THE

INDIVIDUAL IN
SOCIETY
 SO CIALIZATION
Lesson 1
The process of learning skills and social roles. It is
Socialization traditionally seen as a one-way process in which society
Process and Self- molds the individual to conform to the established social
Making norms and rules.
Social Determinism
A doctrine that says individual have no choice but to follow
certain factors or causes that control their behaviors.

Essentialist View of the Self

Equates the self with certain pre-given and unchanging
characteristics, such as gender and sexuality, language, and
rationality or reasoning capacity.
Subjectification
The process of acquiring a self.
A product, neither of the psyche nor of language, but of a heterogenous assemblage of
bodies, vocabularies, judgements, techniques, inscriptions, practices. - Nikolas Rose

Symbolic Interactionism
A sociological tradition that states that our concept of the self is acquired through the use
of symbolic gestures.
Gestures
Instinctive behaviors displayed by animals in order to
respond to another gesture or to send signal

Identity
A product of positioning within a discourse.

Positioning
The discursive process whereby people are located in
conversations as observably and subjectively coherent
participants in jointly produced story lines.
Personal Identity
It refers to the social classification of an individual into a category of one.
It denotes a unique individual with self-descriptions drawn from one's own biography and
singular constellation of experiences.

Accountive Positioning
One narrates one's position
 Summary
The self is not given. It is something that is acquired through the process of
socialization. Through socialization, a person not only becomes a member of
society or community, but more importantly, he/she also also acquires identity,
mind, social roles, and gender roles. Feminist social scientists have
contributed a lot to the enrichment of the discussion of socialization by
emphasizing the cultural relativity of gender roles. However, social scientist
fairly agree that reductionism, either biological or cultural, should be avoided.
The process of making the self and personal identity is a product of the
complex interaction between the cultural environment and biological
adaptation.
 P rimary S o cializatio n
Molding members according to the norms and rules of the
Lesson 2 group.
Socialization and S econ d ary So cializatio n
the Assertation of An individual uses what he or she has learned from primary
Agency socialization and applies it to circumvent the rules of society for
his or her own advantage.
Moral Panics
Social currents that mobilize the majority of the people to condemn
certain acts and groups that are considered to be threats to social order.

Deviance
Often the root cause of moral panics.
It encompasses a variety forms of human conduct that have been
defined or reacted to by the members of the society.
Positivist Criminology
It is based on theories and explanations on the finding of biology and evolutionary theory.

Phrenology
Explain the existence of deviance through the shapes of skulls.
Criminal behavior can be explained by the size of the brain.

Social Constructionism
A theory which states that object can only be known through some theoretical
assumptions, and these assumptions are themselves relative to a given historical and
cultural context
Labeling Theorists
Argue that no behavior is inherently deviant or criminal, but only comes to be
considered so when others confer this label upon the act.

Social Control
A central and important concept in sociology. The term was used to describe the
processes societies developed for regulating themselves.
Strain Theory
When society puts too much pressure on individuals to conform, yet they lack the means
to do so, they commit crimes

Conflict Approach
Sees the definition of deviance that exist to a given society as ideological products of
interest group competition or class conflict.
Digital Self
A product of cyberspace.

Cyberspace
A generic term which refers to a cluster of different technologies, some familiar, some
only recently available, some being developed, and some still fictional, all of which have
in common thethe ability to stimulate environments which humans can interact.
Telecopresence
Electronically mediated social context for human interaction.

Cyber self
Gradually effacing the space of self.
Online chat dissolves the vestiges of the embodied self.
 Summary
Individuals do not simply internalize the values and culture of their community. They are
also capable of asserting and exercising their freedom. Hence, arises of deviance.
Deviance is often the root cause of moral panics. Many people often react to
extraordinary or bizarre behaviors of people and groups by labeling them as deviant or
abnormal. Traditionally, deviant acts were explained in terms of religious language.
Today, however, the scientific explanation predominates. Some scholars advocate a
cultural interpretation of deviance. The cultural relativity of deviance is highlighted today
by the advent of "life politics" or "identity politics". Identity politics asserts the resistance
and capacity of postmodern individuals to constantly reinvent their selves and identities.
This process produces hybridized and saturated selves.