Socialization - Process By Which Children Learn From Others In Society, Which Most Times Lasts All Through Life. Essay Examples

Chapter 1 Introduction to Sociology:Agents of Socialisation

Importance of early socialization: every child has his Physical Needs and Social Needs which are to be fulfilled. For example, Noam Chomsky said: “no language stimulation in the first five to six years, a kid will not be able to acquire speech”.
Agents of socialization: Early: ( •Family •School •Peer Group •Media). Adult (•Marriage and Responsibility •Parenthood •Career •Travel •Media •Social Networks).
Family: GREAT impact, the first and primary agent to teach everybody, even teenagers. Socialization varies families (parents-painters=>more freedom and encourage imaginative thinking; parents who do routine activities=> value of obedience) and cultures (different role of a family in Eastern and Western Cultures).
Tiger Parenting – strict parenting, common among Asian parents. Tiger Mom = Disciplinarian strict Mother: No TV –No computer games –No sleepovers or play dates –No grade less than an A.

Book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua, 2011.

It is about “a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory”.
“Little White Donkey’” incident – mother achieved her daughter playing piano song “Little White Donkey” after soft threats and blackmailing from her mother. Finally, the daughter was happy to learn the song to play without mistakes.

2/3 readers of Wall Street Journal: the “Demanding Eastern” parenting model is better than the “Permissive Western” model.

Time Magazine: kids who cope with difficult tasks develop ‘mastery experiences’.
Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld`s letter. She defended her parents’ child-rearing methods and stated that she and her sister were not oppressed by an “evil mother.”
Tanith Carey. She stopped being a Tiger Mother.
In her opinion, performance parenting pushes away kids. Children become angry, compulsive people-pleasers who feel they can never do enough.

Under performance parenting: kids start to see their parents as part of the problem, they become more tense and irritable.

Recent University of California Study Refutes "Tiger Mom" Parenting: It does more harm.
Defining community and community engagement. Chapter 2
Community – group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
Social interaction (Max Weber) – the way humans interact with one another. It involves 2 or more people.
Context: Edward Hall: •1. The physical setting of a place•2. The social environment•3. The activities surrounding the social interaction.
Social norms – specific rules and behaviors, agreed by society, that prescribes limits of acceptable behavior. Studying social norms allows to understand social interaction.
Ethnometodology studies unwritten rules, actions that are agreed upon by individuals in society. Harold Garfinkel: every day people engage in commonplace events, often unnoticed as they are granted. Harold Garfinkel – experiment with boarders in their own homes.
Dramaturgy. People play roles to create impressions in society, which is important. Example – Job Interview. This theory was developed by Goffman.
Types of social interaction: •Non Verbal Communication (face to face interaction, different across cultures. For example, Direct Eye Contact – Preferred in some societies ( USA), but Seen as rude in some other ( China, Japan))•Exchange Interaction (To do something in return of something)•Co-operation (people act together to promote common interests. Team Game.)•Conflict (People struggle against one another to achieve: war, ciolence, crime)•Competition (conflict with set rules).
Elements of social interaction. Statuses of persons interacting: 1) Ascribed (conferred upon by birth). 2)Achieved (acquired as a result of individual interactions). Culturally Defined Roles for proper behavior.
Role strain (conflict). Example: gender roles change fast. Role of husband or wife in a family changes fast which may result in role conflicts.

Social Institutions and the Human Life cycle Chapter 3

Socialization – The process of social interaction that teaches an individual Intellectual, Physical, Social skills.
Every individual is born with a set of genes (a unit of heredity which is transferred from a parent to child and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring). Genes influence chemical processes of our body and control some human traits (blood group, our ability to identify certain color shades). Genes and physical and social environment determine most human characteristics.
Nature or Nurture. Nature (initially believed by sociologists to be most important) –Inherited characteristics. Nurture –acquired through socialization.
Ivan Pavlov’s Experiment: ringing a bell when giving food to the dog, repeated it until the dog started salivating at the expectation of food => instinctive behaviour can be moulded. Conclusion: social processes can change human behavior.
Watson’s Experiment: made little Albert afraid of rabbits having conducted social experiment => Albert learned fear through Socialization.
Genes + Socialization helped human race to overcome many odds. Humans accumulate knowledge, improve, pass it to new generations.
Sociobiology. Edward O Wilson’s book : Sociobiology : A new Synthesis: human behaviour is both biologically and socially determined.
Altruism – principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others. Opposite – selfishness.
Everyone has Social identity, which changes as one goes through various stages of childhood and adulthood. Status in society is partly inherited and partly acquired.
Concept of “Self”. It is a personal Identity which is Changing yet enduring and consists of: Inherited history, Social traits and Skills. Development of “Self”: Cognitive Development •Moral Development •Gender Identity

Stages of Cognitive Development by Jean Piaget:

•Birth to two Years: Sensorimotor stage.
•2-6 years : Pre-operational Stage.
•7-12 years : Operational Stage
•13 years and above : A logical thought process develops
Stages of Moral Development by Lawrence Kohlberg:
•Stage 1 : Orientation towards Punishment
•Stage 2 : Orientation towards reward
•Stage 3 : Orientation towards possible disapproval by others
•Stage 4 : Orientation towards formal laws and possible dishonour
•Stage 5 : Orientation towards peer values and democracy
•Stage 6 : Orientation towards one’s own set of values
The development of sociology. Chapter 4
Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. Its goal is to understand social situations, look for patterns in behavior.
Sociology Vs. other disciplines. Sociology uses scientific methods, observation, experimentation, generalization, verification. Science – body of systematically arranged knowledge that shows the operation of general laws. Psychology – stream of psychology overlaps sociology, it is a study of human mind.
Sociological approach: Looks through other people’s eyes• Sees various viewpoints and evaluates them• Adopts a scientific approach• Takes into account varying lifestyles of people before a conclusion. Personalized Approach: •we see only part of the issue. •Personal Experience may be biased. •Other persons experience may differ completely.
Emile Durkheim`s “Suicide”. Studied suicides in various social groups. Less Catholics than protestants, more men than women. More single than married. More soldiers than non-soldiers. Suicide Rates differ in alternate social contexts. Types of suicide: Anomic (disintegrative forces leading to social isolation), Altruistic (excessive social pressure), Egoistic (person sees no purpose of his existence).
“Sociological imagination” by C. Wright Mills – Ability to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life.

Theoretical perspectives of sociology.

Functionalism (various parts of society are related, society is stable, social life is governed by cooperation and consensus). Emile Durkheim (the first true sociological study that was scientifically conducted.) Herbert Spencer. (introduced the concept that Human society was evolving). Max Weber (Social institutions, according to Weber, are there to stabilize society).
Conflict theory (Society composed of competing interest groups, society is unstable, conflict leads to social change). Karl Marx (Social inequality will give rise to social conflict)
Interactionist theory (people participate in social activities, human behavior influences society, social norms influences individuals). George Herbert Mead (Individuals interact in society through symbols – symbolic interactionism).

Feminist Theory (study of women in a social context).

Postmodernism (image dominates reality. We start believing in the image of individuals. Communication, Mass Media, Social Media all important).

Microsociology (studying human behavior, individuals), Macrosociology (study of large groups, organizations, social systems).

Help of sociology. 3 ways: 1) Awareness of Cultural Differences. 2) Assessing the Effects of Policies. 3) Self Enlightenment
Sociologists in society. analyse and interpret data on society. Work as Industrial consultants, Urban planners, Social workers, Personnel managers, Business Houses, Journalists.