Sociology chapter 4 - notes PDF

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Chapter 4: Socialization Socialization: the life long process through which people learn about themselves and their various roles in society. Primary socialization shapes the development of children through broader cultural norms, creating a sense of identity. Secondary socialization is more specific formal training, such as university and occurs through the processes of social interaction. Agents of socialization The main agents of socialization are family, school, peers and the media as they have the greatest amount of influence on the developing of one’s self. Family tends to have the most impact on us as were with them from an early age. They teach us love, affection, language skills, rules and discipline, values and morals. Families are usually our longest-standing and most consistent contact with the outside world. Without a parent love and nurture children are unable to fully function in society.

School teaches us formal education, we are taught how to formalize knowledge and then specialize in advance language skills we learned at home. School also carries a huge social component regarding popularity, social status, dating norms and social identity.

Peers also play a major role in our socialization. We have peers from early ages to our elder years. They operate as an escape from the confines of family and school and offer us social skills not taught in the other settings. Peers teach us social authority, status and rebellion as they serve to create our social identities. Peers are a group of people who share common interests, equal social positions and standing.

In today’s progressive world, the media influences our society. Most of us young adults spend more time in front of a computer than in a classroom. It informs us of new products and acts as a m=source of entertainment. It allows us to escape our currently reality, even for a second. However, it can also desensitize violence but we can also look up to actors and make belief characters as a role model. Religion can also play a role in our socialization depending on how we were raised. It can also influence ideals, marriage and spirituality.

Competitive sports can also alter our ideals about wining, value of teamwork and the importance of practice and hard work.

Theorists recognize not one sole agent of socialization to make up one’s self, it is hence incomplete and changes as we age. Resocialization Socialization is never fully complete. Resocialization is the process by which existing social roles are radically altered or replaced. George Herbert mead defines the self as “a reflexive process that includes a person’s subjective stream of consciousness as well his or her concept of self as a physical, social, and moral being”. The self by virtue must be social. Symbolic interactionist Manford Kuhn developed the Twenty Statements Test to highlight the centrality of the social definitions of the self.

1. A mode includes statements that refer to our physical selves. Common examples include statements such as the following: “I am tall,” “I have brown hair,” and “I am fat.” 2. B mode includes statements that refer to our social selves. Common examples include statements that speak to our social roles, status, identity categories, institutional membership, and other social markers such as the following: “I am a parent,” “I’m a Starbucks employee,” “I’m Muslim,” and/or “I’m Italian.” 3. C mode includes statements that refer to our reflexive selves. Common examples include statements that refer to ourselves in relation to others, and our preferences and aspirations such as the following: “I am an extrovert,” “I’m a democrat,” and “I’m good at math.” Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self Refers to the way in which a person’s sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others. Imagine how they appear to others, imagine how this perceived reality is judged by others as either favourable or unfavourable and if this reality is judged as positive.

Mead’s Role taking model Mead focuses on the social construction of the self through his role-taking model. He argues that since we cannot experience ourselves directly, the self is essentially a social structure experienced through social roles. : the process by which a person mentally assumes the role of another person in order to understand the world from that person’s pov. Preparatory stage: play and game stage 0-3. Children are preparing for role taking as they are not currently able to fully take on social roles. Play stage: 3-5 where children start to develop recognition of shared meaning through the use of language and other symbols. Stage based on fantasy here they practice the roles of others Game stage: early school years. Children understand and occupy their own roles and where they understand the expectations of the generalized other. Ex. Soccer, hockey (shows what it’s like to play a position) Goffman’s Dramaturgical model Argues that the self is not an organic or static entity. The self is malleable in the sense that we are constantly adapting to different social contexts. Goffman’s dramaturgical model argues that the self is best understood as a type of staged production and dramatic effect—in other words, we are like actors on a stage acting out social scripts. Ex. being on a first date or attending a funeral where there are pretty clear-cut social rules on what to say and not say. Behaviour in this model is therefore shaped by the situations in which we interact, and the self, by extension, is who we are but also how we act. Goffman further divides his metaphor of a stage into front stage and back stage regions. He argues that it is in the front stage where we are trying maintain the most appropriate appearances. The front stage is usually public venues like a classroom or a work environment. He argues that it is in the back stage where we let our guard drop a little and where we sometimes contradict or violate the behaviour in the front stage. The back stage is usually in more private venues like our offices or homes...