Enculturation and Socialization

• Enculturation/Socialization is how humans acquire personal identity, norms, values, behaviors, and societal knowledge through education and training from infancy, continuing from birth until death.
• Socialization refers to a lifelong social experience which helps people develop human potential and learn culture.
• Enculturation is the process of learning the requirements of the surrounding culture and acquiring appropriate values and behaviors.

Goals of Socialization

• Teaching impulse control.
• Helping develop a conscience.
• Teaching how to prepare for and perform social roles.
• Cultivating shared sources of meaning and value.

Theoretical Perspectives

Looking Glass Self Theory

• Developed by Charles Horton Cooley.
• A person's sense of self is derived from the perception of others, based on how we think others perceive us.

Role-Taking Theory

• Developed by George Herbert Mead.
• Social awareness development is traced to early social interaction.
• Individuals learn to draw out desired behavior from others over time.
• "Me" represents the perceptions of what other people think of us.
• "I" represents the independent, spontaneous, and unpredictable side of ourselves.

Stages of Development of the Self

• Imitation: Child starts by mimicking behaviors.
• Play: Child takes different roles observed in "adult" society and plays them out.
• Game: Child must take the role of everyone else involved in the game.
• Generalized Others: Children begin to function in organized groups and understand what to do.

Agents of Socialization

Family

• Has major impact and lays down the basic sense of self.
• It forms initial motivations, values, and beliefs.

School

• Is a primary agent of socialization, contributing to self-development.
• It exposes individuals to people beyond their relatives and introduces new attitudes, values, and ways of looking at the world.

Peers (peer group)

• Eases the transition from adolescence to adult responsibilities.
• Offers young people an identity that supports independence from their families.

Mass Media

• Like television, it's a primary source of information about the world.
• It enables individuals to view a wide range of role models and occupations.

Workplace

• Allows individuals to learn to behave properly within an occupation.
• Indicates the person has passed out of adolescence stage.

Conformity and Deviance

• Conformity is exhibiting the same behavior as most other people in a society or group.
• Deviance is the recognized violation of cultural norms.

Theoretical Interpretation of Deviance

Structural Strain Theory

• Developed by Robert Merton.
• Traces the origin of deviance to the tensions caused by the gap between cultural goals and the means available to achieve those goals.

Labeling Theory

• The assumption that no act is intrinsically criminal.
• The definition of criminality is established by those in power through the formulation and interpretation of those by police, courts, and correctional institutions.

Social Control Theory

• Developed by Travis Hirschi.
• Deviance occurs when a person's or group's attachment to social bonds is weakened.

Social Control

• It refers to the set of means to ensure that people generally behave in expected and approved ways.

Internal Social Control

• The socialization process developed within the individual where one does things when one knows it is the right thing to do.

External Social Control

• Refers to social sanctions or the system of rewards and punishments designated to encourage desired behavior.

Forms of Deviance

Innovation

• Rejecting the use of socially accepted means to achieve success.
• Examples include theft, burglary, and embezzlement.

Ritualism

• Rejecting the importance of success goals but continue to be diligent workers.
• Examples include a teacher who goes to class without any concern for students or an employee working without concern for the quality of work.

Retreatism

• Withdrawal from society, not caring about success.
• Examples include alcoholics, drug addicts, and gamblers.

Rebellion

• Attempts to change the goals and means of society.
• Examples include terrorists, leftists, and guerrillas.

Human Dignity, Human Rights, and the Common Good

Human Dignity

• The basis of fundamental human rights.
• The heart of human identity that can't be taken away.
• Catholic Social Teaching states that each and every person has value.
• The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights enshrines the principle that dignity is protected by law.

Human Rights

• Inherent to all human beings, interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible.
• These are not a privilege, it can be taken away.
• It allows you to be, do, or have, and is a protection from others who may harm you.
• It forms the basis for a world built on freedom, justice, and peace.
• The UNUDHR was signed in 1948 to provide a common understanding of everyone's rights.

The Common Good

• The moral justification of most social systems, also referred to as public interest.
• It is an undefined and undefinable concept and is a meaningless concept.

Identities and Identity Formation

Identity Formation

• The development of an individual's distinct personality.

Self-concept

• The sum of a person's knowledge and understanding of themself.

Cultural Identity

• One's feeling of identity or affiliation with a group or culture.

Ethnic Identity

• Identification with a certain ethnicity (common genealogy or ancestry).

National Identity

• Ethical and philosophical concept where all humans are divided into groups called nations.

Religious Identity

• The set of beliefs and practices.

Master Identity

• Gives the order to the operation of other identities individually or collectively.

Norms and Values

Norm

• A rule that guides the behavior of members of a society or group.
• Normal refers to that which conforms to norms.
• Normative refers to what we perceive as normal.

Proscriptive Norms

• States what we should NOT do.

Prescriptive Norms

• States what we should do.

Mores

• Refers to norms that are widely observed.

Folkways

• Refers to norms for routine and casual interaction.

Values

• Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful.

Status

• Refers to a social position that a person holds.

Status Set

• Refers to all the statuses a person holds at a given time.

Ascribed Status

• A social position a person receives at birth or takes on involuntarily later in life.

Achieved Status

• A social position a person takes on voluntarily that reflects personal identity and effort.

Role

• The behavior of someone who holds a particular status; a person holds a status and performs a role.

Role Set

• Refers to the number of roles attached to a single status.
• Role strain refers to conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses.

Role Manipulation

• Manipulation of a role in order to produce a sort of desirable impression.

Impression Management

• Has the power and influence to create a favorable public opinion of a particular person.

Classifications of Social Groups

Structure

Primary Group

• On a personal level of intimate relationship and strong bonds of association, and emotional attachment.
• Include casual groups such as family, couples, or church.

Secondary Group

• It involves transactional relationships for pursuit, facilitation, and attainment of goals.
• Include professional groups such as co-workers/officemates, sports teammates, or a committee.

Organization

Formal Group

• Intentionally formed and planned for carrying out specific purposes.
• Examples student organizations, professional associations, and religious orders.

Informal Group

• Formed unplanned and spontaneously established out of random association and interaction.
• Examples include peer groups, dating groups, and study groups.

Membership

Open Group

• Open for everyone; a public group like clubs or public forums.

Closed Group

• Exclusive to a selected number of people by quota or qualifications.
• Examples School exclusive for Girls, Political Party.

Purpose

Interest Groups

• Formed for the purpose of protecting and promoting the trade, interests, and well-being of its members.
• Guilds, Art Clubs, Labor Unions.

Pressure Groups

• The private sector of society that is formed to influence the public's views.
• Militant Group, Advocacy groups.

Task Groups

• Constitute a pool of workers, labor force, or performers following a chain of command, for the purpose of task completion.
• Production Team, Sports Team, Orchestra.

Perspective

• Sociologist William G. Summer introduced the concept.

In-Group

• Members have a sense of loyalty, camaraderie, and solidarity.
• Non-members are considered "outsiders" or "strangers."

Out-Group

• One is perceived to be apart from the others and is often perceived as odd and indifferent.

Minority Groups

• Relatively less dominant in terms of size, status, or degree of influence.
• Ethnic groups.

Reference Group

• One is not necessarily a member but they serve a comparative basis for self-evaluation.
• Taking the trends, or self-evaluation.
• Goths, Rockers, Socialites.

Social Group

• A collection of people who regularly interact with one another based on shared expectations concerning behavior and who share a sense of common identity.

Primary Group

• Typically a small group whose members share close, personal, and enduring relationships.

Secondary Group

• Can be small or large and mostly impersonal and usually short-term, often found at work and school.

Reference Group

• A group to which we compare ourselves, also called Identity Association Groups.
• Their creation is fueled by a person's desire to have character connections.

In-Group

• A social group to which an individual feels he or she belongs, feeling loyalty and respect for this group.

Out-Group

• Social groups that an individual does not identify with, feeling antagonism and contempt for these groups.

Group Think

• A process by which the members of a group ignore ways of thinking and plans of action that go against the group consensus.
• A psychological influence exerted over us by our respective groups on moral, scientific, legal, and religious matters.