Chapter 6 ; Socialization

 This chapter taught me a lot about understanding how people recognize or learn their sense of self. I found this chapter very interesting and made some very interesting points, especially at the end when it stated about the guy who isolated himself because he wanted nothing to do with society and when he left he yells "Finally, I am free". The texts states that he basically isnt as free as he thought because yelling those four words are concepts he learned from society. He took with him all that he learned through socialization. That part of this reading, which was at the end of the chapter really summed up the chapter very clearly. Socialization is the process through which people learn their culture's basic norms, values, beliefs, and appropriate behaviors. It is guided by many different agents of socialization, or people and groups who teach us about our culture. My family are the number one agents of socialization for me. As I get older being exposed to different people and groups, other socializing agents will take on roles. Family, school, workplace, media, peer groups, religions, and total institutions all play a role of agents of socialiaztion.
 Socialization is a never ending process and it occurs pretty much through out someones entire lifespan. From childhood, to adolescence, to adulthood, an finally to when someone is aging; around his/her time to reitre. Biology (genes) has a lot to do with social life as well. Genes represent the potential for particular traits, but how those traits are expressed in a particular person depends on the physical and social environment into which the person is born.
  Charles Horton Cooley articulated the point of the looking glass self. The looking glass self is the idea that our sense of self develops as a reflection of the way we think others see us. This means that people's sense of self is determined in relation to their interaction with others. George Herbert Mead argues that self is made up of "I" and the "me".  "I" is the part of the self that is spontaneous, impulsive, creative, and unpredictable, while the "me" is the sense of self that has been learned from interaction with others.