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Week 3
Part A
Socialization & Culture
Individuals & Society
Socialization
A lifelong social experience
The process through which people are taught or made to “fit” with other human
The process through which we develop our potential and learn patterns of our culture
An ongoing process of culture transmission
individually and collectively shapes our lives
People can attempt to resist socialization
Is socialization inherent or learned?
Nature Vs. Nurture
Nature
Life depends on functioning of the body
Heredity plays a part in intelligence, and personality characteristics
All behaviour is predetermined
Nurture
Behaviour is learned, humans are “blank slates” and privileges come from pre-existing inequalities
Many current values and behaviour different from grandparents, with whom we share genes
Socialization
Social experience
Our ongoing, lifelong experiences shape our personality – our typical way of thinking, feeling and acting
Personality
Theories and Socialization
Functionalism
Aids in forming individual personality
Cultural transmission of language and culture
Aids in social integration – people come together, sharing and identifying with each other
Conflict Approaches
Social reproduction – societies reproduces itself in terms of status and privilege
What is learned varies by gender, class and race/ethnicity
Theories and Socialization Continued
Feminist Approaches - Similar concern to conflict theorists.
Especially important is the internalization of “gendered order
Desire to modify socialization processes to address inequalities
(2005, Education Canada)
Theories & Socialization:
Symbolic Interaction
Cooley
Thomas
George Herbert Mead
Goffman
Social Interaction, Structure, and Construction of Reality
Social Interaction
the process by which people act and react in relation to others
Social Structure
any relatively stable pattern of social behaviour
Status
A recognized social position that a person occupies
Status set - all the statuses a person holds at a given time
Ascribed Status - a social position a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life
Achieved Status - a social position a person achieves voluntarily that reflects ability and effort
Master Status - a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life
The Social Construction of Reality
The process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction
symbolic-interaction paradigm
social interaction is a complex negotiation of reality
Symbolic Interactionism
Thomas – “Definition of the Situation”
If a situation is defined as real, it is real in it’s consequences
Cooley – “The Looking-Glass Self”
personality is shaped as individuals see selves mirrored in others’ reactions, what we think of ourselves depends on what we think others think of us.
Who we are is a result of how others see us, this can be enlightening, disappointing or satisfying.
Symbolic Interactionism
George Herbert Mead
Role-taking – good communication involves taking the role of the other.
The Social Self -- part of an individual’s personality that is composed of self-awareness and self-image
Self develops from social interaction.
Social experience is the exchange of symbols (gestures and language are symbols).
Empathy -- Understanding intention requires imagining the situation from the other’s point of view.
By taking the role of the other we become self-aware.
Mead’s Development of Self
Play stage: children practice the role of another, e.g., parent, female infant feeds doll and puts doll to bed
Game stage: then learn to take roles of multiple others, e.g., roles of members of a sports team – baseball: catcher, batter, outfielder
Generalized other: finally learn what is expected of us, this is based on cultural norms and values we use in evaluating others
Significant others: well-known people who affect their lives (2005: Education Canada)
Erving Goffman
Dramaturgical Analysis:
“The Presentation of Self”
Dramaturgical Analysis:
The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performances
Front & Back Stage Self, Masks
The Presentation of Self/Impression management:
An individual’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others
Performances
We convey information to others as we present ourselves
Nonverbal Communication
using body movements, gestures, and facial expressions to communicate
Body Language and Deception
Sometimes body language contradicts spoken language
Gender and Personal Performances
demeanour; use of space;
staring, smiling, and touching
Goffman -- Continued
Idealization
We construct performances to idealize our intentions
Embarrassment and Tact
Discomfort after a spoiled performance
Helping someone “save face” so that “reality” is not swept away
Goffman -- Continued
Back to Socialization:
Socialization Contexts
Problems with contexts:
inadequate socialization: lack of exposure to all experiences
defective socialization: unintended outcomes
Disjunctive socialization: lack of continuity between settings
Anticipatory socialization: can compensate by encouraging a person to act according to future roles and responsibilities
Self-socialization: people construct their own life course
Agents of Socialization
Religious Affiliations
Family
teaches skills, values and places in social positions
Importance of early relationships:
Healthy influence: Secure, loving, trusting environment
Maltreatment: Physical, emotional and sexual abuse
Education System
teaches knowledge and skills, hidden curriculum, and bureaucracy
Peer Group
teaches the forming of relationships, the “generation gap” and fashions
Agents of Socialization - Cont’d
Mass Media & Popular Culture
Impersonal communications aimed at a wide audience.
Television is the main medium, people spend as much as 55 hours a week watching tv or on the computer
culture is increasingly segmented by age
conduit for affecting consumer behaviour
liberation marketing appears to criticize middle-class values to promote own products
companies want to cultivate long-term customers
CULTURE
Part 2
Culture
Cultural passed via socialization
shared by most group members
passed from the old to the young
shapes behaviour
Culture: sum total of all cultural elements.
Values: shared general beliefs about what is desirable or undesirable.
Norms: relatively precise rules for permitted or prohibited behaviours.
(2005: Education Canada)
Types of Norms
Folkways: norms, like types of clothing to wear, that do not evoke severe moral condemnation when violated.
Mores: norms whose violation does provoke condemnation, e.g., killing.
Society: a large group of people who
Share a common culture
Think of selves as inheriting common traditions
Interact with other group members frequently
Associated with a geographic area (2005: Education Canada)
Social Roles
Role: a cluster of behavioural expectations associated with a social position, e.g., teachers lecture, assign grades, do research, and so on.
Role conflicts: expectations with one role are inconsistent with those of another,
e.g., work/family obligations.
Subculture: a group that possess elements that set them apart from the main culture.
(2005: Education Canada)
Cultural Variation
Cultures exhibit enormous variation regarding values norms and roles. Some cultures have
many gods
males that are not competitive
biological males who take on female roles
Is globalization reducing variation?
McDonaldization of many societies is occurring
But restaurants and TV programs are “localized”
(2005: Education Canada)
Cultural Universals
Elements that are found in every known society.
Every culture has rules about
Sexual behaviour
Incest taboo – although Pharaohs of Egypt married sisters
Patriarchy: men have more power than women
Matriarchies occur -- but women do not have as much power as men in patriarchies
(2005: Education Canada)
Cultural Integration
Elements of a society are integrated; change one and others may change.
Studying Culture:
Ethnocentrism: seeing things from the point of view of the observer’s culture
Eurocentrism: seeing things from the point of view of Western society (not just Europe)
Androcentrism: seeing things from a male point of view, e.g., seeing men as active and women as passive
(2005: Eductaion Canada)
Conflict Theory
Cultural beliefs are ideology: a system of thought that serves existing inequalities
Sociology of knowledge: the study of the influence of social factors on what constitutes knowledge in a society
Encourages the challenging of unexamined attitudes and beliefs
(2005: Education Canada)
Cultural Materialism
Cultures are adaptations to the physical environment, not determined by ideologies
Hindu ban on killing cows, because cows are needed to get oxen to do plowing and provide dung for fuel. If they were killed for food, the farmers and families would not survive.
(2005: Education Canada)
From Sociology
to Cultural Studies
Europeans influenced the study of culture
Foucault argued “homosexual” was an invention of the 19th century to bring it under control of the medical profession
Groneman argued the “nymphomaniac” was similarly applied to control women
Sociology is being supplanted by cultural studies in some bookstores. Will trend continue?
(2005: Education Canada)
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