Socialization

‘’Socialization is the process whereby one internalizes the norms of the groups among whom one lives so
that a unique “self” emerges.’’
Socialization is an Active process whereby human beings:
 Develop a self or sense of individual identity.
 Learn how to become members of society.
 Learn to participate in social relationships.
 Socialization is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained".

The Self
According to George Herbert Mead there are two components of self:
 ’I’ CREATIVE SUBJECT
 ‘ME’ OBJECTIVE COMPONENT
Self is balanced with mind, spirit and body.

THE SELF AND SOCIALIZATION

 Socialization involves not only learning about others but also develops a sense of self
  Is our sense of individual identity
 Allows us to understand ourselves
 Allows us to differentiate ourselves from others

Group Experience & The Self

o At the start of life there is no self.

o The child begins to recognize people and tell them apart by names which identify individuals
o About the age of 18 months to 2 years child begins to use ‘’I’’
o Which is a clear sign of a definite self-awareness.
o physical maturation and the accumulation of social experiences define ones personality.
o The child forms an image of the kind of person he or she is through social interaction .

According to Walter Pater

"Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by
that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to
that which we can only conjecture to be without.
Roles and Responsibilities :
Determining your project team:
1. Skills need for task or each group of task
2. Ability to learn new things
3. Knowledge
4. Personality
5. Experience
6. Availability
7. Ability to work with others

One’s formation of self –image is perhaps the most important single process in personality development.

Social Isolation
Socially isolating oneself can mean staying home for days, not talking with friends or acquaintances
the absence of social relationships
contact, is limited, is superficial and brief, meaningful, extended relationships are missing.
generally avoiding contact with other people
SOCIAL ISOLATE
‘’A person who socially remains alone or apart from others.’’
Social Isolates
HUMANS
Myths

Real life examples

ANIMALS
Harlow’s Study
Kamala & Amala: The Wolf Children
Kamala The most famous wolf-children are the two girls captured in October 1920 from a huge abandoned ant-hill
squatted by wolves near Godamuri in the vicinity of Midnapore, west of Calcutta, by villagers under the direction
of the Rev JAL Singh, an Anglican missionary. The mother wolf was shot. The girls were named Kamala and
Amala, and were thought to be aged about eight and two. According to Singh, the girls had misshapen jaws,
elongated canines, and eyes that shone in the dark with the peculiar blue glare of cats and dogs. Amala died the
following year, but Kamala survived until 1929, by which time she had given up eating carrion, had learned to
walk upright and spoke about 50 words.
’Anna’’ The Feral Child
Anna was six years old when she was found (Davis, 1940/1947), having been kept in a room for most of her life.
She was an illegitimate child and her Grandfather disapproved of his Daughter’s behaviour. Anna’s Mother tried
giving her to several child agencies however these attempts were unsuccessful. She was kept in a dark room for
most of the five and a half years, given barely enough to keep her alive. She was tied to a broken chair which was
too small for her, and believed to have been tied in a cot for much longer then most children are placed in them.
When she was found she was suffering from malnutrition as well as her muscles showed signs of atrophy. She was
immobile, expressionless and indifferent to everything. She was believed to be deaf as she did not response to
others (later they found that her deafness was functional rather then organic). She could not talk, walk, feed her or
do anything that showed signs of intelligence. Anna was born in March 1932 in Pennsylvania. Her mother had
tried to give Anna up for several months but no agency was willing to take the financial burden (America was in
the grip of the Great Depression). She was kept in a store room out of the way of her grandfather as her presence
made him angry. She was kept on a diet of milk which left her malnutritioned. Her mother resented the trouble
Anna caused her and gave her little attention. She was never bathed, trained or even caressed. Once Anna was
taken away and placed in a foster home she showed signs of improving. At the age of nine she began to develop
speech. She had started to conform to social norms and was able to feed to herself, though only using a spoon. Her
teachers described her as having a pleasant disposition. Unfortunately Anna passed away in August 1942 of
Hemorrhagic Jaundice.

Mother Teresa said:

the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved!!
Albert Einstein said:
I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a
generation of idiots!!

Reference groups
History of the concept: The term “reference group” was first used by Hyman, who elaborated the
concept and explored some of its properties in “The Psychology of Status” (1942). Seeking to understand
the ways in which individuals ranked themselves in terms of their choice of a social framework for
comparison, he first explored, by interview, the reference groups and reference individuals that subjects
employed and some of the dynamics underlying such selection, and then used experimental manipulation
to determine the effects of particular reference groups on self-appraisal .
A reference group is a group to which an individual or another group is compared..
Sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own
behavior a reference group
• Reference Groups
 The Family Group
 The Peer Group
The Family
most important socialization agent
Family has to teach children skills, values, and beliefs
Parents give children a social identity, including race & class.
system that is usually a reflection of their own social status, religion, ethnic group, and more.
The class position of parents affects how they raise their children
Parents may reproduce negative modeling that they experienced as a child
child learns the appropriate roles associated with his/her gender: encourage obedience
there are strong emotional ties and motivations: inspire the same qualities in their children

The peer group

a social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common
blind obedience result in socially alienated gangs with pathological outlooks
learn to decide which norms and values to keep, reject, or use
Learn how to form relationships on their own.
Offer a chance to discuss interests that adults may not share or permit.
Escape the direct supervision of adults.

Multiple groups and socialization

All complex societies have many groups and subcultures with differencing and sometimes opposing
standards.
One is presented with models of behavior which are rewarded at one time and punished at another, or
approved by some groups and condemned by others.
e.g. Some caution the young girl to remain chaste, while others urge her to be emancipated.
In a society each person moves in a number of groups with differing standards and values
each person must work out some way of dealing with these opposing pressures
People may deal with this problem by compartmentalizing their lives
developing a different self for each group in which they move
they may select a favorite reference group to conform to and have their real life within, rejecting other
groups
Power of the peer group cultivate behavior patterns contrary to those of the family
Not all youths however are as firmly wedded to peer group standards and not all peer groups are as much
in conflict with family or society

Unique experience and personality

Each person’s experience is unique in that nobody else’s perfectly duplicates it
experiences do not simply add up, they integrate
Personality is not built by piling one incident upon another like a brick wall
meaning and impact of an experience depends upon other experiences which has preceded it
Children imitate each other a great deal but they also strive for separate identities
Younger children often reject those activities which their other siblings already do well
seek recognition through other activities
Nobody has exactly the same set of experiences
nobody has the same background of experience
“Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.”

In general:
The learning process which turns him or her from an animal into a person with human personality.
Difference between animal and human is their dislikes, likes, purposes, goals, attitudes and values!