Sociology Ch 3: Socialization, the Life Course,and Aging Flashcards
(39 cards)
What are the five major stages of the life course?
Childhood, the teenager, young adulthood, midlife, and old age.
How are children socialized?
Through agents of socialization.
How do people age?
Biologically, psychologically, and socially.
What are the challenges of aging in the United States?
Prejudice, social isolation, elder abuse, and health problems.
Socialization
The process whereby an innocent child becomes a self aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of the culture into which he or she was born.
Social reproduction
The process whereby societies have structural continuity over time.
Jean Piaget
The Swiss student of child behavior, focused on cognition.
Cognition
Human thought processes involving perception, reasoning, and remembering.
George Herbert Mead
Gives attention mainly to how children learn to use the concept of “I” and “me.”According to him, infants and young children develop as social beings by imitating the actions of those around them. He calls this “taking the role of the other.”
Social self
The basis of self-consciousness in human individuals, according to the theory of G. H. Mead. The social self is the identity conferred upon an individual by the reactions of others. A person achieve self-consciousness by becoming aware of this social identity.
Self-consciousness
Awareness of one’s distinct social identity as a person separate from others. Human beings are not born with self-consciousness but acquire an awareness of self as a result of early socialization.
Generalized other
The general values and moral rules of the culture in which children are developing.
Sensorimotor stage
According to Jean Piaget, a stage of human cognitive development in which the child’s awareness of its environment is dominated by perception in touch.
Preoperational stage
According to Jean Piaget, a stage of human cognitive development in which the child has advanced sufficiently to master basic modes of logic thought.
Egocentric
According to Jean Piaget, the characteristic quality of a child during the early years of her life. Egocentric thinking involves understanding objects and events understanding the environment solely in terms of the child’s own position.
Concrete operational stage
A stage of human cognitive development, as formulated by Jean Piaget, in which the child’s thinking is based primarily on physical perception of the world. In this phase, the child is not yet capable of dealing with abstract concepts or hypothetical situations.
Formal operational stage
According to Jean Piaget, a stage of human cognitive development at which the growing child becomes capable of handing abstract concepts and hypothetical situations.
Nuclear family
A family group consisting of an adult or adult couple and their dependent children.
Agents of socialization
Groups or social context in which significant processes of socialization occur. Ex) Family
Peer group
A group consisting of individuals of a similar age.
Age-grades
The system found in small traditional cultures by which people belonging to a similar age group are categorized together and hold similar rights and obligations.
George Gerbner
Researched the effects of television violence on society.
Social roles
Socially defined expectations that a person in a given social position follows.
Self-identity
Refers to the process of self-development through which we formulate a unique sense of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us.
