THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF SELF
what
are we made of?
nature
vs. nurture vs. both?
|
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Who we are is dependent upon the
circumstances (historical and social context) which surround us.
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Societies reproduce themselves
through socialization (process of learning to relate to other people and
and to play a part in society... we develop these abilities through our
interactions with others)
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anticipatory
socialization takes place during childhood but re-socialization
continues throughout our lifetimes everytime we enter into a new set of
rules and expectations (transition from HS to college, from singlehood
to couplehood/marriage, from being a child to being a parent etc.)
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total institutions
destroy the old identity, cut-off individuals from the larger society to
meet certain organizational needs/expectations (military establishments,
mental institutions, cults, etc.)
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Agents of
socialization: family, education, religion, media, class, racial
and ethnic group membership
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family .... personal socialization
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school .... impersonal socialization,
unified (what needs to be learned/taught decided and applied across country)
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media ... we are persuaded by
the messages/images we get from the media about how we should be.
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social class .... similar experiences
in power, privilege, prestige, wealth, etc. lead to similar ways of perceiving
life and what to expect out of it.
-
race and ethnicity ... according
to studies, american society holds certain opinions (mostly stereotypical
and scientifically unacceptable) on the basis of one's race and ethnicity
(i.e. young black males are more prone to violence) which will be reproduced
through socialization
SOCIALIZATION OF SELF
George Herbert
Mead .... "I" and "me" ... self as both active and passive (things
happen to you and also you do things to others)
constant internal dialogue
between I and me allows us to modify our behavior according to expectations
of others around us (self-aware, self-controlled individuals)
Stages
of anticipatory socialization
-
recognition of oneself
-
language acquisition
-
others around us are like mirrors
where we see ourselves
Charles
Horton Cooley, looking glass-self (actions of others toward us are
mirrors in which we see ourselves):
a) our perception of how we
appear to another person
b) our estimate of the judgment
of the other person makes about us
c) some emotional feeling
about this judgment, such as pride or shame
-
role taking (play stage .... game
stage) and conceptualization of generalized other
enables us to control our behavior.
role taking......
as a means of social control and as a means by which culture is incorporated
into the self.
| "Because
role taking is the process of imagining another person's attitudes
and intentions and thereby anticipating that person's behavior, it is essential
for everyday social interaction."
David
Newman (1999) |
SOCIALIZATION OF GENDER
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sex:
biological category
|
|
gender:
psychological, social, cultural category (socially constructed)
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gender
is a role that we learn to play/act according to cultural norms and
expectations
structural and linguistic discrimination
of gender is embedded deeply in the culture so that most of the time we
don't question them or their origins.
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