Chapter 4 : Socialization and the Life Cycle

For most lay people, the term socialization may mean something like partying or interaction. For sociologists a different meaning applies: It is the process by which an individual learns how to become a functioning member of his or her society; it refers to internalizing the appropriate behavior patterns, values, and attitudes, as well as the acquisition of necessary skills and information. Socialization involves instilling culture within the individual, enabling the person to survive effectively in his or her social world. This is a lifelong process. Individuals are continually altering their expectations and orientations as they respond to the changing conditions in their physical and social environment.

Many influences help people learn how to fit into their society. These agencies of socialization, as they are called, include the family, peers, schools, communications media, workplace, and religious institutions, among others. In the United States, as in most other societies, the family is the first and most important socializing agent.

The General Social Survey (GSS), which you used in the data exercise for Chapter 2, has very relevant information on the issue of socialization and value acquisition. Drawing from the many annual or biennial GSS surveys, we can establish how different behaviors are valued and whether Americans of today are thinking any differently than they did a decade ago in regard to different values.

GSS description: The basic purposes of the GSS are to gather data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes; to examine the structure and functioning of society in general as well as the role played by relevant subgroups; to compare the United States to other societies in order to place American society in comparative perspective and develop cross-national models of human society; and to make high-quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, policy makers, and others, with minimal cost and waiting.

Part I:

The original text of the GSS question, first asked in 1986, is, "If you had to choose, which thing on this list would you pick as the most important for a child to learn to prepare him or her for life? Which comes next in importance? Which comes third? Which comes fourth?" Listed below are five different attributes; the GSS variable names for these five attributes are shown in parentheses. 

• To obey (OBEY).
• To be well liked or popular (POPULAR).
• To think for himself or herself (showing independent thought) (THNKSELF).
• To work hard (WORKHARD).
• To help others when they need help (HELPOTH).

Before continuing on, take a minute and think about how you would answer the questions, if you were part of the sample of people surveyed. How would you rank these five attributes in terms of their importance? Keep your answers in mind as you work through the exercise.

In the data exercise for Chapter 2, all the data computations were done for you. However, this time you will have the opportunity to work directly with the data. Let's begin by visiting Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) at the University of California, Berkeley. SDA is a set of programs for the documentation and Web-based analysis of survey data. Below are the steps you should follow:

1. Click on "SDA Archive" on the upper left corner of the page.
2. Under the subtitle of "National Omnibus Surveys," click on "GSS Cumulative Datafile 1972-2002 - Full Analysis."
3. On next screen, select "Frequencies or crosstabulation" by clicking it with your mouse. Now click the "Start" button.
4. On the next screen, you will see:
   REQUIRED Variable names to specify
   Row: _________________
   Type in OBEY, POPULAR, THNKSELF, WORKHARD, HELPOTH, in the Row box; remember, these are the variable names for the five attributes we discussed earlier.
5. Now look further down the screen for the word "Percentaging" and check "Column." Last, but not least, check "Question text" and "Color coding."
6. Finally click on "Run the Table."

Take a few minutes to scroll through the results. What you will find is a separate frequency distribution for each of the variables, indicating how respondents ranked the importance of the particular attribute. Based on the results, complete the following table:

Writing Assignment 1:

Which item is considered most important by the respondents? Which one is next? Which item is considered least important? What conclusions can you draw about the attributes that Americans consider important for a child to learn?

The next task is to assess trends in these attributes across time. The earliest available data for the preceding five items can be found in the 1986 survey. The last year of the SDA GSS file is 2002. Therefore we will repeat what we did earlier for these two years, 1986 and 2002. This will allow us to see trends of changing values in the United States between the years 1986 and 2002.

Repeat the steps you followed in the previous part of the exercise. However, this time, in step 4, you will need to do one additional thing before running the table. To get only the data for 1986, we need to make sure that the Selection Filter(s) option is set to year 1986. Begin by going to the SDA analysis page ; once you are there, select "Frequencies or crosstabulation" by clicking it with your mouse and then click the "Start" button. On the next screen fill in the row box with the same five variable names you used previously. A few lines down you will see:

Selection Filter(s): __________________ Example: age(18-50) gender(1)

Type the string YEAR(1986) in this box, then select "Column" percentage option. Click on "Question text" and "Color coding," before clicking on "Run the Table." This will generate the values for 1986 respondents only. Use the results from this run to complete the column titled "1986" in Table 2.

For the year 2002 simply repeat your steps, only this time the selection filter should be YEAR(2002). After you obtain the data, enter them into the column titled "2002" of the following table.

To complete the column titled "1986-2002" all you have to do is transfer the information from Table 1. Finally, to calculate the percentage difference, subtract the 2002 percentage from the 1986 percentage.

Writing Assignment 2:

Let's make a comparison now. Do respondents in 2002 show similar attitudes with their 1986 counterparts or have you noticed a significant difference over the fourteen-year period? What could explain the differences?

Part II:

The first part of this exercise established what Americans value for children in our society and how these values have, or have not, changed across time. In this second part we are going to examine factors that may influence these values. First, let's look at what the survey data suggest about how people from different class backgrounds may emphasize these five values differently. In other words, "Do people from upper- or middle-class backgrounds emphasize independent thought more than people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds?" Research by Melvin Kohn would suggest that such social class differences do indeed exist.

OPTIONAL Variable names to specify
Column: _____________________

In the box provided type in the word CLASS. Be sure to check "Column" as the "Percentaging" option, then click on "Question text" and "Color coding," and finally click on "Run the Table." You will get a pretty long list of tables. Take your time to read the output carefully before completing Table 3. To make sure you find the right numbers for the appropriate cells, we have entered the percent of respondents who believe obeying would be the most important value they believe children should learn.

If you have gotten the percentages filled in correctly, you should be seeing a clear relationship between social class and socialization values. Among upper-class respondents, only 14.7 percent believed that "obeying" is the most important thing to teach children. However, 26.0 percent of respondents from the lower class indicated that "obeying" is the most important thing for children to learn to prepare them for life.

Writing Assignment 3:

Are there class differences in terms of the other attributes - being popular, thinking for himself or herself, working hard, and helping others? Using your sociological imagination, develop an explanation for the differences you found.

Part III:

Writing Assignment 4/Essay:

Thinking about your childhood, how do you think your own parents' values fit with the findings of this research? What did they do in order to instill these values within you? What social factors, other than social class, do you think may have influenced them? At the beginning of this exercise, you were asked to rank the attributes yourself. Now that you've looked at the data, how do your own views fit with those of the survey respondents? Write a brief reflection paper in which you summarize the findings of this exercise and how they fit with your own experiences and values.