A sense of self is developed through roles and statuses that are reinforced through social structures and that shape our personal experiences. Roles are patterns of behavior that we use every day to r

SOC/100 v8

Reading Guide: Socialization and Social Institutions

This reading guide covers Chapters 4, 5, 14, 15, and 16 in your textbook:

Griffiths, H., Keirns, N., Strayer, E., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Scaramuzzo, G., Sadler, T., Vyain, S., Bry, J., & Jones, F. (2015). Introduction to sociology (2nd ed.). OpenStax College, Rice University.

Review these notes to assist with your assignment this week.

Role: a pattern of behavior expected of someone who has a certain social status or who performs a particular social function

Status: a measurement of someone’s social value that allows them to experience certain responsibilities and benefits according to their rank or role in society

• Ascribed status: the status outside of an individual’s control, such as sex or race

• Achieved status: the status a person chooses, such as level of education or income

Role strain: stress that occurs when a role requires too much from someone

Role conflict: occurs when the roles associated with one status clash with the roles associated with a different status

Socialization: the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of a social group to behave in a way that society finds acceptable

• Socialization “describes the ways that people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values” (p. 94).

Self: our personal identity that is separate and different from all other people

• Cooley theorized that the self is developed through others’ perceptions; we view ourselves through the eyes of others​.

• Erikson theorized that the self is formed over eight stages of development​ throughout a lifetime.

• Mead theorized that the self is developed through social interaction; children learn it through role-play​.

• Kohlberg theorized that the self is shaped through moral development to determine what behaviors are “good” versus “bad.”

• Gilligan theorized that the self is developed through moral development with a gender bias.

Nature: behavioral traits are explained by genetics​; our dispositions and characteristics are inherited at birth instead of learned

Nurture: relationships and environmental factors influence our behavior as we grow up; the self is learned from our interactions with agents of socialization

Agents of socialization: social institutions that transmit values, norms, and beliefs

• Family – the first and most significant agent of socialization in all societies; family teaches us basic values and norms that shape our identities

• Peers – people similar in age and status who provide different social skills than the family; peers remain significant to socialization from childhood through adulthood

• School – place where children are provided with education to become formally socialized in how to mix with others and learn the social behaviors that will be important later in life

• Media – mass distribution of generic information that influences social norms on a wide scale

Marriage: a legally recognized contract between two people who typically have a sexual relationship and an expectation of permanence about their relationship

Family: socially recognized groups of individuals who share an emotional connection and may be related by blood, joined by marriage, cohabitating in the same home, or adopted into the family; the basic economic social unit of society

Nuclear family: two married parents with children living in the same household​

Extended family: a household that includes at least one parent and child, as well as other relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins​

Single-parent family: only one parent in a household caring for children​; number of single-parent families in the U.S. has been increasing

Blended family: parents have children from previous relationships, but all the members come together as one family unit​

Cohabitation: when a couple lives together without being married and may have a sexual relationship; practiced by an estimated 7.5 million people​

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of households of same-sex couples has increased by 50 percent since 2000​; 25-42% of these same-sex couples in each state are also married.

• Functionalist perspective

  • Families function to stabilize society, and members within a family function in certain roles for the benefit of the family; families also teach children their social roles that help society continue to function.

• Conflict theorist perspective

  • Families consist of people with varying levels of power, leading to power struggles over family status roles, often associated with domestic responsibilities.

• Symbolic interactionist perspective

  • Family and the roles within a family group symbolize different meanings to different people; their meanings continue to change because they are socially constructed through interaction with others.

Religion: a system of beliefs, values, and attitudes about what a person holds to be sacred or spiritually significant, along with the practices or rituals associated with those beliefs

• Functionalist perspective

  • Religion functions in society to create a place for groups to network with others who share values and beliefs, and to offer each other emotional comfort and support during times of crisis.

• Conflict theorist perspective

  • The institution of religion maintains social inequalities when religiously powerful people concentrate wealth away from others by dictating beliefs and practices that lead believers to accept circumstances as they are.

• Symbolic interactionist perspective

  • Beliefs and experiences are only sacred symbols if the individuals interacting in everyday society consider them sacred.

Education: a social institution that teaches knowledge, skills, and judgments according to cultural norms to the children in a society

• Functionalist perspective

  • Education is a highly important social institution that functions primarily to socialize children, provide social control, offer paths to higher levels of social placement, and to transmit culture to prepare them to be successful in society.

  • Education also has latent, or secondary, functions that provide students with a place to interact with others, integrate with different social groups, foster self-esteem and patriotism, and to learn about social issues and how to cooperate with each other.

• Conflict theorist perspective

  • The public education system reinforces social inequalities due to an uneven distribution of resources between groups; conflict arises from differences in class, gender, race, or ethnicity that continue to track working-class students away from opportunities for more wealth or prestigious social roles.

• Symbolic interactionist perspective

  • Individuals can be labeled according to their intelligence, aptitude, or academic accomplishments by their teachers or other social groups in power; these labels can be adopted by others in the school, impacting someone’s schooling through their everyday interactions.

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