UNIT 2.

SOCIALIZATION AND
SOCIAL INTERACTION

Communication and interaction in everyday life; Rituals and norms in

social interaction; Dramaturgical model of social interaction:
Socialization: concept, phases and agents; Theories of socialization.
 From Weber’s emphasis on understanding
social action and its meaning, Mead was
key to the development of the symbolic
interactionism school.

Symbolic interactionism emphasises that

interaction between human beings takes
place through symbols and the
interpretation of meanings
George Herbert Mead (1863–1933)
Source: The Granger Collection, New York
Communication and interaction in everyday life

• Social interaction: the actions and responses of people to each other’s activities
• Its study is a key area in Sociology because:
• Social institutions depend on the patterns of social interaction in which we engage daily (we
reproduce or change social institutions with our actions) e.g. city life and civil inattention.
• Daily routines and interaction with others give structure and form what we do: our behaviour is
guided by social roles, norms and shared expectations, even if individuals perceive reality differently
according to their background, interests and motivations.
• Humans act creatively to shape their social reality: social reality is created through human
interaction; key idea of the symbolic interactionism school (e.g. Goffman)
• Furthermore, the type and quality of the interactions we have with others (e.g. being
bullied/cyberbullied) also affects our perception of who we are. The self is, in part, a social creation
that is built from a whole series of relationships and interactions with others.
Communication and interaction in everyday life

• Social interaction implies communication with others

• Any form of communication implies the use of symbols (words, gestures, emoticons/drawings..)
and may be written or spoken but also often involves non-verbal communication (an exchange
of information and meaning through facial expressions, gestures and movements of the body) to
reinforce or eliminate what is said with words.
• Facial expression of emotions. Seem to be innate, rather than learnt, but cultural factors influence the
exact form facial movements take and the contexts in which they are deemed appropriate.

• Gestures and bodily movements (e.g., how to eat and walk) are also linked to social context and may
have gender, class or ethnic dimensions, the product of discourses and practices E.g., social norms of
restricted bodily movement for women in male-dominated societies .
 Norms and rituals in social interaction
• Social interaction is packed with norms (rules as to appropriate behavior) and rituals (formalized modes of behavior)
that change with the situation.

• For example, as social beings we have a certain compulsion to proximity (need to meet with one another in situations
of co-presence) but there are rules as to personal space for different others: intimate distance (loved ones), personal
distance (friends), social distance (formal settings) and public distance.

• Norms are also linked to the space we are at (e.g., netiquette)

• For instance, we can have a non-social transient behaviour (not acknowledging others, avoiding all communication,
aiming at invisibility) in ‘non-social transient spaces’ such as long-distance buses, high-crime areas, ..

• Unfocused interaction (mutual awareness of another’s presence, using non-verbal communication). Common where
large numbers of people assemble (e.g., main street) but can also be used in other situations.

• Focused interaction (when attending directly to what another person says or does; verbal and non-verbal communication
). Typical of ‘encounters’ (Goffman). Encounters need ‘openings’ indicating that social inattention is discarded (a moment
in which misunderstandings are easy with a stranger e.g., eye contact)
 Norms and rituals in social interaction

• Very often we need to know the context to understand a fragment of a conversation.

• E.g., A. I have a daughter. B. OK. A. And a dog. B. I’m sorry.

• Lots of knowledge of implicit rules is assumed in any social interaction (Shared understandings)

• E.g., small talk (a ritual) has some tacit conventions (norms) as to what is appropriate in topic, tone, turns to speak.

• When rules are broken tensions arise and we can feel threatened, confused, insecure.

• Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology: to study the process by which a social interaction is given a meaning by us, examine

language, key to interaction, and the norms we use when talking.

• Use Interactional vandalism i.e., break the tacit rules of interaction to uncover them, to see how people react.

• Use Conversational analysis: methodology that examines all facets of a conversation for meaning, from the smaller filler

words to the timing. Record & analyze speech (what they say, how they say it, when, why they say what they say..)
Goffman’s dramaturgical model of social interaction

Analysis of social interaction in terms borrowed from theatre.

In everyday life we behave as actors performing the social roles (socially defined expectations that a person in a given
status or social position follows) assigned to us in the most credible way possible and looking for the audience complicity
• We all have a status set i.e., many statuses at the same time such as friend, student, son, customer,… Status can be ascribed
(assigned on biological grounds, such as race, sex and age) or achieved (earned, such as student, employee, athlete).

• In all societies some statuses have priority and determine the overall person’s position (master status). Gender and
ethnicity are the most common master statuses

The presentation of self is an individual’s effort to create specific impressions in the minds of others. We use many forms of
impression management: It may be calculated or not but we use props (clothes, voice, furniture, ..) and non-verbal
communication (movement, gestures and facial expressions) to send out information such as differences in power, status,
gender. Examples: use of space, smiling, eye contact, physical contact…
Goffman’s dramaturgical model of social interaction

• Response cries such as exclamations at losing control are examples of rituals (in this case to reassure the
other we are still competent). Other examples of rituals are Embarrassment (discomfort that follows a
poor performance. We notice it but pretend not to so that the other does not lose face, in fact we give
the person a way out which is called..), Tact (because it reminds us of the fragility of our own
performances), Idealization (small hypocrisies to make us/our intentions look non-selfish).

• In social life there are front regions (social occasions or encounters in which individuals act out formal
roles; ‘on-stage performance’) and back regions (where people prepare themselves for interaction in more
formal settings; ‘Backstage or off-camera’). There may be performance teams, and they often use back
regions to prepare. [Caveat: Goffman’s perspective may not work well to explain interaction in societies where
public and private life are not clearly divided]
Socialization: concept, Mead’s theory of self, phases and agents
Society defines the situations that characterize our life history: determines the positions we occupy in it and defines the roles

that derive from these positions. But.. Why is the “burden of society” relatively easy to support? What we want to do coincides

with what society expects us to do. We want to obey the rules, we “desire” to fulfil the duties that society assigns to us

• Socialization is the process through which we learn to become competent members of society (to become social actors).

Socialization is an ongoing process of cultural learning and transmission (of values, knowledge, behavior) that connects

generations. It is more intense in infancy and early childhood than later, but it goes on through an individual’s life.

• Socialisation of the young allows for the more general phenomenon of social reproduction, the process through which societies

achieve structural continuity over time.

• Our identity and ideas are being transmitted to us socially, just as they are being maintained or transformed socially. By who?

Socializing agents. When? Through the life course, with its different stages. How? (see Mead’s theory of the self next).

• However, socialization is not an entirely deterministic process. Socialization should not be seen entirely as an imposition or

restrain on the individual; it also enables to learn and develop cultural skills essential for leading a good life.
How are we socialized? George Herbert Mead’s Theory of the self

Theory of the self: You become aware of your “self” (image that the individual has of himself/herself) when you
discover society. Acquiring the self is being able to take the role of other.

For Mead, there are two components of the self:

• The ‘I’ is the unsocialized infant, a bundle of spontaneous wants and desires. Impulsive component.

• The ‘Me’ is the social self. Reactive (anticipates other persons’ reaction, including how they see me).
It guides the spontaneity of the I. Ruling component

Individuals develop self-consciousness or self-awareness when they can distinguish the ‘me’ from the ‘I’ and this
happens by coming to see ourselves as others see us.

We achieve this by the process of socialization, with which we learn to perform correctly the roles we have been
assigned by first learning to “take the role of the Other”.
How are we socialized? George Herbert Mead’s Theory of the self

Crucial function of child’s play as an interactive process: while adopting different social roles, children
discover the importance of anticipating the reactions of others

Main phases of child development to explain the emergence of a sense of self:

1. Infants first develop as social beings by imitating the actions of those around them e.g., pretend cleaning

2. This will evolve (aged 4-5) to games acting out as adults ‘taking the role of the (significant) other’, learning what it is
like to be in the shoes of that person. Here children begin to acquire a developed sense of self. They understand
themselves as separate agents (as ‘me’) by seeing themselves through the eyes of others

3. Aged 8-9 children engage in more systematic play (complex organized games with rules). They begin to understand the
values and morality ruling social life, to grasp the generalized other (i.e., people we do not know and in multiple
situations or widespread cultural norms).

Socialization continues through life (new experiences and social demands) and the self keeps evolving
 Who socializes us? socialization agents

Socialization agents: Systems of social action (interaction) that are particularly relevant in the socialization process
and which act as representatives of society

• Primary socialization occurs in infancy and childhood and is the most intense period of cultural learning. The
family is the main agent here: socialization on relevant values and aspirations, class, race, gender, religion, political
sympathies, …

• Secondary socialization takes place afterwards. School, peer groups (similar age, social position, interests), the
media (TV, internet..), organizations and the workplace become socializing agents. Also, total institutions (prisons,
psychiatric hospitals, religious sects, extremist groups..) re-socialize by isolating individuals to manipulate them.

Individuals are not just passive subjects of socialization. Socialization is a process of interaction. Agents provide
sites or structures for socialization but they do not determine their outcome.
 When? The life course and generations

• Societies tend to sequence/phase human experience by ages = life course

• It is a social construction since phases’ meaning (childhood, youth, middle age…) is historical

• Each phase implies learning and unlearning

• Generation: group of people with a common characteristic, typically age. They have lived the
same economic cycle and been exposed to the same cultural influences → they have similar
values and attitudes. It is part of their identity
 See it all together in the analysis of Identity

• Our identity (who we are) is formed in the continuous process of social interaction and it implies knowing who we are but also knowing

who the others are, them knowing who we are, us knowing who they think we are, and so on. All human identities are therefore social

identities:

• They are partly individual or personal

• Partly collective or social

• They are always embodied (e.g. observable physical impairments as discredited stigma)

• Identities are established through their continuous performance; it is not a question of who you are but of what you do E.g. gender

identity: people learn gender roles and gendered behaviour from a very early age in interactions with significant others. Norms are

enforced by prohibitions, ostracism and other forms of censure. Identities are made, not given; they also are fluid and complex

• Primary identities: formed in early life; include gender, race, disability

• Secondary identities: built on the former and associated with social roles and achieved statuses

• They mark differences and similarities with others