Socialization: The Key to Human Personality Development, Slides of Sociology

Download Socialization: The Key to Human Personality Development and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity!

Socialization

Lecture 7

Objectives After learning this chapter, you should be able to :

• (^) Define socialization.
• Discuss why social experience is the key to human personality.
• Describe what familiar social settings have special importance to human development.
• (^) Understand how people’s experience change over the life course.
• Evaluate the contributions of six important thinkers to our understanding of the socialization process.

The role of nature: biological science

• (^) Human behavior is instinctive, our “nature”:
  • (^) Some people are born criminal
  • (^) Women are naturally emotional, men are naturally rational…
• (^) Cultural differences are biologically based:
  • (^) Technologically simple societies are biologically less evolved, less human

The role of nurture: the social sciences

• (^) Behaviorism (John B. Watson): behavior is learnt (nurtured) -> human everywhere are equal

IS IT SOCIOBIOLOGY OR BEHAVIORISM?

IT’S A BIT OF BOTH, BUT FROM A

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE,

NURTURE IS EXTREMELY INFLUENTIAL

Understanding socialization: Freudian Model of Personality

Model of personality :

• (^) Id (human being’s basic needs)
• (^) Ego (efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with demands of society)
• (^) Superego (cultural values internalized by an individual)

■ Basic human needs/drives :

■ Eros : need for sexual and emotional bonding (life instinct) ■ Thanatos : aggressive drive (death instinct) ■ EROS AND THANATOS^ ARE OPPOSING FORCES MANAGED CONFLICT ID and SUPEREGO are in constant states of conflict, with EGO balancing the two.

Critical Evaluation of Theories of Personality Development

• (^) Freud’s notion that we internalize norms and his idea that childhood experiences have lasting importance in the socialization process remain important.
• (^) His theories are difficult to test scientifically

Critical Evaluation of the Theories of Cognitive Development

• (^) Showed that human being’s

ability to shape their social

world unfolds gradually as

the result of both biological

maturation and social

experience.

• (^) Piaget’s theories may not

apply to people in all

societies.

Kohlberg Theory of Moral Development (p. 106)

• (^) Moral development occurs in stages:

1.Preconventional Morality: “rightness” is what is good to a child

2. Conventional Morality: learn to define “right” and “wrong” in terms of what

pleases parents and conforms to cultural norms (teen years)

3. Postconventional Morality: move beyond society’s norms to consider

abstract ethical principles (liberty, freedom, justice…)

Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Gender and Moral Development

• (^) Boy’s moral development reflects a justice model (relying on formal rules to define right and wrong)
• (^) Girl’s moral development places emphasis on caring and responsibility (relying on personal relationships to judge a situation)
• (^) Kohlberg: Rule-based reasoning is superior than person-based approach
• (^) Gilligan: Why use male standards as norms to judge everyone?

Critical Evaluation of Gilligan’s Theory of Moral Development

• (^) Enhances our

understanding of

gender issues.

• (^) She does not

adequately address

the issue of origin of

gender-based

differences that were

identified.

• (^) THE SOCIAL SELF
  • (^) SELF DEVELOPS FROM SOCIAL INTERACTION
  • (^) SOCIAL EXPERIENCE IS THE EXCHANGE OF SYMBOLS
  • (^) SEEKING MEANING LEADS PEOPLE TO IMAGINE OTHER PEOPLE’S INTENTION
  • (^) UNDERSTANDING INTENSION REQUIRES IMAGINING THE SITUATION FROM THE OTHER’S POINT OF VIEWS
  • (^) BY TAKING THE ROLE OF THE OTHER, WE BECOME SELF- AWARE.
  • (^) Social interaction involves seeing ourselves as others see us - a process that Mead calls TAKING THE ROLE OF THE OTHER

THE LOOKING-GLASS SELF

• (^) CHARLES HORTON COOLEY
  • (^) SELF-IMAGE IS MANIFESTED AS WE THINK OF HOW OTHERS WILL SEE US
• (^) WHAT WE THINK OF OURSELVES

DEPENDS ON LARGE PART ON

WHAT WE PERCEIVE OTHERS ARE

THINKING OF US

Critical Evaluation of Theories of Self Development

• (^) Showed that symbolic

interaction is the

foundation of both

Self and society

• (^) Criticized for ignoring

the role of biology in

the development of

Self

Erikson’s eight stages of personality development

• (^) Infancy (18m): the challenge of trust (versus mistrust)
• (^) Toddlerhood (3ys): the challenge of autonomy (versus doubt and shame)
• (^) Preschool (4-5ys): the challenge of initiative (versus guilt)
• (^) Preadolescence (6-13ys): the challenge of industriousness (versus inferiority)
• (^) Adolescence (teen): the challenge of gaining identity (versus confusion)
• (^) Young adulthood: the challenge of intimacy (versus isolation)
• (^) Middle adulthood: the challenge of making a difference (versus self-absorption)
• (^) Old age: the challenge of integrity (versus despair)