Answer to Question 1Feedback: (1) The family is the primary agent of socialization. The family indoctrinates the child in the ways of society. Children internalize society's values and norms so they will act according to parental expectations, even when no one is watching. (2) Schools provide a more uniform indoctrination of youth in culturally prescribed ways. In addition to the formal curriculum, young people are also exposed to the hidden curriculum, which includes expectations about appropriate skills, character traits, and attitudes that pay off. (3) Peers become increasingly important as transmitters of social norms and values as children get older. Through a system of observation and constant feedback from peers, children learn ideas about in-groups and out-groups, cultural norms, and gender-appropriate behavior. (4) The media today plays a large role in socialization because children spend so much time with it. Critics point to the sexual and violent nature of movies, television, and music as a source of some of society's problems.
Answer to Question 2Feedback: George Mead's important insight is that the self emerges as the result of social experience. He saw this as a progression through three stages during childhood: (1) Imitation stageinfants learn to distinguish themselves from others from the actions of their parents; by age two, they can react to themselves the way others would react to them. (2) Play stage (ages 47)time is spent playing and taking the role of others, developing a rudimentary understanding of adult roles and how those in different roles interact with children. The play stage provides clues for children as to who they are and prepares them for later life. (3) Game stage (around age
children learn to participate in structured activities like sports, understanding and abiding by the rules. The more complex assessment of the roles of all the players and how to adjust behavior accordingly, shows that children have incorporated and understand the pressures of society, which Mead called generalized other.
Answer to Question 3Feedback: Feral children are those who have been raised with little or no human contact, and whose brains are permanently altered by that neglect (smaller and with obvious atrophy). Children require social contact to develop the potential established by their genetic composition. A person's concepts of his or her own self and personality and understanding of love, freedom, justice, right and wrong, and reality are all products of social interaction. While the reported cases of feral children raised by animals should be viewed with skepticism, the cases of children living in human settings but isolated from most human contact reveal much about the importance of human interaction in becoming human. For example, Anna, the illegitimate child hidden by her mother in the attic and fed but otherwise ignored could not sit up, walk, laugh, smile, or show anger when she was found. Likewise, Danielle was discovered in Florida at the age of 7; her behavior was generally infantile. Both girls recovered to some extent with therapy.
Major types of microbial cell shapes.
Relationships among major invertebrate lineages
Synthesis and major functions of the chief steroid hormones in animals.
As a biochem major
Dopaminergic agents
The Major Plant Groups