SOCIALIZATION

Module 4
Socialization:
Socialization:
Is a life-long process of learning whereby the
individual acquires the accepted beliefs, values,
sentiments, norms, and behavior of his/her group
and society (Medina, 2001).

Is the process of learning the roles, statuses, and

values necessary for participation in social
institutions (Brinkerhoff and White, 1988).
Socialization:
Is the acquisition of the norms and roles expected of
people in a particular society (Weiten et al., 2009).

The lifelong process in which people learn the

attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for
members of a particular culture
(Schaefer:2005;P.99).
Socialization:
Based on the foregoing definitions, socialization is
actually two (2) processes in one:
1) The process of learning to be a competent
members of society.
2) The process of developing oneself.
Importance of Socialization:
Human culture is transmitted from one generation
to the next.
The young becomes part of an organized society.
The individual acquires a social self/self-image and
personality.
The individual learns his/her role in a society.
Knowledge and skills are developed to ensure
satisfaction of needs and human survival.
Personality & Self:
Personality:
A persons typical patterns of attitudes, needs,
characteristics, and behavior (Schaefer:2005;P.99).
Is the relatively enduring pattern of thoughts,
emotions, and behaviors that characterize a person,
along with the psychological processes behind those
characteristics (Mcshane & Von Glinow, 2010).

Self:
A distinct identity that sets us apart from others
(Schaefer:2005;P.99).
Determinants of Personality:
A. Heredity

B. Environment
a) Natural Environment
b) Cultural Environment
c) Social Environment

C. Personal Experiences
Nurture vs Nature
Heredity versus Environment

What makes us who we are?

Is it the genes we are born with?
Or the environment in which we grow up?
Nurture vs Nature
Scientists today has moved beyond this
debate, acknowledging instead the
interaction of these variables in shaping
human development (Schaefer:2005;P.81).
Nurture vs Nature
Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation
Nell (1994 movie) hidden from birth by her
mother; raised without normal human contact (she
acts like an animal & speaks/sings in a language
of her own).
Based from an actual account of a 16-year old boy
who mysteriously appeared in 1828 in the town
square of Nuremberg, Germany.
Nurture vs Nature
Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation
The Case of Isabelle She live in total seclusion
in a darkened room for six (6) years of her life with
little contact from people (her deaf-mute mother);
her grandparents had been deeply ashamed of her
illegitimate birth that they kept her hidden away
from the world.
She was discovered at the age of six (6); she could
not talk and made various croaking sounds; acted
like wild animal; and through special training she
fortunately she recovered and learned to act normal.
Nurture vs Nature
The Influence of Heredity:
The Case of Oskar & Jack Identical twins
that were separated soon after their birth and
raised on different continents in very different
cultural settings.
Nurture vs Nature
Social Background of the Twins
OSKAR JACK
Reared as a strict Catholic Reared in Trinidad by the
by his maternal twins Jewish father.
grandmother in
Czechoslovakia
Member of the Hitler Youth Joined an Israeli kibbutz (a
Movement in Nazi, collective settlement) at age
Germany. of 17.
Learned to hate the Jews. Later served in the Israeli
army.
Nurture vs Nature
Similarities of the Twins
Both wore wire-rimmed glasses and mustaches when
they were reunited.
Both liked spicy foods and sweet liqueurs.
Both were absent-minded.
Both flushed the toilet before using it.
Stored rubber bands on their wrists.
Dipped buttered toast in their coffee.
Nurture vs Nature
Differences of the Twins
OSKAR JACK
Enjoyed leisure-time Workaholic
activities.
Traditionalist who was Political liberal much more
domineering toward accepting of feminism.
women.
Never mentioned his Extremely proud of being
Jewish Heritage. Jewish.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
1. Family
2. Peer Group
3. The School
4. The Workplace
5. The Church
6. The State
7. The Mass Media
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
Family is considered as the most important agent
of socialization in the sense that it is usually the
first group to provide meaning and support to the
individual.
Within the family, children learn the socially
approved means of satisfying their needs and
begin to develop an understanding of the many
basic roles of society.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
The extent to which parents provide basic needs
such as food, shelter, and love, to a great measure,
determines how a childs personality develops,
both mentally and emotionally.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
Peer groups consist of many groups made up of
children, in which the child participates.
In this group, an individual engages in a process of
give-and-take.
The peer group provides the setting within which
the child develops close relationships of his/her
own choice.
Peer group membership places the child in a social
context where much of the learning that takes
place is non-deliberate and non-authoritative.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
School does much more than teach the basic
skills and technical knowledge.
It further transmit societys central cultural
values and ideologies, so they may fit into the roles
of the community.
The school exposes children to situations in which
the same rules, regulations, and authority
patterns apply to everyone.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
Mass Media such as newspapers, radio, movies,
television, and books, are also important in
communicating to individuals and transmitting
societys beliefs, values, mores, and traditions.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
The church provides important source of
individual direction in life especially the values
and moral principles in religious doctrines serve as
guide to appropriate roles and behaviors in
society.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
The workplace provides learning on how to
behave appropriately within an occupation is a
fundamental aspect of human socialization.
Working full-time confirms adult status; it
indicates that one has passed out of adolescence.
In a sense, socialization into an occupation can
represent both a harsh reality and the realization
of an ambition.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
The state has had a noteworthy impact on the life
course by reinstituting rite of passage (a ritual
marking the symbolic transition from one social
position to another) that had disappeared from
agricultural societies and during periods of early
industrialization.
For example, the government regulations stipulate
the ages at which a person may drive a car, drink
alcohol, vote in elections, marry without parental
permission, work overtime, and retire.
AGENTS OF
SOCIALIZATION:
The state shapes the socialization process by
regulating the life course to some degree and by
influencing our views of appropriate behavior at
particular ages.
Sociological Approaches to the Self:
A. Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
B. Mead: Stages of the Self
C. Goffman: Presentation of the Self
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
In the early 1900s, Charles Horton Cooley
advanced the belief that we learn who we are by
interacting with others.
Our view of ourselves, then, comes not only from
direct contemplation of our personal qualities but
also from our impression of how others perceive
us.
Cooley calls this process the looking-glass self.
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
Looking-Glass Self:
A concept that emphasizes the self as the product of
our social interactions with others
(Schaefer:2005;P.99).
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
The process of developing a self-identity or
self-concept has three (3) phases:
1. We imagine how we appear to others.
2. We imagine how others judge our appearance.
3. We develop feelings about and responses to these
judgments.
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
People imagine not only how others see them and
their others actions but also how others judge
what they see, whether with approval or with
doubt or hostility.
As a result, the looking-glass self is made up of
feelings about other peoples judgments of ones
behavior.
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self
The self consists of a composite of the persons
more or less accurate assessments of others
judgments.
To Cooley, this social self was the central element
of society.
The imaginations, which people have of one
another, are the solid facts of society.
Mead: Stages of the Self
George Herbert Mead (in 1934) developed a
useful model of the process by which the self
emerges, defined by three (3) distinct stages:
1. The Preparatory Stage
2. The Play Stage
3. The Game Stage
Mead: Stages of the Self
The Preparatory Stage:
In this stage, children merely imitate the people
around them, especially family members with
whom they continually interact.
Mead: Stages of the Self
The Play Stage:
As children develop skill in communicating
through symbols, they gradually become more
aware of social relationships.
During this stage, children assume or play several
roles, one after another.
They playfully imitate the roles of the significant
others (those who act out or perform roles that
deal intimately with children/an individual who is
most important in the development of the self).
Mead: Stages of the Self
Take note that an important aspect of the play
stage is that the child learns how to do role
taking (the process of mentally assuming the
perspective of another and responding from that
imagined viewpoint).
Mead: Stages of the Self
The Game Stage:
During this stage, children (about eight or nine
years old) assume or play several roles, one after
another.
At this point, the child begins to consider several
actual task and relationships simultaneously.
The child grasp not only their own social positions,
but also those of others around them.
Mead: Stages of the Self
The children are able to take the role or attitude of
what Mead calls the generalized others (the
attitude of the entire community or organized
social group or the composite expectations of all the
other role players with whom they interact/refers
to the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of
society as a whole that a child takes into account in
his or her behavior).
Mead: Stages of the Self
Simply put, this concept suggest that when an
individual acts, he or she takes into account an
entire group of people.
For example, a child will not act courteously
merely to please a particular parent. Rather, the
child comes to understand that courtesy is a
widespread social value endorsed by parents,
teachers, and religious leaders.
Mead: Stages of the Self
At the game stage, children can take a more
sophisticated view of people and the social
movement.
They now understand what specific occupations
and social positions are and no longer equate it to
specific people (they met and know) with specific
roles (such a librarian/principal for example).
Goffman: Presentation of the Self
Erving Goffman (a known sociologist) suggested
that many of our daily activities involve attempts
to convey impressions of who we are.
Early in life, the individual learns to slant/alter
his or her presentation of the self in order to create
distinctive appearances and satisfy particular
audiences.
Goffman refers to this process as impression
management.
Goffman: Presentation of the Self
In analyzing such everyday interactions, Goffman
makes so many explicit parallels to the theater
that his view has been termed the
dramaturgical approach (a view of social
interaction in which people are seen as theatrical
performers).
Goffman: Presentation of the Self
Goffman (1959) has also drawn attention to
another aspect of the self face-work (the efforts
people make to maintain the proper image and
avoid public embarrassment).
In some cultures, people engage in elaborate
deceptions to avoid losing face.
Goffman: Presentation of the Self
Goffmans work on the self represents a logical
progression of sociological studies begun by Cooley
and Mead on how personality is acquired through
socialization and how we manage the presentation
of the self to others.