SOCI 1101 1st Edition Exam 2 Study Guide Topic 4 Socialization pg 74 94 What is Socialization The process of social interaction that teaches the child the intellectual physical and social skills needed to function as a member of society Personality The patterns of behavior and ways of thinking and feeling that are distinctive for each individual Extreme Childhood Deprivation Some unusual events and interesting research have indicated that human infants need more than just food and shelter if they are to function effectively as social creatures Few cases in which a human has grown up without any contact with other humans Aveyron Jan 1800 found in southern France people assumed he was an idiot and was deaf and mute However Jean Marc Itard believed differently He slowly learned to wear clothes speak and write simple words but he still refused to interact with humans died at age 40 Anna grew up in the 1930s and had the misfortune of being born illegitimately to the daughter of an extremely disproving family Her mom hid her in the attic and did just enough to keep her alive she was discovered by social workers when she was 6 and was unable to sit up stand or talk She was placed in a school and learned how to talk and walk somewhat died at age 10 Genie California 1970 her father had confined her to a small bedroom and chained her to an infants potty seat only being able to move her toes and fingers 13 1 2 years old she could not speak or stand up she learned some social skills after 4 years in a caring environment she had a serious problem with her language development no matter how much schooling she had today she is in her 50s and lives in an adult care home Oxana Malaya spent much of her childhood between the ages of 3 8 living in a kennel with dogs in the back garden of the family home she growled barked and crouched like a wild dog smelled her food before she ate it and hate extremely acute senses of hearing smell and sight Social Attachments Meaningful interactions and affectionate bonds with others Humans must be taught to stand up to walk to talk even to think Attachment Disorder Unable to trust people and to form relationships with others Studies of infants and young children in institutions confirm the view that human beings developmental needs include more than the mere provision of food and shelter Children in most orphanages do not receive the social attachment needs necessary Many people adopted children from these settings and thought that love was all the children needed to overcome these early experiences discovered that extensive treatment was necessary for these children to ever become normally functioning adults Every human infant needs frequent contact with others who demonstrate affection who respond to attempts to interact and who themselves initiate interactions with the child These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Children also need contact with people who find ways to interest them in their surroundings and who teach them the physical and social skills and knowledge they need to function and need to be taught the culture of their society Social Identity and the Self Social Identity o The total of all the statuses that define an individual Self o This changing yet enduring personal identity Concept of self includes o 1 An awareness of the existence appearance and boundaries of one s own body o 2 The ability to refer to one s own being by using language and other symbols ex name tag o 3 Knowledge of one s personal history o 4 Knowledge of one s needs and skills o 5 The ability to organize one s knowledge and beliefs o 6 The ability to organize one s experiences o 7 The ability to take a step back and look at one s being as others do to evaluate the impressions one is creating and to understand the feelings and attitudes one stimulate in others Cooley s Idea of the Looking Glass Self Charles Horton Cooley 1864 1929 believed that the self develops through the process of social interaction with others begins early in life and is influenced by primary groups like family later on peer groups are more important Looking glass Self o The three stage process through which each of us develops a sense of self o 1 We imagine how our actions appear to others o 2 We imagine how other people judge these actions o 3 We make some sort of self judgment based on the presumed judgments of others Through Cooley s view the self is entirely a social product a product of social interaction Mead s Ideas George Herbert Mead 1863 1931 believed the self becomes the sum total of our beliefs and feelings about ourselves The self is composed of two parts I and me o I Portion of the self wishes to have free expression to be active and spontaneous Wishes to be free of the control of others and to take the initiative in situations Part of the individual that is unique and distinctive o Me Portion of the self is made up of those things learned through the socialization process from family peers school and so on Makes normal social interactions possible whereas the I prevents it from being mechanical and totally predictable Significant Others o Those individuals who are most important in our development such as parents friends and teachers Generalized Others o o The viewpoints attitudes and expectations of society as a whole or of a community of people whom we are aware of and who are important to us Ex we might believe it is important to go to college because significant others have instilled that belief in us while at college we might be influenced by the views of the generalized others who represent the community of lawyers that we hope to join one day as we progress with our education Agents of Socialization The Family o For young children in most societies the family is the primary world for the first few years o Kids also have significant early experiences in day care centers with no family members o The values norms ideals and standards presented in both places are accepted by the child uncritically as correct o Every family socializes its children to its own particular version of the society s culture o Evidence shows that social class and parents occupations influence how children are raised in the US o The past four decades have seen major changes in the structure of the American family high divorce rates dramatic increase in number of single parent families two worker