Jaclyn H.

Truong
14 September 2014
Professor E. Bustillos
Sociology 1

Socialization Nature vs. Nurture

1. Nature vs. nurture is a continuous debate for many sociologists. The twins
Oskar and Jack separated at birth and placed in two different environments,
tell us that both nature and nurture are big influences in human
development. Although the twins were separated, they both had similar
characteristics. They displayed same characteristics linked through heredity,
for example habits, temperaments, etc. whereas they differed more when
comparing attitudes, influenced by their environments. Twins placed in
roughly similar social settings had similar test scores whereas twins placed
in dramatically different social settings, scored quite differently.
2. The self refers to our sense of who we are. The self is unique and distinct
from others because of the way it is shaped by the combination of our social
interactions. Cooleys looking glass self is a theory that says we become
who we are based on how we think others see ourselves. He explains three
steps that influence his theory: first we imagine how people view us, second
we imagine how people evaluate how they view us, and third we define
ourselves as a result of we think people evaluate us.
a. Mead discusses the stages of self: the difference between I and Me.
i. I is our acting self. This is where a person performs any
action we may do.
ii. Me is our socialized self. It draws on all our previous
training and experience to plan our actions and ten uses these
standards to judge our performance afterwards.
iii. The Me plans. The I acts
b. Mead also uses the word significant other to describe a particular
individual that has played an important role in his or her development
of ones self.
i. He describes the process of self-realization in three stages:
1. Preparatory stage from birth to age 3, children would
imitate the people around them. This is where children
begin to develop interaction skills theyll use
throughout their lives.
2. Play stage from age 3 to age 5, children begin to mimic
various characters in life, similar to role taking. Playing
make believe is a critical part of self-development,
according to Mead.
3. Game stage from ages 6 to 9, children stop playing
make believe and role taking and start considering roles
and relationships.
3. Erving Goffman studies social interactions as if it was a stage and everyone
has their roles that they play on set. One would play their roles to convey
impressions of who we are to other while others do the same simultaneously.
Front stage is where the performance happens, where the audience can see
who we are. Performing the character we want people to see us as. Backstage
is where we prepare for the show. Goffman mentions the presentation of the
self as impression management; where one maintains a proper imagine to
avoid embarrassment or bad judgment of ones self. To do this, one engages
in face-work which is a behavior we use when we are feeling flustered. We
use this to maintain an image of the self during social interactions.
4. Some of the agents in socialization are family, friends, schools, peers, media,
workplaces, religions, etc. These agents play the most powerful roles in
shaping the self. Schools play a big role in gender socialization. This is when
children first learn about values and customs of a larger society through the
history. The media introduces different lifestyles and cultures to young
people.
5. Total institution, coined by Erving Goffman, refers to an institution regulates
every aspect of a persons life through one set of authority. Goffman has four
traits of total institutions: all aspects are conducted in one place by the same
one authority, any or all activities are conducted in the company of people
under the same circumstance, authorizes devise the rules and schedule
without consideration of the participants, and all aspects are designed to
fulfill the purpose of the organization. A degradation ceremony is when a
person is stripped of his or her identity through the removal of clothing or
any prized possessions. Once the person enters a total institution, they are
stripped of their identity outside of the institution and considered invisible
and secondary. This is why it is used to mortify ones sense of self.
6. Dealing with elderly people varies all around the world, depending on the
culture. Most people see older people as unproductive and useless. You
wouldnt send an elder person to fight a war filled with young people.
Disengagement theory is a theory of aging that suggests that a society and
the aging individual mutually sever many of their relationships. Activity
theory is a theory of aging that suggests that those elderly people who
remain active and socially involved will have an improved quality of life.
There are a lot of solutions for elderly people to avoid the disengagement
theory, living a severed and isolated quality of life after aging is not appealing
at all. They have nursing homes and senior citizens groups to help facilitate
the activity theory.