Socialization: Development of the Self

How do babies become human?

• They LEARN to be human by acquiring shared beliefs, and predictable patterns of behavior.
• This process of learning is called socialization

Understanding Socialization

1. Socialization: the process through which people learn the expectations of society.

   • This is how we learn to conform to social norms and how we learn values and culture.

2. For sociologists, socialization is a life-long process.

   • Primary (or childhood) socialization

     • This is the fundamental socialization process

     • Involves learning self-concepts - developing an identity

   • Secondary (or adult) socialization

     • Socialization doesn't end with childhood.

     • Learning behaviors and attitudes associated with specific situations and roles.

Childhood Socialization: Biology vs. Social Experience

1. This question of human development is again linked back to that older debate:

   • Heredity or Environment
   • Biology or Social Experience
   • Nature or Nurture

2. Not Either/Or, but rather:

   • BOTH genes and the environment

   • Children are born with specific genetic capacities

     • Yet, babies do not have the instincts that will make them social beings

   • Social interaction is key to becoming a social being

   • This process of socialization is dramatically demonstrated by cases of social isolation

     • Kingsley Davis study of 1938
     • More recent case of "Genie"

3. Example: Kingsley Davis article (These cases show that people don't become fully human without social interaction)

   • The case of Anna:

     • What were her circumstances?
     • Did the social isolation have some effect on her capacities for mental progress?

   • Comparison case of Isabelle:

     • What were her circumstances?
     • How were they different from Anna?
     • Did the social isolation have any effect on her capacities for mental progress later on?

4. Example: The third case of Genie:

   • A more recent case of childhood isolation involves a California girl abused by her parents

   • From the age of 2, Genie was tied to a chair in a dark garage.

   • In 1970, she was found at the age of 13.

   • She weighed only 59 pounds and had the mental development of 1-year-old.

   • She was given intensive treatment and became physically healthy.

   • But her language ability remains that of a young child.

   • Today she lives in a home for developmentally disabled adults.

5. These examples point to the crucial role of SOCIAL experience in personality development:

   • We don't become HUMAN simply because we have the genetic makeup of human beings

   • We are SOCIAL beings, and social experience is critical to our development.

   • These cases show that human beings can recover from isolation - to a point.

Theories of Socialization (Childhood)

Note on Psychological Theories

• Many theories about HOW socialization occurs.

• Psychological and sociological theories: Different assumptions about socialization

Symbolic Interaction Theory (Sociology)

1. Introduction:

   • George Herbert Mead

   • One aspect concerns childhood socialization

2. Key Concept: Symbolic Interpretation:

   • Symbolic interpretation: being able to decode our roles and other's roles

     • Socialization involves learning status and roles.
     • Roles involve norms (social expectations) and meanings ("symbols").
     • You have to understand norms and meanings/symbols in order to understand roles.

   • Symbol: An act, sound, or object having cultural significance and the capacity to elicit a response.

3. Example: Pottery Barn, "Gender Development"

   • Symbolic aspect: Meaning of gender:

     • We are born with a certain "sex" (biological)
     • We LEARN gender roles:
       • Culture assigns different meanings (symbols) to the different gender statuses
       • These produce norms (social expectations) about what are properly masculine and feminine roles (behavior)
       • Children learn from an early age that the "meanings" and "roles" pf "girls" and "boys" are very different.

   • What are the different meanings and expectations of being a girl or a boy?

   • What are social sanctions for not fulfilling expectations?

   • Socially constructed GENDER categories:

     | Male | Female | |:----------------------:|:----------------------:| | Active | Passive | | Independent | Caring | | Individual achievement | Connected - relational | | Competitive | Cooperative | | Unemotional | Emotional | | Financial provider | Domestic | | Sports | Attractive, thin |

4. Key Concept: Interaction:

   • We learn society's meanings and expectations through social interaction.

     • The WAY that we are socialized is through an active, interactive process
     • Children learn roles and expectations because of their interactions with others

   • So, through interaction, interpreted symbolically (e.g. cultural meanings of roles/norms), we develop our sense of self - our identity

     • Different Socializing Agents
     • Different Social Contexts

   • Different Agents of socialization:
     Parents (Cahill; Henslin)
     Peers (Cahill; Henslin)
     Media (Killing Us Softly)

     • Roles are socially constructed through interactions with many people and groups throughout childhood.
     • Parents, teachers, school, and friends all act as agents of socialization.
     • They Encourage us to live up to social expectations for gender roles.
     • Do different "socialization agents" expect different gender roles?

   • MANY different Contexts of socialization:
     Home
     School
     Sports teams, etc.

     • Different situations (context) have an impact on personality - even with children.
     • We construct different identities for different situations or contexts.
     • Can you think of how gender roles might change depending on different contexts?

5. Key Concept: "Taking the role of the other":

   • How do we learn social expectations and meanings through social interaction?

   • Socialization rests on our ability to "take the role of the other"

   • Taking the role of the other: seeing ourselves as others see us.

   • *When we can see ourselves from the perspective of others*:

     • Then we are able to predict the responses we are likely to receive from them
     • We act in a way that will elicit positive responses from them.
     • We conform to norms of gender that we receive from the group.

   • This process is central to forming our sense of self.

Symbolic Interaction and Socialization to Gender Roles

1. Symbolic Interpretation & Social Interaction

   • Gender roles are not inherent parts of our personality.

   • Gender roles and meanings/symbols are constructed by society.

   • We learn gender roles through social interaction:

     • We learn that gender is an important category
     • We learn the expectations that go with specific gender categories
     • We learn these things from different socializing agents and in different social contexts

2. Taking the "Role of the Other":

   • We learn different aspects of gender roles at different stages of childhood.

   • As children, we play different gender roles that we see around us.

   • We receive particular responses to this role-playing.

   • And we begin to conform our behavior to the gender roles that are positively sanctioned and presented by others.

Example: Spencer Cahill, Fashioning Gender Identity:

Cahill's study is an empirical research study into how young children are socialized into gender roles.

1. Categories and Symbols (Symbolic):

   • Establishing Gendered Identities

     • "Ascribed sex-class identity":
       • Sex is an ascribed status
       • Yet, this status is more than biology/anatomy
       • Certain symbols/meanings and roles/behaviors are associated with the different sexes
       • Thus "sex-class" includes meaning of gender as well as biology. (sex-class = gender)
     • We see this from the earliest days of infancy.
     • Adults view and treat the two sexes differently.
     • This is the beginning of the "identity" that goes with the ascribed status of "sex-class"
     • How do parents invest their infants with a sex-class identity?
     • What "symbols" or "behavior" go along with ascribed sex-class?

   • Recognizing Gendered Identities

     • Children learn that the world has two distinct categories of people.
     • As soon as they learn language, they hear verbal labels that go with males and females.
     • They learn that these groups are distinct:
       • Male people are similar to other male people.
       • Female people are similar to other females.
       • Males are DISSIMILAR from females.
     • How do children recognize males and females
     • What are the most important distinctions between males and females?
     • What are the "symbols" of gender that Cahill shows are most important to young children?

2. Interaction: How do children learn these symbols? How do the children in Cahill's article begin to "take the roles" of others - in terms of gender?

   • Exploring Gendered Identities

     • How do children explore their sex-class identities?
     • What is the response to this exploration?

   • Embracing Gendered Identities: Aligning Appearance with Gendered Identities

     • What influences children to commit to their ascribed sex-class identity?
     • How do children show their commitment to this identity?
     • Is this different for girls and boys?

Example: Media Images and Gender; Fill "Killing Us Softly"

Example: Henslin, On Becoming Male; Eder, On Becoming Female

Example: Anderson, Varieties of Masculinity in Male Cheerleading

1. Hypermasculinity is often expressed through homophobic, anti-feminine attitudes. This article demonstrates evidence of alternate forms of masculinity. The author of this article calls the two forms: 1) orthodox masculinity and 2) inclusive masculinity.

2. Method: 68 interviews with collegiate male cheerleaders; participant observation (How did the researcher go about answering their research question?)

3. There are many different types of masculinity. Anderson discusses a "Masculinity Hierarchy"

   • How does it work?

4. Hegemonic Masculinity: a social process in which one form of [...] masculinity is "culturally exalted" above all others. -- Connell, 1995

   • The process of hegemony influences the oppressed to maintain that their oppression is natural and just.

   • How is hegemonic masculinity constructed?

   • Ketel One Ad:

     • Who is this ad for?
     • How does the ad define/construct masculinity?

   • Meet The Parents:

   • Men in predominantly feminine fields tend to find their sexuality publicly scrutinized.

   • Identity management techniques used to maintain hegemonic masculinity might include:

     1. Being homophobic,
     2. Devaluing femininity,
     3. Increasing masculine bravado, and
     4. Claiming masculine space within the larger feminized arena.

5. "Guy Talk" maintains that men should strictly avoid activities culturally determined to be feminine.

   • Portrays women as less intelligent and less athletic than men - that the men "pick up on things faster than women do"

   • Involves talking about how great it is to be around "all these hot women"

6. Orthodox vs. Inclusive Masculine performances:

   • What is the difference?

     • Orthodox masculinity maintains that men should strictly avoid activities culturally seen as feminine.

       • It approximates hegemonic masculinity.
       • Examples?

     • Inclusive masculinity is unconcerned with differences and embraces the "coded femininity" of some tasks.

       • Examples?

   • How is "orthodox masculinity" performed?

   • How is "inclusive masculinity" performed?

7. Critics of the study:

   • What did you think of this piece?

   • What do you think about the implications of this socialization for male-female relationships?