The Role of Socialization
Chapter 4 The Role of Socialization
Socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. From a micro-sociological perspective, socialization helps us to discover how to behave properly and what to expect from others if we follow (or challenge) society’s norms and values. From a macro-sociological perspective, socialization provides for the transmission of a culture from one generation to the next and thereby for the long-term continuance of a society. Researchers have traditionally clashed over the relative importance of biological inheritance and environmental factors in human development. This conflict has been called the nature versus nurture (or heredity versus environment) debate.
.Environment: the Impact of Isolation
The Case of Isabelle
[First six years, total seclusion in a darkened room, no contact with other people but her mother…] Priimate Studies: [monkeys been raised away from their mothers and contact with other monkeys…results: easily frightened; isolation had damaging effects on them] [use ‘artificial mothers’ on monkeys…results: infant monkeys developed greater social attachments from their need for warmth, comfort, and intimacy than from their need for milk]
The Influence of Heredity Identical twins who separated soon after their birth and raised on different continents in very different cultural settings.
Certain characteristics, such as twins’ temperaments, voice patterns, and nervous habits, appear to be strikingly similar; these qualities may be linked to hereditary causes. Twins reared apart differ far more in their attitudes, values, types of mates chosen, and even drinking habits; these qualities are influenced by environmental patterns.
The Self and Socialization
Sociological Approaches to the Self
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self: In the early 1900s, Charles Horton Cooley advanced the belief that we learn who we are by interacting with
Socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. From a micro-sociological perspective, socialization helps us to discover how to behave properly and what to expect from others if we follow (or challenge) society’s norms and values. From a macro-sociological perspective, socialization provides for the transmission of a culture from one generation to the next and thereby for the long-term continuance of a society. Researchers have traditionally clashed over the relative importance of biological inheritance and environmental factors in human development. This conflict has been called the nature versus nurture (or heredity versus environment) debate.
.Environment: the Impact of Isolation
The Case of Isabelle
[First six years, total seclusion in a darkened room, no contact with other people but her mother…] Priimate Studies: [monkeys been raised away from their mothers and contact with other monkeys…results: easily frightened; isolation had damaging effects on them] [use ‘artificial mothers’ on monkeys…results: infant monkeys developed greater social attachments from their need for warmth, comfort, and intimacy than from their need for milk]
The Influence of Heredity Identical twins who separated soon after their birth and raised on different continents in very different cultural settings.
Certain characteristics, such as twins’ temperaments, voice patterns, and nervous habits, appear to be strikingly similar; these qualities may be linked to hereditary causes. Twins reared apart differ far more in their attitudes, values, types of mates chosen, and even drinking habits; these qualities are influenced by environmental patterns.
The Self and Socialization
Sociological Approaches to the Self
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self: In the early 1900s, Charles Horton Cooley advanced the belief that we learn who we are by interacting with