CHAPTER 3

– Why is social experience the key to

human personality?

– What familiar social settings have

special importance to how we live and
grow?

– How do our experiences change over

the life course?
• SOCIALIZATION
– The lifelong social experience by which
people develop their human potential and
learn culture
• Socialization is basic to human
development
• PERSONALITY
– A person's fairly consistent patterns of
acting, thinking, and feeling
– Built by internalizing our surroundings
• Humans need social experience to learn
their culture and to survive
Human Development: Nature And
Nurture
• Humans depend on others to provide care
needed
– Physical growth
– Personality development
The Biological Sciences: The Role of
Nature
• Charles Darwin
– Human behavior was instinctive – our
“nature”
• U.S. Economic System reflects “instinctive human
competitiveness”
• People are “born criminals”
• Women are “naturally” emotional and men are
“naturally” more rational
• People trying to understand cultural
diversity also misunderstood Darwin
– European explorers linked cultural
differences to biology
– Viewed members of less technological
societies as less evolved – “less human”
– Ethnocentric view helped colonization
 The Social Sciences: The Role of
Nurture
• John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• Behaviorism
– Held that behavior is not instinctive but learned
– People are equally human, just culturally
different
– Human behavior is rooted in nurture not nature
• Social scientists are cautious about
describing any human behavior as
instinctive
• Human life depends on the functioning of
the body
• Whether you develop your inherited
potential depends on how you are raised
• Nurture matters more in shaping human
behavior
– Nurture is our nature
 Social Isolation
• Ethically, researchers cannot place human
in total isolation to study what happens
• Harry & Margaret Harlow (1962)
– Studied rhesus monkeys
– Found that complete isolation for even six
months seriously disturbed development
– Unable to interact with others in a group
– Confirmed the importance of adults in cradling
infants
– Isolation caused irreversible emotional and
behavioral damage
• What new understanding of the familiar
ad campaign “Have you hugged your
child today?” do you gain from the
Harlow research?

• What do studies of isolated children

teach us about the importance of social
experience?
 Studies of Isolated Children
• Anna
– Social isolation caused permanent damage
– At age eight, mental development was less
than a two year old
– Began to use words at age ten
– Because mother was mentally retarded,
perhaps Anna was similarly challenged
• California Case
– Childhood isolation resulting from parental
abuse
– At age 13, mental development of a one year old
– Became physically healthy with intensive
treatment
– Language ability remained that of a young child
 Critical Review
• Evidence points to the crucial role of social
experience in forming personality
• Humans can sometimes recover from
abuse and short-term isolation
• There is a point at which isolation in
infancy causes permanent developmental
damage
• Socialization is a complex lifelong
process
• Six researchers made lasting
contributions to our understanding of
human development
 Sigmund Freud’s Elements of
Personality

• (1856-1939) Lived at a time most

Europeans considered human behavior
biologically fixed
• Studied personality and eventually
developed the theory of psychoanalysis
• Basic Human Needs
– Biology plays a major part in human
development
– Humans have two basic drives
• Eros – need for bonding “life instinct”
• Thanatos – aggressive drive “death instinct”
– Opposing forces operating at an unconscious
level, generating deep inner tension
• Freud’s Model of Personality
• Id
– Human being’s basic drives
– Unconscious and demand immediate
satisfaction
– Society opposes the id, which is why one of the
first words a child usually learns is “no”
– To avoid frustration, the child must learn to
approach the world realistically
• Ego
– A person’s conscious efforts to balance
innate pleasure seeking drives with the
demands of society
– Arises as we gain awareness of our distinct
existence and face the fact that we cannot
have everything we want
• Superego
– The cultural values and norms internalized by
an individual
– Operates as our conscience
– Begins to form as a child becomes aware of
parental demands and matures as the child
comes to understand that everyone’s behavior
should take account of cultural norms
• Personality Development
– To the Id, the world is a jumble of physical
sensations that bring pleasure or pain
– As the superego develops, moral concepts of
right and wrong are learned
– Id and superego remain in conflict
• Managed by the ego in a well-adjusted person
– Conflicts not resolved in childhood may
surface later on as personality disorders
– Competing demands of self and society result
in a compromise called sublimation
• Changes selfish drives into socially acceptable
behavior
 Critical Review
• Critics charge that Freud’s work present
humans in male terms and devalues
women
• Theories are difficult to test scientifically
• Influenced everyone who later studied
human personality
• Importance to sociology
– We internalize social norms
– Childhood experiences have a lasting impact
on our personalities
 Jean Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development
• (1896-1980)
• Studied human cognition
– How people think and understand
– Identified four stages of cognitive
development
• Sensorimotor Stage
– The level of human development at which
individuals experience the world only through
their senses
– First two years of life
– “Knowing” to very young children amounts to
what their senses tell them
• The Preoperational Stage
– The level of human development at which
individuals first use language and other
symbols
– Between two and six, attach meanings only to
specific experiences and objects
– Lack abstract concepts
• Cannot judge size, weight, or volume
– About age 7, children are able to think more
abstractly
• The Concrete Operational Stage
– The level of human development at which
individuals first see causal connections in
their surroundings
– Between ages 7 and 11, focus on how and
why things happen
– Attach more than one symbol to an event
or object
• The Formal Operational Stage
– The level of human development at which
individuals think abstractly and critically
– About age 12, begin to reason in the abstract
rather than think only of concrete situations
– As capacity for abstract thought is gained,
young person also learns to understand
metaphors
 Critical Review
• Freud saw the ability to engage the world
unfolding in stages as the result of
biological maturation and social
experience
• Do people in all societies pass through all
four of Piaget’s stages?
• Living in a traditional society that changes
slowly probably limits the capacity for
abstract and critical thought
• Using Piaget’s concepts, can you
explain why young children will
reach for a nickel rather than a
dime?
 Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of
Moral Development
• 1981
• Studied moral reasoning
– How people come to judge situations as right or
wrong
– Development occurs in stages
• Preconventional Level
– Young children experience the world in terms of
pain and pleasure
– “Rightness” amounts to “what feels good to me”
• Conventional Level
– Appears in the teens
– Young people lose some of their selfishness
– Learn to define right and wrong in terms of
what pleases parents and conforms to cultural
norms
• Postconventional Level
– People move beyond society’s norms to
consider abstract ethical principles
– Think about ideas such as liberty, freedom, or
justice
• May argue what is lawful may not be right
 Critical Review
• Kohlberg explains moral development in
terms of distinct stages
• May not apply to people in all societies
• Many people in the US do not reach
postconventional morality
• All research subjects were boys
– Research cannot be generalized
 Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Gender
and Moral Development

• Compare the moral development of boys

and girls
• Two sexes use different standards or
rightness
• Girls
– Have a care and responsibility perspective
– Judge a situation toward personal relationships
and loyalties
• Impersonal rules have long governed
men’s lives

• Personal relationships are more relevant

to women’s lives
 Critical Review
• Gilligan’s work sharpens understanding of
human development and gender issues in
research
• Work does not answer whether nature or
nurture is responsible in gender
differences
George Herbert Meade’s Theory
of the Social Self
• George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
– Developed theory of Social Behaviorism
• The Self
– The part of an individual’s personality
composed of self-awareness and self-image
– Mead proposed seeing the self as the product
of social experience
• The self develops only with social
experience
– Rejected the idea that personality is guided by
biology (Freud) or biological maturation (Piaget)
– Self develops only as individual interacts with
others
– Without interaction, body grows, but no self
emerges
• Social experience is the exchange of
symbols
– Humans find meaning in action by imagining
people’s underlying intentions
• Understanding intention requires
imagining a situation from the other’s
point of view
– All symbolic interaction involves seeing ourselves
as others see us
• Taking the role of the other
• The I and the Me
– By taking the role of the another, we become self-
aware
• Two parts of self
– Subject – Active and spontaneous – “I”
– Objective – the way we imagine others see us - “Me”
• Development of the Self
– Key is learning to take the role of the other
– Infants can only do this through imitation
because of limited social experience
– As children learn to use language and other
symbols, the self emerges in the form of play
• Assumes roles modeled on significant others
– People who have special importance for socialization
– Everyday life demands that we see ourselves in
terms of cultural norms as any member of our
society might
• Generalized Other
– Widespread cultural norms and values we use as a reference
in evaluating ourselves
 Critical Review
• Mead’s work explores the essence of social
experience itself
• View is completely social – no biological
element
• “I” and “Me” work together, unlike the “Id”
and “Superego” locked in continual
combat
• Have you ever seen young children
put on their parents’ shoes, literally
putting themselves “in the shoes” of
another person?

• How does this help children learn to

“take the role of the other?”
Erik H. Eriksons Eight Stages of
Development
• (1902-1994)
– Broader view of socialization
– Face challenges throughout the life course
• Stage 1
– The challenge of trust (versus mistrust
• Birth to about 18 months
• Gain a sense of trust that the world is safe
• Stage 2
– Toddlerhood – The challenge of
autonomy (versus doubt and shame)
• Up to age three
• Failure to gain self control leads to doubt in
abilities
• Stage 3
– Preschool – The challenge of initiative
(versus guilt)
• Four and five year olds
• Learn to engage their surroundings or experience
guilt at having failed to meet expectations
• Stage 4
– Preadolescence – The challenge of
industriousness (versus inferiority)
• Between ages six and thirteen
• Feel proud of accomplishments of fear they do not
measure up
• Stage 5
– Adolescence – The challenge of gaining
identity (versus confusion)
• Teen Years
• Struggle to establish identity; almost all teens suffer
confusion in establishing identities
• Stage 6
– Young Adulthood – The challenge of
intimacy (versus isolation)
• Challenge of forming and keeping intimate relationships
• Balancing the need to bond with the need to have a
separate identity
• Stage 7
– Middle Adulthood – The challenge of
making a difference (versus self-
absorption)
• Challenge of middle age is to contribute to the lives of
others
• Failing leads to self-centeredness or becoming caught up
in own limited concerns
• Stage 8
– Old Age – The challenge of integrity
(versus despair)
• Near the end of life, people hope to look back
on accomplishments with a sense of integrity
• Those self-absorbed, old age brings a sense of
despair over missed opportunities
 Critical Review
• Personality formation as a lifelong process
• Success at one stage preparing to meet the
next challenge
• However, not everyone faces these
challenges in the exact order
• Nor is it clear that failure to meet a
challenge means doom in later stages
• FAMILY
• SCHOOL
• PEER GROUP
• MASS MEDIA
 Family
• May be the most important socializing
agent
• Nurture in early childhood
– Responsibility falls on parents and other
family members
– Not all family learning results from
intentional teaching
• Also learn from the environment created by
parents
• Race and Class
– Family also give children a social identity
• Societies define race in various ways
– Social class position plays a large part in
shaping a child’s personality
– Research shows that class position affects
amount of money parents spend on children
and what they expect of them
– All parents act in ways that encourage their
children to follow in their footsteps
– Enrichment activities represent cultural
capital
• Advances children’s learning
 The School
• Enlarges children’ social world
• Encountering people who are different,
children come to understand
– Race
– Social class position
• Gender
– Schools socialize into gender roles
– Continue right through to college
• What children learn
– Schooling teaches a wide range of knowledge
and skills
– Also teach informally
• Hidden Curriculum
– For most, school is the first encounter with
bureaucracy
 The Peer Group
• A social group whose members have
interests, social position, and age in
common
• Allows children to escape the direct
supervision of adults
• In a rapidly changing society, peer groups
have great influence
– Attitudinal difference may form a “generation
gap”
– Peers affect short-term interests, but parental
influence remains strong
– Any neighborhood or school is made up of
many peer groups
– Anticipatory Socialization
• Learning that helps a person achieve a desired
position
 The Mass Media
• The means for delivering impersonal
communications to a vast audience
– Powerful and influence is different than
family, school, or peers
• US has highest rate of TV ownership in the
world
– People with lower incomes spend the most
time watching TV
• Television and politics
– Provokes much criticism
– Liberal
• Most of television history, racial and ethnic
minorities have been invisible or stereotyped
• Recently, minorities have moved to center stage
– Conservative
• Television and film are dominated by liberal
“cultural elite”
• “politically correct” media have advanced liberal
causes
• Not all agree – others suggest TV reflects a political
“spin” from both sides
• Television and violence
– AMA
• Violence in TV and film are hazardous to our health
– Study found strong link between aggression TV
time, and video game playing of elementary
school children
– Public is concerned
– 1997 TV rating system adopted by TV industry
– Other spheres of social learning
• Religion
• Workplace
• Military
• Social Clubs
• Learning continues throughout our lives
• Society organizes human experience
according to
– Childhood
– Adolescence
– Adulthood
– Old Age
 Childhood
• 250 million children, half full time, work
for about 50 cents an hour (see map)
• Most North Americans view childhood as
a carefree time of learning and play
– This is a new idea
• Concept of childhood is cultural not
biological
 Adolescence
• Emerged as a buffer between childhood
and adulthood
• Teenage turbulence comes from cultural
inconsistency
– A time of social contradictions
• Varies according to social background
 Adulthood
• The time of life when most accomplishments
take place
• Personalities are formed and dramatic
changes cause significant change to the self
• Early adulthood – until age forty
• Middle adulthood – between forty and sixty
– More aware of the fragility of health
– Women face more problems than men
– However, men realize they will never reach earlier
career goals
 Old Age
• The later years of adulthood and the final
stage of life
• Begins around the mid-sixties
• Elderly population is growing nearly as fast as
the US population as a whole
• Elderly people will be more visible in
everyday life – young and old will interact
more
• Gerontology
– The study of aging and the elderly
• Aging and Biology
– For most of our population, aging begins in middle
age
– Most older people are not disabled nor
discouraged by their physical condition
• Aging and Culture
– Low-income countries, elderly have influence and
respect
– Gerontocracy
• A form of social organization in which the elderly have
the most wealth, power, and prestige
 – In industrial society
• Older people live apart from their grown children
• Rapid social change makes much of what seniors know
obsolete
– Ageism
• Prejudice and discrimination against older
people
• Aging and Income
– Old age means living with less income
– Today, elderly population is doing better
• Better income, Better health, More generous
government programs
• Would you favor replacing the
common “senior discounts” found at
many local businesses with
discounts for low-income people?

• What about single parents with

children?

• Explain your view?

 Death and Dying
• Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
– Death as an orderly transition involving five
stages
• Denial – expected in a culture that doesn’t talk about
death
• Anger – a gross injustice to the one facing death
• Negotiation – bargaining with God
• Resignation – accompanied by psychological
depression
• Acceptance – complete adjustment to death
• As elderly become larger part of US
population, expect the culture to become
more comfortable with the idea of death
 The Life Course: Patterns and
Variations
• Two major conclusions:
– Life course is largely a social construction
– Life course present certain problems and
transitions that involve learning something new
and unlearning familiar routines
– Societies organize life course according to age
but other forces share people’s lives
– Cohort
• A category of people with something in common,
usually their age
• Total Institution
– A setting in which people are isolated
from the rest of society and
manipulated by administrative staff
– Three characteristics
• Supervision
• Control and standardization
• Formal rules and daily routines
• Resocialization
– Radically changing an inmate’s personality
by carefully controlling the environment
• Prisons
• Mental hospitals
– Two-part process
• Break down existing identity
• Build a new self through a system of reward and
punishments
– Institutionalized
• Living in a rigidly controlled environment
without the capacity for independent living