Socialization and Information Flow
The external world, including social norms and culture, is present before, during and after
individual life spans. Socialization is a process whereby the external world of culture, norms,
values and other memes are internalized by the individual. The individual is not passive but plays
an active role in this process and can itself act upon the external world it is internalizing.
Just as we can see a chair as an object, humans can see themselves as an object (Mead's ME).
Humans can even visualize their own death - something we are not sure other species can do.
Because we can see ourselves as an object, we can have attitudes about ourselves. These
attitudes about form our self concept. Like other attitudes, the self is created through interaction
with the external world. Cooley's Looking Glass Self explains how we respond to others to form
our self concept (e.g., abused people often see themselves as the problem).
Below are principles of how humans input, organize and output information. Think about how
these principles can be used to "brainwash" someone.
- Input is through the senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch). We are able to monitor the
world about us.
- There are biological limits to our ability to monitor the world.
- We do not have some sense organs (e.g., sonar like dolphins or radar like bats).
- There are limits with the sense organs we have.
- Hearing and dog whistles.
- Sight and X-rays or ultraviolet light.
- Odorless gas in gas stoves.
- Tasteless poisons.
- Technology can extend those limits
- microscopes, telescopes, eye glasses.
- hearing aids
- Geiger counters
- Relative differences are as important as absolutes.
- If everything were blue.
- Air and breathing.
- Accidents and social concern; suicides and teens vs suicide and elderly.
- White noise.
- Monitoring is selective. Different events are monitored at different levels.
- Sports examples - catcher's chatter, art of distraction
- Mental activity like studying.
- Overload problem - close eyes when processing.
- Input depends on the relationship between the observer and the object being observed.
- Physical relationship
- neighborhood from a plane
- mountain climbers
- internal/external attributes.
- Video for sports and drunks
- Mirrors for speech class and losing weight.
- Social relationship
- Tally's Corner and day work truck.
- Roots - slave's view of slavery not owner's view.
- Lieberman - Company/Union attitudes
- Information is stored in an organized manner within the brain.
- Language is the major filing system.
- Harder to remember nonsense.
- cbt cat
- azb red
- fno gun
- emv toy
- ghp mug
- First memory corresponds with first language
- 2 - 3 years for most.
- Helen Keller, who had serious input problems, did not learn things had
names until she was six years old.
- Thinking as intra personal communications.
- counting and reading aloud
- speed reading
- Learn from simple to complex - develops over time.
- Piaget stages
- Words, sentences, complex sentences.
- Money - nickels vs dimes (for very young bigger is better so you can trade them
nickels for dimes or several pennies for one time)
- Learn sex - self (2½), others (4-5), reason (6-7)
- Ego centric vs roles; looking glass self
- Learning body limits
- Mead's play, game and generalized other - faking and lying take a certain level of
cognitive development.
- Input is organized for consistency
- Cognitive consistency literature
- Hastorf & Regan - Helping cripple study
- Just World Hypothesis (accident and responsibility)
- Dion - Dog and boy with a stick
- Horner - cheating, sex and lost popularity.
- Lerner study where only one worker is randomly paid.
- Stored information is modified during storage.
- Eyewitness studies
- Some child abuse cases
- Brains can create information that is unique and does not match reality
- Sensory deprivation studies
- Fiction
- Humans are senders and organizers of information.
- Output is selective
- Different targets receive different information
- Different images can be conveyed and both be truthful
- Output is verbal and non-verbal
- Verbal is high for humans
- Clothing
- Facial expressions
- Body language
- Output can be intended and unintended
- Blushing
- Pupils of eyes in barter societies
- Logic of lie detectors
- Output can be true or false.
- Strong norms against lying
- Richard Nixon - not impeached for acts but for lying to Congress
- Daniel Ellsberg - case thrown out of court because government lied to
judge.
- Approved or permitted in some cases
- To children e.g., Santa Clause
- By leaders for "your own good" e.g., War