SOC101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Pierre Bourdieu, Erving Goffman, Crystallization
Media is dominant socialized engagement
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Learn our culture - including norms, values, and roles (role is behaviour
expected of a person occupying a particular position in society)
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Comes with a set of scripts of what seems desirable or undesirable
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Becoming aware of ourselves as we interact with others
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Unleashing potential --> becoming fully human
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Self: a sense of individual identity that allows us to understand
who we are in relation to others and to differentiate ourselves
form them
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How we distinguish ourselves from those around us
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How different I am from others
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See selves as unique / different
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Formation of a sense of self begins in childhood and continues in
adolescence
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While sense of self changes in life, pace of change slows
down after adolescence
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However socializations still occurs in assisted living facilities
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Crystallization of self-identity during adolescence is just one
episode in the lifelong process of socialization
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Formation of the self
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Socialization is a lifelong process --> no end point
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Social psychology: relationship between individuality and social context
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Only social interaction allows the self to emerge
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Pushed envelope to talk about sense of self from social interaction
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Freud
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Looking-glass self
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If other people see us a certain way, we are more likely to see
ourselves in that way as well
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Cooley
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individual impulses, self as subject
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Personal
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I
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Generalized other, self as object
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Reflecting on self as if as movie
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Perception of other people
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Me
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Mead
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Multiple selves
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How people are around friends, so, strangers, work, etc. --> variation
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Move away from idea of one true self that is distorted in different
situations
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Who we are is culmination of different aspects of selves
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Goffman
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Many of these different individual aspects that are shaped by our social
environment will go unnoticed
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There are decisions in daily lives which are not resulted from direct
Habitus - Pierre Bourdieu
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Lecture 1.6: Socialization and Social Interaction
October 19, 2016
12:18 PM
LECTURE Page 16
There are decisions in daily lives which are not resulted from direct
logical decisions
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Different from habit in one important respect: habitus are not just the
consequences of our individual history (outcomes) but they are also
generative (causes)
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Do something without thinking about it
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Usually a consequence of something you've learned and do so
often it is now second nature
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Habit
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Disposition
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Disposed to do things a particular way
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Meant to be predictive to how you usually do things
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Where you like to go for a run in the morning
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Systems of durable dispositions where our past experiences are
integrated into how we behave, which then impact our perceptions,
our appreciations and our actions
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Example: accent / dialect
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Example: way we walk.
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Leads us to see particular things and understand the world in
particular ways, to have different taste, and to make key
distinctions between what is right and wrong, so forth
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Impacts behaviour, but at unconscious rather than conscious level
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Self: we are our ways of perceiving valuing and knowing -->
Sandywell
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Habitus
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Process through which individuals learn to become feminine and
masculine according to expectations current in their society
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Process by which individuals learn what the expectations are for
man/woman in own culture / community
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Different expectations based on different groups we interact with
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Formation of gender
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Can be restrictive
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Gilligan demonstrated sociological factors help explain differences in
sense of self that boys and girls usually develop
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Boys are more difficult to raise when it comes to discipline,
physical safety and school
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Girls are most difficult when it comes to self esteem issues and
communication at a later age
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Sax:
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Gender socialization
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Most important agent of primary socialization, which is process of
mastering basic skills required to function in society during
childhood
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Families
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Increasingly responsible for secondary socialization, or socialization
outside the family after childhood
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Schools
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Consist of individuals who are not necessarily friends but who are
about the same age and of similar status (status refer to
recognized social position an individual can occupy)
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Peer groups help children and adolescents separate from their
Peer groups:
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Agents of socialization
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LECTURE Page 17
Document Summary
Socialization is a lifelong process --> no end point. Learn our culture - including norms, values, and roles (role is behaviour expected of a person occupying a particular position in society) Comes with a set of scripts of what seems desirable or undesirable. Becoming aware of ourselves as we interact with others. Self: a sense of individual identity that allows us to understand who we are in relation to others and to differentiate ourselves form them. How we distinguish ourselves from those around us. Formation of a sense of self begins in childhood and continues in adolescence. Crystallization of self-identity during adolescence is just one episode in the lifelong process of socialization. While sense of self changes in life, pace of change slows down after adolescence. However socializations still occurs in assisted living facilities. Social psychology: relationship between individuality and social context. Only social interaction allows the self to emerge.
