Socialization
An individual learns and comes to accept the ways of a group or a society the person is part of. Starts in childhood and continues over the life span.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
The Looking Glass: our self imagine reflects how others respond to us, we develop a self concept by interacting with others
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
- the self develops over time an ability to take oneself as an object through a process called “taking the role of the other”
- Mead also distinguished between the I (the part of the self that is unconscious, creative, unpredictable and an immediate reaction) and the Me (the organized set of other’s attitudes assumed by the individual)
Erving Goffman (1922 - 1982)
“Preformer”
- Dramaturgy: social life is a series of dramatic performances
- impression management: when people interact with others they use a variety of techniques to control the image that they want to protect.
- Front stage: the social performance is designed to define the situation for those observing it
- a public performance
- Back stage: people express themselves in ways that are suppressed on the front stage - performing off stage or in (semi) privacy. “Is where the performer can relax, she or he can drop there front forgo speaking there lines, and step out of character.”
Picca & Feagin: experiment Goffman’s theory
Found that what white college students do and say (with regard to racist views) depended on whether they were in the front or backstage. Front: would be super polite in terms with coloured people. Backstage: acted the opposite as front, make jokes and mock with closest friends
Childhood Socialization: The Family
- Parents are called primary agents of socialization because children acquire their first knowledge of language, norms and values within the family
- Parents also engage in anticipatory socialization with their children, teaching them what we be expected of them in the future.
Childhood Socialization: Schools and Teachers
- as children mature, other people and organizations becoming socializing forces.
- after parents and family, schools and teachers are the most important agents of socialization.
Childhood Socialization: Peers
- a good deal of socialization at school takes place informally through interaction with fellow schoolmates
- as children mature they spend an increasing amount of time in the company of friends
- peer socialization is increasingly likely to conflict with what is being taught at home and in the schools.
Childhood Socialization: Gender
- Gender socialization is the transmission of norms and values about what boys and girls can and should do.
- this process starts even before babies are born
- gender difference (and expectations of behaviour) are reinforced by clothes and toys.
Childhood Socialization: Mass Media and New media
- until recently, much of the emphasis on the role of the media in socialization focused on television
- as children mature, more of their socialization takes place via the computer smartphones, video games and other new emerging technologies.
Childhood Socialization: Consumer Culture
- One needs to be socialized in order to consume
- socialization of this type takes place (mainly) in consumption sites (malls, shopping sites on the internet)
- this type of socialization reinforces lessons about race, class and gender.
Adult Socialization: The Workplace
- Increasing numbers of workers change jobs and even careers with frequency
- Resocialization is the process of unlearning old behaviours and norms ( the old job career) and learning new behaviours and norms (the new job or career)
Adult Socialization: Total Institutions
- a total institution is a closed all encompassing place of residence that is set off rom the rest of society
- the primary purpose if resocialization
- examples are prisons and the military
Other Agents of Adult Socialization
- Changes in values and norms, family changes, geogrpahi changes (moving, migration) and changes with aging (retiree)
Interaction
A social engagement involving two or more individuals. Key building block for macroscopic social phenomena, such as networks and groups.
Superordinate - Subordinate (Simmel)
Examples: Between teacher and student in a class room, judge and defendant in the courtroom and guard and prisoner in jail
Reciprocity and Exchange
A rational process where those involved seek to maximize rewards and minimize cost.
Reciprocity
Means that those engaged in interaction expect to give and receive awards of equal value.
Doing Interaction (Ethnomethodology)
Interaction is something that people “do”, something they accomplish on a day to day basis. Must know and use practices to carry a successful interaction. (E.g. - walking with someone is a form of interaction)
Interaction order
(Erving Goffman)A social domain that is organized and orderly but created informally and governed by those involved in the interaction. (e.g. a clique)
Status & Role
Status: a position in society someone occupies
Role: what is expected of someone in that status
Different Forms of Status
- ) Ascribed: given at birth(gender)
- ) Achieved: earned an accomplished (student, spouse, parent)
- ) Master: status that is dominant or all defining
Role Conflict & Role Overload
Roles can be consistent
Role Conflict: Conflicting expecations
Role Overload: more expectations than one can handle
Primary & Secondary Groups
Primary: small, personal, face to face interaction
Secondary: large and impersonal, ties are weak
