Agents of Socialization - Part Two

Class Notes
Professor Henry Schissler
Principles of Sociology

Agents of Socialization – Part Two

Socialization is the process by which, through the agents of socialization, individuals learn about and come to believe in their culture. It is the lifelong process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the physical, mental, and social skills needed for survival in society.
Through the process of socialization and interaction with others, individuals learn about social roles, the socially defined expectations that a person in a given social position will follow, and the core values, generalized beliefs, and expected behaviors of the culture they are born into.
One result of this process is the development of a social identity, the characteristics that other people attribute to an individual. If social identities mark ways in which individuals are the same as others, self-identity sets people apart as distinct individuals. The concept of self-identity refers to the process of self development through which individuals formulate a unique sense of themselves and their relationship to the world around them.
Agents of Socialization may be other individuals (a parent, teacher, a friend), groups (family, peers), or they may be societal institutions (schools, the media).


5) Religion

Religion is a system of beliefs and practices (rituals) – based on some sacred or supernatural realm – that guides human behavior, gives meaning to life, and unites believers into a single moral community.

Religion is one of the most significant and powerful social institutions in society, seeking to bridge the gap between the known and unknown, the seen and unseen, the sacred and the secular (things of this world). Religious beliefs are linked to practices that bind people together and such rites of passage as birth, marriage, and death.

Religiosity is the importance of religion in a person’s life.


Sociologist Peter Berger referred to religion as a sacred canopy – a sheltering fabric hanging over people that gives them security and provides answers for the questions of life. This sacred canopy requires that people have faith – unquestioning belief that does not require proof or scientific evidence.

Anthropologists have concluded that all known groups over the past hundred thousand years have had some form of religion. They can be classified into four main categories

• Simple Supernaturalism – the belief that supernatural forces affect people’s lives either positively or negatively

• Animism – those religions believing that naturally occurring phenomena, such as mountains and animals, are possessed of indwelling spirits with supernatural powers.

• Theism – those religions that believe in one or more deities; sometimes deities are seen as possessing humanlike qualities.

Theism is further divided into two categories:

Monotheism – there is a single all-knowing all-powerful God.

Polytheism – there are different gods representing various categories of natural forces.

• Nontheism – the belief in divine spiritual forces such as sacred principles of thought or conduct, rather than a god or gods

Functions of Religion

Functionalist Perspectives

Durkheim (1912) distinguished between the sacred – those aspects of life that are extraordinary, inspiring awe and reverence, and the profane (from Latin, meaning “outside the temple”) – an ordinary element of everyday life. He noted that across cultures and in different eras, many things have been considered sacred, including God or gods, spirits, specific animals or trees, altars, holy books, special words or songs. Secular beliefs, on the other hand, have their foundation in scientific knowledge or everyday explanations.

The educational debate over creationism and evolution demonstrate the deep divisions between the sacred and the profane. In our history, the modernization beginning in the Industrial Revolution brought increasing influence from the profane and decreasing influence from the sacred. (Secularization – the process by which religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose their significance in sectors of society and culture.)

Religion is a set of cultural symbols that establishes powerful and pervasive moods and motivations to help people interpret the meaning of life and establish a direction for behavior. Beliefs are often acted out through rituals – regularly repeated and carefully prescribed forms of behaviors that symbolize a cherished value or belief. Muslims bow toward Mecca, the holy city of Islam, five times a day at fixed times to pray to God. Christians participate in the celebration of communion to commemorate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Religion has three important functions in any society –
1. Social Cohesion – Religion unites people through shared symbolism, values, and norms. Religious thought and ritual establish morality and rules of fair play that make organized social life possible.
2. Social Control – Society uses religious ideas to promote conformity. Our leaders often ask for God’s blessing, implying that their efforts are right and just.
3. Providing Meaning and Purpose – Religious belief offers the comforting sense that our brief lives serve some greater purpose. Strengthened by such beliefs, people are less likely to despair in the face of change or even tragedy. For this reason, we mark major life transitions – including birth, marriage, and death – with religious observances.

Civil Religion – a set of religious beliefs through which a society interprets its own history in light of some conception of ultimate reality. Examples are “god-language” used in reference to the nation, including beliefs about its sacred historical purpose, divine origins, and divine “mission”. Religious Nationalism – traditional religious beliefs should be embodied in the nation and its leadership.


Conflict Perspective

Ideologies – systematic views of the way the world ought to be – are embodied in religious doctrines. Dominant groups use religious ideology as a tool of domination to mislead the dominated groups, justify the status quo of culture, and stop or minimize social change.

Religion also serves the interests of dominant groups in other ways. Believers become complacent because they have been taught to believe in an afterlife in which they will be rewarded for their suffering, sacrifice, and, perhaps, misery. They are not motivated to either understand or oppose the true nature of their oppression, as well as from taking action to overcome it. Further, religion unites people in a “false consciousness” that they share common interests with members of the dominant groups.

Conflict exists between religious groups (anti-Semitism, for example), within a religious group (American Baptists vs. Southern Baptists, for example), or between a religious group and the larger society (the conflict over prayer in public schools, for example).

Conflict also exists between women and men because of the patriarchal structure of most religions, and the religious beliefs of many groups that women are not equal to men.

Religion tends to promote strife between groups and societies. The “religious right” calls for moral reform and calls the nation back to a covenant with God. By doing this, they are challenging “separation of church and state” and “individualism”, perhaps the strongest of all American values. They are actively involved in American politics.


Fundamentalism – a conservative religious doctrine that opposes intellectualism and worldly accommodation in favor of restoring traditional, otherworldly religion

In response to what they see as the growing influence of science (teaching evolution over creationism, stem cell research, as examples) and the weakening of the conventional family (patriarchic system where women are not equal and, like children, are beholden to men; where religious beliefs drive decision-making), fundamentalists defend what they call “traditional values.” As they see it, moderate, centrist, and liberal churches are too open to change.

Religious fundamentalism is distinctive in five ways –
• Fundamentalists take the words of sacred texts literally to counter excessive intellectualism among more moderate Christian organizations. For example, fundamentalists believe God created the world in seven days precisely as described in Genesis.
• Fundamentalists reject religious pluralism. They believe that tolerance waters down personal faith; their beliefs are true and other beliefs are not.
• Fundamentalists pursue the personal experience of God’s presence via spiritual revival and being “born again.” They reject the worldliness and intellectualism of all other religious organizations.
• Fundamentalists reject “secular humanism,” our society’s tendency to look to scientific experts rather than God for various explanations; they believe that accommodation to the changing world undermines religious conviction.
• Many fundamentalists endorse conservative political goals, and believe that this is the avenue to achieve the resumption of prayer in public schools and the teaching of creationism (or, at least, presenting evolution as a theory). They view the United States as a Christian nation and believe these principles must be the core of political decision making, including an end to abortion rights, no gay marriage, stem-cell research, or “assisted suicide.”


6) Psychology

Psychology in general and Clinical Psychology in particular serves as an Agent of Socialization in society.

Clinical Psychology mirrors a society or culture’s view of what is “abnormal” or deviant behavior. Clinical Psychology serves as a measuring stick for appropriate & inappropriate behavior in society.

Clinical Psychology publishes a text that is updated about every five years. The text The Diagnostic & Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders defines every “psychiatric diagnosis”, outlining the abnormal behavior associated with the disorder. Treatment for the disorder is based around the premise that “success” means a return to normal behavior.

Normal Behavior = Cured or “in remission”

For biologically based disorders like Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, normal or acceptable behavior can only be achieved through psychotropic or psychoactive medications.

For disorders that are triggered by socio-environmental events like situational depression, normal or acceptable behavior can be achieved by resolving feelings associated with the trigger event(s). In modern society, psychotropic medications are used for more and more disorders. While advances in modern medicine are significant & important, the pharmaceutical industry is a massive bureaucratic corporation focused on profits.

The Diagnostic & Statistical Manuel has a series of disorders called Adjustment Disorders. An individual is diagnosed (or labeled) with this psychiatric condition for various reasons –
Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood
Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety
Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety & Depressed Mood
Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct
Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Disturbance of Emotions & Conduct
Adjustment Disorder Unspecified

Acute = less than 6 months & Chronic = over 6 months

What are individuals having trouble adjusting to?
From the DSM, “The stressor may be a single event (e.g., termination of a romantic relationship), or there may be multiple stressors (e.g., marked business difficulties). Some stressors may accompany specific developmental events (e.g., going to school, leaving the parental home, becoming a parent, failing to attain occupational goals).”

These socio-environmental events are called “Psychosocial”. As defined by Psychology, they support societal expectations of “normal” and “abnormal”, and they promote deviant self-identity through labeling or diagnosing. They are social controls as evidence by their ability to tell individuals what behavior is accepted in society & what behavior is not.

Labeling Theory – people become abnormally because certain labels are attached to their behavior by an authority, group, or society. This is called Primary Deviance.

Secondary Deviance occurs when people come to accept (internalize) the label and see themselves as abnormal. Secondary Deviance is typically reinforced by culture & society. This cements each individual’s self-appraisal as abnormal.


7) Work –
The central premise of the sociology of work is that production relations shape the basic institutional frameworks that influence almost all other parts of people's lives. This is especially so in an economy where labor is organized through markets -- those not engaged in paid labor in such societies are either unemployed, retired, or perform non-paid labor (the latter, historically, a role performed primarily by women). In modern market-based societies labor is not just a material imperative; it has also been an idealized activity that guides moral judgments. The work ethic has been a prized cultural possession of the middle classes.
Until the twentieth century, work's opposite -- leisure -- was deemed sinful by some, a luxury by others. The social and cultural changes that have occurred in the twentieth century with respect to work, leisure and consumption have been vast. How did the mechanization and bureaucratization of work change the experience and meaning of work? What made leisure and consumption activities more attractive and acceptable to people?
But just as scholars were proclaiming the US a post-industrial leisure society in the 1970s, the tides turned again and leisure time began a long-term decline for many people. A massive process known as "deindustrialization," began in the mid 1970s and resulted in the loss of the hallmark heavy industrial jobs such as steel production and machine building, and triggered the erosion of many relatively high-skill and thus, high-paying, jobs. At the same time, the aggregate economic importance of consumption has continued to expand. In fact, many areas that have been hard hit by the loss of industrial firms and skilled jobs have tried to replace these jobs with tourist-based and/or service-sector economies.
Today, this process now known as "corporate downsizing," continues, as "lean and mean" corporations continue to reshape themselves to compete in world markets. But now it is getting difficult to annually coax sufficient Christmas purchases from consumers who are making less money as workers. What will the relationship be between our work identities and our consumer identities as we enter an age that some have labeled as "postmodern"?
Linked to downsizing and deindustrialization is the emergence of the "high-tech" economy driven by computers and advanced telecommunications. How will the emerging computer and Internet technologies transform the social relations of work? Will telecommuting become widespread, literally changing the spatial arrangements of our cities? Some suggest these new technologies have the capacity to do away with the authoritarian and controlling relationships that have dominated workplaces for at least the past two centuries. Others point out that these new technologies are already being used to more closely monitor and observe employees' work behaviors. How will the changing organization of workplaces in conjunction with new technologies alter income inequalities? Can these new technologies actually increase productivity enough to offset the loss of other industries?
Social Structures have become more complex as postmodern societies have integrated more advanced forms of technology. Our lives have become increasingly more dominated by large secondary groups called Formal Organizations. They are groups designed for a specific purpose, structured for maximum efficiency, and structured to facilitate the management of large-scale operations

A Bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency. Max Weber (1864 – 1920), a founding father of sociology, first directed researchers to the significance of bureaucratic structure.

Weber emphasized the basic similarity of structure and process found in such dissimilar bureaucracies as religion, education, government, and business.

Weber developed an ideal type of bureaucracy (over 80 years ago) that would reflect the most characteristic aspects of all human organizations. He identified five basic characteristics.

1. Division of Labor Specialized experts perform specific tasks. This emphasis on specialization is a “given” in employment today because people who become highly skilled in their area of expertise carry out a job with maximum efficiency.

2. Hierarchy of Authority Each position is under the supervision of a higher authority.

3. Written Rules & Regulations Bureaucracies generally offer employees clear standards for job performance. This provides continuity and uniform performance.

4. Impersonality Officials perform their duties without the personal consideration of people as individuals. This helps to provide equal treatment for all, but contributes to the cold and uncaring feeling associated with modern organizations.

5. Employment Based on Technical Qualifications The “impersonal” bureaucracy favors hiring based on technical and professional qualifications not favoritism, and performance is measured against specific standards.

Work environments, therefore, reinforce the basic values of the social structure, including the work ethic that is part of the Core American Values. Workers are socialized to believe in the rigors of work life as normal. Interestingly, values and norms surrounding work are different in different countries due to “social Location,” religious beliefs, and different views that the role of work plays in an individual’s life.



8) Sports –
Sport is institutionalized competitive activity that involves physical exertion or the use of relatively complex physical skills by individuals whose participations is motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
• Millions are involved in sports (from middle school through sports ranks)
• 10.5% of U.S. population participates at least once a week
• Over 40 million people go to professional baseball games per year
Concept of Competition
• Competition is a process through which success is measured
• Competition sets the rules for distributing rewards and influences relationships between people
Organized Sport Programs for Children
• 25 million children involved in U.S.
• Participation peaks at a critical developmental period in a child's life (age 12)
Family Influence on Children's Sport Involvement
• Individual who achieve in sport were encouraged by parents and began participation by ages 5-6, generally, no later than age 10
• Parents who participated in sport programs are likely to socialize their children into sport than those who do not
• Parent's interests in sport leads to an indirect teaching of the value of sport to children
Gender Differences
• Boys -play more outdoors -play more competitive games
• Girls -play more inside -play more conservative games that are cooperative in nature
• Generally, boys play in larger groups and their games last longer than girls
• Boys and Girls play in age heterogeneous groups
Consumers and Media
• Billions view sport on TV
• Sports page is the first section read of the newspaper
• 3.5 million read Sports Illustrated weekly
• 40 million pint-sized readers/subscribers to Sports Illustrated for Kids