Lec iv Socialization - Imran Ahmad Sajid

IMRAN AHMAD SAJID
SOCIALIZATION

Social Experience is the Key to our
Humanity
• Human infants are born without any
culture. They must be transformed by
their parents, teachers, and others into
cultural and socially adept animals.
• The general process of acquiring
culture is referred to as socialization .
• During socialization, we learn the
language of the culture we are born
into as well as the roles we are to play
in life.
• We also learn and usually adopt our
culture's norms through the
socialization process.
For instance, girls learn
how to be daughters,
sisters, friends, wives,
and mothers. In
addition, they learn
about the occupational
roles that their society
has in store for them.

Socialization
• Transforms Biological Organisms into Social
Beings
• “Self”
• Our recognition that we are at once distinct
and part of a whole

Definition
• Socialization is the process by which older members of a
society teach their way of life to the young.
• From the point of view of a young girl or boy, socialization is
also the process of developing a personality.
Macionis, 2012
• Socialization refers to the lifelong social experience by
which people develop their human potential and learn
culture.
Socialization [is a] process by which people, especially
children, learn acceptable and unacceptable behaviors for a
given environment.*
*"Socialization." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

• Socialization [is] the process whereby an
individual learns to adjust to a group (or
society) and behaves in a manner approved by
the group (or society).
Encyclopedia Britannica

• Socialization …. [is] the process whereby
people learn to conform to social norms.
Penguin Dictionary of Sociology

Socialization: Nature vs Nurture
• Biological Sciences: Role of Nature
– Charles Darwin’s: Human behaviour is instinctive and
is natural.
– People are born criminals, women are emotional, men
are rational, women are emptional, colonialism is
justified.
• Social Science: Role of Nurture*
– John B. Watson: Human behaviour is not instinctive
but learned.
– Everywhere, people are equally human, differing only
in their cultural patterns.
– Nurture is nature.
*take care of young thing

If socialization makes us….
• Then what does isolation do?

What if you are isolated from other
human being?
• Harry and Margaret Harlow (1962)
experiments on monkeys.
– Complete isolation for six months
seriously disturb the monkey’s
development.
– Monkey’s with artificial mother: did
better
– Conclusion: contact comfort is a
variable of overwhelming importance
in the development of affectional
response
– Adults affectionate Cradle is important
for infants.
When
brought
back in
group,
those
monkeys
were
Passive,
anxious,
and
fearful

Understanding Socialization
1. Sigmund Freud
2. Jean Piaget
3. Lawrence Kohlberg
4. Carol Gilligan
5. George Herbert Mead
6. Erik Erikson
Socialization refers to the lifelong social
experience by which people develop their
human potential and learn culture.
Macionis, 2012

1. SIGMUND FREUD:
ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY
• 1856-1939  people thought human behaviour
is biologically fixed
• Basic Human Needs
– Two basic human needs present at birth
– Need for sexual and emotional bonding, “life instinct”
or eros (god of love)
– Aggressive drive, “death instinct” or thanatos (god for
death)
• These opposing forces operate on unconscious
level and create inner tension
•Personality: a person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling
(Macionis).

• Freud combined basic needs and influence of
society into a model of personality with three
parts:
1. The Id (Latin for “it”):
2. The Ego (Latin for “I”)
3. The Superego (Latin for Beyond or above the
ego)

The Id
• Id represents the human being’s basic drives,
which are unconscious and demand
immediate satisfaction.
• Motivates for bundles of demands for
attention, touching and food.
• BUT, society opposes self-centred id

The Ego
• To avoid tension, a child must learn to
approach the world realistically.
• This is done through ego.
• Ego represents a person’s conscious efforts to
balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with
the demands of society.
• Ego arises as we become aware of our
existence and face the fact that we cannot
have everything we want.

The Superego
• The superego is the cultural values and norms
internalized by an individual.
• It operates as our conscience, telling us why
we cannot have everything we want.

Personality Development
• Initially, children can feel good only in physical way (e.g.
being held and cuddled)
• After three or four years, they feel good or bad according to
how they judge their behaviour against cultural norms.
• Culture, in the form of superego, represses selfish
demands, forcing people to look beyond their own desires.
Often the competing demands of self and society result in a
compromise that Freud called sublimation.
• Sublimation redirects selfish drives into socially acceptable
behaviour. For example, marriage makes the satisfaction of
sexual urges socially acceptable, and competitive sports are
an outlet for aggression.

Conclusion from Freud
• We internalize social norms.
• Childhood experience have a lasting impact on
personality.

2. JEAN PIAGET’S THEORY OF
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLE
1
SENSORIMOTOR
STAGE
0-2 years Experience the world only
through sense
Touching, tasting,
smelling, looking,
listening.
2
PREOPERATIONAL
STAGE
2-6 years Use language and other
symbols
Begin to think about the
world and use imagination
Lack abstract concepts
Today is Wednesday…
No today is my
birthday.
Glass experiment
3
CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL STAGE
7-11 years See causal connection in
surrounding
How and why things
happen
Today is Wednesday…
Yes and its also my
birthday
4
FORMAL
OPERATIONAL STAGE
12+ years Think abstractly and
critically
Understand
metaphors.
Swiss Psychologist

Conclusion from Piaget
• We are not passive receivers of culture.
• Mind is active and creative in socialization.

3. LAWRENCE KOHLBERG’S THEORY
OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT
• Built on Piaget’s work.
• Studied “How individuals judge situations as
right or wrong.”

1 PRE-CONVENTIONAL
STAGE
Young Children • Experience the world in terms of
pain or pleasure
• Right is what feels good to me.
2 CONVENTIONAL STAGE Teen Years • Define right and wrong in terms of
what pleases parents and conforms
to cultural norms.
• Assess situation to make judgment.
• Stealing food to feed hungry is not
the same as stealing an iPhon to sell
for pocket money.
3 POST-CONVENTIONAL
STAGE
Adulthood • Move beyond society’s norms.
• Consider abstract ethical principles.
• Think about Liberty, freedom or
justice
• What is legal still may not be right.

• Kohlberg’s research was focused on boys only.

4. CAROL GILLIGAN’S THEORY OF
GENDER AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT
BOYS GIRLS
1 Have a Justice Perspective. Have a Care and Responsibility
Perspective.
2 Rely on formal rules to define right and
wrong
Judgment based on personal
relationships and loyalties.
3 Impersonal rules dominate men’s lives
at workplace
Personal relationships are more
relevant to women’s lives as mothers
and caregivers
4 Rules-Based Male reasoning is superior Person-Based female reasoning is not
superior
Childhood is a time to learn the principles of right and wrong.
According to Gilligan, however, boys and girls define what is “right” in different ways.

• How does Gilligan’s research show the
importance of gender in socialization process?
• Do you think boys are subject to some of the
same pressures and difficulties as girls? What
about the fact that a much smaller share of
boys than girls make it to college? Exp
• Can you think of ways in which your gender
has shaped the development of your
personality?

5. GEORGE HERBERT MEAD’S THEORY
OF THE SOCIAL SELF
• Self is the part of an individual’s personality
composed of self-awareness and self-image.
• The self is not there at birth, it develops. The
self is not part of the body and it does not
exist at birth.
• The self develops with social experience, i.e.
through interaction with others. Without
interaction, the body grows but no self
emerges.

Click here for video clip
• As we interact with others, the people around us
become a mirror (the looking glass) in which we can
see ourselves.
• What we think of ourselves, then, depends on how
we think others see us.
• e.g., if we think others see us as clever, we will think of
ourselves in the same way. But if we feel they think of
us as clumsy, then that is how we will see ourselves.
• Charles Horton Cooley use the phrase “the looking
glass self” to mean a self-image based on how we
think others see us.

The “I” and “Me”
• Throughout our lives, we take the role of others.
• By taking the role of other, we become self-aware. Another
way of saying this is that the self has two parts.
• I:- One part of the self operates as the subject, being active
and spontaneous. Mead called the active side of the self
the “I” (the subjective form of the personal pronoun).
• ME:- The other part of the self works as an object, that is,
the way we imagine others see us. Mead called the
objective side of the self the “Me” (the objective form of
the personal pronoun).
• All social experience has both components. We initiate an
action (the I-phase, or subject side, of self), and then we
continue the action based on how others respond to us
(the Me-phase, or object side, of self).

How self Develops?
• The key to developing self is learning to take the
role of the others.
• At preparatory stage, infants can only imitate
others around them. Using gestures, hand clap,
raising eyebrows, etc.
• There are three significant activities through
which the self is developed:
1. Language,
2. Play, and
3. Game.

1. Language
• Language develops self by allowing individuals
to respond to each other through symbols,
gestures, words, and sounds.
• Language conveys others' attitudes and
opinions toward a subject or the person.
• Emotions, such as anger, happiness, and
confusion, are conveyed through language.

Self takes one
other role in
one situation
• Play develops self by allowing
individuals to take on different
roles, pretend, and express
expectation of others.
• Play develops one's self-
consciousness through role-
playing.
2. Play

• Games develop self by allowing individuals to
understand and adhere to the rules of the
activity.
• e.g., cricket and football (based on rules)
Self takes roles of
many others in
one situation
3. Game

• Game involves taking the role of specific
people in just one situation. Everyday life
demands that we see ourselves in terms of
cultural norms as any member of our society
might.
Taking roles of
many others in
many situations

Conclusion
• No matter how much the world shapes us, we
always remain creative beings, able to react to
the world around us.
• We play a key role in our own socialization.

• whether you described yourself in terms of social roles or personal
qualities?
• A-mode responses are the type of physical characteristics : “I am a
blonde”; “I am short”; I am a resident of Garhi Baloch.”
• B-mode responses describe socially defined statuses usually associated
with group membership of some sort: “I am a college student”; “I am a
Muslim”; I am an Pakhtoon.”
• C-mode responses describe styles of behavior or emotional states: “I am a
happy person”; “I am a country music fan”; “I am a fashionable dresser.”
• D-mode responses are more general than individual: “I am part of the
universe”; “I am a human being.”
• You may have some difficulty deciding how to categorize some of your
responses—for example, where does “I am an American” go—in A, B, or
D? Use your best judgment. Count the number of each type of response.
Now compare the totals—which category got the most responses?

• Those with more B-mode responses base their self-concept on
group membership and institutional roles.
• Those with more C-mode responses see themselves as more
independent, and define themselves according to their individual
actions and emotions rather than their connections to others.
• It is likely that there are few (if any) people whose responses fall
predominantly in the A or D mode.
• Those with more A-mode responses may feel that they have a “skin
deep” self-concept, based more on their appearance to others than
on their internal qualities.
• Those with more D-mode responses are harder to categorize, and
may feel uncertain about the source of their sense of self.

• Socialization refers to the lifelong social
experience by which people develop their
human potential and learn culture.
Macionis, 2012

6. Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of
Development
Life passes through 8 stages of psycho-social development
Each stage involves a challenge to balance two competing forces.
Successful reconciliation of these forces in each stage results in a
corresponding virtue (favourable outcome of a stage)

1. INFANCY
TRUST VS MISTRUST
• Can I trust the world?
• Immediately after birth, infants face the first
of life’s challenges: to establish a sense of
trust that their world is a safe place.
Birth – 18 months
Hope
If caregivers are consistent
source of food, comfort, and
affection  an infant learns
Trust—that others are
dependable and reliable
If the caregivers are neglectful
or abusive, the infant learns
mistrust—that the world is an
undependable, unpredictable,
and possibly dangerous place.

2. TODDLERHOOD
AUTONOMY VS SHAME
• Is it OK to be Me?
• Child start moving on their own at this age.
• They like to explore the world around them.
• The child asks, can I explore the world if I wish so?
• Children also develop their 1st interest at this age.
2 to 3 years
Will

3. PRESCHOOL
INITIATIVE VS GUILT
• Is it OK for me to Do, Move and Act?
• Children start learning to master the world around them.
• They know that things fall down, not up. That round things roll, they
learn to zip and tie, etc.
• At this stage, children want to begin and complete their own
actions for a purpose.
3 o 5 years
Purpose

4. PREADOLESCENCE
INDUSTRY VS INFERIORITY
• Can I make it in the World of People and things?
• Becoming more aware about themselves as Individuals.
• Work hard at being responsible, being good, and doing
it right.
• Learn complex skills: reading, writing, telling time, and
formal values.
6 to 11 years
Competence
If children are encouraged to make
and do things and are then praised
for their accomplishments, they
being to demonstrate industry by
being diligent, persevering at tasks
until completed, and putting work
before pleasure.
If children are rediculed or punished
for their efforts or if they are
incapable of meeting their teachers’
and parents’ expectations, they
develop feelings of inferiority about
their abilities.

5. ADOLESCENCE
• IDENTITY VS ROLE CONFLICT
• Who am I and What Can I Be?
• Adolescent is now concerned with how they
appear to others.
• What are my religious and social values? What is
expected of me? What can I be? What might be
the best occupation for me?
• Initially, they experience some role confusion–
mixed ideas and feelings about the specific ways
in which they will fit into society
12 to 18 years
Fidelity*
* loyalty to an allegiance, promise, or vow

• Identity Crisis 
• Adolescence forges past experiences with
anticipation of future.
• What have I got and what am I going to do with
it?
• One’s personal ideologies are now chosen for
oneself.
• When adolescent has balanced both perspectives
of “what have I got?” and “what am I going to do
with it?” he or she has established his/her
identity.
Past Present Future

• Most individuals resolve identity crisis during
their twenties.
• For genius, identity crisis stage is longer.
• Gandhi and Martin Luther King resolved their
conflicts at ages 30 and 25 respectively.

6. YOUNG ADULTHOOD
INTIMACY VS ISOLATION
• Can I Love?
• Young adults want intimate relationships.
• We are sometime isolated due to intimacy.
• Once identity is established, people are ready to
make a long-term commitment to others. They
become capable of forming intimate, reciprocal
relationships (e.g. close friendships or marriage)
and willingly make the sacrifices and
compromises that such relationships require.
19 to 40 years
Love

7. MIDDLE ADULTHOOD
• MAKING A DIFFERENCE VS SELF-ABSORPTION
• Can I Make My Life Count?
• People at this stage are concerned with guiding the next
generation and performing socially valued work.
• Can I guide the next generation? Can I contribute to the
Society?
40 to 65 years
Care
If a person contributes in this
stage, a sense of Generativity is
resulted. (a sense of
accomplishment and
productivity).
A person who is self-centered and
unable or unwilling to help society
move forward at this stage develop
a feeling of Stagnation—
dissatisfaction with relative lack of
productivity.

8. OLD-AGE
INTEGRITY VS DESPAIR
• Is it OK to Have Been ME?
• People at this stage look back at their lives and
accomplishments
• We contemplate our accomplishments and are
able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as
leading a successful life.
• If we see our life as unproductive, or feel that we
did not accomplish our life goals, we become
dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often
leading to depression and hopelessness.
65 to death
Wisdom*
*completeness, Wholeness

6. Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of
Development
– the challenge of trust
vs mistrust
– the challenge of
autonomy vs doubt and
shame
initiative vs guilt
industriousness vs
inferiority
– the challenge of gaining
identity vs confusion
– the challenge of intimacy
vs isolation
– the challenge of making a
difference vs self-
absorption
– the challenge of integrity
vs despair

Stage Basic Conflict Important Events Outcome
Infancy (birth to
18 months)
Trust vs.
Mistrust
Feeding Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide
reliabilty, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to
mistrust.
Early Childhood
(2 to 3 years)
Autonomy vs.
Shame and
Doubt
Toilet Training Children need to develop a sense of personal control over
physical skills and a sense of independence. Success leads to
feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and
doubt.
Preschool (3 to 5
years)
Initiative vs.
Guilt
Exploration Children need to begin asserting control and power over the
environment. Success in this stage leads to a sense of
purpose. Children who try to exert too much power
experience disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.
School Age (6 to
11 years)
Industry vs.
Inferiority
School Children need to cope with new social and academic
demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while
failure results in feelings of inferiority.
Adolescence (12
to 18 years)
Identity vs.
Role
Confusion
Social Relationships Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity.
Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while
failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.
Young Adulthood
(19 to 40 years)
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
Relationships Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with
other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while
failure results in loneliness and isolation.
Middle
Adulthood (40 to
65 years)
Generativity
vs. Stagnation
Work and Parenthood Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast
them, often by having children or creating a positive change
that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of
usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in
shallow involvement in the world.
Maturity(65 to
death)
Ego Integrity
vs. Despair
Reflection on Life Older adults need to look back on life and feel a sense of
fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom,
while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Agents / Agencies of Socialization
• In general, Agents are people involved in our
socialization while Agencies represent the
organizations involved in our socialization.

Agents of Socialization
1. Family
2. School
3. Peers
4. Mass Media
5. Religion

1. Family
• Should parents get the credit when their
children turn out to be good kids and even go
on to accomplish great things in life?
• Should they get the blame if their children
turn out to be bad?

• No parent deserves all the credit or blame for
their children’s successes and failures in life,
but the evidence indicates that our parents do
affect us profoundly.

• The ways in which our parents socialize us
depend on many factors,
• two of the most important of which are our
parents’ social class and our own biological
sex.

SOCIAL CLASS:
• How people see and treat you depends on
your social class.
• Working-class parents socialize children in
obedience and respect for authority. They
favor spanking as a primary way of disciplining
their kids when they disobey.
• Middle-class parents emphasize
independence and creativity.

GENDER:
• Parents raise their daughters and sons quite differently as
they interact with them from birth.
• Parents help their girls learn how to act and think “like girls,”
and they help their boys learn how to act and think “like
boys.” That is, they help their daughters and sons learn their
gender (Wood, 2009).
• For example,
– they are gentler with their daughters and rougher with
their sons.
– They give their girls dolls to play with, and their sons guns.
– Girls may be made of “sugar and spice and everything
nice” and boys something quite different, but their parents
help them greatly, for better or worse, to turn out that
way.

• Percentage Believing That Obedience Is Especially Important
for a Child to Learn at home
Source: Data from World Values Survey, 2002.

2. Schools
• Schools socialize children by teaching them
their formal curriculum but also a hidden
curriculum.
• The formal curriculum is the “three Rs”:
Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.
• But there is also a hidden curriculum that
schools impart, and that is the cultural values
of the society in which the schools are found.

• To help you understand the hidden curriculum,
pretend you could wave a Magic Stick and start
your own society.
• Because you would probably want children to
grow up loving their country and respecting your
authority, you realize their schooling needs to
help them grow up this way.
• Q. What would you do in the schools to make
sure this happens?
• Write a few ideas down on a separate sheet of
paper.

• First, --Respect Authority.
– Sit in rows, please their teachers,
• Second, --positive history of the country’s
past.
• Third, --sing songs to praise their country.

3. Peers
• All my friends have a cell phone, why can’t I have it?
• Friends are an important part in our life, especially in
adolescence.
– Peer group is a social group whose members have
interests, social position, and age in common.
• peers influence our tastes in music, clothes, and so
many other aspects of our lives.
• We rely on them for fun, for emotional comfort and
support, and for companionship.
• Children learn how to form relationships on their own.
• Peer also offer a chance to discuss interests that adults
may not share with their children or permit (e.g. music,
drug, and even sex).

• The downside is called peer pressure.

• After we reach our 20s and 30s, our peers
become less important in our lives, especially
if we get married.

4. Mass Media
• Mass Media are the means for delivering
impersonal communications to a vast audience.
• “Media” is from “medium” which means
“middle”  media connects people.
• Media shapes how we think (Attitude*).
• Television shows, movies, popular music,
magazines, Web sites, and other aspects of the
mass media influence our political views; our
tastes in popular culture; our views of women,
Mullah, and Khwaja-sara; and many other beliefs
and practices.
* personal view of something

• Commercials can greatly influence our choice
of soda, shoes, mobile sim service, soap,
shampoo, dress, and countless other products

• Boys favour video games, girls lean towards
music
• Television makes children more passive and
less likely to use their imagination.
• Aggressive behaviour and watching TV

• A key question is the extent to which media
violence causes violence in our society?

5. Religion
• Religion exerts considerable influence on our
beliefs, values, and behaviors.

• Religious Preference vs Religiosity
• Religious preference (e.g., Protestant, Catholic, or
Jewish, Sunni, Shia, Wahabi)
• Religiosity (e.g., how often people pray or attend
religious services).
• Both these aspects of religion can affect your values
and beliefs on religious and nonreligious issues alike,
but their particular effects vary from issue to issue.
– E.g.
– Abortion (practice/not practice)
– Female Education (allowed/not Allowed)
– Female Head of State (allowed/Not Allowed)

Lec iv Socialization - Imran Ahmad Sajid

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