1Socialization and Social IdentitySociology 1001: IntroductionGeneral Thesis• We began this class by noting that economic and psychological models of behavior dominate contemporary thinking• Here, I suggest that such models, regardless of their scope and accuracy, are social products– They are the outcome of socialization and derivative personality and identity that reflect lifelong exposure to learning environmentsSocialization• Socialization refers to the lifelong social experience by which individuals develop their human potential and learn culture– Socialization is a complex, multifaceted, multidimensional, and often contradictory process– Socialization is not exclusively human, but human socialization takes on particular form and function• Derivative of its basis in culture and language2Personality and Identity• A key product of socialization is a sense of self or personality– Personality refers to one’s fairly consistent pattern of acting, thinking, and feeling– Sense of self is often described as identity• Much thinking on identity is traced by to James (1890) in Psychology and Mead (1934) in Sociology– We build a personality or identity by absorbing our interactions and experiences in an on-going life course• Mead: “Society shapes self shapes social behavior”– Society is a dense network of variably durable interactions and relationships • Differentiated and organized across groups and institutions and tied to broad structures of society (e.g., gender, class, race)– People have multiple identities that have relevance to the different social networks that they are embedded in• Social roles are explicit expectations of behavior attached to positions within a network or relationship• Identity is the internalization of role expectations– Identities have variable salience that influences the likelihood of an identity being invoked in a given situation • How do identities produce behavior that is expressive of the identity?– Identities and behaviors are linked through shared meanings• Identities only predict behavior when the meaning of the identity corresponds to the meaning of the behavior– What types of ‘identities’ would predict college plans? – Mechanisms• The identity standard is the set of (culturally based) meanings held by an individual with respect to a given role identity in a situation• A person has perceptions of meanings within a situation that are matched to the identity standard• There is a comparator that compares the perceived situational meanings with those in the identity standard• Behavior is a function of the difference between perceptions and standard3Socialization, Identity, and Agency• Within this framework, behavior can be seen as goal directed– Reflecting the relationship between perceptions of a situation and the self-meanings held by an individual• Behavior changes a situation in order to match or align meaningsperceived in a situation with meanings held in the identity standard– Can see emotion as reflecting this alignment• A mismatch results in negative emotion, while a match results inpositive emotion• Emotions, however, have their own consequences– Signal to self and others what state one is in…• Socialization is the broad social context of identity formation• It takes on particular forms at different life stages– ‘Childhood’ is a fairly recent concept• Socialization is typically dominated by immediate family– Hold fast to cultural scripts of childhood (i.e., dependency, limitations on behavior (e.g., sex, work)) because they seem logically consistent with children’s biological inferiority• There is considerable debate over how much children play a role in their own socialization (Corsaro; Gottfredson and Hirschi)– ‘Adolescence’ emerged with childhood as a buffer between childhood and adulthood• Tend to view this period as ‘contested terrain’ in which socialization processes become more diverse and more conflictual• Socialization has institutional (i.e., school) and non-institutional (i.e., peers) dimensions– May be uniquely at odds with one another (Coleman) • We also see notions of identity and personality as more influx • Eccles and colleagues argue that adolescence is inherently contradictory– Adolescents seek more autonomy and control, yet are subject to social institutions, including school and law, that curb and control behavior4– ‘Adulthood’ is generally seen as the post-adolescent years• Are you an adult? What would we consider to be the key ‘markers’ of adulthood?• We feel that personalities are largely formed which then complicates the nature of adult socialization– Life course events may become more complicated as well which then has implications for personality change• Adulthood is also a time of physical decline– We often associate this with ‘old age’ and the gradual intended and unintended movement out of adult social roles• Different societies have very different views towards old age; some cultures revere their elders, others are ambivalent or even hostile– What is the dominant cultural stance towards the elderly in the US?‘Emerging Adulthood’• Psychologist Jeffrey Arnett argues that there is a new stage of the life course: ‘emerging adulthood’– It is an age of:• ‘Identity explorations’ or trying out various possibilities particularly in love and work• ‘Instability’• ‘Self-focus’• ‘Feeling in-between,’ neither adolescent nor adult• ‘Possibilities,’ when hopes flourish and people have unparalleled opportunity to transform their lives• Do you agree or disagree with Arnett’s thesis?Summary• Understandings of socialization and identity provide a framework for understanding how individuals construct the social worlds in which they live• They provide us with quintessential models of how individuals develop and exercise an ongoing sense of self in a wide variety of environments and situations• Provide a framework for thinking about agency and behavior over the life span and the reproduction of social structures over time and across