1. Socialization

1. Socialization: the lifelong social experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn the patterns of their culture. (Read about agents of socialization.)
2. Nature vs. Nurture: (biology vs. socialization) (heredity vs. environment)
3. Social Isolation: Research on the effects of social isolation has demonstrated the importance of socialization. There are studies of radically undersocialized youths such as Genie.

II. Symbolic Interactionism (Chicago School): Stresses that actors are active constructors of their own conduct who interpret, evaluate, define, and map out their actions. Humans are not passive pawns. All objects (symbols), including ourselves and others, are something that can be acted toward based on the interpretive meanings we give to them.

1. G.H. Mead: Mind, Self, and Society

1. Mead’s Model of the Development of the Self: How do we view ourselves as the other does?

1. Preparatory Stage—"imitation": In the first year of life, the person engages in meaningless imitation. There is a lack of symbolic understanding in a sophisticated way.
2. Play Stage—"taking the role of the other": Person plays one role at a time of a single actor. Significant others are important models for conduct.
3. Game Stage—"generalized other": Taking the role of several others simultaneously. The child responds to the expectations of several others at one time. They put them into a composite role, the generalized other, which is the group perspective. It is the standpoint from which one views oneself.

2. Mead’s Model of the Parts of the Process of Self

1. I: represents the impulsive, spontaneous, creative, active aspect of the person.
2. Me: The regulatory part of the self. It is the internalized social order. Meanings that are common to the group become part of the self.

2. Mind: implies the ability to solve problems and to think. The mind is a process, not an organ.
3. Society: Proceeds the processes of mind and self and is ongoing and shapes these processes. Society represents the generalized other that constitutes the me phase of the self. Society is "in" the individual. In Mead’s view, society and the individual can not be separated.

1. Herbert Blumer: Blumer coined the term symbolic interactionism. He based his ideas on the work of Mead. Humans actively interpret and give meaning to their world.

1. 3 premises which address the role of meaning:

1. Humans act toward things based on the meanings the things have for them.
2. The meaning of things arises out of the social interaction one has with others. Meaning is a social product, not a given.
3. The meaning of things is modified through an interpretive process in dealing with things encountered.

Human action is constructed by people making indications to themselves of what confronts them.

Example: Becker’s "Becoming a Marihuana User": This is based on the premise that the presence of a given behavior results from a sequence of social experiences. During these experiences, the person gives meaning to the behavior and the situations. All of this contributes to defining the activity as possible and desirable. THIS PERSPECTIVE DOES NOT SEEK TO IDENTIFY TRAITS THAT CAUSE BEHAVIOR. For one to become a marijuana user for pleasure, three things must happen.

1. One must learn to smoke the drug correctly in order to produce real effects.
2. One must learn to recognize the effects and connect them with drug use.
3. One must learn to enjoy the sensations he or she perceives.