Elements of Society: Socialization

The process by which people learn the culture and social skills of their society and of their particular social location. Socialization takes place throughout life, though many theories focus on infants and children.

Major Perspectives

Symbolic interactionism

• Focuses on emergence of the self through social interaction.

• Mead’s stages of development of the self: (1) Young children have no sense of self and only interact by imitating others; (2) In play, older children learn to take the role of the other, especially of significant others; (3) School-age children play organized games through which they acquire a concept of the generalized other. By assuming the role of the generalized other, they develop cohesive adult selves.

Functionalist theory

• Focuses on the process in which individuals become: (1) integrated into society by internalizing its shared values and norms, and (2) differentiated into particular social roles.

• Socialization is a functional prerequisite of all societies.

Conflict theory

• Sees socialization as a process in which individuals are assigned to different, unequal, and competing groups.

• Socialization plays a key role in maintaining the dominance of the powerful.

Accounts of childhood development

• Focuses on how infants develop into competent members of society and develop their own unique, personal characteristics.

• Sociologists rely on psychological theories of the different stages individuals pass through in the process of socialization. Important theories include those developed by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Jean Piaget (1896–1980), Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987), and Erik Erikson (1902–1994).

Key Concepts

• Nature/nurture debate: Debate over whether human behavior is dictated by biology (“nature”; genes and instincts) or shaped by social factors such as culture, structure, and socialization (“nurture”). Most sociologists take the latter view.

• Oversocialized conception of man: The critique that some theories (Durkheim, functionalism) overstate the degree to which individuals internalize societal norms and depict individuals as having no capacity for creative action.

Key Concepts: Symbolic Interactionism

• Self: Our self-awareness and sense of who we are, which first emerges out of our interactions with others during childhood.

• Looking-glass self: The understanding of the self as a product of our perceptions of how other people view us; others are a mirror in which the self takes shape. (Cooley)

• Primary and secondary groups: Primary groups are small and relations are regular, face-to-face, and personal; they play a significant role in socialization. Secondary groups are larger and more impersonal; interaction is not as regular, and is usually undertaken to achieve specific goals rather than for its own sake. (Cooley)

• Significant others: Other people who play large roles in the lives of children and whose roles children take on in play. (Mead)

• Generalized other: An abstract concept of others as a group. By taking the role of the generalized other the individual develops a unitary sense of self and internalizes societal attitudes and behaviors. (Mead)

• Play and games: In play the child takes on the role of one other actor at a time. Games require the ability to take on and respond to many different roles. Through taking on multiple roles in games, the child forms a concept of the generalized other. (Mead)