Socialization and the self

Socialization and the Self Gender differences all start when we are first found out if we are going to be a boy or a girl. In George Herbert Mead’s conception of the self he describes the three different stages in which a child goes through until they reach the way of thinking like an adult. In this early stage, the individual doesn’t have a self; but they are born into a world that acts on him or her, and most of these actions are the acts of other people. At first we simply imitate the acts of others, but we quickly understand who we are through those symbols. The first stage is the preparatory stage, which is the beginning of self-emerging. In this stage the child will act as the adult does. They will imitate the others’ acts toward other objects and toward himself or herself as object. This is why the preparatory stage is all about imitation and social objects. The second stage is the play stage and this is where they start to learn language. As the child starts to learn, they are able to label and define objects with words that have meaning. In this stage the self is pointed out and labeled by others; for example if the adult asks, “Are you sleeping?” For the child they would translate that as, “Am I sleeping?” and would respond. To identify “me” it involves naming and that’s when others point us out to ourselves, so that we see ourselves. This stage is the real beginning of the self as a social object. The third stage is the game stage, which represents the adult self. The self matures as our understanding of society matures. As we interact with others, the self becomes an object defined not only by the individual but also by society. Gender roles among men and women still have not changed and majority of men and women still believe that there is more of an advantage to being a man than a woman, and men state that women can work, but they believe it would be better if they stay home and take care of the house and children. In the first couple of