Socialization into the Self and Mind

Socialization into the Self and Mind

  • socialization – the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group–the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and actions thought appropriate for them
  • self – the unique human capacity of being able to see ourselves “from the outside”; the view we internalize of how others see use
  • looking-glass self – a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops though internalizing others’ reactions to us
  • taking the role of the other – putting oneself in someone eles’s shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks and thus anticipating how that person will act
  • significant other – an individual who significantly influences someone else’s life
  • generalized other – the norms, values, attitudes, and expectations of people “in general”; the child’s ability to take the role of the generalized other is a significant step in the development of a self

Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self

The looking-glass self is a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops though internalizing others’ reactions to us. It contains three elements:

  1. We imagine how we appear to those around us. (EXAMPLE: We may think that others perceive us as witty or dull.)
  2. We interpret others’ reaction. (EXAMPLE: We come to conclusions about how others evaluate us. Do they like us for being witty? Do they dislike us for being dull?)
  3. We develop a self-concept. (EXAMPLE: Based on our interpretations of how others react to us, we develop feels and ideas about ourselves. A favorable reflection in this social mirror leads to a positive self-concept, a negative relection to a negative self-concept.)

The looking-glass self and three-step process in continuous and repetitious. We constantly change our self-image, even in old age.

Mead and Role Taking

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), symbolic interactionist, was a University of Chicago sociologist who wrote about taking the role of the other (putting self in someone else’s shoes to understand how someone else feels and thinks and to anticipate how that person will act.)

Three stages of taking the role of the other:

  1. imitation (under age 3; no sense of self; imitate others): Children under three can only mimic others. They do not yet have a self of self separate from others, and they can only imitate other people’s gestures and words. (This stage is actually not role taking, but it prepares the child for it.)
  2. play (ages 3-6; play “pretend” others… Xena, Spiderman, etc.): From about the age of 3 to 6, children pretend to take the roles of specific people. They might pretend that they are a firefighter, a wrestler, the Lone Ranger, Supergirl, Xena, Spiderman, and so on. They also like costumes at this stage and enjoy dressing up in their parents’ clothing , tying a towel around their neck to “become” Superman or Wonder Woman.
  3. games (after about age 6 or 7; team games or “organized play”; learn to take multiple roles): Organized play, or team games, coincides roughly with the early school years. The significance for the self is that to play these games the individual must be able to take multiple roles. One of Mead’s favorite examples was that of a baseball game, in which each player must be able to take the role of all the other players. To play baseball, the child not only must know his or her own role but also must be able to anticipate who will do what when the ball is hit or thrown.

Mead on “I” vs. “Me”… “Not only the self but also the human mind is a social product.” We cannot think without symbols and we get symbols from society. The mind, like language, is the product of society.

  • “I” – the self as subject
  • “Me” – the self as object

Piaget and the Development of Reasoning

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

4 Stages of Reasoning

  1. The sensorimotor stage (from birth to about 2): understanding is limited to direct contact with the environment; do not know that their bodies are separate from the environment; no understanding of cause and effect
  2. The preoperational stage (from about age 2 to age 7): develop the ability to use symbols; do not understand common concepts such as size, speed, or causation; only understand things from their view
  3. The concrete operational stage (from the age of about 7 to 12): reasoning become more developed; understanding remains concrete; understand numbers, causation, and speed; can take the role of the other and participate in team games; without concrete examples, cannot talk about concepts such as truth, honesty , or justice. (Example: can explain something specific is a lie but cannot explain what truth itself is.)
  4. The formal operational stage (after the age of about 12): capable of abstract thinking; can reach conclusions based on general principles and use rules to solve abstract problems; become young philosophers.

Global Aspects of the Self and Reasoning

Cooley’s and Mead’s theories are universal, but may happen earlier. Piaget also incorrect about age, but he still contributed the idea that “a basic structure underlies the way we develop reasoning, and children all over the world begin with the concrete and move to the abstract.”

Works Cited:

Henslin, James M. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 7th ed. (Pearson: Boston 2005), Chapter 3

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2YLAYCJvyk&safe=active

 

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