Socialization 101
How Sense of Self Emerges
· Through interaction with social and cultural environments people are transformed into members of society
· The interactive process through which people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of a society is called socialization
Three Theories of Socialization
John Locke – The Tabula Rosa
w Each person is a blank slate at birth, with no personality.
w People develop personality as a result of their social experiences.
w Moreover, infants can be molded into any type of person.
Charles Horton Cooley – The Looking Glass Self
w Infants have no sense of person or place.
w Children develop an image of themselves based on how others see them.
w Other people act as a mirror, reflecting back the image a child projects through their reactions to the child’s behavior.
George Herbert Mead – Role-Taking
w People not only come to see themselves as others see them but also take on or pretend to take on the roles of others through imitation, play, and games.
w This process enables people to anticipate what others expect of them.
Main agents of Socialization
§ Family – most important agent
§ Peer group – primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and social characteristics, particularly influential during pre-teenage and early teenage years
§ School – plays a major role
§ Mass media – books, films, the Internet, magazines and television, not face-to-face
Importance of Family and Education
w Teach children important life skills
w Teach values, norms and beliefs
Gender Roles and Socialization
w In virtually all societies, gender socialization begins at birth and continues throughout life
w Children learn American gender-role behaviors through socialization such as in the family or at school
w Education – still gender distinctions in degree majors, fewer women pursuing doctoral or professional degrees, and less funding for women’s college athletics
w Employment – still a wage gap and a glass ceiling for women
w Politics – underrepresented in politics