UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY & POLITICS

UNDERSTANDING
CULTURE, SOCIETY &
POLITICS

Luanne C. Salise
College of Arts and Sciences
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Objective
Learn that socialization is a process that prepares people to live in society and interact
with others.

Learn about the importance of social interaction to physical and social development.

Socialization
Socialization is the lifelong process by which people learn the ways of the society in
which they live. More specifically, it is the process by which humans

• acquire a sense of self or a social identity,

• develop their human capacities,
• learn the culture(s) of the society in which they live, and
• learn expectations for behavior.

Socialization is not a one-way process such that people simply absorb these lessons. It
is also a process by which people negotiate, resist, ignore, and even challenge those lessons.

Acquiring a Sense of Self

What does it mean to acquire a sense of self? From a sociological point of view, children
acquire a sense of self when they can step outside the self and see it from another‘s point of
view and also imagine the effects their words and actions have on others. Having a sense of
self also means that children have acquired a set of standards about how they are expected to
behave and look in a given situation. Researchers have devised an ingenious method for
determining when a child has acquired a sense of self. A researcher puts a spot of blush on
the child‘s nose and then places the child in front of a mirror. Presumably, a child who ignores
the blush does so because he or she is not yet able to imaginatively step outside the self and
evaluate it from another‘s point of view. Moreover, that child has not yet acquired a standard
about how he or she is expected to look (Kagan 1989).

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Acquiring a sense of self also involves learning about the groups to which we belong
and, by extension, do not belong. The social nature of identity is best illustrated when we
think about how we get to know someone. We ask questions like ―What is your name?‖
―Where do you live?‖ ―How many brothers and sisters do you have?‖ ―Are you in school?‖ ―Do
you play sports?‖ The answers to these questions clearly illustrate how group memberships
figure into who we are and how others come to know us. Consider how much time we spend
teaching young children about the groups to which they belong, including working with them
to know their family name, their age, their sex, their race, and the country to which they
belong. Such ideas do not come easily. We have to go over them many times before children
get it.

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Developing Human Capacities

Socialization is also a process by which human capacities are developed. Our parents
transmit, by way of their genes, a biological heritage common to all humans but unique to
each person. Our genetic heritage gives us, among other things, a capacity to speak or sign a
language, an upright stance that frees arms and hands to carry and manipulate objects, and
hands that can grasp objects. If these traits seem too obvious to mention, consider that,
among other things, they allow humans to speak innumerable languages and to use their
hands to create and use inventions. Babies cannot realize these biological potentials unless
caregivers support and encourage their development. Likewise, babies born with physical
impairments find ways to compensate if given the opportunity and support.

Learning Culture and Expectations for Behavior

By the time children are two years old, most are biologically ready to pay close attention to
social expectations or the ―rules of life.‖ They are bothered when things do not match their
learned expectations: paint peeling from a table, broken toys, small holes in clothing, and
persons in distress all raise troubling questions for children (Kagan 1989). To show this kind of
concern, two-year-olds must first be exposed to information that leads them to expect people

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and objects in their world to be a certain way (Kagan 1989). They develop these expectations
as they interact with others.

To understand how children learn the ways of their culture, keep in mind that as they learn a
language, they learn their culture‘s names for things in the world and ways of verbally
expressing their thoughts and feelings. The clothes they wear and toys they play with convey
messages about their culture and its values. In addition, routines––the repeated and
predictable activities, such as eating at certain times of the day or taking baths, that make up
day-to-day existence––teach children about what is important to the culture (Corsaro and
Fingerson 2003).

Internalization
Socialization takes hold through internalization, a process by which people accept as binding
learned ways of thinking, appearing, and behaving. We know socialization has taken hold if
people suffer guilt when they violate expectations. We also know expectations have been
internalized when a person conforms even when no one is watching. In these instances an
inner voice urges conformity (Campbell 1964).

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Activity 1

Write a caption that relates this scene to the idea that socialization
is a process of developing human capacities. (Ask yourself which of
the four dimensions of socialization learning to walk represents or
think about what is necessary for babies to realize their physical
potential to walk.)

Nature and Nurture

Nature comprises human genetic makeup or biological inheritance. Nurture refers to

the social environment, or to the interaction experiences that make up every person‘s life.
Both nature and nurture are essential to socialization. Some scientists debate the relative
importance of genetic makeup and the social experiences, arguing that one is ultimately more
important than the other. Such a debate is futile, because it is impossible to separate the
influence of the two factors or to say that one is more critical. In fact, it is difficult to identify
any human trait that can be explained by nature or nurture alone. One might argue, for
example, that height is genetically determined. But height depends, in part, on nutrition;
children who are undernourished are considerably shorter than they might otherwise be.
Likewise, one might argue that certain personality traits such as shyness are inherited. But no
scientist has found a specific gene responsible for shyness. While it might seem that babies
are born with personalities–– that is, some babies seem to be born fussy, active, or serene—

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we must remember that the babies‘ experiences began in the womb nine months earlier and
were shaped by the mother‘s life, nutritional, and emotional experiences.

Trying to separate the effects of nature and nurture is like trying to determine whether
length or width accounts for a rectangle‘s shape (Kolb 2007). The latest research suggests
that nurture and nature collaborate to shape people‘s lives. To grasp this relationship, consider
how language is learned. As part of our human genetic makeup (nature), we possess a
cerebral cortex, which allows us to organize, remember, communicate, understand, and
create. In the first months of life, all babies are biologically capable of babbling the essential
sounds needed to speak any language. As children grow, however, this enormous potential is
reduced by the language or languages that the baby hears spoken and eventually learns
(nurture).

Research tells us that in order for children to realize their biological potential they must
establish an emotional attachment with a caring adult. In other words, there must be at least
one person who knows the baby well enough to understand his or her needs and feelings and
who will act to satisfy them. Under such conditions, a bond of mutual expectation between
caregiver and baby emerges, and the child learns how to elicit predictable responses in his or
her caretakers: smiling causes the child‘s father to smile; crying prompts the mother to soothe
the child.

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When researchers set up experimental situations in which parents failed to respond to

their infants in expected ways, even for a few moments, they found that the babies suffered
considerable tension and distress. Cases of children raised in situations of extreme isolation
offer even more dramatic illustrations of the importance of caring adults in children‘s lives.

The Effect of Social Isolation

Sociologist Kingsley Davis (1940, 1947) did some of the earliest and most systematic
work on the consequences of extreme isolation. His research shows how neglect and lack of
social contact (that is, nurture) can delay the development of human potential (that is,
nature).

Davis documented and compared the separate yet similar lives of two girls: Anna and
Isabelle. During the first six years of their lives, the girls received only minimal care. Both
children lived in the United States in the 1940s, and because their mothers did not marry the
fathers, the babies were viewed and treated as illegitimate. Anna was forced into seclusion
and shut off from her family and their daily activities. Isabelle was shut off in a dark room with
her mother, who was deaf and could not articulate speech. Both girls were six years old when
authorities intervened. At that time, they exhibited behavior comparable to that of six-month-

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olds. Anna ―had no glimmering of speech, absolutely no ability to walk, no sense of gesture,
not the least capacity to feed herself even when food was put in front of her, and no
comprehension of cleanliness. She was so apathetic that it was hard to tell whether or not she
could hear‖ (Davis 1947, p. 434). Anna was placed in a private home for mentally disabled
children until she died four years later. At the time of her death, she behaved and thought at
the level of a two-year-old.

While Isabelle had not developed speech, she did use gestures and croaks to
communicate. Because of a lack of sunshine and a poor diet, she had developed rickets: ―Her
legs in particular were affected; they ‗were so bowed that as she stood erect the soles of her
shoes came nearly fl at together, and she got about with a skittering gait‘‖ (Davis 1947, p.
436). Isabelle also exhibited extreme fear of and hostility toward strangers. Her case shows
how the ―gene‖ for rickets is turned on by difficult social experiences.

Isabelle entered into a special needs program designed to help her master speech,
reading, and other important skills. After two years in that program, she achieved a level of
thought and behavior normal for someone her age. Isabelle‘s success may be partly attributed
to her establishing an important bond with her deafmute mother, who taught her how to
communicate through gestures and croaks. Although the bond was formed under less than
ideal circumstances, it gave her an advantage over Anna.
Other evidence showing the importance of social contact comes from less extreme
cases of neglect. Psychiatrist Rene Spitz (1951) studied 91 infants who were raised by their
parents during their fi rst three to four months of life but who were later placed in
orphanages. When they were admitted to the orphanages, the infants were physically and
emotionally normal. Orphanage staff provided adequate care for their bodily needs—good
food, clothing, diaper changes, clean nurseries—but gave the children little personal attention.
Because only one nurse was available for every 8 to 12 children, the children were starved
emotionally.

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The emotional starvation caused by the lack of social contact resulted in such rapid
physical and developmental deterioration that a significant number of the children died. Others
became completely passive, lying on their backs in their cots. Many were unable to stand,
walk, or talk (Spitz 1951). These cases and the cases of Anna and Isabelle teach us that
children need close contact with and stimulation from others if they are to develop normally.

Activity 2:
Give specific examples (at least 3 or more) from your life that illustrate how you are a product
of both nature and nurture.

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