Socializing with the use of the world

Peo­ple are trained to be com­pe­tent mem­bers of a soci­ety through the process of Socialization.

It describes the ways that peo­ple come to under­stand soci­etal norms and expec­ta­tions, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of soci­etal val­ues. Social­iza­tion is not the same as social­iz­ing (inter­act­ing with oth­ers, like fam­i­ly and friends); to be pre­cise, it is a soci­o­log­i­cal process that occurs through socializing.

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Social­iza­tion

While Noel’s sto­ry from the begin­ning of the mod­ule is about a rel­a­tive­ly advanced stage of life, social­iza­tion is cru­cial for ear­ly child­hood. Even the most basic of human activ­i­ties are learned. 

Learn­ing to crawl and then walk are major mile­stones, but as any par­ent, guardian, or fam­i­ly mem­ber of a tod­dler knows, oth­er minor accom­plish­ments can be life-alter­ing for the child: climb­ing stairs, safe­ly get­ting out of bed, sit­ting in a reg­u­lar chair, and drink­ing from a reg­u­lar cup. 

Like­wise, fam­i­ly behav­iors and val­ues must be learned, some­times through obser­va­tion and some­times through active instruction.

Soci­ol­o­gists have long been fas­ci­nat­ed by sit­u­a­tions like Danielle’s, in which a child receives enough human sup­port to sur­vive but lit­tle social inter­ac­tion, because they high­light how much we rely on social inter­ac­tion to pro­vide the infor­ma­tion and skills we need to be a con­tribut­ing mem­ber of soci­ety or even to devel­op a “self.”

Social­iza­tion is crit­i­cal both to indi­vid­u­als and to the soci­eties in which they live. As indi­vid­u­als, social inter­ac­tion pro­vides us the means by which we grad­u­al­ly become able to see our­selves through the eyes of oth­ers, and how we learn who we are and how we fit into the larg­er world. In addi­tion, to func­tion suc­cess­ful­ly in soci­ety, we have to learn the basics of both mate­r­i­al and non­ma­te­r­i­al cul­ture, every­thing from how to dress our­selves to what’s suit­able attire for a spe­cif­ic occa­sion; from when we sleep to what we sleep on; and from what’s con­sid­ered appro­pri­ate to eat for din­ner and even how to use the stove to pre­pare it. Most impor­tant­ly, we have to learn language—whether it’s the dom­i­nant lan­guage or one com­mon in a sub­cul­ture, whether it’s ver­bal or through signs—in order to com­mu­ni­cate and to think. As we saw with Danielle, with­out social­iza­tion we have no com­mon­ly rec­og­niz­able sense of self.

For soci­ety to func­tion, the social­iza­tion of indi­vid­u­als is nec­es­sary. Although how this occurs and what is trans­mit­ted in terms of cul­tur­al norms and val­ues dif­fers, every soci­ety relies upon social­iza­tion to ensure its survival.

A core val­ue in the Unit­ed States is democ­ra­cy, so chil­dren in the U.S. might hear about vot­ing or go to vote with their fam­i­lies before they even begin school. Once in school, they will learn about Amer­i­can his­to­ry, civics, and cit­i­zen­ship. Stu­dents also learn the ways that the U.S. has not upheld demo­c­ra­t­ic ideals and has dis­en­fran­chised var­i­ous groups of people.

Thus, in addi­tion to vot­ing and learn­ing how to use mate­r­i­al objects such as vot­ing machines, chil­dren also learn about var­i­ous social move­ments and lead­ers who resist­ed the exist­ing social norms in order to facil­i­tate change. 

Learn­ing about how soci­ety has failed to live up to its ideals (and con­tin­ues to strug­gle in cer­tain areas) helps cit­i­zens not only to under­stand val­ues and norms on a per­son­al lev­el, but also to see the impor­tance of val­ues and norms in soci­ety, as well as how these can change over time. 

Remem­ber that social­iza­tion is a life­long process, so in our exam­ple, peo­ple will con­tin­ue to exam­ine whether or not the U.S. is liv­ing up to its demo­c­ra­t­ic ideals over many years.

Some experts argue that who we are is based entire­ly on genet­ics or our bio­log­i­cal make­up. Accord­ing to this belief, our tem­peraments, inter­ests, and tal­ents are set before birth. From this per­spec­tive, who we are depends on nature. Oth­ers, includ­ing most soci­ol­o­gists, assert that who we are is a result of nur­ture—the rela­tion­ships and envi­ron­ments that sur­round us.

One way researchers attempt to mea­sure the impact of nature is by study­ing twins. Some stud­ies have fol­lowed iden­ti­cal twins who were raised sep­a­rate­ly. The pairs shared the same genet­ic inher­i­tance, but in some cas­es were social­ized in dif­fer­ent ways. 

Instances of this sit­u­a­tion are rare, but study­ing the degree to which iden­ti­cal twins raised apart are the same or dif­fer­ent can give researchers insight into the way our tem­pera­ments, pref­er­ences, and abil­i­ties are shaped by our genet­ic make­up ver­sus our social environment.

For exam­ple, in 1968 twin girls born to a men­tal­ly ill moth­er were put up for adop­tion, sep­a­rat­ed from each oth­er, and raised in dif­fer­ent house­holds. The adop­tive par­ents, and cer­tain­ly the adoptees them­selves, did not know the girls were one of five pairs of twins who were made sub­jects of a sci­en­tif­ic study (Flam 2007).

In 2003, the two women, then age thir­ty-five, were reunit­ed. Elyse Schein and Paula Bern­stein sat togeth­er in awe, feel­ing like they were look­ing into a mir­ror. Not only did they look alike but they also behaved alike, using the same hand ges­tures and facial expres­sions (Spratling 2007). Stud­ies like these point to the genet­ic roots of our tem­pera­ment and behavior.

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