Vermette - PP - Chapter 4 - Socialization and the life cycle

Socialization Chapter 4
and the Life Cycle
Introduction to Sociology
Ninth Edition
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier,
Richard P. Appelbaum, & Deborah Carr

Socialization and the Life Cycle
Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company
2
• If a child does well on a crossword
puzzle, the best response is:
– (a) You’re so smart!
– (b) You worked so hard!
– (c) How did you do that?

Learning Objectives
3
• Basic Concepts
– Learn about how the four main agents of socialization
contribute to social reproduction
– Learn the stages of the life course and see the
similarities and differences among cultures
• Theories of Socialization
– Learn the theories of child development according to
Mead, Piaget, Freud, and Chodorow

Learning Objectives
4
• Research on Socialization Today
– Learn how recent research on midlife and child care
challenges assumptions about midlife, gender roles, and
child care
• Unanswered Questions about Socialization
– Learn more about the debate over the influence of media
on gender role socialization

Basic Concepts
5
• Socialization
– Lifelong process through which people
acquire norms and values and develop a
sense of self
• Social reproduction
– Passage of norms, values, and social
practices from one generation to
another through socialization

Basic Concepts
6
• Primary socialization
– Socialization from infancy to early
childhood
• Secondary socialization
– Socialization from early childhood
through adult life

Basic Concepts
7

Basic Concepts
8
• Agents of socialization
– Groups or social contexts within which
processes of socialization take place
• The family
• Schools
• Peer relationships
• The mass media
• Work

Basic Concepts
9
• Social Role
– Set of socially defined expectations of
behavior associated with a given status
or social position

Basic Concepts
• Identity
– Social identity
– Self-identity
10

Basic Concepts
• Socialization through the Life Course
– Childhood
– Teenage years
– Young adulthood
– Mature adulthood
– Old age
11

Basic Concepts
12

Basic Concepts
13

Theories of Socialization
14
• George Herbert Mead
– Social self
– Self-consciousness
– Generalized other

15
• Jean Piaget
– Stages in childhood
• Sensorimotor stage—birth to age 2
• Preoperational stage—age 2 to 7
• Concrete operational stage—age 7 to 11
• Formal operational stage—age 11 to 15

16
• Nancy Chodorow
– Emotional attachments
– Boys break from mothers more than
girls
– Development of masculine and feminine
character traits

17

18
• Carol Gilligan
– Devaluation of women’s roles and
feminine qualities
– Others-centered females
– Outward-oriented males

Research on Socialization Today
19
• Women in the Workforce
– Gender roles are changing
– Deborah Carr’s research

Research on Socialization Today
• Early Child Care and Youth
Development
– Should women pull their children out of
day care and leave the workforce to stay
with them?
Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company 20

Unanswered Questions about
Socialization
21
• Gender socialization
– Gender roles and learning
– Influence of media

Socialization
22

Socialization
23
• The question of video games
– Does playing violent video games lead
to physical violence?

Concept Quiz
24
What is social reproduction?
(a) the process through which any given society ensures its
continuance through appropriate mate selection and family
building
(b) the process through which the cultural artifacts of one
culture are adopted and employed by another, thereby losing
their original meaning and significance
(c) the process through which children develop personalities
similar to those of their parents
(d) the process of perpetuating values, norms, and social
practices, which leads to structural continuity

Concept Quiz
25
Jason considers himself a very generous person and
has worked hard to cultivate that quality. He now
works as a prison guard, where his job often leads
him to yell at others or to deny desperately sought
privileges to prisoners as a form of punishment. This
situation may result in a great deal of tension
between Jason’s ___ and his ___ .
(a) job; home life
(b) inner life; outer life
(c) social identity; self-identity
(d) childhood socialization; adult socialization

Concept Quiz
26
Why might work be considered a more important agent
of socialization in industrialized societies than in other
kinds of societies?
(a) Because work in industrialized societies is more intellectually
challenging, it requires a longer period of training and learning, which
contribute to adult socialization.
(b) Because the majority of work in industrialized countries is done outside
the home, it comprises a whole new set of norms and expectations to
which workers must become accustomed.
(c) Because children go to work much earlier in nonindustrialized
societies, there is nothing new to learn once they reach adulthood.
(d) People in industrialized societies put more value on the work they
perform, leading them to care more deeply about adjusting themselves to
workplace expectations.

Concept Quiz
27
Socially defined expectations for a person in
a given social position are called ______.
(a) social roles
(b) social norms
(c) social identities
(d) agents of socialization

Concept Quiz
28
In which of the following scenarios is an
understanding of the generalized other
discernible?
(a) Two little girls are playing together and one suggests that
they play school, with one girl taking the part of the student
and the other taking the part of the teacher.
(b) A boy and a girl argue about whether a hit ball was fair or
foul in the makeshift baseball diamond they constructed in the
backyard.
(c) A child asks his mother why there is a boys’ bathroom and a
girls’ bathroom at school but only one bathroom at home.
(d) A girl begins using the word “they” in the proper context
for the first time.

Concept Quiz
29
What is gender socialization?
(a) the process of rewarding boys who behave
aggressively, while punishing those who express
emotional vulnerability
(b) the learning of gender roles through social
factors such as schooling, the media, and family
(c) the process through which mothers become
closer and more affectionate with their daughters
than with their sons
(d) the cultural relearning that takes place in work
environments into which women have only recently
entered

Discussion Question: Thinking
Sociologically
30
Concisely review how an individual
becomes a social person according to the
three leading theorists discussed in this
chapter: G. H. Mead, Jean Piaget, and
Sigmund Freud. Which theory seems most
appropriate and correct to you? Explain why.

Discussion Question: Thinking
Sociologically
31
Consuming alcoholic beverages is one of
many things we do as a result of socialization.
Suggest how the family, peers, schools, and
mass media help establish the desire to
consume alcoholic drinks. Of these
influences, which force is the most
persuasive? Explain.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint
presentation for Chapter 4

Vermette - PP - Chapter 4 - Socialization and the life cycle

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