The Stages of Development of Self - Essay Example

?Socialization ch.6 Q1) Explain Mead’s stages of development. Mead’s first stage of development of self underscores imitation as the primary way through which infants learn to behave. This is the preparatory stage. Infants mimic other people’s behaviors without understanding their meaning. During the play stage, individuals take on the roles of those they view as essential to them. Mead identifies game stage as the third stage in the development. A person attains this stage when they gain enough awareness on the society’s definition of roles (Rosenberg and Ralph 150). It is in the process of interacting with others that one develops the generalized other. Q2) What is the “looking glass self?” Why is it a necessary part of developing a self? Use an example in your answer. The looking-glass concept of self holds that an individual develops his or her sense of self from interaction with others and from the way others perceive him or her. We use people’s judgments to develop our sense of self. The mental ability of individual derives from their interaction with others. Children come to learn that crying can help them get other people’s attention and can make their caretakers provide them with what they need (Rosenberg and Ralph 151). An example of the application of looking-glass concept is in the creation of animations. Through modern technology, people have created animations that look like human beings that people can closely identify their race and other traits. Q3) Families are understood to be the primary agent of socialization. Explain how families socialize children.please give me 2 examples. The first should refer to a specific example of how families socialize us through behaviour. Your second example should refer to how changing family structure can socialize children. Families are very important for the social development of children, as they socialize them through words and actions. According to Swerdlow, Bridenthal, Kelly and Vine, “the words are important not only for what they say, but for who says them and how, and for whether or not they contradict the deed” (66). As humans interact, a lot of the socialization that takes place is spontaneous. As children observe the spontaneous behavior of some human interactions, they learn how to socialize through behavior. For example, by observing adults say please when making requests to show politeness, children learn to do the same as acts of politeness. Divorce and same sex marriages, which are common occurrences in today’s societies, affect both children and parents according to a variety of aspects. For example, “children in a step family have to form new relationships and accept new rules and new values, while still having to deal with the old relationships, rules and values” (Berns 110). Deviance ch.7 Q4) What is deviance? Explain, using an example how deviance is a social construction. Deviance is the behavior that violates societal rules and expectations. Different groups judge behaviors variously so that behavior can be deviant in one society and not in another. The responses of the larger group or society to behavior mark it as either deviant or otherwise. Understanding deviance requires an understanding of the reasons why people violate rules and how the society responds (Rosenberg and Ralph 190). It is the rules that society makes that create the possibility of deviance in the society. There would otherwise not be a measure to mark behaviors as deviant were it not for the presence of laws prohibiting them. For example, open expression of romance like in kissing, is extremely deviant among conservative societies while its largely accepted among most Western cultures. Q6) Explain how power and the self-fulfilling prophecy work with labeling theory? Use an example(s) in your answer. Labeling theory sets out from the premise that criminality is not intrinsic in behavior. It is those who are in positions of power who spell out what is criminal, and they formulate laws prohibiting such behaviors. This is what constitutes the self-fulfilling prophecy in labeling theory. Sources of labeling include law makers and law enforcers. Tagging individuals with deviant behaviors enables classification of deviance and reinforcement of the structure of power in the society. The powerful in the society are the ones who spell out deviance by using labels on the poor and the disadvantaged (Rosenberg and Ralph 192). It is extremely hard to renounce the label, and this explains why ex-convicts have problems finding jobs. Mental health ch.8 Q7) How do social psychologists reframe mental illness from an individual problem to a social problem? Social psychologists have studied the relationship between health and society. Institutions of the society such as school, religion and family influence issues of health and illness. Socioeconomic, cultural beliefs and traditions have an essential role, in mental illness. The significance of the role of these factors on mental illness differs from place to place. Mental illness is widespread globally, but there are places that are more affected than others. Whereas its physiological causes are eminent, people’s lifestyles can predispose them to mental illness. Industrialized societies have registered relatively low incidence of mental illness than developing societies. Responses and perception of mental illness also differ across societies (Rosenberg and Ralph 221). Q8) Briefly explain Foucault’s historical analysis of mental illness in western culture. Why is this approach useful in our broader understanding of mental illness from a sociological perspective? In his historical analysis of mental illness, Foucault observed in the period around 1494, mentally ill persons were left to roam about freely. Some were solemnly chased away far from places where the rest were living. In other places, the authorities would expel mentally ill persons from the societies. In Europe, there were places specially put up to detain insane people. There were voyages that would take mentally ill persons from their native cities and would go dropping them off in other cities. Foucault documents that mentally ill individuals were denied freedom and discourse and were confined. Foucault notes that the later emergence of psychiatric therapy in the eighteenth century further enacted the division of the mentally ill from the rest of the society (Rosenberg and Ralph 224). Socialization of Emotions ch.10 Q10) How are emotions socialized? Use examples. Individuals are born in to societies that have different cultures. The culture of the society into which one is born affects their process of socialization of emotions. Socialization of emotions impacts an individual’s experience of emotions. This affects their understanding and regulation of emotions. Societies teach individuals on expression of emotions and how to regulate emotional expressions. How individuals understand and interpret the emotions of others is a function of the socialization one receives (Rosenberg and Ralph 277). Caregivers react to children in ways to show disapproval to negative emotions in children to discourage them from taking up those emotions. When children express positive emotions, caregivers approve them and in the process children get to learn how to express emotions. Q11) Explain Affect Control Theory. Your answer must refer to the 3 principles of the theory. Please use an example in your answer. Affective meanings stem from both personal experiences and socialization. These meanings are compounds of evaluation, potency and activity (EPA) (Rosenberg and Ralph 278). Deflection derives from the difference between fundamental affective meaning and transient meaning and wide differences between the two lead to distress. In different contexts, individuals analyze their audience and assign an identity to each so as to judge what sentiments to exude in what situation. Emotions are a function of the impression that individuals form and they indicate a variation between the impression and the sentiment adopted. Affect control theory underscores three basic ideas. Individuals engage in events to confirm sentiments about self and others. Re-identification occurs when events do not suffice to maintain those sentiments. Affective rationality explains that as individuals seek to confirm sentiments, they fulfill societal roles. For example, when an individual is approached by a beggar, they think of themselves as in a position to help. Collective behavior ch.11 Q12) What do we mean by collective identity? Explain how this identity is important at every stage of collective behavior. Collective identity is the sense of belonging that an individual develops towards a group. This group identity affects the individual’s personal identity. In most cases, collective behavior does not value dialogue, and this is not to mean that the participants become irrational. Crowd action happens in several stages. Unrest or tension stage is the initial stage where there emerges a scene that invites people’s attention. Excitement denotes whether people get interested in the emergent issue. Milling stage is indicated by crowd participants moving about confused. In the fourth stage, the crowd directs its attention to a common object. Stage five of crowd action is characterized by crowd participants acting on common impulses (Rosenberg and Ralph 307). Q13) Explain emergent norm theory. Your answer must include the 4 different types of crowd participants. Use an example to illustrate your answer. The norm emergent theory was proposed by Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian. Committed participants are those who believe that the action of the group is necessary. The concerned have some degree of conviction in the necessity of the action but do not get as devoted as the committed. Insecure participants derive satisfaction from group action regardless of its nature but are driven by a belief in group power, perception of group righteousness and assurance of unanimity in the group (Rosenberg and Ralph 310). Spectator are attracted to crowd action by curiosity and are not as active as other partcipants. Exploiters hide in crowd action with an intention. For example, when a pickpocket is caught on a street, people are move to the scene. Read More