Becoming a-member-of-society

1. BECOMING A MEMBER OF
SOCIETY

2. I. Enculturation:
To become a member of a particular society, we have to share its culture. Cultural practices
are transmitted by society through the process of enculturation where mental structures or schemas
serve as maps that enable people to recognize and interpret objects and events they encounter in
daily life. People who share a culture have recurring common experiences which lead them to
develop similar mental schemas which are then used to make sense of their world and to deal with
other people.
Enculturation therefore, is the process by which we learn the requirements of our
surrounding culture and acquire the behaviors and values appropriate for this culture. It focuses on
the acquisition of cultural traits such as use of handshake for greeting, use of po and opo, etc.
II. Socialization:
To be a full member of society, an individual has to acquire and learn all the necessary
social roles and skills required of a competent member of that society.

3. The process of learning these skills and social roles is called socialization.
Socialization is defined as life-long process in which society molds the
individual to conform to established social norms through the acquisition of
knowledge, values, skills and habits of the society where he belongs.
A. Types of socialization:
1. Primary socialization – is the process of learning the attitudes, values and
actions appropriate to individuals of a particular culture, this is mainly influenced
by family and friends.
2. Secondary socialization – is the process of learning what is appropriate
behavior as a member of a smaller group within a larger society. It is the
behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society like the school or
workplace. (learning about the history, values, culture and procedures of the
socializing agent)

4. 3. Anticipatory socialization – is the process, facilitated by social interactions, in
which non-group members learn to take on the values and standards of a group
which they aspire to join so as to ease their entry into the group and help them
interact competently once they havwe been accepted by it.
4. Resocialization – is radically changing one’s personality by carefully controlling
his environment.(i.e. resocializing new recruits in the military, inmates who come
out from prison). In this case, conformity occurs when individuals change their
behavior to fit the expectations of an authority figure or the larger group.
From the point of view of social determinism, socialization is a one-way
process where individuals have no choice but to follow factors that control their
behavior. However, we can’t discount the fact that individuals are unique and
employ creative ways of interpreting the prescribed rules and norms. This enables
them to do certain things while forfeiting other choices.

5. C. Identity formation as a product of Socialization:
The process of acquiring a self or identity are as follows:
1. Symbolic Interactionism. According to George Herbert Mead, the self
arises in the process of social experience and activity through the use of
symbolic gestures. Infants start to use gestures as an early form of
communication. When they learn to utter words and associate them with certain
responses, symbolic gestures become a form of language. Human language
emerges when an individual is able to take the role of the other person by
reflecting on the meaning of the other’s gesture. The full development of the
self therefore requires the acquisition of language, the capacity for self-
reflection using meaningful gestures and the ability to take into consideration
the role expectations of others.

6. 2. Positioning Theory. According to Rom Harre identity is the product of positioning
within a discourse. He asserted that people present themselves and others as actors in a
drama and in the discursive process they are located in conversations as coherent
participants in jointly produced storylines where fluid roles and parts are assigned to the
speakers. (ex. When a teacher asks a student to recite he is positioning the student to
perform her role as student)
Therefore one’s identity is primarily derived from one’s position within the social
field. Positions are clusters of rights, duties and obligations to perform specifiable acts
and thus positions exist as expectations, beliefs and presuppositions.
3. Role Theory (Van Langenhove) This is a concept in sociology and psychology that
considers most everyday activity to be the acting-out of socially defined categories (e,g,
mother, manager, teacher). Each role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms and
behaviors that a person has to face and fulfill. According to this theory some roles are
difficult to perform and may take years to learn. Some are subjected to incompatible role
expectations or role conflicts and some suffers from role overload.

7. D. Gender and Socialization:
1. Becoming a man / woman:
One of the most significant aspects of a person’s identity is gender. Since
early 20th century feminists have always contested the concept of patriarchy
referring to the social system of masculine domination over women. Today the
growing consensus of social scientists is best expressed by a French feminist
Simone de Beavoir “One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman”. This
polarizes the difference between sex and gender. Many equate sex with
biology while gender with culture. What de Beavoir is saying is that a person is
categorized as a female or male , biologically, based on anatomy and genitals,
one learns to be a man or woman, culturally, through the process of
socialization.
Social and cultural expectations include baby’s name, toys, color of dress,
behavior patterns, and even techniques of child rearing. Sexual and gender scripts
are learned in everyday life through social interactions.