depends on
• Ambiguity of the new situation
• Similarity to previous experience
• e.g., university education, parenting classes

8
Resocialization

• Socialization into a situation so unique that
  previous experience cannot be used to anticipate
  behaviour
• Some institutions (prisons, psychiatric
  hospitals) are mandated to resocialize deviants
• Their stated aims are often less important than
  their latent messages

9
Sociological Theories

• Functionalism
• Feminist critique of functionalism
• Symbolic interactionism

10
Functionalism

• Socialization is a process of internalizing
  social norms and behavioural expectations
• Accomplishment of socialization social
  integration
• Sociology of social system (Dawe)
• An oversocialized view of humanity (Wrong)

11
Feminist Critique

• Focus on socialization avoids the issue of
  structural barriers faced by women
• Does not explain change in attitudes
• For these reasons, feminists explain gender
  differences by systemic inequalities, rather than
  socialization

12
Symbolic Interactionism

• People actively participate in their own
  socialization
• Accomplishment of socialization a sense of self
• Sociology of social action (Dawe)

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• Looking-glass self (Cooley)
• The imagination of our appearance to the other
  person
• The imagination of his judgment of that
  appearance
• Some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or
  mortification

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• Mead the self consists of
• The Me (the socially defined self, internalized
  norms and values)
• The I (the spontaneous, creative, unique self)
• Generalized other a person internalizes general
  social expectations by imagining how any number
  of others will act and react

15
Psychological Theories

• Psychoanalysis a phase theory of the development
  of the self (oral, anal, phallic, latent, and
  genital)
• Elements of personality
• The id (basic instincts)
• The superego (internalized values)
• The ego (also developed socially, mediates
  between the id and the superego)

16

• Behavioural theories learning through
  identification or reinforcement
• e.g., Bandura on childrens imitation of violence

17
Agents of Socialization

• Family
• Mass media
• The peer group
• School

18
Family

• Social institutions that have the greatest
  influence on socialization family, friendship
  groups, educational system, the media, community
• Family teaches children how to relate to other
  people, express intimacy, and resolve conflict,
  and how to become self-regulating in their
  behaviour

19

• Parenting style influences childrens development
  and behaviour e.g., differences between
  new-immigrant and other Canadian children

20
Children with Conduct Disorder

• Parenting Style Used Frequency
• Ineffective
• Rarely 4
• Sometimes 24 
• Very often 63
• Aversive
• Rarely 7 
• Sometimes 22 
• Very often 40
• Consistent
• Rarely 38 
• Sometimes 24 
• very often 16
• Positive
• Rarely 27 
• Sometimes 19 
• Very Often 14
• Source Kathryn Stevenson, Family
  Characteristics of Problem Kids, Canadian Social
  Trends (Winter 1999), 4.

21
Mass Media

• Transmit values, behaviours, and definitions of
  social reality
• Reflects social relations and socializes the
  audience to them
• Feminist critique of the mass media contributes
  to gender stereotyping
• e.g., TV commercials most voiceovers are male
  men are more likely than women to appear in
  commercials, except for domestic products

22

• Media violence
• Concern with imitation by children
• A subtler influence defining social reality as
  violent leads to increased acceptance of
  real-life violence
• Demographic differences in TV watching women and
  the elderly watch more TV

23
Changes in Mass Media

• Two changes in media use
• Increasingly a solitary activity, rather than a
  social activity
• Digital divide the class and educational
  differences in digital media use, both within and
  between societies

24

• Internet use is related to age, income, and
  education
• 30 of low-income Canadians used the Internet
  during the year preceding the survey
• 81 of those with household income of over
  80,000 used the Internet
• Men use Internet for more hours a week than women
• Internet use is lower in Quebec than in English
  Canada

25
The Peer Group

• Development of a frame of reference not based on
  adult authority
• Assumes influence in adolescence
• It is tempered by parental influence, as parents
  control scarce and valued resources (e.g.,
  parental approval)
• Research into peer-group and family as
  contributors to adolescent violence aggression
  stems from family interaction problems

26
School

• Importance
• Reinforcement of a childs self-concept
• By positive reactions by teachers
• Provision of social life
• Rigidly structured, but of decreasing importance
  as adolescents acquire additional reference
  groups
• Filtering of occupational choices
• Grades and course selection in high school
  determine post-secondary education

27

• School mostly promotes values already learned in
  the childs family
• Middle-class children learn to value academic
  achievement
• Hidden curriculum unspoken norms transmitted by
  schooling, (e.g., competition, individualism,
  obedience, etc.)

28
Socialization Outcomes

• Socialization reproduces
• Gender
• Race
• Class distinctions
• Adult family and work roles

29
Reproduction of Gender

• Nature vs nurture debate biological
  determinism is now regarded as a fallacious
  explanation of behaviour
• Studies of infants and young children find few
  behaviours that consistently differentiate males
  and females
• No difference in motor ability of infant boys and
  girls, although mothers expected them to differ

30
Gender Socialization

• Parental reaction to innate differences
• Professional women have received different
  parental encouragement, had more male companions
  and children, and received more encouragement
  from their fathers
• Differential socialization
• Gendered toys effect of mothers attitudes on
  household division of labour in the next
  generation

31

• Imitation of gendered behaviour in the childs
  social environment
• Media as source of gender stereotypes

32
Reproduction of Race

• Parents shape childrens learning about race and
  race relations
• Child rearing among ethnic- and racial-minority
  families
• Emphasizing racial pride leads to higher
  self-esteem and greater knowledge of the
  ethnic/racial group

33

• About one-fifth of racial-minority parents report
  that their children have experienced racial
  discrimination and adopt promotion of mistrust
  as child-rearing strategy
• Racial socialization of mixed-race children
• Importance of exposure to both cultures
• Discrimination

34
Reproduction of Class

• Melvin Kohn child rearing varies by class
  because of differences in occupational
  experiences (supervision, routinization, and
  substantive complexity of work)
• Blue-collar workers emphasize conformity,
  orderliness, and behavioural consequences
• White-collar parents are more permissive, and
  place emphasis on self-reliance and behavioural
  intentions

35

• Alwin change of emphasis in child rearing in
  North America 194090 from conformity to
  independence, autonomy, and hard work
• Causes secularization, increased education

36
Reproduction of Adult Family and Work Roles

• Childhood, adolescence, and adulthood are social
  constructs that define life stages
• Characteristics of life stages in the last
  quarter-century
• A period of independent life before marriage, due
  to longer schooling and delayed marriage
• Reversible transition to adulthood
  (yo-yo-ization)
• Social dominance of youth culture

37

• Adult behaviour is linked to childhood
  experiences (e.g., violence)
• Increasing formalization of training in areas
  where socialization used to be taken for granted
  (parenting, dieting, retirement, etc)

38
Socialization for Parenthood

• New Zealand study of adolescents views on
  parenting
• Both males and females anticipate becoming
  parents
• Both expect to combine family and employment
• Both think it ideal that one parent (no matter
  which) should stay at home with young children
• Boys have little exposure to children
• This may lead to definition of women as experts,
  and to gendered division of labour

39

• Anticipatory socialization for parenthood
• Women report a greater disjunction between
  expectations and experience of child-rearing and,
  consequently, less satisfaction
• Structural barriers to equal parental
  involvement
• Fathers recognize low status of parenting
• Primary caregiving fathers report marginalization

40
Socialization for Employment

• Professional schools (e.g., medical) teach
  students not only technical skills, but also how
  to behave like doctors
• Some researchers believe that similarities in
  values and attitudes of professionals are due
  more to selective recruitment from middle and
  upper classes, than with training

41

• Phases in socialization for employment
• Anticipatory socialization (training, previous
  employment)
• Encounter phase (learning the ropesnecessary
  for organizational stability)
• Metamorphosis stage (continues as long as
  employment in the organization)