4.6 Conclusion
As we have seen in this chapter, who we are is closely tied to the societies in which we live and to the groups to which we belong. Our identities and senses of self are not created in isolation, they are created through the process of interaction with other people. We may think of our identities and emotions as uniquely our own, but they are embedded in larger social patterns. How we learn to become human is influenced by our parents and families, peers, and the larger institutions of our society. While we may think the process of socialization ends once we become adults, it continues throughout our lifetimes. In later chapters, we will explore how people are socialized into their gender, class, and race. In the next chapter, we will focus on how group-level interactions, social networks, and organizations shape our lives.
Review of Learning Objectives
Key Terms
- Agents of socialization: individuals or institutions that socialize people.
- Anticipatory socialization: preparation for future life roles.
- Deep acting: an intentional, self-induced change in feeling.
- Dramaturgy: a framework for understanding social life as a form of theater.
- Emotion work: the process of suppressing or evoking emotions.
- Ethnomethodology: the study of everyday folk methods, how we go about ordering our day-to-day lives.
- Generalized other: the common behavioral expectations of general society.
- Habitualization: repeated actions that form a pattern.
- Identity salience: the subjective importance of the various roles or identities we hold.
- Institutionalization: the implantation of a convention or norm into society.
- Looking-glass self: the theory that our self is developed based on what we think others think about us.
- Resocialization: a process through which people unlearn previous socialization, while being socialized by new individuals or institutions.
- Roles: patterns of behavior that are representative of a person’s social status.
- Self: a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction.
- Social constructionism: a framework that explains how the meaning of something is dependent on our social relationships.
- Socialization: the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values.
- Surface acting: a change in body language, tone of voice, or facial expression, but not a change in feeling.
- Targets of socialization: the people that are being socialized.
- Thomas Theorem: the theory that if people define something as real, it will have real consequences.
Discussion Questions
- Which theory of the self do you find most convincing? Why?
- If you were to analyze the image at the beginning of the chapter in terms of one of the sociological theories of the self, which one would you apply? What would the theory emphasize?
- How would you conduct a dramaturgical analysis of your college’s student center? Where are the front stages and backstages? What roles are people performing?
- When have you engaged in surface acting? Deep acting? What could be the long-term consequences of having to continually engage in surface acting?
- Where do you think sociology lands in the nature versus nurture debate? Why? Are there any aspects of sociology that fall in the middle or opposite side of your answer?
- What are examples from your life of socialization beyond childhood? What have your occupational socialization experiences been like? How formal were they?
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
Open Content, Original
“Conclusion” by Matthew Gougherty is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Socialization and Interaction Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction.
a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, interact with one another, and share a common culture.
the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values.
any collection of at least two people who interact with some frequency and who share some sense of aligned identity.