Jenna DiStefano

Chapter 4 Outline
SOC 101
4. Socialization and the Construction of Reality
A. Socialization: the Concept
a. Socialization is formed when key interactions
between a person and the world have been
experienced, begins at an early age.
a. School becomes a main place where
socialization is formed.
b. Socialization also has its limits, the limits are
usually experienced when youre in a new
environment and youre unaware of how to act in
that situation.
B. Limits of Socialization
1. Human Nature
a. Its a common nature to interact with others in
society, doing so leads to progression of ones
performance in society.
b. Isolation from society can debilitate progression.
c. Once exposed to society and human interactions,
characteristics of functionality can form.
d. Whats an example of a child being exposed to
society at an early age and in result becoming
successful in society?
C. Theories of Socialization
1. Me, Myself and I: Development of the Self and the Other
a. Self is the ability to identify yourself as other
people
see you.
b. To achieve a sense of self its vital to put yourself
in
someone elses shoes, imagine how they see you.
c. I- perspective of power, action or agency.
e. Other- someone who isnt yourself.
2. Moving beyond self
a. Cannot function as a member of society without
moving beyond the sense of self.

b. Imitation games teach children that there is a

other.
c. Simon says displays a sense of other through
game.
D. Agents of Socialization
1. Families
a. Usually, parents take the role of teaching their
children key information that will shape them in
society.
b. This role can be reversed. For example,
immigrated
families usually have the child as a main source of
information since he or she is in the American
school society.
c. Families with differing social statuses also raise
their children differently in society. Working-class
vs. Middle-class.
d. Middle-class families tend to immerse their
children in organized activities such as art classes,
sports, or music lessons.
e. On the other hand, working-class families usually
just leave their kids to occupy independently.
a. Why do you think that which social class a
family is in determines how their children
grow up?
2. School
a. Beginning from early education, a child is taught
how to act as a part of society in a classroom.
b. Skills such as raising your hand to moving from
class to class independently are taught.
c. An individuals social status has an effect on the
type of schooling they receive. Middle and upper
class families tend to enroll their kids in private
schooling.
d. Children of wealthier families are more prepared
from receiving a private school education.
e. Whats a pro and con of going to a private school?
Public?
3. Peers

a. Children and adolescents usually will go to their

peers for advice rather than their parents.
b. This still remains relevant because adolescents
know that their peers tend to have had similar
experiences, and their parents advice may be out
dated.
c. Although adolescents receive much of their advice
of their advice from peers, theyre most likely to
believe information from educators.
4. Media
a. Media is portrayed to have an effect on
socialization
in young people whether it be positive or negative.
a. For example, violent or explicit video games
and sesame street.
b. Do you think theres more positive or
negative socialization in media?
5. Adult Socialization
a. Although most socialization is done as a child,
adult
socialization still occurs especially when going
into
a new job and new skills must be learned.
b. Resocialization is when someones usual state of
society, referring to beliefs or norms, are changed
in
a drastic way, usually when entering a new
environment.
c. For example, a very drastic case would be losing a
limb because everything would have to be adjusted
to performing without that limb.
d. Do you think children experience resocialization?
Is
experiencing this as a child more difficult than
experiencing it in adulthood?
6. Total Institutions
a. Everything known about daily before coming into
a

total institution is taken away and new ways of

how
to act, think or perform in society is drilled into
peoples mind.
b. Examples: Military training, boarding schools.
E. Social Interaction
a. Individuals socialize each other and on a more
broad scale, Institutions and entire societies help
in
socialization.
b. Status- a social position held by an individual.
c. Role- the characteristics that someone of a social
status should obtain.
d. For example, the president of a student council is
expected
to lead a large group of people , be respectful, have
good grades and take charge during meetings.
e. Role strain- the competition to maintain a role
within a single status.
f. Role conflict- when two separate roles within an
individual begin to conflict because of demands
from either one.
a. My high school chemistry teacher is also a
gymnastics coach outside of school. This is
an
example of role conflict.
g. Status set- all the statuses that an individual
obtains
at one time.
a. My moms status set is a teacher, mother
and
daughter.
h. Ascribed status- a status in which you were born
into and you have no control over.
a. Examples: sex, race, gender, ethnic group.
i. Achieved status- a status which is achieved during
someones life.
a. Examples: teacher, doctor, sexual
orientation,

celebrity status.
j. Master status- a status in a status set that over
shadows all the others within the set.
a. Example: a person may be a mother but also
has a disability such as being blind, this
would be a master status.
1. Gender Roles
a. Gender roles describe the behaviors or
characteristics that males and females should have
to be considered apart of their gender.
b. From the moment our gender is determined at
birth you are given certain norms that makes you
the gender you are.
c. Toys such as doll houses and dolls have a feminine
appearance and appeal more to females.
d. On the other hand, toys such as action figures are
categorized as male toys.
e. Being too emotional or caring about your clothing
as a male are targeted as being a fag in the eyes
of
other males.
f. Males say that someone can be gay but not be
considered afaggot.
g. Girls dont usually insult each based on their
gender expression, but they receive sexual
harassment from males.
a. There are more boys who question their
masculinity therefore thats why theyre
more likely to experience bullying by the
same sex when girls usually experience it
from boys.
F. The Social Construction of Reality
a. To be socially constructed means that an idea or
value is shaped through social interaction.
b. Childhood didnt become a time of learning a
development until the 1950s. Much of childhood
before this was working and not having an
education.
c. Ages started to be separated by childhood,

adolescent, and teen. Each having different needs

in
order to be prepared for the next stage.
1. Cross-cultures
a. Americans look at insects as disgusting, and an
annoyance, but other countries look at insects as a
delicacy.
b. Food is one of the main aspects of cross-culture
since one thing may be considered a food in one
cultural and not in another.
2. Dramaturgical Theory
a. The term which refers to that the world is one big
dramatic performance and everyone are the actors
who all have a role.
a. How does the Skakespeare quote All the
worlds a stage, And all the men and women
merely players
relate to Dramaturgical theory?
b. Just like in actual theatrical plays theres a
front stage, where all the action happens,
then
theres a backstage where the behind scenes
action happens in everyday life.
c. A celebrity is respectful but behind the
scenes
they might talk bad on someone else, theyre
being heard when they dont realize.
d. Face- the position or importance by which
one is held by others.
a. You may look at your friend whos
being obnoxious and tell him to quiet
down, but you may not want to tell a
stranger to be quiet.
e. Adding a line of humor after an unsocialized
manner is performed helps bring the script
back.
a. For example, tripping and falling in
front of a person of importance then
saying I saw that step could bring the

script back.
f. If another person does not know hot to act in
a certain situation then doing the same to
make them look less foolish fixes the
situation.
a. When was a time where someone
helped fix the situation by doing the
same thing you were?
g. Similar to a play, the actors dont usually just jump
straight into their lines, theres opening lines and
closing lines.
a. It may be a little awkward if someone just
jumped right into a story without clearing
their through or saying hello.
h. Closing an interaction can be even harder since
choosing the right remarks are important.
a. For example, signaling an end to dinner
might
be That was a great meal! Im full now.
Making gestures during the meal such as
grimacing might tell the person the opposite.
i. Many of our gestures in social interaction are
nonverbal, usually facial expressions or body
language.
a. This is why ending a conversation on the
phone is much harder, because the person
youre talking to cant see your gestures.
b. If you didnt have the use of gestures for
starting and closing an interaction, how would
the interaction be different?
3. Ethnomethodology
a. Meaning the study of the way people interact with
each other and making sense of the world. the
methods of people.
b. There are set behaviors in certain settings, such as
facing forward in an elevator, or taking your usual
seat in class. Doing the opposite of this is called a
breaching experiment.
a. Whats a setting where doing the opposite of

whats normal would be considered odd?

c. For example, if you have a usual seat at the dinner
table and someone else sat there one day, what
would you feel? Annoyance? Anger?
4. New Technologies: What Has the Internet Done to
Interaction?
a. Since the internet has became more popular, social
interaction has changed and interacting on the
internet is much different.
a. Much more difficult to hold conversations
and
deploy endings.
b. Its easy to portray yourself as someone
completely
different on the internet.
a. Take the definition of Catfish as an example.
A
catfish is someone who pretends to be
someone there not by using Facebook or
other means of social media.
b. Many people make fake accounts to lure
people in
by making the account look likeable.
c. Theres even a TV show that helps to figure
out the situations of online relationships,
called Catfish the TV show.
c. The internet definitely has changed the way
people interact.
d. As the Internet became more useful,
problems such as identity theft have
occurred, making purpose for new security
technologies.
5. Conclusion
1. In nature vs. nurture, nature wins. From the minute we
are born, we are naturally brought into socialiazation.