BLOCK A

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION

FAMILY
1. ATTRIBUTED FUNCTIONS

● Primary socialization. Mediates social influences: who will define the position of a kid, is
family (class, gender, etc.).
● Sexual and reproductive legitimated relations.
● Stable emotional support.
● Attention to basic material needs and breeding of children.
● Assigns children to social position.
● Families have lost ground lately. STATE and MARKET cover functions of the family.
○ Decades ago, the function of the family was to provide health, economy and
education. Now, the state takes care of that.

2. DEPENDS ON

● Marriage:
○ Monogamy: form of relationship in which an individual has only one partner
during his or her lifetime or at any time (serial monogamy).
○ Polygamy: involves marriage that includes more than two partners (Polygyny,
Polyandry).
○ Polyamory: described as “consensual, ethical and responsible non-monogamy”.
● Degrees of kinship:
○ Nuclear: 1st and 2nd degree generations coexisting.

○ Extended: more than 2nd degree generations living together.

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○ La Police des Familles - Jacques Donzelot

■ From where have we got this nuclear family? Workers from the field
moving to the city → chaos → social conflict → las ingienitas.
■ Ingienitas: woman moving to the city (revolution). They wanted a better
condition for family:

This was imposed by the working class.

3. SOCIALIZATION

● Primary socialization: is the process by which children learn the cultural norms of the
society into which they are born. Because this happens during the early years of
childhood, the family is the most important arena for the development of the human
personality. (T. Parsons).
● During the first months of life, the infant possesses little or no understanding of
differences between human beings and material objects in his environment, and has no
awareness of self. Children do not begin to use concepts like “I”, “me” or “you” until the
age of 2 or later. (Piaget, Mead and Freud).
● One of the most distinctive features of human beings, compared to other animals, is
that humans are self-aware.

4. FREUD

Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis.

Objective: look for happiness, get away from suffering.
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● The importance of early years of life: we do not have a memory, but are the most important
years of our life.
● An unconscious part governs our behavior, defined in childhood.
● Most experience disappears.
● Children must know that their desire cannot be covered immediately.
● Super ego: external order, social (the blame).
● Process with tension. Controlling impulses.

● The child becomes independent, overcomes the Oedipus complex. (Complex d’Edip i
d’Electra).

4.1. THEORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: Physic apparatus

● ID: is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends. It is the primitive and

instinctive component of personality. Is the impulsive and unconscious part of
our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs
and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all ID and only later it
develops an ego and a superego.

The ID is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world, as it operates

within the unconscious part of the mind.

● EGO: is that part of the ID which has been modified by the direct influence of
the external world. The ego operates according to the reality principle,
working out realistic ways of satisfying the ID’s demands, often compromising
or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society. The
EGO considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how
to behave. Is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires
of the ID and the SUPER-EGO.

Conscious → feelings in our consciousness we have to face.

● SUPER-EGO: plays the critical and moralizing role. Incorporates the values and
morals of society. The superego’s function is to control the ID’s impulses,
especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression. It also
has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than
simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection. The Super-Ego can be
thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of
guilt. For example, for having extra-marital affairs.
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When people break a norm, they feel bad because they are socialized. It is a
process with tensions controlling the impulses. The unconscious part governs
our behavior, defined in childhood. Parents are important because they have
the responsibility to teach orders and rules.

○ The installation of the Super-Ego can be described as a successful instance

of identification with the parental agency.
○ The Super-Ego also takes on the influence of those who have stepped into
the place of parents, educators, teachers, people chosen as ideal models.

SUPER-EGO → GUILT → PUNISHMENT → FORGIVE → RECOVER SOCIAL ORDER

Guilt: the kind of society we have affects our happiness and guilt. It is determined by
our morality. Works with our desires, not only with what we have accomplished.
Punishment: people look for it. Paradigm with religion: when you do something wrong,
you search for forgiveness.

5. H. MEAD

5.1. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

● Is a sociological perspective which developed around the middle of the twentieth

century.
● It is particularly important in microsociology and social psychology.
● Emphasizes that interaction between human beings that takes place through
symbols and the interpretation of meanings.
● The majority of the interactionist research uses qualitative research
techniques, like participant observation.
● Construction of the SELF:
○ “I”: the child is not socialized. Needs and desires.
○ “Me”: the social self. Self-awareness of how I am and how others see
me. (who am I?)
○ The “Me” is the social self and the “I” is the response to the “Me”. In
other words, the “I” is the response of an individual to the attitudes of
others, while the “Me” is the organized set of attitudes of others that
an individual assumes.
○ The “Me” is the accumulated understanding of the “generalized other”:
how one thinks one’s group perceives oneself.
○ The “I” is the individual’s impulses. The “I” is self as a subject. The
“Me” is self as an object. The “I” is the knower, the “Me” is the known.

We are ontologically social: we are made to be social.

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Mead believes that very young children are not influenced in any way
(egocentrism, Piaget).

5.2. 3 STAGES: PLAYING AS A FORM OF SOCIALIZATION

Is imitation. Integrate cultural codes.To play is one way in which this takes
PREPARATORY: place, and in their play, young children often imitate what adults do. If
I behave like a doctor in my games, it will have a reaction with other
kids. It has a meaning. It is putting into practice the codes.

Is communication. Children of 4 or 5 years old will act out in adult roles.

Mead called this “taking the role of the other”. Taking the perspective
(beyond imitation, creating and response).
● Children achieve an understanding of themselves as separate
agents. It is at this period that they begin to understand the overall
values and morality according to which social life is conducted.
● Children’s play enables them to start to develop a social self. As a
PLAY STAGE “Me”, by seeing themselves through the eyes of others.
● It is at this period that they begin to understand the overall values
and morality according to which social life is conducted.
○ Conscience of multiple roles.
○ “Significant others”: people must have an opinion about
themselves.
Who defines who we are is the reaction of others. If you are a king,
others have to respect your position as a king. (Symbolic games). Others
will confirm your position, your identity.

Is at this period that they begin to understand the overall values and
morality according to which social life is conducted.

THE
GENERALIZED
OTHER

Understanding we live in a more external context. Cultural context

affects what we can do. Our identity has a personality, and is affected
by society.

6. SOCIAL CHANGE AND FAMILY

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● Diversification of models: parental families, divorce, homosexual and remarriage. (C.

Rochefort, Kids First).
● Relative reduction of their functions. State and Market.
● Individualization and urbanite process: privatization of the family. Paris, the city of solitude.
● Changing the role of women: erosion of the patriarchal family and increase of instability.
● Children as a good consumer: enjoy your affection (to the detriment of disciplinary
accompaniment). (Cool hunter).
● Socio-demographic changes: less children but more year’s new patterns of family
relationships.
● Which is the reason to have kids? to enjoy your life. It has an impact on the way we
socialize.

EXAMPLES:
● Modern Family:
○ Empathize.
○ Ethnicity.
○ Homosexuality.
○ Age gap.
○ The traditional family is the most chaotic.
● Ikea family ad:
○ Each family has its rules.
○ Lyrics: traditional kind of family.
○ Video: contemporary family.
○ Looks forward to selling furniture to new models of families: non.strict,
open-minded, etc.
● Ikea divorce ad:
○ Ethnicity: latin lover in Sweden.
○ Typical nowadays.
○ Independent woman that has fun.
○ Role theory: mum (when she is with her kids), woman (when she is with
men).
○ Medium class.
○ Looks forward to selling furniture to divorced families.
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7. FAMILY SOCIALIZATION STYLES

Emotional support: refers to matters such as the distance between parents / children, quality of
communication, promotion of expression of children (desires, needs, personality) and the
use of positive reinforcements.

Control: refers to the control of established norms, the way they are established and
negotiation.

7.1. TYPES OF SOCIALIZATION STYLES

PERMISSIVE EFFECTS
Reduced distance between parents and children. A lot of Modern little tyrants. Children
communication with the child. Frequent use of positive are very focused on their own
needs, shrinking, no
reinforcement. It gives a lot of importance to self-regulation
responsibility, lack of
and motivation of the child. It exerts little control on the self-control and discipline.
established norms. Family peace is given preference to
conflict or fulfillment of the norm.

CONTRACTUAL EFFECTS
Small distance between parents and children. A lot of Children develop good
communication with the child. Promotion of closed dialogue communication and expression skills.
and expression. Frequent use of positive reinforcements. It
gives a lot of importance to the self-regulation and motivation
of the child. It controls the established norms but
parents can negotiate these norms with the child if
necessary. Weak role of parents.
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PROTECTIONIST EFFECTS
Small distance between parents and children. A lot of Children develop general and
communication with the child. Promotion of closed dialogue specific communication skills to
and expression. Frequent use of positive reinforcements. All express emotional and motivational
the family does many activities together. Strong control of aspects. Diverge the process of
the other socialization agents. They can talk about the building autonomy.
reasons for each norm although they give importance to the
accomplishment of norms.

AUTHORITARIAN EFFECTS
Large distance between parents and children. Little Submission or rebellion,
communication between parents and children. Little dialogue resentment. Difficulties in
and little importance to the expression of the child. emotional expression and in the
Enforcement of regulation. Values of discipline and obedience. process of acquiring responsibilities
High control of the fulfillment of the norms established. and personal autonomy.

ANOMIC EFFECTS
Large distance between parents and children. Little Disorientation and psychological
communication between parents and children. Little problems (low self-esteem, low
importance to the expression of a child. Little parental social abilities to solve
problems and low capacity for
involvement. Arbitrary control of norms, punishment and
conflict resolution).
sanctions. Too much responsibility and independence for the
children (at the affective and material level).
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TV & OTHER SCREENS (MASS MEDIA)

Global screen: is the idea that we live in a world in which the main way to communicate is
audiovisual, it has a big impact on our society and ourselves.
● It is a link between fiction and reality.
● We understand reality through screens. But, is it reality what we see through the
screens?

1. COMMUNICATION

● Media are instruments that allow the transmission of knowledge between people. From
prehistoric signs of art through writing, to audiovisual language and mass media.
(Lipovetsky).
● Society has evolved thanks to technological advances (Harry Pross):
○ Primary Media: using human body: symbols, verbal language (how we use
language to communicate).
○ Secondary Media (machines): the producer needs a machine. The receiver does
not need the device: newspapers, magazines, etc.
○ Tertiary Media (electronic): technology is required for both the producer and the
receiver: television, radio, telegraphy.
○ Quaternary Media (digital or new media): allow synchronous and asynchronous
communication. The producer and the receiver need technology. Both have
technology. The receiver becomes the producer and the consumer. The
receiver turns producer. We can all produce content through social media,
internet and networks.

● The Three Periods Of Humanity (Regis Debray): written, printing and audiovisual.

2. FUNCTIONS

● Form, inform and entertain the mass audience that has access to it.
● Is managed by public organizations and Holdings of communication (capitalism).
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3. INFLUENCE

● Mass Media has the resources to reinforce attitudes, values and beliefs and what they
show will affect ours.
● Support the exercise of power (institutional business) with no coercion but through
seduction.
● Mass Media works with capitalism, power and politics: process of seduction (try to
watch/connect with all consumers so they buy).

SEDUCTION = EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

It can be that a company has different magazines or newspapers of distinct topics (4.ex.
Playboy and Salut, Companyia Godó, Grupo Prisa,etc.) They all have a hierarchy.

There are also public corporations as Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals (CCMA)
(4.ex. TV3, Esport 3, Catalunya Ràdio). Hierarchy.

4. AUDIOVISUAL LANGUAGE: GLOBAL SCREENS

● Audiovisual language, with the birth of the moving image in the twentieth century, has
imposed on contemporary communication. (G. Lipovetsky and J. Serroy).
● There is a plurality of artifacts with screen in the process and communication
practices:
○ Cinema, 3D, IMAX, etc.
○ TV, Free view.
○ Internet (YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion)
○ Cellular phone (hyperconnectivity)
○ Video Games.

5. HISTORY OF MOVING IMAGE:

● The first film was created by the Lumiere brothers (they invented the cinematograph).
● 30’s: invention of the television.
● 50’s-60’s: television established.
● The film industry has been reinvented from the influence of other screens (video
games, music videos, etc.)
● Evolution of creation:
1. Reality.
2. Fiction.
3. Sound.
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4. Color.
● This language is constructed from the evolution of fictional films and extends a specific
language as a universal language of moving images for all contents.
○ Fiction: connection with the public through illusion.
○ Sport.
○ News.
● A narrative of fiction is the basis for the audiovisual language.

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF AUDIOVISUAL FICTION:

● Film editing.
● Lightning.
● The narrative use of film plans (wide shot, medium shot, close up shot, extreme
close-up shot).
● The music and sound.
● Other elements (ellipsis, flashback, speed of image, etc.).

The visual language seeks excitement and entertainment. The director has to decide how to tell
the story:
● Content.
● Emotional impact.

Establishing a magical bond between fiction and reality.

An example for this bond would be the champions league (it has music, shouts, we can also
see the face of a football player, the public, etc.)

Who decides which part of reality is put on TV?

● In a football match we see the whole team playing but, what if we focus on just one
football player? Then, reality changes.
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7. GLOBAL SCREEN EFFECTS: THE PRODUCTION OF

MEANING

Baudrillard (1991) separates the information from the production of meaning (what we
understand as reality is only something created by ourselves, by the production of meaning).
To him, these terms are associated negatively.

“... la informació és clarament destructora del sentit i del significat. La pèrdua del sentit està
directament lligada a l’acció dissolvent i dissuasiva de la informació, dels mitjans i dels
mitjans d’informació en massa”.

● Reality and fiction: for Baudrillard the universe of mass media causes fiction to become
more real than reality itself.
● Hyperreality: condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended
together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other
begins. In whose interior finishes every meaning. What we watch / receive is not
reality, it is hyperreality. It has meaning inside itself. It is an idea constructed for us.
● Simulacrum: is producing an artificial image self-referential, freed from any connection
with the outside world. Is something that loses the contact with reality and lives by
itself (the process of construction of the hyperreality). Sacar algo de la realidad y
convertirlo en otra cosa.
● The mass media has vanquished all differences between reality and fiction. Between
what is apparent and what is real. Among simulacrum and truths.
● What we understand now by reality is another thing, says Baudrillard.

8. OBJECTIVES OF MASS MEDIA

● Mass media are not neutral. They have an objective: sell, buy time, connect, etc.
● The neutral character attributed to technology has brought, according to the critical theory
of the Frankfurt School, to a deep estrangement in relation to the central problems of
humanity: ethics, justice, freedom, happiness, etc. It is only the criterion of truth that
becomes to be the operating value, for more irrational or despotic that may be.
● New narcissistic subjectivity:
○ The media promotes unattainable stereotypes → frustration. Even Though we are
pretty, smart, intelligent, we will have the feeling we will never achieve those
things.
○ Creates discomfort to individuals: experiencing him or herself defective and
incomplete.
○ It manifests the absence of critical thinking, replacing the “sense of reality” for the
virtual images and the illusion of a “personal fullness” achieved through
consumption.
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○ Breaking the hierarchy of Mass media.

9. THE INTERNET ERA

● Social network: a social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors
(such as individuals or organizations) and a set of the dyadic ties between these
actors.
● Rizomatic: Deleuze and Guattari use the terms “rhizome” and “rhizomatic” to describe
theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in
data representation and interpretation. A rhizome are the roots of a tree that spread
horizontally.
● Transversal: communication that escapes from the hegemonic discourses and allows
peer to peer relations.
● Prosumer: is a person who consumes and produces media.

“The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information” Age. P. Himanen.

10. THE SPOTIFY EFFECT

● We have all the music of all times in our hands.

● We always listen to the same music.
● We listen to music that is interesting for us.

11. TECHNOLOGY AS AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

● Open software (Ubuntu).

● Open hardware (Arduino)
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PEER GROUPS
Socialization agent consisting in a friendship group composed of individuals of similar age
and social status (you construct emotional relations; have the same ideas, ethics and
values).

The peer group is a central agent for social and psychological development.

● Social group: group of people who maintain some kind of relationship and have
consciousness (there is an “us” and an “other”, with external recognition) they share
objectives and activities, and they have relative stability.
● Age: each society establishes different categories with different functions, tasks and
rites of passage between them. It depends on the civilization. Ex. school.
● Primary group: is characterized by face relationships and usually involves a strong
bond.

1. FUNCTIONS

● The Peer Group does not explicitly aim to socialize, but increasingly plays a more
important role in the socialization of children and teenagers.
● It maintains regulations, social control mechanisms and their own models of social
relations.
● Contributes to the formation of personal identity, values, tastes and behavior patterns.
● The lengthening of childhood and youth intensify the importance of peer groups.
● Despite the family towards the peer group. Judith R. Harris “Theory of socialization
group”.
● Each year is more important.
● Helps define identity, has an influence on creating this identity.
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2. MODELING BEHAVIOR

2.1. CHILDREN

Codes / norms that are linked to the peer group. If you have them, you are part of the
group. If you do not, you are not.

● Central mechanism: play, imitation and routine.

● The peer group is a central agent for social and psychological development
(another child is the point of reference of another).
● Playing is one of the main ways of their development. They learn the rules of the
“majority”: what does the majority becomes the common rule (H. Mead).
● The preferred model of a child is another child: food, games, etc.
● Desire to belong and to identify with a peer group.

2.2. YOUNG ONES AND TEENAGERS

● In the peer group we learn how to be (construct our personality) and how to
think to be accepted. The peer group assesses the conduct of its members
continuously.
● Peer group shares friendship, interests and tastes. Regulating behaviors.
● Social control mechanisms as ridicule, mockery, ostracism.
● Key role in the socialization of tastes and preferences for leisure and
consumption. Idiosyncrasy of the peer group: the posh, hippies, skins, gothic,
emos, etc.
● Live in a world that they do not define, it is defined by norms. They destroy
norms, expect change, social change.
● Conscious that a part of your identity does not match with your identity. More
in common with the peer group than family.

2.3. DIFFERENTIATION OF BEHAVIORS

● Socialization is specific to the context, therefore, if children and young people

behave differently at home it is precisely because they use codes of conduct
adjusted to the context (social role).
● For teenagers there is a need to distance themselves from the adult world;
peer group helps them to do so.
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3. THE CONSUMER SOCIETY AND PEER GROUPS: MAIN

CHARACTERISTICS

Choosing values of modernity. Values of communities are losing

Postmodernity
importance: reinforcement of individualism.

Back to the Self, conceived as a refuge from society. Lack of

Neoindividuality
belief in the collective ideas.

Cult to the present. Fragmentation in a series of perpetual

Hedonism and immediacy presents. Immediate requirement for an experience of pleasure.
Cult to the body and fashion affects individual behavior.

Absence of ideology capable of explaining reality. All major

metastories, speeches legitimizing, enter into crisis.
Weak thought
Predominant language of the image to the verbal or textual.
Killing politics.

Absence of an ideology capable of explaining our world.

Weak thinking Persistent opposition to universal, meta-narratives and
generality.

Abolishing borders between art and everyday life. Stylistic multiplicity,

Aestheticization of life eclecticism and mixing codes: pastiche, irony, fun and
celebration.

New forms of social

Renunciation of social transformation projects.
relations

Ironic vision of social

Predominance of irony and humor in front of rational argument.
reality

Subordination of culture to The market absorbs cultural products and turns them into
market logic commodities.

End of the “representation era”. Simulacrum becomes an

Simulacrum era
equivalence to reality (idealization of reality).
g
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4. YOUTH SUBCULTURES

● They are groups with identity features: aesthetics (music and art), political or
ideological, sexual identity.
● The distinction in how to act, dress makes it different from the status quo. I am different,
I think differently and act differently.
● New proposals on how to live and feel responding to the dominant culture.
● The aesthetics and ethics are given the hand to differentiate a “them” and build a new
“us”.
● The youth constructs something new. “We prefer to live in another way. We do not like
how the world is organized”.
● Youth movements are important to define social relations.
● Decades:
○ 60’s: subculture rebel against institutions and power. Define an alternative
and proposals for social change. The Beat: literary movement (Kerouac)
sexual liberation, progressive ideology with oriental influence. Fluxus.
○ Hippies: countercultural movement that defends sexual liberation and an
anti-militarism.
○ 70’s: failure of riots and economic crisis lead to disillusionment and laid-back
attitude, especially regarding politics.
○ 80’s: youth protagonist of specific consumption but with economic
dependency and pessimism regarding the future.
○ 90’s: accentuated segregation in own places and different times for leisure
youth (time beginning “edge of midnight”).
○ 00’s: resurgence through political social movements, while consolidation of
time, place (including virtual) and own consumption.

5. PEER GROUPS AND FAMILY

● At younger ages, family has an important role in the selection and configuration of the
peer group: as age increases the family is losing its ability to act as a mediator.
● Distance and shock of cultural codes.
● In case of conflict between family norms and the norms of the peer group, usually the
peer group ones prevail.
● Family: “I have given everything to you, and you do not show gratitude!”.