SOC101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Resocialization, Social Control, Homophobia
20 Jun 2018
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Test #2: Module Review Notes (Modules 04 - 07)
Module 04: Socialization
Socialization Defined
●Socialization is the process through which culture and social organizations come to affect the individual
● Key central process that unites culture and social organizations the individual
● w/o socialization there's very little effect of culture and social organizations onto the individual as well as
institutions
● Present at all times (constant); becoming a grandparent is a socialization process; more than necessary skills to
function in society; learning your culture and meaning of things
Forms of Socialization
●Primary socialization → occurs from birth through adolescence, family = most important agent, both
intentional/unintentional, largely imposed, although there is some reciprocity in parent-child interactions
●Secondary socialization → adult socialization, occurs throughout the life cycle as people anticipate + adjust to
new experiences, is a reciprocal process, based on previous experience; difference from primary = both more
choice and limits
○ Forms of secondary socialization = anticipatory and resocialization
○Anticipatory Socialization → effectiveness depends on (1) similarity to previous experience and (2)
ambiguity of the new situation; is the acquisition of values/orientations found in statuses + groups in which
one is not yet engaged but which one is likely to enter
○Resocialization → some institutions (prison, psychiatric hospitals) are mandated to resocialize “deviants”,
aims are often less important than latent messages (self-presentation, patterns of social relations);
socialization into a situation so unique that previous experience cannot be used to anticipate appropriate
behaviour
The Difference Between Socialization and Social Control
There are two broad ways to get people to behave according to the rules and regulations:
1. Socialization:
● Teach rules/regulations
● Get them to some extent to buy rules/regulations
2. Social control:
● Make is clear that reinforcement, punishment will attain if rules are broken
● Rules are not broken; fearful of what might occur
● Element of socialization in there learn what the rules and regulations and follow them bc of fear or bc you
at least at some level internalize rules/regulations
Internalization of rules and regulations
● Rules/regulations are taught so insidiously that they are taken as one’s own
● In effect we become society inside ourselves (I and Me, Id and Superego)
● Society is internalized and understood by you = you become your own sensor
● Can acquire a rule/value to the extent that we use it to measure our own selves or worth; if others were around
however, we wouldn’t practice the behaviour (would you kill someone if no one would know?)
● This is socialization process at its most effective extreme
● Many useful rules remain external
The concept of sociopath
● Behave as they think others want them to behave in situations, do not internalize any norm; out for themselves
and to please other people so that they can gain rewards for themselves
Significance of internalization
● One understanding of internalization → one has identified w/ and imitates the people who are teaching
● Imitate approval and disapproval depending on how you behave as you follow/disobey rules
● For this to happen, rules must be taught forcefully and by others around you
● Some exceptions → war, suspends the rule for some people;
Feral Children
Socialization is important bc in its absence have negative consequences to those deprived of social contact
● Feral children = isolated children (culture is not brought upon child and socially limited)
● No situation ever where biology is not present, and culture is present of very limited
● Most of the time culture and socialization are present
● Sometimes biology is present with very little culture and socialization = feral children (neglected, hidden bc of
typically illegitimacy and embarrassment)
● Behaviour → generally don’t talk, don’t walk right, Fearful of people, have no language, depends on how much
isolation
● Able to have stable life after years of socialization; many do not have that outcome (depends on how new, young
the child is, and how long)
This is what we are like without socialization and contact with culture ; demonstrates what we are like if biology comes to
play and not socialization and culture
Agents of Socialization
Social institutions = have greatest influence on socialization
Four primary agents of socialization = family, mass media, peer groups, and school
● FAMILIES → Families teach children how to relate to other people, express intimacy, resolve conflict, become
self-regulating in their behaviour
○ parenting style influences development/behaviour (e.g. differences between new-immigrant and other
Canadian children)
● PEERS → importance = development of a frame of reference not based on adult authority
○ peer group influence tempered by parental influences, as parent control scarce and valued resources
(including parental approval)
○ research shows that peers + family contribute to violence among adolescents (aggression stems form
family interaction issues); assumes great influence in adolescence (when emotional, social, and economic
independence begin to develop
● MASS MEDIA → demographic differences in TV (women/elderly watch more), transmit
values/behaviour/definitions of social reality, both reflect social relations + socialize audience to them
○ feminist critique of mass media = contribute to gender stereotyping
○ media violence (concern w/ imitation by children, subtler influence: defining social reality as violent leads
to increased acceptance of real-life violence)
○ Two changes in media use: (1) increasingly a solitary not social activity, (2) digital divide: the class and
educational difference in digital media use, both w/in and between societies
○ Internet use is related to age, income, and education: 30% of low-income Canadians used the internet
during the year preceding the survey; 81% of those w household income of over $80 000 used it
○ Internet use is lower in Quebec than in English Canada, men use internet for more hours than women
● SCHOOL → promotes values already learned in the child’s family (middle class children learn to value academic
achievement)
○ Hidden curriculum: unspoken norms transmitted by schooling, such as competition, individualism,
obedience, etc.
○ Importance: reinforcement of a child’s self-concept (by positive reactions by teachers); “academic
self-images” are developed; provisions of social life (rigidly structured, but decreasing importance as
adolescents acquire additional reference groups); filtering occupational choices (grades)
Module 05: Social Inequality
What is Social Inequality?
● Social inequality is one of the central areas of sociology
● Deals w individuals + groups of individuals having different access to scarce societal resources
● What are the scarce resources → social status, income/wealth, power
● Resources flow differently to people in society
Document Summary
Test #2: module review notes (modules 04 - 07) Socialization is the process through which culture and social organizations come to affect the individual. Key central process that unites culture and social organizations the individual. W/o socialization there"s very little effect of culture and social organizations onto the individual as well as. Present at all times (constant); becoming a grandparent is a socialization process; more than necessary skills to function in society; learning your culture and meaning of things intentional/unintentional, largely imposed, although there is some reciprocity in parent-child interactions. Primary socialization occurs from birth through adolescence, family = most important agent, both. Secondary socialization adult socialization, occurs throughout the life cycle as people anticipate + adjust to new experiences, is a reciprocal process, based on previous experience; difference from primary = both more choice and limits. Forms of secondary socialization = anticipatory and resocialization.
