,

operational thought depends in part on and into maturi ty. In this phase, other
processes of schooling. Adults of limited agents of socialization take over some ofthe
educational attainment tend to continue to responsibility from the family. Schools, peer
think in more concrete terms and retain groups, organizations, the media and, even-
large traces of egocentrism. tually, the workplace become socializing
The Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky forces for individuals. Social interactions in
(1986 [1934]) provided a useful critique of these contexts help people learn the values,
Piaget's influential ideas. He argued that the norms and beliefs that make up the patterns
processes oflearning which Piaget describes of their culture.
are dependent on social structures and
interactions. Vygotsky saw that the opportu- Thefamily
nities for learning available to children from Since family systems vary widely, the range
various social groups differed considerably, of family contacts that the infant experi-
and this strongly influenced children's abil- ences is by no mea ns standard across
ity to learn from their engagements with the c ultures. The moth e r everywhere is
world outside their self. In short, learning normally the most important individual in
and cognitive development are not immune the child's early life, but the nature of the
from the social structures within which they relationships established between mothers
are embedded. Just as these structures and their children is influenced by the form
constrain some groups and enable others to and regularity of their contact. This is, in
become wealthy, so they also constrain and turn, conditioned by the character of family
enable their cognitive development. institutions and their relation to other
groups in society.
THINKING CRITICALLY In modern societies, most early socializa-
Reflecting on the processes of tion occurs within a small-scale family
socialization, how do these differ from context and children spend their early years
corrunon-sense ideas of 'brainwashing' within a domestic unit containing mother,
or 'indoctrination'? What impact might a father and perhaps one or two other chil-
Jack of early socialization have on the dren. In many other cultures, by contrast,
formation of the human infant's self- aunts, uncles and grandparents are often
awareness? Explain your answer with part of a single household and serve as care-
reference to the theories above. takers even for very yo ung infants. Yet even
within modern societies there are many
Agencies of socialization variations in the nature of family contexts.
Some children are brought up in single-
Sociologists often speak of socialization as parent households, so me are cared for by
occurring in two broad phases, involving a two moth e rin g an d fathering age nt s
number of different age ncies of socializa- (divo rced parents and step-parents). A high
tion. Agencies of socialization are groups proportion of women wi th families are
or social contexts in which significant now employed outside the home and
processes of socialization occur. Primary return to their paid wo rk relatively soon
socialization occurs in infancy and after the births of their children. In spite of
hood and is the most intense period of these varia tion s, the fa mily norm all y
cultural learning. It is the time when chil- remains the major agency of socializatio n
dren learn language and basic behavioural from infancy to adolescence and beyond -
patterns that form the foundation for later
learning. The family is the main agent of We look at issues concerning families in
socialization during this phase. Secondary more detail in chapter 9, 'Families and
Intimate Relationships'.
socialization takes place later in childhood
 The Life-Course

in a sequence of development connecting staff. Reactions of teachers also affect the

the generations. expectations children have of themselves.
Families have varying 'locations' within These expectations in turn become linked to
the overall institutions of a society. In most their job experience when they leave school.
traditional societies, the family into which a Peer groups are often formed at school, and
person was born largely determined the the system of keeping children in classes
individual's social position for the rest of his according to age reinforces their impact.
or her life. In modern societies, social posi-
tion is not inherited at birth in this way, yet We discuss socialization within educa-
tion systems in chapter 19, 'Education'.
the region and social class ofthe family into
which an individual is born affects patterns
of socialization quite distinctly. Children Peer relationships
pick up ways of behaviour characteristic of Another socializing agency is the peer
their parents or others in their neighbour- group. Peer groups consist of children of a
hood or community. similar age. In some cultures, particularly
small traditional societies, peer groups are
We look at issues of class in more depth
in chap ter 11 , 'Stratification and Social
formalized as age-grades (normally
Class' . confined to males) . There are often specific
ceremonies or rites that mark the transition
Varying patterns of childrearing and disci- of men from one age-grade to another.
pline, together with contrasting values and Those within a particular age-grade gener-
expectations, are found in different sectors of ally maintain close and friendly connec-
large-scale societies. It is easy to understand tions throughout their lives. A typical set of
the influence of different types of family age-grades consists of childhood, junior
background if we think of what life is like, say, warriorhood, senior warriorhood, junior
for a child growing up in a poor ethnic- elderhood and senior elderhood. Men move
minority family living in a run-down area ofa through these grades not as individuals, but
city compared to one born into an affluent as whole groups.
white family in the suburbs (Kohn 1977). The family's importance in socialization is
Of course, few if any children simply take obvious, since the experience of the infant
over unquestioningly the outlook of their and young child is shaped more or less exclu-
parents. This is especially true in the sively within it. It is less apparent, especially
modern world, in which change is so perva- to those of us living in Western societies, how
sive. Moreover, the very existence of a range significant peer groups are. Yet even without
of socializing agencies in modern societies formal age-grades, children over the age of 4
leads to many divergences between the or 5 usually spend a great deal of time in the
outlooks of children, adolescents and the company of friends the same age. With both
parental generation. partners now working, peer relationships
amongst young children who play together
Schools in day-care centres are likely to become even
Another important socializing agency is the more important today than they were before
school. Schooling is a formal process: (Corsaro 1997; Harris 1998).
students pursue a definite curriculum of Peer relations are likely to have a signifi -
subjects. Yet schools are agencies of social- cant impact beyond childhood and
ization in more subtle respects. Children are adolescence. Informal groups of people of
expected to be quiet in class, be punctual at similar ages, at work and in other situa-
lessons and observe rules of school disci- tions, are usually of enduring importance in
pline. They are required to accept and shaping individuals' attitudes and behav-
respond to the authority of the teaching iour.
TH E LIFE-COURSE J
8.1 Socialization in the school playground
In her book GenderPJay (1993),
the sociologist Barrie Thome
looked at socialization by
observing how children interact in
the playground. As others had _
before her, she wanted to
understand how children come to
know what it means to be male and
female. Rather than seeing
children as passively learning the
meaning of gender from their
parents and teachers, she looked
at the way in which children
actively create and recreate the
meaning of gender in their
interactions with each other. The
social activities that schoolchildren
do together can be as important as
other agents for their socialization.
In school playgrounds, girls tend to play only with
Thome spent two years observing fourth
and fifth graders at two schools in Michigan other girls and boys with other boys. Why should
and California, sitting in the classroom with this be so?
them and observing their activities outside the
If the most popular women started menstmating or
classroom. She watched games such as 'chase
wearing bras (even if they didn't need to), then
and kiss' - known by names such as 'kiss-
other girls wanted these changes too. But if the
catch' in the UK - so as to learn how children
popular didn't wear bras and hadn't .. . gotten their
construct and experience gender meanings in
periods, then these developments were viewed as
the classroom and on the playground.
less desirable.
Thorne found that peer groups have a great
influence on gender socialization, particularly Thorne's research is a powerful reminder that
as children talk about their changing bodies, a children are social actors who help create their
subject of great fascination. The social context social world and influence their own socialization.
created by these children determined whether Still, the impact of societal and cultural influences is
a child's bodily change was experienced with tremendous, since the activities that children
embarrassment or worn with pride. As Thorne pursue and the values they hold are determined by
(1993) observed: influences such as their families and the media.

The mass media about undue influence on opinions, atti-

Newspapers, periodicals and journals flour- tudes and behaviour. The media plays a
ished in the West from the early 1800s large role in shaping our understanding of
onward, but they were confined to a fairly the world and therefore in socialization.
small readership. It was not until a century Much early research on the influence of the
later that such printed materials became media, especially television, on childhood
part of people's daily experience. The spread development has tended to see children as
of mass media involving printed docu- passive and undiscriminating in their reac-
ments was soon accompanied by electronic tions to what they see. But Hodge and Tripp
communication - radio, television, records (1986) emphasized that children's responses
and videos, bringing with them concerns to TV involve interpreting, or 'reading', what
 The Life-Course

they see, not just registering the content of Gender learning

programmes. Since then, researchers have
arrived at a more balanced understanding of Gender learning by infants is almost
the influence of the mass media in socializa- certainJy unconscious. Before children can
tion processes and now see television, for accurately label themselves as either a boy or
example, as one important agency of social- a girl, they receive a range ofpre-verbal cues.
ization alongside several others. For instance, male and female adults usually
handle infants differently. The cosmetics
THINIUNG CRITICALLY used by women contain scents different from
those the baby might learn to associate with
How do you think the balance of
males. Systematic differences in dress, hair-
socializing agencies is changing in an
style and so on provide visual cues for the
age of rapid globalization? Which
infant in the learning process. By the age of2,
socialization agencies are becoming
more influential and which are children have a partial understanding of
becoming less significant? What what gender is. They know whether they are a
problems might this produce for the boy or a girl, and they can usually categorize
socialization of society's new members? others accurately. Not until the age of 5 or 6,
however, does a child know that a person's
gender does not change, that everyone has
Gender socialization gender and that sex differences between girls
and boys are anatomically based.
Agencies of socialization play an important The toys, picture books and television
role in how children learn gende rroles. Let us programmes with which young children
now turn to the study of gender socialization, come into contact all tend to emphasize
the learning of gender roles through social differences between male and female
factors such as the family and the media. attributes. Toy stores and mail-order cata-
logues usually categorize their products by
Reactions of pare nts and adults gender. Even some toys that seem neutral in
terms of gender are not so in practice. For
Many studies have been carried out on the example, toy kittens and rabbits are recom-
degree to which gender differences are mended for girls, while lions and tigers are
the result of social influences. Studies of seen as more appropriate for boys.
mother- infant interaction show differences Vanda Lucia Zammuner (1986) studied the
in the treatment of boys and girls even when toy preferences of children aged between 7
parents believe their reactions to both are the and 10 in Italy and Holland. Children's atti-
same. Adults asked to assess the personality tudes towards a variety of toys were analysed;
of a baby give different answers according to stereotypically masculine and feminine toys,
whether or not they believe the child to be a as well as toys presumed not to be gender-
girl or a boy. In one experiment, five young typed, were included. Both the children and
mothers were observed in interaction with a their parents were asked to assess which toys
six-month-old called Beth. They tended to were suitable for boys and which for girls.
smile at her often and offer her dolls to play There was close agreement between the
with. She was seen as 'sweet', having a 'soft adults and the children. On average, the Ital-
cry'. The reaction of a second group of moth- ian children chose gender-differentiated toys
ers to a child the same age, named Adam, was to play with more often than the Dutch chil-
noticeably different. The baby was likely to be dren - a finding that conformed to expecta-
offered a train or other 'male toys' to play with. tions, since Italian culture tends to hold a
Beth and Adam were actually the same child, more traditional view of gender divisions than
dressed in different clothes (Will et al. 1976). does Dutch society. As in other studies, girls