PERSONALITY AND

SOCIALIZATION
INSTRUCTOR: LATAFAT AZIZ
 OUTLINE

• Theories of Personality Development

o Cooley and the Looking-glass Self
o Mead and the “Generalized Other”
o Freud and the Antisocial Self
o Erikson and the Eight Stages of Life
o Piaget and Developmental Learning
•
 Cooley and the Looking-glass Self
• Q: just how does a person arrive at a notion of the kind of
person he or she is?
• A: this concept of self is developed through a gradual and
complicated process which continues throughout life.
• Self is part of how society makes us human.
• He said that our sense of self develops from interaction with
others.
• The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept.
• Created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902, stating that a
person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions
and the perceptions of others.
COOLEY AND THE LOOKING-GLASS SELF

• Beginning as children, humans begin to define themselves

within the context of their socializations.
• There are three components of the looking-glass self:
• We imagine how we appear to others,
• We imagine the judgment of that appearance, and
• We develop our self (identity) through the judgments of others.
Mead and the “Generalized Other”
• George Herbert Mead has described the process
of internalizing the attitudes of others.
• He developed the concept of generalized other.
• Mead described self as "taking the role of the
other," the premise for which the self is
actualized.
• Through interaction with others, we begin to
develop an identity about who we are, as well as
empathy for others. This is the notion of, 'Do unto
others, as you would have them do unto you.'
MEAD AND THE “GENERALIZED OTHER”
• This generalized other is a composite of the expectations one
believes others hold toward one.
• When one says, “Everyone expects me to…”.
• Role taking is an attempt to act out the behaviour that would
be expected of a person who actually held the role one is
taking.
MEAD AND THE “GENERALIZED OTHER”
• Three-stage process through which one learns to play adult
roles:
• Preparatory Stage (1 to 3 years) in which the child imitates adult behavior
without understanding.
• Play stage (3 to 4) years when children have some understanding of the
behavior but switch roles erratically.
• Game state (4 to 5 years and beyond)where the role behavior becomes
consistent and purposeful and the child has the ability to sense the role…
Freud and the Antisocial Self
• Both Cooley and Mead were interactionists,
who saw personality as shaped through our
social interaction with others.
• Freud saw self and society in basic conflict
not harmony.
• He saw the self as a product of the ways in
which basic human motives and impulses are
denied and repressed by society.
• Basic concept :Id, Edo and Superego
FREUD AND THE ANTISOCIAL SELF
FREUD AND THE ANTISOCIAL SELF
Erikson and the Eight Stages of Life
• Erik Erikson is a German-born American scholar..
• He was heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud.
• He moved beyond Freud to develop a theory of life-cycle
socialization through eight stages marked by Identity crisis.
• He considers the impact of external factors, parents and
society on personality development from childhood to
adulthood.
• According to Erickson, every person must pass through a
series of eight interrelated stages over the entire life cycle.
• These are Turing points in development when one must
move in one of two general directions.
 1. INFANCY:
BIRTH -18 MONTHS OLD
• Basic Trust vs. Mistrust

• During the first or second year of life, the major emphasis is on

the mother and father’s nurturing ability and care for a child,
especially in terms of visual contact and touch.
• The child will develop optimism, trust, confidence, and security
if properly cared for and handled.
• If a child does not experience trust, he or she may develop
insecurity, worthlessness, and great mistrust to the world.
 2. TODDLER/EARLY CHILDHOOD YEARS:
18 MONTHS TO 3 YEARS
• Autonomy vs. Shame
• The second stage occurs between 18 months and 3 years. At
this point, the child has an opportunity to build self-esteem
and autonomy as he or she learns new skills and right from
wrong.
• The well-cared for child is sure of himself, carrying himself or
herself with pride rather than shame.
• During this time of the “terrible twos”. Defiance, temper
tantrums, and stubbornness can also appear.
• Children tend to be vulnerable during this stage, sometimes
feeling shame and low self-esteem during an inability to learn
certain skills.
 3. PRESCHOOLER:

3 TO 5 YEARS
• Initiative vs. Guilt

• During this period we experience a desire to copy the adults

around us and take initiative in creating play situations.
• We make up stories with Barbie’s and Ken’s, toy phones and
miniature care, playing out roles in a trial universe,
experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means
to be an adult.
• And we also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring
the word—Why?
• The most significant relationship is with the basic family.
 4. SCHOOL AGE CHILD:
6 TO 12 YEARS
• Industry vs. Inferiority

• During this stage, often called the Latency, we are capable of

learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and
knowledge,, thus developing a sense of industry.
• This also a very social stage of development and if we
experience unresolved feelings of inadequacy and inferiority
among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of
competence and self-esteem.
• As the world expand a bit, our most significant relationship is
with the school and neighborhood.
• Parents are no longer the complete authorities as once they
were , although they are still important.
 5. ADOLESCENT: 12 TO 18 YEARS
• Identity vs. Identity Diffusion
• Up until this fifth stage, development depends on what is done
to a person. At this point, development now depends
primarily upon what a person does.
• An adolescent must struggle to discover and find his/her own
identity, while recognizing and struggling with social
interactions and “fitting in”, and developing a sense of
morality and right from wrong.
• Some simply attempt to delay entrance to adulthood and
withdraw from responsibilities.
• Those unsuccessful with this stage tend to confuse and
upheaval. Adolescents begin to develop a strong affiliation
and devotion to ideals, causes and friends.
 6. YOUNG ADULT:
18 TO 35
• Intimacy vs. Isolation

• At the young adult stage, people seek to companions and

love.
• Some also begin to “settle down” and start families,
although seems to have been pushed back farther in
recent years.
• Young adults seek deep intimacy and satisfying
relationships, but if unsuccessful, isolation may occur.
• Significant relationships at this stage are with marital
partners and friends.
 7. MIDDLE-AGED ADULT:
35 TO 55 OR 65
• Generativity vs. Self-absorption

• Career and work are the most important things at this stage with
family.
• Middle adulthood is also the time when people can take on greater
responsibilities and control.
• For this stage, working to establish stability and Erikson’s idea of
generativity—attempting to produce something that makes a
difference to society. Inactivity and meaninglessness are common
fears during this stage.
• Major life shifts can occur during this stage. For example, children
leave the household, careers can change, and so on. Some may
struggle with finding purpose.
• Significant relationships are those within the family, workplace, local
church, and other communities.
 8. LATE ADULT:
55 OR 65 TO DEATH
• Integrity vs. Despair

• Erikson believed that much of life is preparing for the middle

adulthood stage and the last stage involves much reflection.
• As older adults, some can look back with a feeling of integrity
—that is, contentment and fulfillment, having led a meaningful
life and valuable contribution to society.
• Others nay have a sense of despair during this stage, reflecting
upon their experiences and failures.
• They may appear death as they struggle to find a purpose to
their lives, wondering “What was the point of life? Was it
worth it”
ERIKSON AND THE EIGHT STAGES OF LIFE
Piaget and Developmental Learning
• Jean Piaget, trained as a Biologist…but
• Recognized as Swiss developmental psychologist…
• Child psychologist…
• He didn’t develop a comprehensive theory of
socialization but concentrated on how children
learn to talk, to think, to reason, and eventually to
form moral judgments.
• Piaget believes that children think differentially
from adults…
• Piaget's theory has four stages: sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational.
PIAGET AND DEVELOPMENTAL LEARNING
• By “Developmental” stages, we mean that the learnings of one
stage are necessary to move on to the next stage.
1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
• During the sensorimotor stage, which
often lasts from birth to age two, children
are just beginning to learn how to learn.
• The more major tasks occurring during
this period involve children figuring out
how to make use of their bodies.
• They do this by experiencing everything
with their five senses, hence "sensory,"
and by learning to crawl and then walk,
point and then grasp, hence, "motor."
2. PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

• During the preoperational stage, which often lasts from ages

two through seven.
• Children start to use mental symbols to understand and to
interact with the world, and they begin to learn language and
to engage in pretend play.
• Increased ability to think symbolically and logically.
• They can see the world only from their own perspective
(Egocentrism).
3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

• In the concrete operational stage that follows, lasting from ages

seven through eleven.
• Children gain the ability to think logically to solve problems
and to organize information they learn.
• The child is now mature enough to use logical thought or
operations (i.e. rules) but can only apply logic to physical
objects.
• However, they remain limited to considering only concrete,
not abstract, information because at this stage the capability for
abstract thought isn't well developed yet.
4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

• Finally, during the formal operational stage, which often lasts

from age eleven on.
• During this time, adolescents develop the ability to think about
abstract concepts.
• Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and
systematic planning also emerge during this stage.
• Adolescents learn how to think more abstractly to solve
problems and to think symbolically, e.g., about things that
aren't really there concretely in front of them.