Chapter 4: SOCIALIZATION

UNIT 2: THE INDIVIDUAL

AND SOCIETY (Cont.)
 Desocialization vs.
Resocialization
• Desocialization:
– The process whereby people are stripped of
the values and self-conceptions acquired in
the past.

• Resocialization:
– The process of learning new norms, values,
attitudes, and behaviors.
 The Case of Total
Institutions
 Total Institution:
An institution in which the entire scope of the
inmates’ lives is controlled by the institution to
serve the institution’s goals.
Resocialization into such institution involves
a complete change of personality.
Ex: boot camp, prisons, concentration
camps, convents, some religious cults, and
some boarding schools.
Boot Camp
Convent School
Personal Identity Kit
Personal Identity Kit
The Case of Total Institution
(cont.)
• A person entering a total institution
is greeted with a DEGRADATION
CEREMONY.
– Ex: fingerprinting, photographing,
shaving head, and banning the person’s
personal identity kit.
The Case of Total Institution
(cont.)
• Total institutions are extremely
effective in stripping away people’s
personal freedom.
– Ex: using walls, bars, or other barriers.
The Case of Total Institution
(cont.)
• Total institutions suppress
preexisting statuses counting only on
the current role.
• Total institutions suppress the norms
of the outside world, replacing with
their own rules, values and
interpretation of life, including the
entire lives of the residents.
The Case of Total Institution
(cont.)
• Total institutions control the
information which helps the
institutions shape the inmates’ ideas
and picture of the world.
• Total institutions control the rewards
and punishment.
The Case of Total Institution
(cont.)
• No one leaves a total
institution unscathed, for the
experience leaves and
indelible mark on the
individual’s self that colors
the way he or she sees the
world.
 Occupational Socialization
• The learning of attitudes, behaviors,
that is necessary to recognize and
sustain competence within a context
of employment.
• It includes skills acquired through
training, informal norms, and peer-
group values and relationship.
 Occupational Socialization
(cont.)
• When people are socialized to a new
job individually, they are more likely
to depend much on the “superior”.
 Occupational Socialization
(cont.)
• When people are
socialized to a new job
in group, the peer
relations and informal
group norms play
important roles in
encouraging them
toward organization’s
goals.
 Occupational Socialization
(cont.)
• Anticipatory Socialization:
– For the freshmen, more pressure is put
by themselves to form good
socialization with the people in their new
work place. They always find more
information about their company before
they start their new work. In this case it
really helps the new employees to adapt
and equip themselves well in their new
job field.
 Occupational Socialization
(cont.)
• Anticipatory Socialization gives 4 very
difficult tasks:
– Coming to terms with the reality of
bureaucratic organization.
– Learning to cope with resistance to change
within the organization.
– Resolving ambiguity related to their work.
– New employee must learn how to get
ahead in their organization.
 Socialization in Gender
• Gender socialization:
– The way in which society sets children
onto different courses in life because
they are male or female.
– Male >>> active and independent.
– Female >>> passive and dependent.
 Socialization in Gender
(cont.)
• Gender Role:
– The behaviors and attitudes that are
considered to be appropriate because
one is male or female.
– Male >>> can go out at night.
– Female >>> is not allowed to go out.
 Gender, the Family and Sex-
Linked Behavior
• Psychologist Susan Goldberg and
Michael Lewis conducted a research on
6-month-old infants and their mother.
• They concluded that boys were more
active and independent, while girls
were passive and dependent.
• Ex: children are given different toys
based on their sex.
Gender and the Mass Media
• Advertising:
– Male >>> dominant and rugged.
– Female >>> sexy and submissive.
• Example:
– The cowboy in Marlboro.
– Semi-clad female selling automobiles.
 Gender and the Mass Media
(cont.)
• Television:
– Male characters outnumber female
characters even in cartoons.
– Male >>> dominant and high-ranked.
– Female >>> passive and indecisive.
– The more TV people watch, the more
restrictive idea they have on women’s
role.
 Gender and the Mass Media
(cont.)
• Music:
– Male >>> aggressive, domineering.
– Female >>> sexy, dependent,
affectionate, and submissive.
– Female >>> irrelevant, background
ornaments of male action only.
 Gender and the Mass Media
(cont.)
• Media Images, Gender Roles, and
Peer Groups:
– Out of the images in the media, boys
would pick sex and violence.
– Boys >>> uses the media images to
discover who they are.
– Media Images can produce both gender
equality and perpetuate myth and
inequality.