Socialization

4 minute read

How much of a person’s characteristics come from nature (biological/hereditary) and how much from nurture (social environment/contact with others)?
Sociologists studied feral children raised by animals in the jungles, isolated children (Isabella who was kept in the attic for 6 years), institutionalized children and deprived animals to figure out how much nature and nurture has an impact on these children. They found out some important aspects explored below:
- Language is key as it allows us to have a culture, shared ideas, and connections with others. Without language, people live in internal silence.
- The Skeels/Dye Experiment: Psychologists tested babies who were given to orphanages and babies given to caring women. They found out that babies who were cared by women had a much higher IQ than the babies in the orphanages. Apparently, “high intelligence” depends on early, close relations with other humans.
Basically, babies do not develop “naturally” into social adults. They need language, social interaction, friendly connections to learn the ways of the society - this is called socialization.
Socialization: the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group — the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for them.

Self is how we perceive ourselves. This is unique to humans as we are able to see ourselves ‘from the outside’. Are we witty or dull? We may think we are witty but that might be far from the truth.
Looking-glass Self: a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops through internalizing others’ reactions to us. Others may see us as a witty person and that reinforces our belief. Again, this may not actually be true.
Taking the Role of the Other: putting yourself in someone else’s shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks, so you anticipate how that person will act. This can be a significant other or generalized other. There are three stages to this as described by the Sociologist, George Herbert Mead.

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In sum, the self and the mind, just like language, are products of society. We would not have a self image if we did not have others to describe it.

The development of the mind—specifically, how we learn to reason—was studied in detail by Jean Piaget (1896–1980).
Piaget concluded that children go through a natural process as they develop their ability to reason. This process has four stages.
1. The sensorimotor stage (from birth to about age 2). During this stage, our understanding is limited to direct contact — sucking, touching, listening, looking.
2. The preoperational stage (from about age 2 to age 7). During this stage, we develop the ability to use symbols. We can count but we don’t really know why we are counting.
3. The concrete operational stage (from about age 7 to age 12). Although our reasoning abilities are more developed, they remain concrete. We can now understand numbers, size, causation, and speed, and we are able to take the role of the other.
4. The formal operational stage (after the age of about 12). We now are capable of abstract thinking. We can talk about concepts, come to conclusions based on general principles, and use rules to solve abstract problems. Interestingly, some people may never reach this stage e.g. college helps with abstract thought but not a lot of us go to college.
However, researchers have found that these stages are not as distinct as Piaget concluded - they can vary.

Freud and Personality: Freud believed that there are three elements to a personality: the id (inborn drive), the ego and the superego. Id is what you want to do, superego is what the society expects you to do (norms) and ego is the balancing force between them. When id gets out of hand, the individual forgets the norms and starts committing crimes. When the superego gets out of hand, the individual becomes too complacent.
Kohlberg and Morality: Just like Piaget’s work, there are four stages to the development of morality according to the psychologist Kohlberg. They are:
1. Amoral stage - babies have no clue what is right or wrong.
2. Preconventional stage - follow the rules to stay out of trouble.
3. Conventional stage - morality is following the norms.
4. Postconventional stage - reflection on norms and whether they are right.
Emotions are sometimes also learned. Basic emotions are same across the world which makes it a part of nature. However, the expression of those emotions can be different e.g. a girl in US might jump and glee in excitement but a girl from Pakistan won’t do that; she will probably act reserved even if she’s excited. Would a US man jump and glee in excitement?