Key Concepts

Socialization is the lifelong social experience by which people develop

their human potential and learn culture. Unlike other living species,
whose behavior is mostly or entirely set by biology, humans need social
experience to learn their culture and to survive. Social experience is also
the foundation of personality, a person’s fairly consistent patterns of
acting, thinking and feeling (Macionis 2012: 102).

Another term for socialization is enculturation.

There are many theories on how the self, as a product of socialization, is

formed. We will examine the work of four researchers: Sigmund Freud,
Charles Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget (Macionis 2012:
104–108).

Freud’s model of personality. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) combined

basic needs and the influence of society into a model of personality with
three parts: id, ego, and superego. The id represents the human being’s
basic drives, or biological and physical needs which are unconscious
and demand immediate satisfaction. In the human personality, the
superego refers to the cultural values and norms internalized by an
individual. Society, through its values and norms, opposes the self-
centered id. The ego is, thus, a person’s conscious efforts to balance
innate pleasure-seeking drives (id) with the demands of society
(superego).

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. From his studies of human

cognition, or how people think and understand. Jean Piaget (1896–1980)
identified four stages of cognitive development.

Stage one is the sensorimotor stage (first two years of life), the level of
human development at which individuals know the world only through
the five senses. Stage two is the preoperational stage (about age two to
seven) at which individuals first use language and other symbols. Stage
three is concrete operational stage (between the ages of seven and
eleven) at which individuals first see causal connections in their
surroundings. The last stage is the formal operational stage (about age
twelve) at which individuals think abstractly and critically.

Mead’s theory of the social self. George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)

For Mead, the self is a part of our personality and includes self-
awareness and self-image. It is the product of social experience, and is
not guided by biological drives (see Freud) or biological maturation (see
Piaget). According to Mead, the key to developing the self is learning to
take the role of the other. Infants can do this only through imitation and,
 without understanding underlying intentions, have no self. As children
learn to use language and other symbols, the self emerges in the form of
play. Play involves assuming roles modeled on significant others, or
people, such as parents, who have special importance for socialization.
Then, children learn to take the roles of several others at once, and move
from simple play with one other to complex games involving many
others. The final stage in the development of the self is when children
are able to not only take the role of specific people in just one situation,
but that of many others in different situations. Mead used the term
generalized other to refer to widespread cultural norms and values we
use as references in evaluating ourselves.

Cooley’s Looking-glass Self. Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) used

the phrase looking-glass self to mean a self-image based on how we
think others see us. As we interact with others, the people around us
become a mirror (an object that people used to call a “looking glass”) in
which we can see ourselves. What we think of ourselves, then, depends
on how we think others see us. For example, if we think others see us as
clever, we will think of ourselves in the same way. But if we feel they
think of us as clumsy, then that is how we will see ourselves.

Agents of socialization
Several settings have special importance in the socialization process.
These include the family, school, peer group, and the mass media. The
family, usually the first setting of socialization, has the greatest impact
on attitudes and behavior. Schools teach knowledge and skills needed
for later life, and expose children to greater social diversity. The peer
group takes on great importance during adolescence. The mass media
have a huge impact on socialization in modern societies.

Values, norms, status, and roles

Socialization is also defined as the process of preparing members for
membership in a given group in society. Through socialization,
individuals learn the norms and values of their society. Values are
culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable,
good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
Norms are the rules and expectations by which a society guides the
behavior of its members.

Socialization prepares individuals to occupy statuses and roles

(Macionis 2012: 127– 128). Status refers a social position that a person
holds. An ascribed status is a social position a person receives at birth
or takes on involuntarily later in life. Examples of ascribed statuses
include being a daughter, a Filipino, a teenager, or a widower. Achieved
status refers to a social position a person takes on voluntarily that
reflects personal ability and effort. Achieved statuses include honors
student, athlete, nurse, software writer, and thief. Role refers to behavior
expected of someone who holds a particular status.

Gender role socialization

Sex refers to the biological characteristics distinguishing male and
female (Macionis 2012: 169). Sex is based on chromosomes, anatomy,
hormones, reproductive systems, and other physiological components.

Gender refers to those social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to

males and females through particular social contexts. Sex makes us
male or female; gender makes us masculine or feminine. All the major
agents of socialization—family, peer groups, schools, and the mass
media—reinforce cultural definitions of what is feminine and
masculine. (Dionisio 1992: 1-2; Macionis 2012: 170).

Conformity and deviance (Macionis 2012: 194)

Every society is a system of social control, or attempts by
society to regulate people’s thoughts and behavior. Social
control encourages conformity to certain norms and
discourages deviance or norm breaking. Deviance range
from minor infractions, such as bad manners, to major
infractions, such as serious violence.

Norms that become specified and institutionalized are

called laws. Crime refers to the violation of the law.

There is a lack of consensus in society regarding which

behaviors or traits are deviant. What is considered as
deviance will vary across time, places, and social groups.
How a society defines deviance, who is branded as deviant,
and what people decide to do about deviance all have to do
with the way society is organized.

The functions of deviance (Macionis 2012:

197).According to Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), deviance
performs the following functions:
 Affirms cultural norms and values. Deviance is
needed to define and support morality. There can be
no good without evil and no justice without crime.
 Clarifies moral boundaries. By defining some
individuals as deviant, people draw a boundary
between right and wrong.
  Brings people together. People typically react to
serious deviance with shared outrage, and in doing
so reaffirm the moral ties that bind them.
 Encourages social change. Deviant people suggest
alternatives to the status quo and encouraging
change.

Merton’s strain theory (Macionis 2012: 197–198). Robert

Merton (1910–2003) argued that the extent and type of
deviance people engage in depend on whether a society
provides the means (such as schooling and job
opportunities) to achieve cultural goals (such as financial
success). Conformity means achieving cultural goals
through approved means. However, the strain between the
cultural goal and the lack of opportunities to achieve these
goals using approved means may result in deviance. Merton
identifies four types of deviance: innovation, ritualism,
retreatism, and rebellion. Innovation involves using
unconventional means (for example, Steve Jobs, the
founder of the Apple computer company, and his
colleagues who, without support from big corporations,
worked in a garage to invent personal computers) rather
than conventional means (working for an established
computer company) to achieve a culturally approved goal
(wealth). In ritualism, people do not care much about the
goal (getting rich) but stick to the rules (the conventional
means) anyway in order to feel “respectable.” A third
response to the strain between the cultural goal and the
approved means is retreatism, rejecting both cultural goals
and conventional means so that a person in effect “drops
out.” The fourth response is rebellion. Like retreatists,
rebels reject both the cultural definition of success and the
conventional means of achieving it, but they provide
alternatives to the existing social order.

Enculturation
A child’s incorporation into his or her society through learning of the culture.