Socialization and the Construction of Reality
Short Answer Review Exercises
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| 1. How does George Herbert Mead’s concept of “generalized other” explain why, at the beginning of class, you became silent when your professor started speaking? |
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| 2. How does the case of “Anna” affect your assessment of early socialization programs like Head Start? |
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| 3. School plays an important role in our socialization. Think about the way socialization works: What are some of the things we learn from schooling (e.g., the first years in elementary school), and how does this learning differ from what we are taught by our teacher? |
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| 4. What role does “agency” play in sociology’s understanding of socialization? |
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| 5. Apply Charles Horton Cooley’s concept of “the looking glass self” to describe a (hypothetical) person with an eating disorder. What does this theoretical exercise teach us about socialization? |
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| 6. Parents of different social classes socialize children differently. For example, middle-class parents are more likely to stress independence and self-direction, whereas working-class parents prioritize obedience to external authority. Using this example, how does socialization through families potentially reproduce social inequality? |
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| 7. You are a university student, but you also wait tables at a restaurant. One evening, one of your professors happens to come in for a meal (seemingly, on a date!). Use role theory to describe the interaction (and possible role conflict) that ensues. |
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| 8. What do sociologists mean by “social construction of reality”? How does the idea of social construction bring into question certain elements of everyday life, like gender roles? |
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| 9. Let’s imagine you use file-sharing networks for music downloading and discuss your favorite music subgenres with people throughout the world. How does this differ from, for example, speaking only with employees at your local music store? Think about the way technology affects how you interact, the characteristics of the people with whom you’re interacting, and how different ways of interacting might affect socialization. |
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