What is human nature? Are
you born the way you are today, or are your behaviors learned from influences
in your lives? In Lesson 3, you learn about some of the theories that answer
these questions. The way you display gender behaviors, your values, your beliefs,
and your ideals may all be influenced by the various agents of socialization.
Read on to learn more about this very interesting topic.
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Readings, Resources, |
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Required Textbook |
Read Chapter 3, Socialization |
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Multimedia Resources |
There is no audio in the following slide show: Chapter 3 Slide Show |
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Required Assignments |
Lesson 3 Quiz Lesson 3 Short Answer |
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Sociology Research |
Check Prior Knowledge
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Welcome to Lesson 3! Before moving on, take time to check your |
Remember, this game is not
a graded assignment. It is intended as a fun and interactive way to begin your
learning of the Lesson 3 concepts. Have fun with it!
Game
Link:
Lesson 3 Game
Focusing Your Learning
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Please take the time to review the following lesson objectives. |
Lesson
Objectives
By the end
of this lesson, you should be able to:
- Recognize the
roles that both nature and nurture play in social development. - Define
socialization. - Distinguish
between the theories of human development. - Describe ways in
which gender socialization by the family channels human behavior. - Identify the
ways in which cultural stereotypes of the sexes are perpetuated in the
mass media and how peer groups use media images to construct ideas about
gender-appropriate behavior. - List and
describe the influence of each agent of socialization. - Define the term resocializationand discuss the
process of resocialization that takes place within total institutions. - Discuss
socialization through the course of life by summarizing each of the
stages. - Explain why human beings are not
prisoners of socialization.
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Lesson 3 Key Words |
Instruction
Socialization
Introduction
What makes you human? Are
you born with everything you need to know? Do your biological genes dictate how
you will behave or what language you will speak? Does naturein its purest scientific
sense give you everything you need to live in your culture, or do the people
with whom you livenurtureyou and,
as blank slates, write in your brain what it means to be human?
Sociologists study such
questions because the answers are so important in studying how people behave in
large and small groups and how they form their societies.
Film Foray
Greystoke:
The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes(1984),
which was nominated for three Oscars, is based on the novel written by Edgar Rice
Burroughs. In 1886, following a shipwreck off the west coast of Africa and the
death of his human parents, an infant child (the future seventh Earl of
Greystoke) is adopted by a female lowland gorilla who has lost her own baby.
The little boy is then raised as a member of his great ape mother’s family. As
“Tarzan” grows, he learns the culture and the laws of the jungle, and
he eventually defeats the ruling male silverback gorilla to become the alpha
leader of the family. He is discovered by a French explorer who forces him to
recognize his differences from his ape family and who subsequently teaches him
rudimentary English. His human mentor convinces him to return to civilization
and to his human inheritance. This film is an outstanding example of a human
being caught between two vastly different worlds who is not completely
comfortable in either one. The Legend of
Tarzan, Lord of the Apesis a story that has been
overworked; this version is the best of the lot and the one that is most
faithful to Burroughs’s book. It is a gorgeous production, with fine acting by
Christopher Lambert (Tarzan), Ian Holm, and Sir Ralph Richardson. It is a
must-see.
Nature vs. Nurture
To explain the social developmentof a
human being, it has been learned through extensive studies and research efforts
that two key teams, or sets of influences, are in play:
- Nature: one’s
heredity, gene pool, ancestry, and biology - Nurture: one’s social
environment, close ties to other humans, and psychology
One way to look at the role natureplays is to study twins,
who share identical genes, but who were separated at birth and raised in
different cultural or societal settings. Do the genes that twins share account
for their subsequent human development? Are they identical in every way no matter
how or by whom they are raised? Oddly, they do behave identically in some ways;
for example, they share athletic prowess or musical talent. Their attitudes,
values, and worldviews may be radically different, however. These areas of
human development are still of intense interest to scientists.
The other main method is to
study children raised in isolation, children who had little contact with
members of their own species, and children who were deprived of the nurturingenvironment that teaches
them not only how to be human but also what constitutes their humanity, their human way of
viewing themselves and the world around them. They are known as feral children(behaving like wild
animals); isolated
children(deprived of most human contact or having very limited human
contact); and institutionalized
children(warehoused children, receiving only cold, remote care from
non-nurturing workers).
What does your culture
include as its members, taking into account the Nature Team vs. the Nurture
Team? Who or what wins out in the end? It is a combination of both, of course,
a least theoretically!
Film Foray
Nell(1994),
which received an Oscar nomination, stars Jodie Foster as “Nell,” a
girl who has been brought up in isolation in the remote North Carolina backwoods.
The only human contacts she ever had were with her mother and twin sister.
Because of her lack of socialization, Nell never learns to speak English,
relying instead on a private “language” created with her sister. Nell
ends up being forced to adjust to a whole new world by a country doctor, who
discovers her isolated condition, and a team of psychologists, who want to
study her as a “wild child” in their university laboratory. The legal
battle over Nell’s future is decided in court by a judge, who decides that the
psychologists have three months to observe her in her “natural
surroundings” before a decision is made about her future.
How to Make a Human Being
Nature and nurture aside,
sociologists define the “making of a human being” as socialization. Any extreme way of
socializing a child is likely to have a profound effect on what kind of human
being results. This is common sense. Therefore, as children, you need to learn
a sense of self(your
image of who you are; male or female, for example) and how to use your mind to reasonand learn.
Human
development, or socialization, is
divided into three main
schoolsof theoretical thought:
- The
Looking-Glass Self(Charles H. Cooley, 1864-1929) was
developed by Cooley, a symbolic interactionistwho believed
that one’s sense of selfhood – one’s humanity – developed through
interaction with other human beings. This selfhoodcame about when
you imagined how you appeared to others and how you interpreted other
people’s reaction to you. Based on whether you received or imagined
positive or negative self-appearance or cues from the people around you,
you developed either positive
self-conceptsor negative
self- concepts. - Role-Taking(George H. Mead,
1863-1931), or role-playing, allows
children to pretend to be someone else, to imagine what it would be like
to be someone else, and to feelas he or she
does. Role-takingis most commonly
expressed through imitation(up to age
three), play(ages three to
six, roughly) and games(organized or
team games, ages seven and up). At first, children concentrate on taking
on the roles of theirsignificant others(how their
parents, for example, see them). This is later expanded to generalized
others(how
people in general perceive them). - The
Development of Reasoning(Jean Piaget, 1896-1980) breaks
down your thought method into four main stages: - the
sensorimotor stage(from birth to age 2) of direct
contact with the environment through touching, sucking, listening, and
looking, for example - the
preoperational stage(from ages 2-7) of learning how
to use symbols, like numbers - the
concrete operational stage(from ages 7-12) of understanding
symbols along with cause and effect - the
formal operational stage(age 12 and on) of learning
abstract thinking, along with concepts like equality, poverty, general
principles, use of rules to solve problems, and so on
Although the ages at which the four stages are reached or surpassed vary, it is
universally agreed that all children pass through the stages outlined above;
that is, they begin with the concrete elements of life and then progress to the
more abstract ways of learning. Social experiences – schooling, for example –
may also improve or enhance the ability of humans to engage in advanced
abstract or formal reasoning.
Film Foray
Blast
from the Past(1999) stars Brendan Fraser, the son of
survivalists who lock themselves in their bomb shelter for 35 years after a
bomb scare – probably the Cuban missile crisis, although it’s uncertain what
caused them to entomb themselves. Out of necessity, their child, Adam, must
finally leave the shelter for food and supplies, which are running out after 35
years! The child of an eccentric inventor and his wife, Adam knows only the
world of the family bomb shelter. He is also ordered by his father to bring
back a “non-mutant wife” for himself. After receiving serious
socialization shocks from a quite-different culture from the one in which he
was raised, he meets Eve (played by Alicia Silverstone). The rest, as they say,
is history!
Gender Socialization
Society expects you to
behave in certain ways simply because you are born either maleor female. This single concept, gender socialization, pushes you down different
cultural paths, as determined by the society into which you are born. You have
little choice in this. You behave as it is expected of you as an either male or
female member of your families, your peer groups, the larger group to which
you belong as perpetuated by the mass
media(print, film, advertising, radio, television, and so on), and your workplace(the groups in which you
spend a significant portion of your life earning a living).
Family Gender Socialization
In addition to your own
family, other closely related gender reinforcements, most of which are family-based, are received from:
- neighborhood
affiliation - religion, as
practiced by your family, or its absence - day care, both
home-based and commercial - school, whether
private, public, or home-schooling
However, the most profound
impact on your gender socialization is, without question, how you are raised by
the people in your immediate family. There is almost no substitute for the
depth to which your nurturing environment determines your gender socialization.
The Snowshoes
She grew up in a small town
on the outskirts of one of the most beautiful U.S. national forests. For her,
winter was the magical time, the time when the biting bugs were all dead and
the forest floor was covered with a deep layer of soft snow. And, the winter
forest was as full of life then as it was during the warmer seasons of the
year; she simply had to look for it.
The warm little snow caves
that the partridges nestled in to keep themselves warm were easy to find. The
tracks of deer, bobcat, fox, and mink were easy to follow. Even the sudden
messed-up pile of snow sprinkled with drops of blood showed where a rabbit had
been caught and killed, the tracks said, by a bobcat. But, it was hard going;
the snow was deep and difficult to move through. She couldn’t go very far and
usually returned home soaked to the waist and exhausted. She needed a pair of
snowshoes.
Every year, she and her
siblings wrote up lists of presents they wanted to get from Santa Claus,
addressed to him at the North Pole. This was just one of the many traditions
they all loved, like leaving milk and cookies out for St. Nick to eat on his
journey and cutting down the perfect evergreen tree at the tree farm. And,
every year from the age of 9 until she turned 12, she wrote at the top of her
Santa Wish List: A Pair of
Snowshoes.
She knew exactly the kind
she wanted; they were called “Bear Paws,” and they were sold in
different sizes with adjustable bindings. Even the name itself seemed almost
magical, as if a black bear itself would strap them on, but, of course, all of
the black bears hibernated in the winter. Starting in October, she pored over
the L.L. Bean, Cabela’s, and Eddie Bauer catalogues, looking at the snowshoe
advertisements in full color. For two years in a row, she cut out pictures of
the snowshoes she liked the best and taped the pages to her Santa List.
She never got them. She
never knew why, and she was too shy to ask, even though she knew by the age of
10 that her parents were really surrogates for Santa Claus. The first year she
asked for snowshoes, she got a beautiful walking doll; the second year, she got
a miniature stove that actually baked using the heat of a light bulb; the third
year, she got a miniature sewing machine; and the fourth year, the year she
turned 12, she got a down parka and a paint-by-numbers set of landscapes. She
never got snowshoes from Santa Claus.
Her brothers got their
plastic toy soldiers; their Lincoln Log sets; their model car, plane, and boat
kits; and other boy toys – everything they asked for, as a matter of fact. But
they didn’t ask for or care about getting snowshoes, and she did. She wanted
them more than anything else; they could even be her only gift, if she had to
choose only one!
When she turned 13, and
after they moved into a new house with an attached barn, she found an old pair
of snowshoes in the hayloft. They were too big for her, and some of the sinews
and bindings were broken or missing. She repaired them with old shoelaces,
twine, and duct tape. They were wonderful, although heavy and hard to walk in.
At least they let her waddle across the top of the deep snow, and from that
point, the winter magic of the national forest expanded and was wonderful to
behold.
When she turned 22, she
bought a pair of “Bear Paws” for herself from L.L. Bean, and although
she never lived anywhere near a great northern forest again, she carries them
with her to this day – just in case!
Gender Socialization by
Peers and the Mass Media
Pressures to conform to genderand cultural stereotypesexist in
your own family, but a peer group(that is,
members of your own immediate social group, usually close in age) and the mass mediahave equally profound
effects on your gender socialization. Among your peers, particularly in school,
you’re “out” if you don’t carry the latest cell phone, wear the
coolest kind of jeans, get invited to the best parties, and move about as part
of the “in” crowd.
Everyone has had to deal
with peer group pressure, and
children can be cruel in forcing their compatriots to conform to this pressure.
To be “out” of the loop, to be perceived as “uncool” or
“lame,” can be devastating! Even conversational topics can decide if
you’re “right” with your peer group. The latest films, video games,
slang or jargon and the right way of speaking or even moving have significant
impact.
The influences exerted by mass media, which is the third main
method of exerting pressure on gender socialization, especially through
television and video gaming, cannot be underestimated. The amount of time
people spend watching television (and playing online computer games) continues
to rise. The impact of television alone is profound. Its portrayal of how males
and females are expected to behave in society is easily recognized, and
EVERYONE participates.
- Advertisements(Everyone is
thin and physically attractive, dressed in the latest fashions, and
sporting the current, correct “look.”) - Shows(from portraying
women as dysfunctional mothers or bored, promiscuous housewives to
typifying men as boorish, profane, clueless, one-note cavemen) - Sports(Men get more
coverage and more money; women do not and are still struggling to compete
in traditionally “male” sports.) - Comedy(produced from a
witty “battle of the sexes” viewpoint; denigrating women’s
roles, appearance, and demeanor; and blowing up the less attractive and
unsavory elements of male behavior) - Videogames(may be changing
how sex roles are viewed, since they flash the latest snapshots of
contemporary society; however, many games that rely on violence, mayhem,
or extremes of blood-letting – by male or female characters – may be
creating new problems.)
Resocialization
Now that you have been
socialized to the maximum, what does it mean to become resocialized? Resocializationdefines what in Italian is
called avolte face(vole-tay
fah-chay – a complete about-face, like the military term for a 180-degree
change in marching direction). Whenever a person’s life changes significantly
and now requires the learning of a new set of behaviors, norms, values, and
attitudes, that person is undergoingresocialization.
Examples of people becoming resocializedinclude:
- nuns and priests
who leave convents and monasteries - recovering drug
addicts or alcoholics - members leaving
a cult or a gang - students moving
on to attend college after graduating from secondary school
Total
institutional resocializationcan be even more extreme.
People who are totally controlled by an institutionare cut
off from mainstream society and have little freedom, free will, or choice in
what happens to them or what is demanded of them in terms of conformity or
nonconformity. In many ways, such individuals are helpless. Following what
sociologists refer to as a degradation
ceremony(shaving heads, confiscating all personal items, wearing identical
uniforms, and finger-printing, among other things), an individual’s personal
identity is obliterated, and a new “self” is imposed.
Examples of total institutional resocializationinclude:
- prisons
- boot camps (U.S.
Marine Corps boot camp, for example) - concentration
camps - convents and monasteries
- religious cults
- boarding schools
(the U.S. military academies like West Point and Annapolis, along with
private military schools like the Virginia Military Institute)
Film Foray
Full
Metal Jacket(1987), a stunning film about the resocialization
needed to prepare men for battle, has relevance and meaning for today’s wars.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick and nominated for an Oscar, the film follows a
platoon of U.S. Marines through their basic training and up-to-the-street
fighting that occurred in Hue, Vietnam, in 1968. Considered one of the finest
war films ever made, its power is devastating.
Socialization Through the
Ages
Socializationitself
never ends. It continues throughout your life, affected by the stages you pass
through as you age. As your life progresses, you don’t acquire immunity to or
relief from the pressures of socialization. Briefly, sociologists classify the life coursesyou take by approximate age
groupings, based on research that began with the Industrial Revolution and its
profound impact on human cultures. (However, it should be noted here that some
people never grow up!)
These life stagesare briefly listed below:
- childhood(birth to age
12): viewed as a time of innocence and dependency, requiring adult care,
comfort, and protection. - adolescence(ages 13-17): a
new concept not based on biology, but based instead on acquiring
self-identity, education, subculture membership, and societal symbols of
“belonging”. - transitional
adulthood(ages 18-29), or
“adultolescence”: defines the post- industrial society’s
addition of another, new stage, which covers continuing, advanced
education and a postponing of adult responsibilities. - middle
years(ages
30-65): Self-confidence is gained, and goals become more concrete, but
major adjustments for men and women occur, and most are relationship-based
(divorce), career-based (working women), or job upheavals (losing or
changing jobs). - later
middle years(ages 50-65): can be the most
rewarding stage of a life, with job security, good income, high standard
of living, great vacations, and relative freedom from childcare. However,
health problems start to occur, and you are forced to face the fact that
you will die. You realize that you have only a little “time left to
live.” And sadly, you must watch your parents age and care for them
as they once cared for you. - older
years(age
65 and beyond): the years you hope to hold off forever and which you view
now as merely an extension of your middle years. Age 60 is now the
“new age 40,” and for many it is! Ask a 60-year-old if he or she
is “old,” and you will be told an emphatic “No!” The
defining characteristics of these years appear to be feelings of happiness
and fulfillment with life, work, and relationships. The prospect of death
becomes less unreal and less abstract, however, and this age group knows
that “time is closing in on them.”
Stuck in Socialization
Prison?
No, you are not a prisoner
of your socialization. Despite all the pressures exerted by society to make you
conform and follow the spoken and unspoken rules, you are not a cyborg, robot,
or unthinking automaton. People are unique and propelled by a strong
self-image. You are a rebel, maverick, and contrarian. You don’t like to be
told what to do. It is difficult to destroy or deny a person’s selfhood; in fact, it is nearly
impossible. Many try, but few succeed.
You are, after all, a
dynamic, living organism. You are a human being. You are not a passive sponge
into which everything soaks without your permission or control. You constantly
reinvent yourself. You writhe inside yourself in your desire to experience
change and new beginnings, like a snake shedding old skin. This is as it should
be, and it is healthy.
You are, in the end, left
with free willand choice. You can accept or reject
the forces, ideas, values, and pressures that society tries to impose on you.
Every day is new, fresh, and unexplored. Who can resist such potential voyages
of discovery and self-exploration?
