Social structure and the individual
SOC 131
How do we become who we are?
- Socialization is a life-long process
- It is through socialization that our personality develops and we learn our statuses and the roles associated with them
Agents of socialization
The “most significant” agents of socialization are:
- Peer groups
- Family
- Educational system
- The mass media
Brief small-group discussion
- How do these (different agents of socialization) socialize us into our gender identities, statuses, and roles?
- What are some of the major consequences of such gender socialization?
Constructing the individual: Faith, Sport, and Masculinity in Beast of Man
The social psychology of identity formation
- George Herbert Mead, one of the earlier contributors to American sociology, showed how our identities are shaped by our social encounters in daily life.
- We come to develop our sense of who we are by seeing ourselves through the eyes of others.
- Consider your first day of high school (or even your first day coming to college …)
- Did you consider how others might see you? How others might react to your clothing or your behaviors?
- If so, Mead would say that you are using the “generalized other” — the internalized view of broader social values and norms — to guide your actions
- Did you consider how others might see you? How others might react to your clothing or your behaviors?
Agency — individuals do make choices!
Two examples in second half of the chapter on Social Structure and the Individual illustrate this well:
- Softball players in NCAA playoff game are confronted with opposing behavioral expectations: fair play vs. competition.
- Which one did they allow to guide their behavior and why?
- Softball players in NCAA playoff game are confronted with opposing behavioral expectations: fair play vs. competition.
Agency — individuals do make choices! (cont.)
- US-based Muslim women deciding whether or not to use the veil express different interpretations of the meaning of the veil.
- How do these different meanings help use understand why some women choose to veil and others do not?
We are both products and producers of social structure
- This is the main takeaway from the study of social structure
- On the one hand, this is simply a restatement of the most basic sociological principle: that individuals are shaped by external social forces
- On the other hand, individuals and their actions are not completely determined by the external forces constituting social structures.
- When we exercise reflexivity — considering our place in the social structure and the role expectations we face and, ultimately, make decisions about how to act — we can either reinforce the existing social structure or transform it.
