Socialization



// The Social Self //

__Directions:__ Use the following graphic organizer to take notes on the three theories of socialization. In the third column, you should just take bulleted notes that outline the assumptions and beliefs of that particular theory. When you are done, please upload the file into your wikispace.


 * ** Theorist ** ||  ** Theory **  ||  ** Assumptions/Explanations/Beliefs **  ||
 * John Locke || Tabula Rasa || Locke believes that people start as a ‘clean slate.’ He believed that if he was given an infant and raised it he could shape the child’s personality.

However, it’s now believed that there are more than just parental characteristics and cultural environment that determine a personality, such as hereditary features that are determined at birth. || It’s a three step process: imagine how others view us, determine their view of us, use perception to develop feelings about ourselves. He believes this process begins early on in childhood ass infants begin to learn through sanctions and how people treat them. ||
 * Charles Horton Cooley || Looking-Glass Self || Cooley believes that people’s personalities shape through the process that we develop an image off ourselves based off the reactions that others have to us.
 * George Herbert Mead || Role-Taking || Mead developed on his ideas on Cooley’s idea, he believes that after looking at ourselves as others see us that we begin to take on the roles of others, or pretend to take on the roles of others. After internalizing the thoughts of our significant others we begin to act like them and take on their gestures and actions. ||

What is role taking, and what three stages do children go through when developing the skills needed for role-taking? Role taking is internalizing, what we believe others see us as, and by doing so we being to take on gestures and roles of others. When first developing the skills needed, children begin to copy gestures and actions of family members. This is shown through playing dress up, doctor, teacher or house. Then, once the children have entered school they are shown new goals, expectations and actions that they must live up to, in doing so they internalize this new person that teachers and other students expect. Finally, one’s self is developed, people are in two parts the “I” and “me,” representing the socialized and unsocialized part of each person.

According to Mead, what are the two components of the self, and how are they related? The two components of people are “I” and “me”. “I” is the unsocialized part of a person’s self-identity. While “me” is the socialized component of a person’s personality.

**3 Theories of Socialization**

__Directions:__ Choose one of the three theories of socialization and explain why you think it makes the most sense to you. In other words, which theory seems most appropriate to analyze how people are socialized in the year 2010. And why?? Type your answer below:

The most appropriate theory seems to be the Role-Taking Theory by George Herbert Mead. This theory incorporates both Locke’s and Cooley’s theories making it seem like the most rational; Mead understands the imprint of environment and adults in the forming of a child’s personality, like Locke, and acknowledges a child’s need to look for the approval of others by changing themselves to make others approve of them. He believes a personal personality does not form until a person has gone through three steps of copying adults’ actions, then other students and being introduced to expectations then finally they become themselves. Besides the steps the three theories are actually pretty much the same thing where they all believe that a personality is not born into the child (not completely) but is formed after years of meticulous changes and alterations of a person’s character based on the personality of the people around them. Personality forms much like the internalization of values and norms by the use of sanctions, children look for approval of character and to get such they behave like those around them that they view as a model of a normal person. Mead believes the character made by acting like others is the ‘me’ of a person’s personality; this half has bent to peer-pressure to be aware of expectations and the norms of society. The ‘I’ half of a person’s personality is the unsocialized self that was born into the person, which could be a part of hereditary. This theory incorporates both hereditary and environmental pressures on a person’s character and includes the ideas of the two other theorists in this section making Mead’s Role-Taking Theory appear to be the most appropriate theory to analyze people of 2010.

** The Merchants of Cool ** **Statistics:**
 * There are 31.6 million 12-19 year-olds in the U.S. - the largest generation ever. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000)
 * Teens are exposed to an estimated 3,000 ads a day. (Adbusters)
 * 65% of U.S. teens have TV sets in their own rooms. (Kaiser Family Foundation)
 * 83% of U.S. teens reported going online last year. (Teen Research Unlimited)
 * Last year, U.S. teens spent an estimated $105 billion and influenced their parents to spend an additional $48 billion. (Teen Research Unlimited)
 * In 1998, U.S. companies spent nearly $200 billion on advertising. Worldwide ad spending is estimated at $435 billion. (Advertising Age and the United Nations Human Development Report, cited in Klein)

**Questions to Consider:** **Questions to Answer:** 1. Are "cool hunters" and those who use the information they supply similar to colonial powers? Do they exploit teens or are they providing desired benefits and services? ‘Cool Hunters’ are exactly like colonial powers; they are looking for land that has yet to be taken and mold into whatever they see fit. They look at their teen audience purely as customers that they want to sell to. These people are not looking for what is best for their audience but what their audience is willing to buy. Teens are too young and uncompromised to understand that they are being manipulated into wanting these items, that this is not something that they had wanted or needed until it came it was sold to them through the media.
 * Who is the "storyteller"?
 * What techniques are the "storytellers" using to tell their "story"?
 * Why are they telling this particular "story" (what is their motive)?
 * Who is the "story" for (who is the target audience)? Why is the "story" being told to that audience?
 * Is the story accurate, fair, and complete? If not, what information or perspectives are absent and why were they left out?
 * "In much the same way that the British Empire tried to take over Africa and profit from its wealth, corporations look at [teens] like this massive empire they are colonizing and their weapons are films, music, books, CDs, Internet access, clothing, amusement parks, sports teams." **
 * -Robert McChesney **

2. Did the marketers in "The Merchants of Cool" get it right? Do they really know you? If MTV was really based on understanding you as a person, what would it look like?
 * "They don't call it "human" research or "people" research, they call it "market" research." **
 * - Douglas Rushkoff **

The Marketers got itall wrong, Jackass are for the few who lack morals or dignity, Tom Green is for the moronic. If they really understood the consumer they would have more shows like Daria, Psych and How I Met Your Mother.

3. Are marketers concerned with the well-being of the consumer? Do they answer to consumers? If not, who do they answer to? Is marketing to teens different from marketing to adults?
 * "The MTV machine doesn't listen to the young so it can make the young happieräThe MTV machine tunes in so it can figure out how to pitch what Viacom has to sell." **
 * - Mark Crispin Miller **

 No, they could careless about the well-being of the consumer what they are worried about is themselves and those creating the product. Marketing to teen is much more obvious and more flashy while marketing to adults is less obvious and much less used. Teens are much more easy to sell to do to their endless money supply. So bascially selling to the teen is selling ot the adult, just with a middleman.