THEORIES OF

SOCIALIZATION
AND PERSONALITY
SOCIALIZATION
Sociologists define socialization as a lifelong experience by
which individuals develop their human potential and learn
culture .

Anticipatory socialization is a process

wherein members of a culture
acquaint themselves with the norms,
values, and behavior associated with a
specific social position before
assuming a status, occupation, and
social relationship.
SOCIALIZATION

Anticipatory socialization happens during

adolescence and adulthood. As
individuals assume new social and
occupational positions, it is necessary to
discard their previous behavior patterns
and accept the new behavior patterns of
his/her status. This process is known as
resocialization
PERSONALITY
Personality originated from the Latin word persona which means
a theatrical mask worn by Greek actors to portray a role or
appearance. Psychologists refer to personality as a pattern of
relatively permanent traits, disposition, or characteristics that
gives a measure of consistency to a person’s behavior.

•Defined as the sum total of a person’s

characteristics traits.

•Is a person’s fairly consistent pattern of

acting, feeling, and thinking.

•Is also defined as the product of heredity

and environment.
DETERMINANTS/FACTORS OF
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Personality development refers to the development of all
aspects of personality, the total development of personality
which lead to the development of the biological, physical ,
sociological, geographical, cultural, mental, intellectual, and
moral aspects of an individual

For example, geography or the geographic

environment id a determining factor for
personality formation. A person’s location,
it’s climate, topography and natural
resources is a factor.
THE SELF AND SOCIALIZATION

The works of Charles Horton and George

Herbert Mead, pioneers of the
interactionist approach, have been very
useful in understanding how the
individual develops and modifies the
sense of self as a result of social
interaction.
George Herbert Mead: The Social Self
George Herbert Mead developed the Theory of Behaviorism
to explain how social experience creates individual personality.
His model is related to John B. Watson’s Behaviorism. Both
recognized the environment as a powerful influencing factor in
shaping a person’s personality. The difference is the Watson
dwelt on inward behavior while Mead focused on outward
behavior.
George Herbert Mead: The Social Self
According to Mead, people empathize using symbols. This way
they can anticipate how others will react to a given situation.
Social interaction then, according to Mead, is taking the role of
the other. This involves seeing the self as others see it.

Mead’s next point is that by taking the

role of the other, we become self-
aware. The self then has two parts: as
subject, called I which is the active side
and as object, called Me. All social
experiences have both components of
the self and then the action is continued
based on how others respond
Development of the Self
Infants take the role of the other initiation without understanding
the underlying intentions, so they have no self. As they learn to use
language and other symbols, the self emerges through play which
involves taking on the roles of significant others. Playing the role of
adults helps young children imagine the world from the adult’s
point of view

Gradually, children move from

initiations, simple play to games, to
complex games involving others in
team sports. Mead called this
generalized other to refer to
widespread cultural norms and values
we use as references in evaluating
ourselves.
Charles Horton Cooley: The Looking-
glass Self
Charles Horton Cooley expounded on the looking-glass self – a
development of the self through the use of language. According to
Cooley, an individual acquires a social self when he/she has
already developed the ability to take hold of the attitudes and
roles of others and see how others see him/her.
The 3 process of developing self-
concept/self-identity
1. Our imagination of how we present
ourselves to others.
2. Our imagination of how we are evaluated
by others.
3. Our own feelings about ourselves as we
are seen by others.
THEORIES OF SOCIALIZATION AND
PERSONALITY
Jess Feist and Gregory Feist in their book Theories of
Personality identified a scientific theory as a set of related
assumption that allows scientists to use logical deductive
reasoning to formulate testable hypothesis. A useful theory
generates a number of hypothesis that can be investigated
through research. It also organizes research data into
meaningful structure and provide an explanation for the
result of scientific research.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Sigmund Freud was the proponent
of the psychoanalytic theory. He
was born in 1865 in Freiberg,
Moravia which is now part of
Czech Republic. He was the eldest
son of Jacob and Amalie
Nathanson Freud. When he was 3
years old, the family moved to
England, the following year to
Vienna, the Austrian capital where
Freud spend almost 80 years until
1938 when the Nazi invasion
forced him to emigrate to London
where he lived until his death on
Sept. 23, 1932.
•Studied Medicine at the University of Vienna, graduated
1881
•Conducted research in physiology
• completed his greatest work, The Interpretation of Dreams
in 1899
•Wrote several important works that helped solidify the
foundation of psychoanalysis including:
•On Dreams (1901, 1953)
•Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901, 1960)
•Introduced to Freudian Slips:
•Three essay on the Theory on Sexuality
(1901,1953)
•Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious
(1905,1960)
Sigmund Freud in his Theory of Psychoanalysis identified thee
levels of mental life:
•Unconscious
•Preconscious
•Conscious
Early childhood experience that creates high
levels of anxiety are repressed into the
unconscious where they may be influence
behavior, emotions and attitudes for years.
Events that are not associated with anxiety but
are merely forgotten make up the contents of
the preconscious. Conscious images are those
in awareness at any given time
Freud also recognized three substructures of the mind:
•Id
•Ego
•Superego

The Id

The id represents the human beings unconscious

basic drives that demand immediate gratification
like food, shelter and safety. The individual needs
to relate with others and approach the world
realistically to satisfy these needs, this is done
through the ego.
Ego

The ego is the person’s conscious effort to balance innate

pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society. The ego
develops as individuals become more aware of themselves and
have come to realize that they cannot have everything they
want. They needs others to satisfy their needs and desires.

Superego

The superego is the person’s conscience, the

operation of culture within individuals that
dictates they cannot have everything they want.
There are group norms and standards to which
people must conform their behavior to.
According to Freud, all motivations can be
traced to sexual and aggressive drives.
Childhood behaviors related to sex and
aggression are often punished leading to either
repression or anxiety. To protect itself against
anxiety, the ego initiates various defense
mechanisms, the most basic of which is
repression .
Freud’s Five Major Stages of Development

Freud outlines five major stages of development. During each

stage the id’s pleasure-seeking impulses focus on a particular
area of the body and on the activities in that area. The three
major stages of development are the oral, anal, phallic, latency
and genital stages.

During the Oral stage, the infants derive

pleasure from nursing, sucking and putting
anything in their mouths. In the anal stage,
children find pleasure both in withholding
and expelling their feces.
The phallic stage, when children ages three to six undergo ,
shows then deriving pleasure in fondling their genitals,
observing sex differences and directing their awakening sexual
impulses towards the opposite sex.

Oedipus complex
boys sexual impulses are directed toward their mother and sees
their fathers as rivals to their mother’s affection. Boys fear
castration from their fathers as retaliation against their sexual
impulses.

Elektra complex
Is the female version of Oedipus complex.
The female child develops sexual feelings
toward her father.
The latency period, which lasts from ages seven to twelve, is
characterized by children becoming less concerned with their
bodies developing skills for coping with their environment. It is
the stage where resolution of the Oedipus and Elektra complex
take place.

The genital period is ushered by adolescence

and puberty. This is the stage of maturity,
adult sexuality and functioning.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Alfred Adler is known for his
work on individual psychology.
For Adler, the three major
problems of life are:
•Neighborly love
•Work, and
•Sexual love
The can only be solved
through Social interest- a
deep concern for welfare of
other people is the sole
criterion by which human
actions should be judged.
Heredity and environment provide the building materials of
personality but people’s creative power is responsible for their
lifestyle. All people, specially neurotics, make use of various
safeguarding tendencies- such as excuses, aggression and
withdrawal – as conscious or unconscious attempts to protect
inflated feelings of superiority against public disgrace. Men
opposing the belief that they are superior to women is a fiction
for both sexes.

The Alderian therapy uses birth order, early

recollections and dreams to foster courage,
self-esteem and social interest.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Carl Jung’s work on analytical
psychology is an echo of
Freud’s own work on
psychoanalysis. He stated
that personal unconscious is
formed by the repressed
experiences of a particular
individual and is the reservoir
of the complexes. Humans
inherit a collective
unconscious that help shape
many of their attitudes,
behaviors, and dreams.
Archetypes are contents of the collective unconscious. The eight
basic types include persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother,
wise old man, hero and self.

Persona – represents the part of personality that people show to

the rest of the world.

Anima – is the feminine side of men and is responsible for many

of their irrational moods and feelings.

Animus - is the masculine side of women

responsible for irrational thinking and illogical
opinions of women.

Great mother – is the archetype of fertility and

destruction.
Wise old man – intelligent but deceptive voice of accumulated
experience

Hero – is the unconscious image of perfection who conquers an

evil foe but who also has a tragic flow.

Self – is the archetype of competence, wholeness, and perfection.

According to Jung, the two attitudes of

introversion and extroversion can combine
with any one or more of the four function:
thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition to
produce the eight basic types of archetypes.
Jungian therapist use dream analysis and active
imagination to discover the contents of a
patient’s collective unconscious.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Karen Horney espoused the
psychoanalytic social theory. She
insisted that social and cultural
influences in shaping and individual’s
personality. Children who lack warmth
and affection fail to meet their needs
for safety and satisfaction. This
triggers basic anxiety or the feeling of
isolation. The inability of people to
use different tactics in their
relationship with others generates
conflicts, that is the incompatible
tendency to move toward, against and
away from people which Horney
called the three neurotic trends.
Healthy people solve their basic conflict by using all three neurotic
trends whereas neurotics compulsively adopt only one of these
trends. The three neurotic trends are a combination of ten
neurotic trends that Horney had earlier indentified. Both healthy
and neurotic people experience intrapsychic conflicts that have
become part of their belief system. The two major intrapsychic
conflicts are the idealized self-image and self-hatred.

The idealized self-image results in the

neurotics’ attempts to build a godlike picture
of themselves. Self-hatred is the tendency of
neurotics to despise their real self. Any
psychological differences between men and
women are due to cultural and social
expectations. The goal of Horney
psychotherapy is to bring about growth
toward actualization of the real self.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Eric Fromm has a different approach
on psychoanalysis which he called
humanistic psychoanalysis.

Self awareness contributes to

feelings of loneliness , isolation and
homelessness. To escape these
feelings, people strive to become
united with others and with nature.
According to from, only the unique
needs of relatedness, transcendence,
rootedness, sense of identity and
frame of orientation can move
people toward reunification.
A sense of relatedness drive people to unite
with another person through (1) positive
freedom or the spontaneous activity of a
whole, integrated personality; and (2)
biophilia or submission, power of love.
Transcendence is the need for people to rise
above their passive existence and create or
destroy life. Rootedness is the need to
consistent structure in people’s lives. A sense
of identity gives a person a feeling of I or me.
People also need a frame of orientation, a
consistent way of looking at the world.
Other people, however, live unproductively
and acquire things by passively receiving and
hoarding objects, exploiting others, and
marketing or exchanging things including
themselves. In rare situations, people are
motivated by the syndrome of decay,
including necrophilia or the love of death;
malignant narcissism or infatuation with
self; and incestuous symbiosis or the
tendency to remain bound to a mothering
person or her equivalent. The goal of
Fromm’s psychotherapy is to establish union
with “problematic” people so that they can
reunite with the rest of the world.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Harry Stack Sullivan’s interpersonal
theory believed that people develop
their personality through their
personal relationships. Experience
takes place on three levels:

Prototaxic (primitive, presymbolic)

Parataxic (not accurately in

communication with others)

Syntaxic (accurate communication”)

Two aspects of experience are tensions (potential for action) and
energy transformation (actions or behaviors). Tensions are of two
kinds – needs and anxiety. Needs are conjunctive. They facilitate
interpersonal development. Anxiety is disjunctive in that it
interferes with the satisfaction of needs and is the primary obstacle
to establishing healthy interpersonal relationships

Energy transformation becomes organized into

typical traits or behavior patterns called
dynamism. Typical dynamism include
malevolence (a feeling of lining in enemy
country); intimacy (a close interpersonal
relationship with a peer of equal status) and
lust (impersonal sexual desires).
Sullivan’s chief contribution to personality was his concept of
various development stages.
1. Infancy – from birth to the development of syntaxic language.
2. Childhood – from syntaxic language to the need for playmates
of equal status.
3. Juvenile – the child needs playmate of equal status necessary
for the development of intimacy.
4. Preadolescence – starts with intimacy with
a best friend to the beginning of puberty.

With Sullivan’s psychotherapy, the therapist

serves as a participant observer and
attempts to improve people’s interpersonal
relations.
PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
Melanie Klein’s object relations
theory assumes that the mother-child
relationship during the first four or
five months is the most critical time
for personality development. Klein
believed that an important part of any
relationship is the internal psychic
representation of early significant
objects such as the mother’s breast or
the father’s penis. Infants absorb
these psychic representation into their
own psychic structure and then
project them into an external object –
the other person.
The ego which exist at birth can sense both destructive and loving
forces, that is, both nurturing and frustrating breast. To deal with
the nurturing breast and the frustrating breast, infants split these
objects into good and bad while also splitting their own ego, giving
them a dual image of self.

Klein believed that the superego comes into existence much earlier
than Freud has speculated and that it grows along with the Oedipal
process rather than being a product of it. Klein suggested that the
child’s relationship with the mother plays a central roles in the
Oedipus complex. During the early Oedipal years, the
male child adopts a feminine position and has no
fear of being castrated as punishment for his sexual
feelings for his mother. Later, he projects his
destructive drive unto his father, who he fears will
bite or castrate him. The Oedipus complex is
resolved when the boy establishes good relations.
During early adolescence, young people are motivated by both
intimacy (usually for someone of the same gender) and lust
(ordinarily for a person of the opposite sex). People reach late
adolescence when they are able to direct their intimacy and lust
toward another person. The successful completion of late
adolescence culminates is adulthood, a stage marked by a stable
love relationship. With Sullivan’s psychotherapy, the therapist
serves as a participant observer and attempts to improve people’s
interpersonal relations.