Socialization

Socialization

During class we went over some very interesting topics, the one chapter I in particularly found most interesting was chapter 4. Chapter 4 was based on socialization and the different theorist that state their evaluations on their different studies. The main reason I found this chapter to be more moving to me is because I am going to school for child development and I've learned about these theorist before but in a more educational stands, with this chapter it's not only about the educational stands but it looks more into developing personality and studying the cognition stages, again that goes with education but then it digs deeper into agents of socialization.

The first agent is family, and it was discussed in class that family is the most important socializing agent. It comes with teaching children skills, values, and beliefs. Loving family's make happy well-adjusted children. Through the family, parents give a social identity, and ethnicity involving the culture you are born and raised in. I know for a personal experience, me being an aunt is extremely important because I am always practicing with my nephews and niece on reading skills and math skills. School is the second agent involving social class and experience diversity. Students follow a hidden curriculum and begin gender socialization. The third socialization is peer groups and those are a social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common. In class it was said that peer groups allow escape from direct adult supervision and they help develop a sense of self that goes beyond family and are often influenced by anticipatory.

 The fourth agent is mass media, this topic was discussed about the amount of hours people in the US spend watching television and the negative consequences following it. It was mentioned that 76% of US households have a personal computer. Stepping away from socialization, I wanted to mention about Erickson and his 8 stages that involve the challenges that occur throughout the life course. Erickson’s evaluation stated that not everyone confronts the challenges in the same order. Also that it is unclear if failure to meet one challenge predicts failure in other stages. I as a child development educator have learned a lot about Erickson and I find myself comparing the stages with my nephews and nieces to see if they are mastering the same stages as he has listed. During class we talked about Mead and self-development. Under self-development it was brought up about limitation and that infants mimic behavior without understanding intentions. Also, play is through language and symbol learning, children take the roles of significant others. For Mead’s evaluation it was taught in class that he found the root of both self and society in symbolic interaction.

Another theorist I found interesting in this chapter was Cooley, be believed self-image is based on how we think others see us. Which I and me: the self has two parts, active side of the self is “I” and the objective side of the self is “me”. Gilligan saw the two sexes use different standards of rightness. Boys develop a justice perspective that formal rules define right and wrong. Girls develop a care and responsibility perspective, involving personal relationships that define reasoning. Overall, there was a lot I found interesting in this chapter but those points and defining’s really stuck out to me the most.

I have two websites listed that I found very interesting and went along with the chapter I was discussing :
http://anthro.palomar.edu/social/soc_1.htm

 http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/agents-of-socialization-family-schools-peers-and-media.html