Pre-Reading

Pre-Reading Activity

Discuss these questions with your classmates.

  1. Some values are universal. For example, most people believe that killing and stealing are wrong. However, other values are specific to certain cultures. Can you think of some values that are more specific to certain societies?
  2. Have you heard of the “nature vs. nurture” debate? What do you know about it?
  3. What is IQ? What does it measure? What does it not measure?

Reading 3: Why Socialization Matters [1]

Why Socialization Matters Goals

  • Understand the importance of socialization both for individuals and society
  • Explain the nature versus nurture debate

Socialization is critical both to individuals and to the societies in which they live. It illustrates how completely intertwined human beings and their social worlds are. First, it is through teaching culture to new members that a society keeps going. If new generations of a society don’t learn its way of life, it ceases to exist. Whatever is distinctive about a culture must be transmitted to those who join it in order for a society to survive. For U.S. culture to continue, for example, children in the United States must learn about cultural values related to democracy: they have to learn the norms of voting, as well as how to use material objects such as voting machines. Of course, some would argue that it’s just as important in U.S. culture for the younger generation to learn the etiquette – social rules – of eating in a restaurant or the rituals of tailgate parties[2] at football games. In fact, there are many ideas and objects that people in the United States teach children about in hopes of keeping the society’s way of life going through another generation.

Socialization is just as essential to us as individuals. Social interaction provides the means via which we gradually become able to see ourselves through the eyes of others, and how we learn who we are and how we fit into the world around us. In addition, to function successfully in society, we have to learn the basics of both material and nonmaterial culture, everything from how to dress ourselves to what is suitable clothing for a specific occasion; from when we sleep to what we sleep on; and from what is considered appropriate to eat for dinner to how to use the stove to prepare it. Most importantly, we have to learn language—whether it’s the dominant language or one common in a subculture, whether it’s verbal or through signs—in order to communicate and to think. As we saw with Danielle, without socialization we literally have no self.

Nature versus Nurture

Some experts assert that who we are is a result of nurture—the relationships and caring that surround us. Others argue that who we are is based entirely in genetics. According to this belief, our temperaments, interests, and talents are set before birth. From this perspective, then, who we are depends on nature.

One way researchers attempt to measure the impact of nature is by studying twins. Some studies have followed identical twins who were raised separately. The pairs shared the same genetics but in some cases were socialized in different ways. Instances of this type of situation are rare, so it’s hard to make generalization, but studying the degree to which identical twins raised apart are the same and different can give researchers insight into the way our temperaments, preferences, and abilities are shaped by our genes rather than our social environment.

For example, in 1968, twin girls born to a mentally ill mother were adopted by different families, separated from each other, and raised in different households. The adoptive parents, and certainly the babies, did not realize the girls were one of five pairs of twins who were made subjects of a scientific study (Flam 2007).

In 2003, the two women, then age thirty-five, were reunited. Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein sat together amazed, feeling like they were looking into a mirror. Not only did they look alike but they also behaved alike, using the same hand gestures and facial expressions (Spratling 2007). Studies like these point to the genetic roots of our temperament and behavior.

Though genetics and hormones play an important role in human behavior, sociology’s larger interest is the effect society has on human behavior, the “nurture” side of the nature versus nurture debate. What race were the twins? From what social class were their parents? What about gender? Religion? All these factors affected the lives of the twins as much as their genetic makeup and are critical to consider as we look at life through the sociological lens.

Big Picture

The Life of Chris Langan, the Smartest Man You’ve Never Heard Of

Bouncer[3]. Firefighter. Factory worker. Cowboy. Chris Langan spent the majority of his adult life earning just enough money to live with jobs like these. He had no college degree, few resources, and a past filled with much disappointment. Chris Langan also had an IQ of over 195, nearly 100 points higher than the average person (Brabham 2001). So why didn’t Chris become a neurosurgeon, professor, or aeronautical engineer? According to Macolm Gladwell (2008) in his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Chris didn’t possess the set of social skills necessary to succeed on such a high level—skills that aren’t innate but learned.

Gladwell looked to a recent study conducted by sociologist Annette Lareau in which she closely studied 12 families from various economic backgrounds and examined their parenting techniques. Parents from lower income families followed a strategy of “accomplishment of natural growth,” which is to say they let their children develop on their own with a large amount of independence; parents from higher-income families, however, “actively fostered and accessed a child’s talents, opinions, and skills” (Gladwell 2008). These parents were more likely to engage in analytical conversation, encourage active questioning of the establishment, and foster development of negotiation skills. The parents were also able to introduce their children to a wide range of activities, from sports to music to accelerated academic programs. When one middle-class child was denied entry to a gifted and talented program, the mother petitioned the school and arranged additional testing until her daughter was admitted. Lower-income parents, however, were more likely to unquestioningly obey authorities such as school boards. Their children were not being socialized to comfortably confront the system and speak up (Gladwell 2008).

What does this have to do with Chris Langan, deemed by some to be the smartest man in the world (Brabham 2001)? Chris was born in severe poverty, moving across the country with an abusive and alcoholic stepfather. His genius went largely unnoticed. After accepting a full scholarship to Reed College, he lost his funding after his mother failed to fill out necessary paperwork. Unable to successfully argue his point to the administration, Chris, who had received straight A’s the previous semester, was given F’s on his transcript and forced to drop out of college. After he enrolled in Montana State, an administrator’s refusal to rearrange his class schedule left him unable to find a way to travel the 16 miles to attend classes. What Chris had in brilliance, he lacked in practical intelligence, or what psychologist Robert Sternberg defines as “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect” (Sternberg et al. 2000). Such knowledge was never part of his socialization.

Chris gave up on school and began working in a variety of blue-collar (working class) jobs, pursuing his intellectual interests on the side. Though he has recently gotten attention for his “Cognitive Theoretic Model of the Universe,” he remains skeptical of and resistant to the educational system.

As Gladwell concluded, “He’d had to make his way alone, and no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses—ever makes it alone” (2008).

Reading Comprehension

Choose the best answers to the following questions according to the reading.

  1. Why do sociologists need to be careful when drawing conclusions from twin studies?
    1. The results do not apply to children that aren’t twins.
    2. The twins were often raised in different ways.
    3. The twins may not actually be genetically identical twins.
    4. The sample sizes are often small.
  2. From a sociological perspective, which factor has the least influence on a person’s socialization?
    1. gender
    2. class
    3. blood type
    4. ethnicity/race
  3. Chris Langan’s story illustrates that:
    1. children raised in one-parent households tend to have higher IQs.
    2. intelligence is more important than socialization.
    3. socialization can be more important than intelligence.
    4. neither socialization nor intelligence affects college admissions.

Use your own words to answer the questions.

  1. Why is it important for cultural values to be transmitted to children? What are some of these values?
  2. Briefly describe the difference between nature and nurture.
  3. Researchers think studying identical twins that have been raised separately is the best way to analyze nature vs. nurture. Why?
  4. What are some other examples – not mentioned in the reading – of practical intelligence that are necessary to succeed in life?

Vocabulary Practice

Read the paragraph and notice the bold academic words. Then, match the bold words with their definitions below.

Some animal behavior that scientists thought was typical is now being reconsidered. For example, baboons were thought to live in male dominated groups, where the males show more aggressive behavior. These behaviors symbolized their status and power. However, scientists now realize that the baboons’ actions are intertwined with their stress levels. Under normal circumstances, male and female baboons act similarly and enjoy relatively equal status when their environment is calm. In other words, the males cease their aggressive behavior. This was a somewhat surprising discovery.

  1. _________________________ (v) to stop or end
  2. _________________________ (v) to connect or become involved
  3. _________________________ (v) to represent an idea or thing
  4. _________________________ (v) to have power over something

Complete the sentences below using the words in the box. You may need to change the form of the verbs to match the grammar of the sentences.

access      fund      instance      insight      pursue      rituals
  1. She _______________________ a career in medicine.
  2. For _______________________, people may be socialized in schools.
  3. High-powered microscopes allowed scientists to have new _______________________.
  4. There are many _______________________ that accompany death and birth.
  5. Governments often work hard to improve _______________________ to health care.
  6. Changes are being made to the way universities are _______________________ so that they have more financial support.

Reading Discussion

Discuss these questions with your classmates.

  1. Why does socialization matter?
  2. How might being from a certain social class, gender, or other group affect the way a person is socialized?
  3. Which do you think is more important: having practical intelligence or having a high IQ? Why?
  1. Download the original, un-adapted version for free at https://cnx.org/contents/AgQDEnLI@13.13:zeTojT9p@7/5-2-Why-Socialization-Matters ↵
  2. Culture Note: a tailgate party is when people at sporting events eat and drink around their vehicles in parking lots before a sporting event. ↵
  3. A bouncer is a guard at a bar or nightclub who is usually in charge of checking IDs to see if people are 21 and dealing with customers who misbehave. ↵

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Preparing for University Reading Copyright © 2020 by Kathleen Mitchell; Matthew Burrows; and Kendra Staley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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