SOCSCI - Module 3

• Socialization - the process through which a person learns the norms, values, and behaviours considered acceptable by society. 
• Talcott Parson - Pioneer of Sociology
• Socialization is a lifelong process of social interaction that transforms a child into a teenager, a friend, a student, an office worker, a parent, and many more.
• The Looking-Glass self - a theory developed by Charles H. Cooley
• Three Principal Elements(Charles H. Cooley):

  1. We imagine how we appear to others or how we want to appear to others. 
  2. We imagine how others make judgements and react to our appearance or behavior. 
  3. We experience positive and negative feelings, pride or shame, depending on the imagined judgements and interpretations of others toward us. 
• The Generalized Other:

  •  By George Herbert Mead
  • “I” refers to the spontaneous and self-centered traits of the person. “Me” is the unique traits of a person and the expectations of the larger group.
• The Three Stages of role taking

  1. Imitative stage (age of 1) - children imitate the behavior of their significant others
  2. Play stage (age 2-4) - forms preferences through experiences
  3. Game stage (age 5) - role identifying
• Family - is the first and usually the most important and influential agent of socialization
• Peer groups - adolescents adopt the viewpoints of  the worldviews of others
• School - Is the children's first experience of an institution that evaluates their behaviours. 
• Mass Media - promotes and influences child actions
• The Looking-Glass Self, a theory that was developed by Charles H. Cooley, is a process to substantiate his contention that the self is a social product; that people’s interactions with others shape their personality or self-concept from the time of birth until they become elder members of society.
• Norms - are rules of behavior that define what is right and wrong, acceptable or not, and can be understood only within the context of one’s culture
• Values - serve as standards for evaluating norms.
• Status - refers to the position of a person in society.
• • Ascribed - a status one is born with. 
• Achieved - a status one works to get.
• Roles - a set of expected behaviours attached to a status
• • Deviance - refers to behavior that violates norms and values considered by society as important. 
• Conformity - Refers to behavior that follows norms and values considered by society as important.
• Social Control - are efforts to prevent or correct a deviant behavior or to support conformity. Gossip, ridicule, and stigma are social controls in an informal setting
• 1. Structural-Functional Approach - 

  • By Emile Durkheim
  • although deviance can be dysfunctional for society in many ways, it can also be functional and, therefore, performs positive functions for society.
  •  it can bring people together, it can increase group solidarity, it can help clarify cultural norms and values, and it can bring about needed social change
  •  For example, People Power Revolt
• Conformity - when the person uses culturally-approved means of achieving desired goals.
• Innovation - when the person accepts the goals but rejecting society’s means of achieving them.
• 1. Ritualism - when the person accepts the means but not the goals.
• Retreatism - when the person rejects both the goals and the means
• Rebellion - when the person rejects the goals and the means and substitutes a new way
• Labeling Theory -

  • By Howard Becker
  • an individual becomes deviant when labeled as deviant, and when he or she has accepted the label as a personal identity.
• • Stigma - The label is negative and it changes a person’s self-concept and social identity
• • Primary Deviance - refers to the initial act or passing episodes of veering away from what is taught as an ideal behavior
• • Secondary Deviance - when a person continues to or repeatedly violates acceptable behavior. It, therefore, results from being labeled as a deviant by society.
• Conflict Approach -

  •  links deviance to social inequality
  •  it reflects the interest of those who are in power
  • It argues that actions are considered deviant because people in power have the resources to make those actions deviant.