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Socialization is not as easy as it sounds, and to completely
understand and it is an on going process throughout life.
There are a lot of different parts to socialization so we
will try to cover them as brief as possible. The infamous
psychologist Sigmund Freud stated that biology pays a
significant part in human development. He believed that
humans have two simple needs, and the first is the need to
bond, and the second is the aggressive drive in which he
coined as death instinct. Freud stated that these are two
opposing forces that works in the unconscious level and
causes some internal torment. The unconscious theory of
psychology is both controversial and debatable because there
is really no concrete proof that it exists. He also combined
personality and the basic drives into three separate parts
which are known as the id, ego, and superego. The id is an
individual’s basic drives in the unconscious mind, and it
demands attention from people. A popular example for this is
why a young child demands a bundle of attention and
materialistic objects. However, this is usually neutralized
that’s why one of the common words added to an individual’s
dictionary is no. To avoid being angry and unsatisfied a
child most come to think consciously and with rational
abilities. It will be illogical and impractical if a child
could get everything they want and this is known as the ego
stage. The last part is known as superego and this happens
when an individual use cultural norms to help make
decisions. This happens during the conscious stage as well,
and an example is study hard to get good grades and get
accepted into college. The id and the superego will always
have a battle with each other, but with a socially adjusted
individual the ego helps balance these two out. The superego
is an important stage because if an individual don’t have it
then they will develop an attitude that center around
themselves and would not be willing to make sacrifices in
life. During his time, sex was a controversial topic and was
not viewed as a basic drive for human beings. Now-a-days
things have changed quite greatly but are still
controversial because it shines women in a negative light.
Another psychologist that did great discoveries for the
development of children around their environment is Jean
Piaget. He was a Swiss psychologist that main concentration
was in cognition or the mental processes of individuals. He
put together four basic stages for cognitive maturing. The
first stage was known as the senorimotor stage. During this
stage an individual experiences things solely through their
senses such as smelling, tasting, and listening. The second
stage is called the preoperational stage and occurs around
age 2. This is the stage when a person starts talking and
use signals such as the classic “good bye” wave. In this
stage an individual sill lacks abstract development. For
example if you pull liquid into two separate containers and
one is tall while the other is wide, then children in this
stage will automatically assume that the taller glass
contains more liquid even though it’s the same amount of
fluid in both containers. The third or concrete operational
stage is which individuals can experience a more logical
connection to their surroundings. An example is when an
individual can note that a day can have one the more
significance. If it’s Sunday than not only do an individual
go to church but they also have no school. The last stage is
known as the formal operational stage and an individual has
the ability to think very abstractly. They have a deeper
understanding of things can solve some concrete math or
logic problems. Even though Piaget based his theories on
cognition he didn’t really consider the effect that society
would have on an individual developing stages, and some
individuals don’t go through all stages as a result of this.
In some parts of the world especially in the very
traditional cultures individuals don’t go through all
stages. However don’t think that his only happens in the
United States because it may surprise you that a large
portion of Americans can’t read or write. A sociologist that
built on Piget’s discoveries was named Lawrence Kohlberg.
What he studied is individual’s moral rationalizing
capabilities or how they how they come to reason on what is
right, and what is wrong. As young children we don’t rely on
our guilt feelings but more like what feels good to us. What
feels good is usually associated with what is right, and
this is known as the pre-conventional stage. In the next
stage or conventional stage, which usually happens in the
teen years, individuals usually will become less selfish and
try to adjust to society’s needs. In the final or
post-conventional stage people look up and beyond their
society’s norms and ethics to help make their decisions. An
example of this is debating the law because the average
person will not question it, but some people may think that
just because something is not against the law doesn’t mean
its right. Most individuals will not make it to this stage.
However, there were some common errors in Kohlberg’s study
and this was a very common one. There was a gender bias
because all of his subjects were male and he generalized
female morality based on males and you can see the obvious
flaw here. Luckily, Carol Gilligan fixed this error and
compared the moral development of boys and girls. What she
concluded that men were more by the rules. If they hear that
someone broke into a hospital and stole medicine then they
will view it as wrong. However, a woman may look into it
deeper and consider why an individual would break into a
hospital and steal medicine and would be more sympathetic to
those that steal for a meaningful purpose such as Robin
Hood. Perhaps it was to save his sickly life when he didn’t
have the capital to pay for it.
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