Pre-Reading
Pre-Reading Activity
Discuss these questions with a partner.
- How do early childhood experiences affect people in adulthood?
- At what age do you think a person is morally responsible for what they do?
- What is the difference between psychology and sociology?
- Look at the words from the reading below. Make note of any words that are new to you. Discuss these new words with a partner.
- assert
- discipline
- empirical
- evidence
- mature
- neutral
- precursor
- posit
- put forth an idea
- replicate
- sample size
Reading 2: Theories of Self-Development [1]
Theories of Self-Development Goals
- Understand the difference between psychological and sociological theories of self-development
- Explain the process of moral development
When we are born, we have genes and biological traits. However, who we are as human beings develops through social interaction. Many scholars, both in the fields of psychology and in sociology, have described the process of self-development as a precursor to understanding how that “self” becomes socialized.
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Sociological Research |
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Sociology or Psychology: What’s the Difference? You might be wondering: if sociologists and psychologists are both interested in people and their behavior, how are these two disciplines different? What do they agree on, and in what ways do they differ? The answers are complicated, but the distinction is important to scholars in both fields. As a general difference, we might say that while both disciplines are interested in human behavior, psychologists are focused on how the mind influences that behavior, while sociologists study the role of society in shaping behavior. Psychologists are interested in people’s mental development and how their minds process their world. Sociologists are more likely to focus on how different aspects of society contribute to an individual’s relationship with his world. Another way to think of the difference is that psychologists tend to look inward (mental health, emotional processes), while sociologists tend to look outward (social institutions, cultural norms, interactions with others) to understand human behavior. Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) was the first to make this distinction in research, when he attributed differences in suicide rates among people to social causes (religious differences) rather than to psychological causes (like their mental wellbeing) (Durkheim 1897). Today, we see this same distinction. For example, a sociologist studying how a couple gets to the point of their first kiss on a date might focus her research on cultural norms for dating, social patterns of sexual activity over time, or how this process is different for seniors than for teens. A psychologist would more likely be interested in the person’s earliest sexual awareness or the mental processing of sexual desire. Sometimes sociologists and psychologists have worked together to increase knowledge. In recent decades, however, their fields have become more clearly separated as sociologists increasingly focus on large societal issues and patterns, while psychologists remain focused on the human mind. Both disciplines make valuable contributions through different approaches that provide us with different types of useful insights. |
Psychological Perspectives on Self-Development
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was one of the most influential modern scientists to put forth a theory about how people develop a sense of self. He believed that personality and sexual development were closely linked, and he divided the maturation process into psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. He posited that people’s self-development is closely linked to early stages of development, like breastfeeding, toilet training, and sexual awareness (Freud 1905).
According to Freud, failure to properly engage in or disengage from a specific stage results in emotional and psychological consequences throughout adulthood. For example, an adult with an oral fixation may indulge in overeating or binge drinking. Although no solid empirical evidence supports Freud’s theory, his ideas continue to contribute to the work of scholars in a variety of disciplines.
Psychologist Erik Erikson (1902–1994) created a theory of personality development based, in part, on the work of Freud. However, Erikson believed the personality continued to change over time and was never truly finished. His theory includes eight stages of development, beginning with birth and ending with death. According to Erikson, people move through these stages throughout their lives. In contrast to Freud’s focus on psychosexual stages and basic human urges, Erikson’s view of self-development gave credit to more social aspects, like the way we negotiate between our own base desires and what is socially accepted (Erikson 1982).
Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was a psychologist who specialized in child development who focused specifically on the role of social interactions in their development. He recognized that the development of self evolved through a negotiation between the world as it exists in one’s mind and the world that exists as it is experienced socially (Piaget 1954). All three of these thinkers have contributed to our modern understanding of self-development.
Sociological Theories of Self-Development
One of the pioneering contributors to sociological perspectives was Charles Cooley (1864–1929). He asserted that people’s self understanding is constructed, in part, by their perception of how others view them—a process termed “the looking glass self”, which refers to looking at oneself in a mirror (Cooley 1902).
Later, George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) studied the self, a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction. In order to engage in this process of “self,” an individual has to be able to view him or herself through the eyes of others. That’s not an ability that we are born with (Mead 1934). Through socialization we learn to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and look at the world through their perspective. This assists us in becoming self-aware, as we look at ourselves from the perspective of the “other.” The case of Danielle in the last reading, for example, illustrates what happens when social interaction is absent from early experience: Danielle had no ability to see herself as others would see her. From Mead’s point of view, she had no “self.”
How do we go from being newborn babies to being humans with “selves?” Mead believed that there is a specific path of development that all people go through. During the preparatory stage, children are only capable of imitation: they have no ability to imagine how others see things. They copy the actions of people with whom they regularly interact, such as their mothers and fathers. This is followed by the play stage, during which children begin to take on the role that one other person might have. Thus, children might try on a parent’s point of view by acting out “grownup” behavior, like playing “dress up” and acting out the “mom” role, or talking on a toy telephone the way they see their father do.
During the game stage, children learn to consider several roles at the same time and how those roles interact with each other. They learn to understand interactions involving different people with a variety of purposes. For example, a child at this stage is likely to be aware of the different responsibilities of people in a restaurant who together make for a smooth dining experience (someone seats you, another takes your order, someone else cooks the food, while yet another clears away dirty dishes).
Finally, children develop, understand, and learn the idea of the generalized other, the common behavioral expectations of general society. By this stage of development, an individual is able to imagine how he or she is viewed by one or many others—and thus, from a sociological perspective, to have a “self” (Mead 1934; Mead 1964).
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Moral development is an important part of the socialization process. The term refers to the way people learn what society considered to be “good” and “bad,” which is important for a smoothly functioning society. Moral development prevents people from acting on urges and desires without thinking, instead considering what is right for society and good for others. Lawrence Kohlberg (1927–1987) was interested in how people learn to decide what is right and what is wrong. To understand this topic, he developed a theory of moral development that includes three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.
In the preconventional stage, young children, who lack a higher level of cognitive ability, experience the world around them only through their senses. It isn’t until the teen years that the conventional stage develops, when youngsters become increasingly aware of others’ feelings and take those into consideration when determining what’s “good” and “bad.” The final stage, called postconventional, is when people begin to think of morality in abstract terms, such as Americans believing that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At this stage, people also recognize that legality and morality do not always match up evenly (Kohlberg 1981). When hundreds of thousands of Egyptians turned out in 2011 to protest government corruption, they were using postconventional morality. They understood that although their government was legal, it was not morally correct.
Gilligan’s Theory of Moral Development and Gender
Another sociologist, Carol Gilligan (1936–), recognized that Kohlberg’s theory might show gender bias since his research was only conducted on male subjects. Would females study subjects have responded differently? Would a female social scientist notice different patterns when analyzing the research? To answer the first question, she set out to study differences between how boys and girls developed morality. Gilligan’s research suggested that boys and girls do have different understandings of morality. Boys appeared to have a justice perspective, by placing emphasis on rules and laws. Girls, on the other hand, seem to have a care and responsibility perspective; they consider people’s reasons behind behavior that seems morally wrong.
While Gilligan is correct that Kohlberg’s research should have included both male and female subjects, her study has been scientifically discredited due to its small sample size. The results Gilligan noted in this study also have not been replicated by subsequent researchers. The differences Gilligan observed were not an issue of the development of morality, but an issue of socialization. Differences in behavior between males and females is the result of gender socialization that teaches boys and girls societal norms and behaviors expected of them based on their sex (see “What a Pretty Little Lady” below).
Gilligan also recognized that Kohlberg’s theory was based on the assumption that the justice perspective was the right, or better, perspective. Gilligan, in contrast, theorized that neither perspective was “better”: the two norms of justice served different purposes. Ultimately, she explained that boys are socialized for a work environment where rules make operations run smoothly, while girls are socialized for a home environment where flexibility allows for harmony in caretaking and nurturing (Gilligan 1982; Gilligan 1990)
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Sociology in the Real World |
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What a Pretty Little Lady! “What a cute dress!” “I like the ribbons in your hair.” “Wow, you look so pretty today.” According to Lisa Bloom, author of Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed Down World, most of us use pleasant statements like these when we first meet little girls. “So what?” you might ask. Bloom asserts that we are too focused on the appearance of young girls, and as a result, our society is socializing them to believe that how they look is of vital importance. And Bloom may be on to something. How often do you tell a little boy how attractive his clothes are, how nice looking his shoes are, or how handsome he looks today? To support her assertions, Bloom cites, as one example, that about 50 percent of girls ages three to six worry about being fat (Bloom 2011). We’re talking about kindergarteners who are concerned about their body image. Sociologists are very interested in of this type of gender socialization, by which societal expectations of how boys and girls should be—how they should behave, what toys and colors they should like, and how important their clothing is—are reinforced. One solution to this type of gender socialization is being experimented with at the Egalia preschool in Sweden, where children develop in a genderless environment. All the children at Egalia are referred to with neutral terms like “friend” instead of “he” or “she.” Play areas and toys are carefully selected to eliminate any reinforcement of gender expectations (Haney 2011). Egalia strives to eliminate all societal gender norms from these children’s preschool world. Extreme? Perhaps. So what is the middle ground? Bloom suggests that we start with simple steps: when introduced to a young girl, ask about her favorite book or what she likes. In short, interact with her mind … not her outward appearance (Bloom 2011). |
Reading Comprehension
Match the people with their theories about the development of self.
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1. ______ Cooley |
a) The process of defining self is never finished. |
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2. ______ Erikson |
b) The concept of self is shaped by social interactions. |
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3. ______ Freud |
c) The formation of self is closely tied to early life experiences. |
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4. ______ Piaget |
d) The idea of self is created by how a person is viewed by others. |
Answer the questions in your own words.
- The reading describes some of the differences between sociology and psychology. Look at the boxed text “Sociology or Psychology: What’s the Difference?” and complete the table below.
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Sociology |
Psychology |
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Studies the role of society in shaping behavior |
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Looks outwards to find explanations for human behavior |
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More focused on societal issues and patterns |
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- What distinction did Émile Durkheim make between sociological and psychological research?
- In your own words, what are Mead’s three stages of child self-development?
- According to Kohlberg, what are the three stages of moral development?
- Gilligan thought Kohlberg’s research was biased because it only looked at male subjects. Gilligan’s research suggests that male/female morality is different. While girls had a _________________________________ perspective, boys had more of a _________________________________ perspective.
- What are the two reasons given for why Gilligan’s research is not fully accepted by the academic community?
- The Egalia preschool in Sweden tries to eliminate gender expectations among the children. What example is given of a neutral alternative to he and she?
Vocabulary Practice
Look at the sentences from Reading 2. Find the meaning of the words in italics.
- “Many scholars…have described the process of self-development as a precursor to understanding how that ‘self’ becomes socialized.” What does precursor mean?
- “Although no solid empirical evidence supports Freud’s theory, his ideas continue to contribute to the work of scholars in a variety of disciplines.” What does disciplines mean?
- “Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was one of the most influential modern scientists to put forth a theory about how people develop a sense of self.” What does put forth mean?
- “He posited that people’s self-development is closely linked to early stages of development.” What does posited mean?
- “All the children at Egalia are referred to with neutral terms like ‘friend’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she.’” What does neutral mean?
- “Bloom asserts that we are too focused on the appearance of young girls.” What does asserts mean?
Answer the questions in your own words.
- What is the opposite of mature?
- Why is it important that research results can be replicated?
- Using an online dictionary and/or by searching on the internet, what does empirical evidence mean?
- Using an online dictionary and/or by searching on the internet, in research what does sample size mean?
Reading Discussion
The final section of the reading discusses “Sociology in the Real World.” Spend a couple of minutes re-reading What a Pretty Lady! and then discuss the following questions with a classmate.
- The author gives examples of some things people often say to little girls. What are some things people stereotypically say to little boys?
- Do you treat little girls and boys differently? If so, how?
- How does this different treatment affect children?
- Society creates many gender expectations for us. What are some of these in your culture? What are some expectations for you as a male/female that you don’t like?
- Download the original, un-adapted version for free at https://cnx.org/contents/AgQDEnLI@13.13:COSh8XOM@8/5-1-Theories-of-Self-Development ↵