Chapter 4 : Socialization and the Life Cycle

1. What is social reproduction and what connection is there between it and socialization?

2. This chapter discusses two theories scholars have come up with to explain how self-awareness comes about in humans. What is your own theory about how this process occurs?

3. "In modern societies, social position is not inherited at birth. yet the region and social class of the family into which an individual is born affects patterns of socialization quite distinctly. Children pick up ways of behavior characteristic of their parents or others in their neighborhood or county." Provide two examples of this phenomenon from your own life, telling how you picked up some behavior or attitude characteristic of the region you grew up in and/or some behavior or attitude characteristic of the social class you grew up in.

4. Name some socialization "lessons" you learned at school (lessons that were not part of the formal curriculum but, rather, lessons about behaviors or attitudes you needed to take on).

5. Parents and others in infants' social environment treat male and female infants very differently. Describe some implications of this for the persistence of gender roles in society as a whole and male/female inequality.

6. Why are the teenage years less tumultuous in some non-U.S. cultures?

Back to Top