What Makes You You: Exploring Socialization and Identity

Introduction

An important question that always been asked is what makes a person identify with themselves. In other words, what makes you you? A question that is a very relatable to this one is the nature versus nurture question. It is someone’s environment that makes them who they are or is it the way they are brought up? By using the functionalist perspective we will explore the major theories and determine the properties of socialization and the effects it has on an individual.

Socialization: The Process of Constructing Identity

First off, what is socialization? Socialization is “a life long, active process by which people learn the cultures of their societies and construct a sense of who they are.” Socialization begins at an early age of every human being. It starts before we achieve the ability to speak and continues until the very end of our lives. It acts as a primary way to maintain and produce the standards, values and beliefs that control our social life and relationships within society.

Socialization is a fundamental to growth of all human beings. Without it we would have no language, no sense of ourselves, as well as no idea of who we are in relationships with other people. This is evident in the case study from the year eighteen hundred of Victor the “Wild Boy” that was found living in the woods. When Victor was found he was around the age of twelve and lived with a young doctor to help him understand the world he missed out on. Victor never fully learned how to communicate and act as a part of the real world. Near the end of Victor’s life he still expressed his wild side as was not able to achieve the social and intellectual skills expected of him.

Dramaturgical Approach and the Presentation of Self

Erving Goffman developed and founded the dramaturgical approach which is “the study of social interactions as if it were governed by the practices of theatrical performance. Goffman proposed the theory of the “presentation of self” which was behind these theatrics. The theory entails that people play certain roles or portray certain characters to assess and control situations. Goffman labels the presentation as two pieces of one puzzle; the front stage and backstage. The front stage is responsible for our external endeavors like clothes, speech and languages. While the backstage resembles the part that allows the person to drop their character or role and relax. Goffman’s theory and work and is also similar to Mead’s own theories.

What Makes You You: The 'I' and 'Me' of Self-Perception

George Herbert Mead founded symbolic interactionism, which studies how and individual and culture interact with one another. Relative to Goffman’s front and back stage, Mead breaks the “self” into two parts, the “I” and “Me.” The I consists of being one’s self, and maintaining that by seemingly responding to one’s need. The “me” represents the conventional idea of how one would perceive themselves from another’s perspective.

Another contributor to to symbolic interactionism is Charles Horton Cooley whom is responsible for the concept of the looking-glass self. The looking-glass self is the “self image that results from other people’s view of us. In one study a teacher told her students that blue-eyed kids were bright, fast, and smart. While she told brown-eyed kids that they were slow, dumb and would not amount to anything. The next day she switched it up saying that she was wrong and that is was the other way around. The kids being told that they were advanced accepted it and acted the part. The kids that were being told they were slow, dumb and would not amount to anything also acted the part.

Cooley also noticed the groups that help to shape one’s self image, primary groups, secondary groups, and reference groups. Primary groups have the most impact in a person’s self-image and are small groups of people that we have strong emotional attachments to; like families and close friends. Secondary groups are small groups of people with a common interest or goal, like a career or club. Reference groups are groups of people the one compares their own self-image to.

Behaviorism Theory in Identity Establishment

A major theory dictating how one may socialize is the Behavorism theory. This theory states that a certain behavior may or may not be repeated depending on whether or not the outcome of the behavior was positive or negative. This theory was tested on dogs salivating and the idea of stopping the salivating dogs by rewarding them. Behaviorists completed the theory by concluding that behavior can be taught and that not all behaviors are biological.

Similar to the behaviorist theory is the social learning theory which was the main perspective in psychology in the fifties and sixties. It is the study of how one manipulates their behavior because of what they perceived from another’s behavior, attitude, and outcomes from the other acting out those behaviors. An important part of this study was when people imitate others expecting a certain outcome. After being rewarded repeatedly one becomes satiated and the rewards no longer reciprocate the past behavior.

Piaget created developmental stage theories by studying the ability of young children to think intellectually and make their own moral judgements. Piaget noted that as one ages with time they tend to increase their own ability to make logical decisions. Interchangeably Kohlberg extends Piaget’s research by asking moral questions indicating to his patients that there is no right answer. Over the years Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized to be misleading because it is gender biased and it only pertains to men. Whereas women have been socialized to be more emotional and merciful.  

Works Cited

1. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books, 1959.
2. Mead, George Herbert. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. University of Chicago Press, 1934.
3. Cooley, Charles Horton. Human Nature and the Social Order. Scribner's, 1902.
4. Skinner, B.F. Science and Human Behavior. Free Press, 1953.
5. Bandura, Albert. Social Learning Theory. Prentice Hall, 1977.
6. Piaget, Jean. The Moral Judgment of the Child. Free Press, 1997.
7. Kohlberg, Lawrence. The Philosophy of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice. Harper & Row, 1981.