SOC 100 MT2 Review Chapter 4-6 PDF

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1 Chapter 4 Socialization -Introduction: “So it’s a boy, right?” -Gender of child born wasn’t revealed as a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation and hoping that the world would become a more progressive place. -Giving the child the freedom to choose who they want to be and not be constrained by social norms about gender -Social experiment of nurture and how much influence parents have on kids -Emphasis in our society on gender distinction -Socialization is defined as the process of attitudes, values and behaviours learned through human interactions -Sociologists want to study changes in these behaviours and attitudes over the life course -Microsociological and macrosociological perspective -Micro: teaches us how to behave properly and what norms and values we’re supposed to follow. -Macro: how socialization and human interactions contributes in transmitting culture from different generations which continues society development. -Impact of isolation- human development requires heredity (genes) and the environment (the rest of society) -Humans are social beings, interactions with other human beings are crucial for our development. The question, how much comes from social environment versus our genes is up for debate. (Nature versus nurture) -Isabelle (Nurture)-6 year old girl was raised in a closet for the first six years of her life. Her grandparents were embarrassed of her existence because she was born illegitimately. When found, Isabelle couldn’t talk, and grunted in order to communicate. She was placed in therapy and became normal (and fully integrated) by age 14. -The idea is Isabelle needed a caregiver to lead the way for her development, which speaks to the importance of the environment. -Harlow’s Monkey (Nurture): The study found similarities to Isabelle. Tested Rhesus Monkeys by removing them from their mothers. Those raised in isolation were fearful and easily frightened. Can’t learn from the behaviours of other people. -Harlow created a terri-cloth “artificial mothers”--one that was warm, cloth like and one that offered milk but was made with wire. Monkeys were more attached to cloth like mother, feeling comforted by the physical sensations as compared to the one that is made of wire. -Conclusion is that monkeys want social attachment--warmth, comfort and intimacy--critical for social development -Twins: If separated into a similar social setting, have similar intelligence; if reared apart into a dramatically different social setting, different intelligence. Twins Stohr and Yufe, have similar characteristics but also different ones. Similar: temperaments, voice patterns, nervous habits. Differences: values, types of mates chosen, drinking habit -Critics of twin studies show that there isn’t enough information about the degree of contact the separated twins had, even though they were completely raised apart. If extensive, the validity is questioned

2 -Sociobiology--pure science. All behaviour is due to genetic or biological factors, nothing to do with social interactions. An extreme sociobiologist would be this extreme. -Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of human behaviours. -Focus on how genetic build up affect certain groups of people. How do their genetic composition relate to shared characteristics -Discussion on the “crime gene”: So based on this idea, genes determine criminal behaviour? What’s reassuring about this? It suggests that behaviour is predetermined so it’s not the perpetrator’s fault that they committed a crime. It also suggests the “crime gene” can be knocked out via genetic modification. Maybe if you are found to have the crime gene, we can lock you up starting in kindergarten? Huge implications. Major Theoretical perspectives on socialization: -Social psychological: Cooley, Mead, Goffman -Cooley: Looking-Glass Self theory, “self” defined as a distinct identity that sets us apart from others. -Our development of self comes from how people react to us and how we interpret it and apply it to ourselves. Our identity/sense of self is constantly changing throughout our life because of this. -Ex. We imagine how we present ourselves to others. Jana bounces out of her bed, her hair’s great, sun is shining and she pictures how she’s going to teach about chapter 4 and everything will be great! However, people are falling asleep at her boring lecture (how do people evaluate us) and she takes in this mirror reflection. Jana thinks about herself. What did she do wrong? -But, our interpretation of our reflection is not always accurate--there are probably other reasons why people fall asleep in class. This reflection is based on an individual’s “imagination” of how they are viewed as, establishing incorrect perceptions. -Mead: Stages of the Self split into 3 stages, the preparatory, play and game stage. -Preparatory: Kids imitate people around them; stick tongue out and recognize the presence of another person. Begins to understand the use of symbols. -Play: Communication skills via symbols, and role taking. Start to realize that there’s another world out there. Role-taking is the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another. Ex. kid put themselves in parent’s shoes, when would be the best time to ask for a favour? -Game: By age 8/9 you start to understand that there’s people around you doing things simultaneously. They grasp their social position, and those around them. They respond to members of the social environment--significant and generalized others. Develop more sophisticated view on people; people can have different roles in society. -”Minority Report”-Tom Cruise -Goffman: Presentation of the Self, face-work, and dramaturgical approach -You learn to slant your presentation of the self to develop a distinct appearance and satisfy a particular crowd (Impression management). Ex. hanging out with friends versus being in a job interview. Dramaturgical approach--resemble performers in action, you want to keep the play going . You also attempt face-work, putting on a proper image at a moment in time to save face when you feel embarrassed or rejected. What do you do when you’ve just been rejected? Ex. Jana getting a tattoo at the salon (in tears due to pain) and sees a student...

3 -Studied nonobservance you ignore people’s mistake. Ex. Jana and her piano concert, she blanked out but went along and the audience clapped -Feminist perspective on socialization: The media is playing a huge role in shaping ideas about women. They’re sending messages to all people about what’s appropriate; objectification of women’s body in order to sell stuff. -Transnational feminist perspective would argue that visible minority women do not have high powered positions -Gender roles take place everywhere in society and is spread through media -Functionalist approach on socialization; socialization is necessary to meet equilibrium and stability in society. Otherwise, there would be chaos; socialization has a role in making people fit in and maintaining society as a whole. Need consensus and stability among people. -Conflict perspective: messages communicated through socialization reflect the inequalities and keeping the same status quo in a capitalist society. We are socialized into believing the status quo, it’s bad because it acknowledges the power of the upper class. -Agents of socialization: family, school, peer group, gender socialization, mass media/technology, workplace, the state (government) -Family: plays a huge role in socializing children. They model how to interact with each other, teach us a language, introduce a culture, influence our political views and how we view other people. Also, begin gender socialization--teaches us the expectations of gender roles (our first exposure), what behaviours are expected of guys versus girls -Babies undergo habit training, where caregivers impose a fixed schedule, when to end breast-feeding. Also socializers by converting adults into moms/dads -Development of self is different in Japan versus Canada. In Japan, at age 6, kids are to travel to school unsupervised by navigating through long walks and public transportation. Lay out special rules for the kids. Prison researcher, Wakont, Conflict--found out that most people in American jails are poor...this refutes Minority Report’s crime gene and makes it sound ridiculous. -School: Teaches children customs and values of the society, including traditional gender roles.It forces socialization we are first exposed to at home. School teaches us how to interact with people of different ethnicity, religion and race. -Functionalists would say that school brings people of similar age to come together and learn the same curriculum so that everyone gets the same message; it has a function to sort people who perform well at school and who doesn’t (they may go the trades route). -Conflict-some students are not rich, they don’t have food in the house and when they come to school they cannot concentrate and do well. They use research as evidence to suggest that academic performance comes from rich families, which enforces society’s dominant ideology (inequality). -Peer group- As kids grow up, family is a lesser influence, peer groups are. Peer groups becomes Mead’s “significant other”. Peer pressure--try to get you to fit in or not. Jana had a former student who was homosexual; for three years in high school, he was buillied. His grandpa spoke to him non-judgmentally which restored his belief. This shows how 1 positive role model can impact the socialization of others.

4 -Ijime-In Japan, people usually go with the bullying carrying the fear that they would be the next target if don’t take part. -Gender socialization-different genders prefer to socialize differently. Males are more likely to spend time with a group of males, while females like to spend time with one single female to confide with emotional intimacy. -Mass media/technology-increasingly important influence in socialization-socializing families to believe multitasking is the new social norm. It spreads information and keeps us interconnected. Negative: Sexualization of human bodies, photoshop creates an unrealistic portrayal of body image and leads to eating disorders. -Cognitive differences in acting online versus in person. Would you say whatever you did online if you were to say it in person? -Media and technology allow forums for people involved in hate behaviour Ex In coll women hate group? -Some people (3rd world) have to be socialized into relying on these communications technologies. Now, more people in developing countries have cell phones than in industrialized countries. -Workplace: you learn to behave appropriately in a work setting. This is a huge aspect in human socialization. Ex. Customer service, you learn to bite your tongue; the customer is always right. You learn how to communicate with your manager versus someone who is on the same level as you. -Working with different cultures and ethnicities and learn to develop fantastic time management skills. -Wilbert Moore: Four phases of management for socialization in workplace. 1. Career choice (you make a decision to be a police officer) 2. Anticipatory socialization (anticipate what it’s like to be a EPS cop) 3. Conditioning (what is it actually like to be a cop? It turns out that you receive feelings of hostility as a cop not because of you but who you represent. Police scandals have led to public mistrust and you can’t necessarily anticipate this. These are unpleasant aspects of one’s job 4. Continuous commitment (job becomes a part of one’s self-identity. Person may join associations or job unions to represent the occupation to the larger society. -The state (government)-in the 21st century, the family’s protective functions as caregivers have transferred to outside agencies, where the government has usurped traditional family functions. They overtook what families were responsible for and became more involved in the lives of citizens. Ex. hospitals, mental health clinics and insurance companies. -The state also re-instituted many rites of passage, where they stipulate the ages we can drink, drive, vote, marry, retire, etc. The state wasn’t as important in terms of passing these rites. -These rites of passages are not strict, but overall socializes citizens by regulating their life course to an extent -Changes in the degree of socialization over our life course -Rites of passage-are means of dramatizing and validating changes in a person’s status. Over our life course we pass through many rites of passages, graduation, marriage, retirement. -Ceremonies mark stages of development in life course. -To celebrate, different cultures do different things. Kota people paint themselves blue to celebrate adulthood, in North America we throw our hats high in the air during graduation.

5 The life course approach looks at these social factors and ceremonies and how it influences us in all stages of the human life cycle. Sociologists use this life course approach to show that biological changes mould but don’t dictate human behaviour from birth to death -People don’t experience rites of passage at the same time; this depends on gender, religion, degree of wealth, etc. -People also don’t follow an orderly progression of events; ex. Not everyone retires at age 65. -The “proper” ordering was back in the day, and not anymore. Many women are going back to school after having children -We encounter the most difficult socialization challenges in later years, but socialization never ends and keeps going until we die. -There is no clear cut definition for different periods of the aging cycle in Canada, but we loosely come to understand that age 65+ is a senior. Some are working longer and retire later. Longer life expectancies mean people in their 60s are “young old” while those in their 80s are “old old” -Gerontology is the study of the sociological and psychological aspects of aging and problems of the age. -Disengagement theory/functionalist: found that some individuals start to disengage and back off from people. Society and the aging individual starts to sever off their relationship but this has a function! It serves to pass social roles from generation to generation to ensure social stability. -It is a way of passing their roles. Ex. Maybe the patriarch of the family, the grandfather might not show up so that his son could lead the prayer and traditions of the family. -Activity theory/interactionist: The elderly person remains active and socially involved. Their contributions maintain society. This is different from the disengagement theory where the elderly person should remain active and interact with society. Ex. Having older people interact with troubled youth is mutually beneficial. -Conflict theory-talks about inequality and poor treatment of elderly in Canada. Considers the impact of social structure on patterns of aging. The activity and disengagement theory ignores the impact of social class on the lives of the elderly. Divisions among seniors while preparing for retirement--degree of dependency on pensions vary -Transition from agricultural economies to capitalism has not always been beneficial. Production methods are changing and the traditionally valued role of older people is not useful; we don’t need their wisdom as compared to the past. -Feminist approach- criticized thee androcentricity in discussion of life course; the male life course cannot be applied to women, and also criticized the lack o diversity in identifying stages to mark women’s lives -Women’s aging seem completely in the context of marriage and family development -Women continue to be seen that their life course is shaped by reproduction and nurturing children -Ageist bias: Perspectives of middle aged adults are seen.. (pg 97) -Aging affects women differently depending on backgrounds and characteristics, it doesn’t manifest itself universally; it creates diverse patterns. -Ageism: people who have a positive perception of aging live ~7.5 years longer than those who don’t.

6 -Feminist criticism: Men aging are seen as wisdom and experience; women is seen as a sign of decline and diminishing status -Aging women are seen as a departure from our culture’s views on the norms of beauty and attractiveness. -Anticipatory socialization--informal process by which we develop a tentative model of what to expect and what to expect of ourselves. Our brain gets ready and rehearses what happens in future jobs and relationships. It’s when a person rehearses for future positions, occupations and social relationships. -A culture functions more effectively if one rehearses social norms expected from them before getting to this status. -Resocialization: when moving to a different region, we may have to unlearn previous orientation. Resocialization is discarding former behaviour and accepting new ones as part of a transition. Tends to occur when there is an explicit effort to transform an individual and applies stress to the individual -Occurs in total institutions, where a single authority regulates every aspect of a person’s life. (Jails, mental hospitals) -Goffman: 4 common traits of total institutions 1. All aspects of life under single authority 2. Any activities conducted in the company of others 3. Authorities make up all rules and schedules. Participants have no say. 4. All aspects of life are designed to fulfill the purpose of the organization. (Ex. jails, to reintegrate people into society.) They mold you to how they want you to behave. -People lose individuality in total institutions. -Degradation ceremony: people experience humiliation; prison inmates get a number and personal possessions taken away from them. -1934: The Dionnes gave birth to quintuplets! But it turned into a case of total institution; government took the quintuplets in and set up an observation gallery. -When they were given back to the parents years later, sharp divisions/jealousy took the best of them. Total institutions had impacted their lives. -Video: Miss representation -Video: Secret Life of Boys (Guaranteed one question on exam)-- expectations regarding gender roles are extremely damaging to both boys and girls. For boys, they’re taught at a young age to hide their emotions and if they get bullied at school, they were to suck it up and live with it. -Impression Management by Students after Exams -Students react differently depending on the grades that you receive and the grade they earned. -Ace-ace encounters occur in an open atmosphere; comfortable sharing high mark with another person who did just as well. Easy to admit you scored a high mark. -Ace-bomber encounters are sensitive. Bombers avoid exchanges with aces fearing being considered the “dumb one”. Bombers will try to appear gracious/congratulatory. Aces would show sympathy and how they got “lucky” on the exam.

7 -Bomber-bomber encounters are closed, walling off disdain of others. They have “pity parties” and share their mutual self-disappointment. Use face-saving excuses, claim they were sick or had a thousand exams that week. -Sociology in the Global Community: The resettlement of Syrian Refugees--resocialization for these refugees in a new country is a struggle. -Aging Worldwide: Issues and consequences -An electric water kettle is wired so that people in another location can determine if it had been used in the past 24 hours. The technology symbolizes a change taking place, the growing needs of an aging population. An unused pot will trigger personal contact to see if the elderly needs help. -In Japan, the increased use of the wired kettle shows the increasing number who live alone. -With an increasing aging population, policymakers try to reduce the financial blow by delaying retirement age and encourage people to have more children. -Childcare around the world -Rising numbers in single parent family -Daycare centres have been a functional equivalent of the nuclear family, performing nurturing and socializing functions previously only the family would provide. -High quality daycare benefits children -Researchers found no difference in infants who received extensive non-material care than those cared for by parents. -Quality of daycare is mixed depending on whether they’re non-profit or commercial. The general trend is that non-profit are found to be higher qu...