Scribd
Upload
460 views12 pages

Socialization and The Process of Self-Making: Session 6 Prelims Understanding Society, Culture and Politics

The document discusses socialization as the process by which individuals acquire social roles and identities as members of society through agents such as family, school, and peers. It provides the example of feral children who fail to socialize due to the absence of caregivers and examines how gender roles are learned. Key concepts covered include how socialization molds individuals, the development of self through language, and theories of essentialism versus viewing the self as situated within social contexts.

Uploaded by

mine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
460 views12 pages

Socialization and The Process of Self-Making: Session 6 Prelims Understanding Society, Culture and Politics

The document discusses socialization as the process by which individuals acquire social roles and identities as members of society through agents such as family, school, and peers. It provides the example of feral children who fail to socialize due to the absence of caregivers and examines how gender roles are learned. Key concepts covered include how socialization molds individuals, the development of self through language, and theories of essentialism versus viewing the self as situated within social contexts.

Uploaded by

mine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 12

SOCIALIZATION AND THE

PROCESS OF SELF-MAKING
Session 6
Prelims
Understanding Society, Culture and Politics
OUTLINE
SOCIALIZATION AS A
PROCESS OF BECOMING
FULLY HUMAN
Human beings as
Necessarily Social
• The development of one’s
self as a product of
socialization
• Feral children
Social Roles and Identity
• How individuals acquire
social roles and identities
Gender and Socialization
• Becoming a Man/Woman
SOCIALIZATION AS A PROCESS
OF BECOMING FULLY HUMAN
Socialization – a process in which the society moulds
individuals to conform to social norms; the process
of acquiring all social roles and skills required from a
competent member of a society.
E.g. If all members of a society are “socialized”
to respect traffic rules, there would be less road
accidents
Agents of Socialization: Family, School, Peers, Mass
Media
WHAT HAPPENS IF AN INDIVIDUAL
IS UNABLE TO SOCIALIZE?
FERAL CHILDREN
• Human beings that failed to
be socialize due to the absence
of parental caregivers
• Lack the necessary skills and
knowledge (empathy and
language) to be competent
Victor of Aveyron
members of society France, 1788
VICTOR OF AVEYRON
• Lived 1788 -1828
• Lived in the woods from 4y/o-12y/o
• Abandoned because he was mute
• Discovered by French hunters at age
12
• French society tried to integrate him
and was adopted by different families
• Was adopted eight times (escaped
and retuned to the woods after every
adoption)
• Jean Marc Gaspard Itard – physician
who tried to teach him language and
empathy
ACQUIRING THE SELF
George Herbert Mead
• Our concept of the self is acquired through the
use of symbolic gestures
• Gestures - instinctive behaviours displayed by
animals in order to respond to or send signal to
another animal.
• Infants display this kind of behaviour. However,
when infants start to utter words, symbolic
gestures becomes language
• Full development of the self requires the
acquisition of language
How then is self determined?

• ESSENTIALISM - Equates the self within


certain pre-given and unchanging
characteristics (e.g. gender, sexuality,
language etc.); this view is not popular
anymore
How then is self determined?

• Social Scientist view the self today as


storied-self, that is, a self is always located
and situated within the larger context of
places and spaces. (E.g. Being a Filipino)
Subjectification
• Subjectification or the process of acquiring self “is a product
neither of the psyche nor of language, but of a heterogeneous
assemblage of bodies, vocabularies, judgements, techniques,
inscription, practices”
• Subjectification entails that our life stories are necessarily
linked, interweaved, and implicated with the life stories of the
others and the community
Social Roles and Identity
Role theory – the scientific study of roles
Identity – multitude of roles that a person has
Problems usually encountered when we
take on roles:
1. Role conflict – when a person is expected
to perform two incompatible roles.
2. Role overload – when a person is
overwhelmed by having too many roles.
GENDER AND
SOCIALIZATION
Gender - one of the
most important
aspects of a person’s
identity.
The devaluation of
women is a product of
patriarchy
GENDER AND
SOCIALIZATION

• A person is categorized as a
female (biologically) but one
learns how to be a woman
(culturally).
• The most influential factor that
contributes to learning sexual
scripts is the FAMILY.

You might also like