Social problem

What is societies responsibility to the event in New Town, Conn? Are mass shootings a social problem and what needs to happen so tragic events like this don't happen again?

Gun control

Should a discussion about gun control in each state or at the national level take place in light of the tragic event on Friday in New Town, Conn.?

Media coverage

Considering the event that took place in New Town, Conn. on Friday, has the media focused to much time on this tragic event?

God question

My daughter a week ago asked "why doesn't God hear my prayers" after learning that Kim (Mom) will not be home for Christmas. She is having a hard time understanding why God is not able to heel her Mom. What do you think I should have said to Madelynn?

Looking Glass Theory

1. We imagine how we must appear to others.
2. We imagine the judgment of that appearance.
3. We develop our self through the judgments of others.

How do you appear to others?
How are you judge because of that appearance?
How has your idea of self been developed because othe other peoples judgments of you?

What does it mean to be an American?

What does it mean to be an American?

Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala thanks supporters after being shot by Taliban

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/02/world/asia/pakistan-malala/index.html

Socialization Study Guide

Socialization study guide

Terms to know

Instinct - an unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern

Personality - the sum total of a person’s behavior, attitudes, beliefs and values

Me – the part of our self that is aware of the expectations and attitudes of society

I – the unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component of persoanality

Self – your conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society

Sociobiology – the systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior

Feral Children - raised without the influence of a cultural environment

Generalized other – the internalized attitudes, expectations and viewpoints of society

The looking-glass self - an image of ourselves based on imagining how we appear to others

Role taking – forms the basis of socialization process by allowing us to anticipate what other expect from us

Peer group – a group primary made up of individuals roughly the same age and similar social characteristics

Total Institution – a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and subject to tight control

Resocialization – a break of past experiences and the learning of new values and norms

People to know

Charles H. Cooley

(born August 17, 1864, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. died May 8, 1929, Ann Arbor) was an American sociologist and the son of Thomas M. Cooley. He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of Michigan, and he was a founding member and the eighth president of the American Sociological Association. He is perhaps best known for his concept of the looking glass self, which is the concept that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.

Rene Spitz

(Vienna 1887 – Denver September 11, 1974) was an American psychoanalyst of Hungarian origin. In 1935 that Spitz turned to the area of child development. He was one of the first researchers who used child observation. Not only disturbed children found his interest, but he also focused on the normal child development. He pointed out the effects of maternal and emotional deprivation. This became the field of his greatest contributions. In 1945 he did research on institutionalization on children. He found that the developmental imbalance caused by the unfavorable environmental conditions during the children's first year produces a psychosomatic damage that cannot be repaired by normal measures. Another study of Spitz showed that under favorable circumstances and adequate organization a positive child development can be achieved. He stated that the methods in foundling homes should therefore be carefully evaluated.

John Locke

(29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704), widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Locke's theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa.

George H. Mead

(1863–1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.

Mead theorized that human beings begin their understanding of the social world through "play" and "game". "Play" comes first in the child's development. The child takes different roles he/she observes in "adult" society, and plays them out to gain an understanding of the different social roles. For instance, he first plays the role of policeman and then the role of thief while playing "Cops and Robbers," and plays the role of doctor and patient when playing "Doctor." As a result of such play, the child learns to become both subject and object and begins to become able to build a self. However, it is a limited self because the child can only take the role of distinct and separate others, they still lack a more general and organized sense of themselves.

In the next stage, the game stage, it is required that a person develop a self in the full sense of the term. Whereas in the play stage the child takes on the role of distinct others, role taking, in the game stage the child must take the role of everyone else involved in the game. Furthermore, these roles must have a definite relationship to one another. In the game stage, organization begins and definite personalities start to emerge. Children begin to become able to function in organized groups and most importantly, to determine what they will do within a specific group. Mead calls this the child's first encounter with "the generalized other", which is one of the main concepts Mead proposes for understanding the emergence of the (social) self in human beings. "The generalized other" can be understood as understanding the given activity and the actors place within the activity from the perspective of all the others engaged in the activity. Through understanding "the generalized other" the individual understands what kind of behavior is expected, appropriate and so on, in different social settings. The mechanism of perspective taking within social acts is the exchange of social positions.

Ivan Pavlov

(September 26, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a famous Russian physiologist. Although he made significant contributions to psychology, he was not in fact a psychologist himself and actually had strong distaste for the field. It was though Pavlov work that supposedly instinctual behavior could be taught.

Concepts to know

Agents of Socialization

            Family

            Peer Group

            School

            Mass Media

            Religion

            Club/Social groups

            Ethnic background

            Work

            Government

Unintended Socialization

Example – when your parents tell you to do or act one way but your parents themselves do or act a different way

Symbolic interaction

Interaction between people that takes place through the use of symbols. Interactionist study topics like child development, relationships within groups, and mate selection.

Nature vs Nurture

Birth order

Our personalities are influenced by whether we have brothers and or sisters, and the order in which we are born.

Cultural environment

            Culture has a strong influence on personality development. Our cultural environment determines the basic types of personalities that will be found in a society. Each culture gives rise to a series of personality trait.

Know and understand the personality assessments we did in class:

            Myers-Briggs personality type indicator

You will need to describe what it is, what your assessment revealed about you, whether your agree or disagree and why, and list some reason why your results were what they were (what to you think influenced you)

The test may also include questions from any of the videos we viewed in class.

Who are you and how do you become YOU?

Socialization is a process of learning norms, rules, regulations, values and attitudes of society. It is a lifelong process which starts from childhood till to the death of a person. Socialization is a vital process of learning through which the society exists. Each and every society socializes its members according to its own values. For example, if a baby enters in American society, he/she socializes according to the characteristics of American society. In the same way, the children of Russian societies are being socialized according to the characteristics of Russian societies. A man learns ways of attitudes, behaviors, languages, and cultures of a society through the process of socialization.

What is human nature? The debate of "nature" (heredity) and "nurture" (the social environment) is being made since decades. Some scientists think that nature plays an important role in the socialization while others view that nurture is only the way through which a member can be socialized. To answer this controversial question, one can give logical reasons that human beings do not have natural language. An infant comes in this society having only bones, flesh, and breathing system. If this very infant kept in isolation for several years, he/she cannot be able to speak even a single word. Heredity provides those essential things which are important to grow up but social environment is far important than heredity through which a children learns the language. Without the concept of language a member cannot create relationships with others. Language is a source to create relationships and to take part into the social interaction. So, nurture or social environment is so much important that it converts an animal into a social animal.

Cooley and the looking-Glass self

Charles Hurton Cooley was a renowned social scientist who thought that our sense of self develops from interaction with others. To describe this process, Cooley coined the term "looking- glass self theory" in the year 1902. According to Cooley, there are three elements in the looking-glass self theory.

1. We imagine how we appear to the others. For example, we can guess that others see us as intelligent or stupid.

2. We interpret others' reactions. We may come to know that how others evaluate us. Do they like us for being intelligent? Do they dislike us for being stupid?

3. We develop a self-concept. After the reactions of others, we develop feelings and ideas about ourselves. 

Looking-glass self theory is like a "social mirror" in which a person can see his/her reflection. This process of self development clearly shows us the image of our personality. We can judge our personality by feedback of others. So, the process of looking-glass self plays an important role in the process of socialization.

 Agents of socialization Agents of socialization are the people and groups which influence our emotions, attitudes and behavior etc. Family, religion, day care, school, peer groups and workplace are the agents of socialization that prepare us to take our place in society.

• Family

Family is an important agent of socialization where a child starts learning the language of family. Slowly and gradually a children learns the roles of family members. He/she recognizes the roles of father, mother, sisters and brothers. It has been seen that most of the children follow the roles of others like putting on glasses and reading newspapers as their parents do.

• Religion

Religion is also an important agent of socialization where an individual learns about right and wrong. Religions provide basic ideas of morality which become the part of our life in future. Religion teaches us about the way of dressing, speech, and manners which are suitable for us in formal occasions.

• Day care

Day care is another agent of socialization in which the children are being socialized and benefited by the others. It has been become a tradition in every society to hire a person for daily wages to take care of the children. Day care process stimulates the intellectual personality of children.

• The school and peer groups

The school and peer groups are the agents of socialization where a child meets with a large group of people of similar age. Apart from education, the students are linked with each other for common interests. In this way of sharing ideas and common interests, students find peer groups for themselves and they start learning from those peer groups. Friends, clubs, gangs, and the neighbors are some examples of the peer groups. While entering into a school and peer group a member starts learning new norms and characteristics like athletics ability, coolness, toughness physical appearance and attraction etc.

• The workplace

Workplace is another agent of socialization in which an individual enters into a mature age. Apparently, workplace is place where an individual serves as an employer and earns a few dollars. Besides this, an employer has lot of opportunities to learn essential things for future. It has been seen that co-workers always advise about the future plans and lifestyles. It can be said that it is a sort of rehearsal for future activities. Therefore, it is proved that workplace is an agent of socialization where an individual has the opportunity to learn a lot.

The Holiday Season

What has the following taught you about Christmas?

Family
Culture
Friends
School
Religion
Government
Mass Media
US Economy

Do any of the social agents listed above work against each other? How do you work out that conflict?

What will it take for the USA to become the world leader in education?

Finland is # 1
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749880

School Year around the world:
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/school-years.html

Length of school year graph
http://www.inca.org.uk/Table15.pdf