Looking Glass
Socialization: Social Control vs. Self-Actualization
Labels: Sociology
Socialization is a sociological approach that attempts to explain how people learn cultural morals and the responses and emotions that differentiate us from animals that are driven merely by the drive to survive and reproduce.
Socialization starts from the assumption that humans are more than animals that do whatever it takes to survive. Instead humans recognize that they are part of a group, and they observe other humans for guiding cues on how they should respond. When a baby is born it observes its mother to learn how emotions work and what the proper response to different events should be. Gradually as the child learns that it is a separate being from its mother and other humans it learns to think about its own reactions and responses and how they differ from those of other people. In this stage the child may deliberately test things out by trying a different response than the one approved by other people. Eventually, the child settles into a pattern of being able to regulate their own responses and empathize with what others want and how they respond. In this way socialization is a careful dance in which the developing human learns to balance their own independent desires and responses with those of the people around them.
George Herbet Mead
Mead contributed to the concept of socialization by exploring how significant other people around a person affect that person. He showed socialization as a dialectical, or reasoning, process in which the human may have to decide between their own personal desires and those of the group around them. Mead also contributed greatly to the method of studying socialization by showing that verbal communication isn’t the only way people socialize each other. Instead nonverbal, symbolic communication is even more important.
Mead’s work in showing the importance of nonverbal, symbolic communication has tremendous application for sociologists and
Labels: Sociology
Socialization is a sociological approach that attempts to explain how people learn cultural morals and the responses and emotions that differentiate us from animals that are driven merely by the drive to survive and reproduce.
Socialization starts from the assumption that humans are more than animals that do whatever it takes to survive. Instead humans recognize that they are part of a group, and they observe other humans for guiding cues on how they should respond. When a baby is born it observes its mother to learn how emotions work and what the proper response to different events should be. Gradually as the child learns that it is a separate being from its mother and other humans it learns to think about its own reactions and responses and how they differ from those of other people. In this stage the child may deliberately test things out by trying a different response than the one approved by other people. Eventually, the child settles into a pattern of being able to regulate their own responses and empathize with what others want and how they respond. In this way socialization is a careful dance in which the developing human learns to balance their own independent desires and responses with those of the people around them.
George Herbet Mead
Mead contributed to the concept of socialization by exploring how significant other people around a person affect that person. He showed socialization as a dialectical, or reasoning, process in which the human may have to decide between their own personal desires and those of the group around them. Mead also contributed greatly to the method of studying socialization by showing that verbal communication isn’t the only way people socialize each other. Instead nonverbal, symbolic communication is even more important.
Mead’s work in showing the importance of nonverbal, symbolic communication has tremendous application for sociologists and
References: Beaman, Arthur L., Diener, Edward, and Klentz, Bonnel. "Self-Awareness and Transgression in Children: Two Field Studies." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (1979): 1835-1846. Cooley, Charles H. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner 's, 1902. Confer pp. 183-184 for first use of the term "looking glass self". Cooley, Charles H. On Self and Social Organization. Ed. Schubert Hans-Joachim. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN 0226115097. (pp. 20-22) Cook, William L., and Douglas, Emily M Hensley, Wayne. "A Theory of the Valenced Other: The Intersection of the Looking-Glass-Self and Social Penetration." Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal 24, no. 3 (1996): 293-308. McIntyre, Lisa. The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. ISBN 0072885246. Shaffer, Leigh. "From Mirror Self-Recognition to the Looking-Glass Self: Exploring the Justification Hypothesis." Journal of Clinical Psychology 61 (January 2005): 47-65. Starks, Rodney. Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. ISBN 0495093440. (pp. 73-75) Yeung, King-To, and Martin, John Levi Share Article | Jul 9, 2009 Nicholas Morine From Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the SocialOrder. New York: Scribner 's, 1902, pp. 179-185. From Coser, 1977:305-307.