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(FORMERLY JESUS THE LOVING SHEPHERD CHRISTIAN COLLEGE)

Talojongon, Tigaon, Camarines Sur, Philippines
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Module

in

Teaching Social Studies in Elementary Grades

(Culture and Geography)
Final’s Module

2nd Semester A/Y: 2022-2023

Prepared by:
 JASON V. COMPETENTE
Instructor

COMPETENCY # 12: SOCIAL INTERACTION AND SOCIALIZATION

❖ Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
● Recognize the frameworks, types, elements of social interaction and what influences them

● Identify the social institutions and social organizations as context in which most social interactions
occur.
● Apply the concept and process of socialization and social interaction into different contexts

● Evaluate the agents of socialization and their specific roles.

MOTIVATION

Debate: Why are people behave the way they are? Is it because of heredity? Is biology our destiny? Is it
nature that matters? Or are people behave the way they are because of the experiences they have had and
the people they know? Is it nurture that matters?

INTRODUCTION

Well, the truth of the matter is that both nature and nurture affect how we act, think, and feel.
Biologists spend their time demonstrating that nature matters, while sociologists spend their time showing
that nurture does too. Studies of isolated children, children in institutions, and feral children show us that in
order to learn to act like human beings, to be healthy, and even to survive, we have to interact with other
people. Being born or even “having good genes” does not guarantee these things. This makes social
interaction a very important process to understand.

Socialization is the term sociologists use to describe the process by which people learn their culture.
Socialization occurs in societies big and small, simple and complex, preindustrial and industrial. Without
socialization we would not learn our culture, and, without culture we could not have a society. Socialization,
then, is an essential process for any society to be possible.

CONTEXT

What is Social Interaction?

Social interaction refers to the process by which people act and react in relation to others. In this
manner, language, gestures, and symbols are used. Interaction is a daily activity of people. This happens
because almost all human behavior is oriented toward other people since they are constantly aware that their
actions and reactions have effects upon others.
 Schaefer as cited by Blumer (1989) noted that the distinctive of social interaction among people is that
human beings interpret or define each other's actions. This means that our response to someone's behavior is
based on the meaning we attach to the other's actions. Definition of reality is shaped by our perceptions and
own evaluations.
Social interaction also refers to the process whereby people accomplish aims and is always directed
specifically toward other people. Normally, individuals interact with members of their family, their
neighborhood, and the community. They also interact with members of their peer group, with their
classmates, teachers, and with school officials. A customer normally interacts with the vendor while buying
any commodity. Physical proximity is, however, not always needed in social interaction. One may interact with
another through letter, telephone, cellular phone, or even through e-mail and social networks.

Framework Used in Social Interaction

There are several ways to explain the frameworks used in the symbolic interaction paradigm. Three elements
are important to consider as follows:
1. Defining the situation. To a large extent, our behavior is determined not only by our status and roles
but also by the definition of the situation, a stage of deliberation and examination during which we define and
interpret the social context in which we find ourselves, assess our interests, and select specific attitudes or
behaviors accordingly (Thomas, as cited by Hess et al. 1992).
Definition of the situation is therefore the process by which people interpret and evaluate the social
context to select appropriate attitudes and behavior. It is a collective process: the important clues about what
is appropriate and the main limits on behavior come from other people. Coming up with a common common
meaning of a situation is not always easy.

2. The presentation of the self. Sociologist Erving Goffman emphasized the social ploys all of us are
using but we seldom admit. All of us have an image of how we want be seen by other people.

3. Negotiated order. People can reconstruct social reality through a process of internal change as they
take a different view of everyday behavior. Schaefer (1999) observed that people also reshape reality by
negotiating changes in patterns of social interaction.

The term "negotiation" refers to the attempt of one to reach agreement with others concerning some
objectives. It does not involve coercion. Sometimes, it is referred to as bargaining, compromising and trading
off, mediating, exchanging, wheeling and dealing, and secret agreements.

Family members may negotiate until what time children may be out of the house at night. A renter of a
space in the mall may negotiate with the owner of manager regarding his/her monthly rental. Students may
negotiate with their teachers regarding the submission of assignment or term papers. In traditional societies,
families may negotiate regarding the wedding of their children. As Schaefer (1999) noted, most elements of
social structure are not static and are therefore subject to change through bargaining and exchanging. It is
along this idea that the term "negotiated order" is used to underscore the fact that negotiations always take
place within social settings. Negotiated order therefore refers to a social structure that derives its existence
from the social interactions through which people define and redefine its character.
SAQ #1: What is the significance of social interaction in the development of a person and of society? (4
points)
Types of Social Interaction
Persell (1987) classified social interaction into different types such as the following:

1. Cooperation. This refers to collaboration efforts between people to achieve a common goal. Often, it takes
place when two or more individuals produce a desired end more efficiently and effectively. This is clearly
illustrated in members of a team in sports. In this process, a group effort is needed. A team responds to
people or communities that experienced a calamity through cooperative effort. This process brings its own
social rewards - a sense of sharing a challenge, caring for people in need, the fun of working with others, and a
feeling of fulfillment.

2. Conflict. It involves direct struggle between individuals or groups over commonly valued resources or goals.
In the family, children may produce conflict over the choice of television program of food. All conflicts virtually
occur within certain ground rules that are shared by opponents. To avoid actual physical fighting between
opponents, antagonists usually establish certain rules to mediate their conflicts and keep them from being
destructive. In actual armed conflicts, this setting of rules or guideposts occurs during peace talks like those
taking place between the Philippine government and groups of rebels and insurgents.

3. Competition. It is form of conflict in which there is agreement on the means that can be used to pursue an
end. As compared to an open conflict, there are more rules and limits that are imposed on the interaction.
These rules are more followed by participants. A good example of this is how rules are employed in given
sports like basketball, bowling, golf, and the like.

4. Negotiation. At times, people may negotiate the term under which they agree to social exchange, social
cooperation, or competition. In the process of negotiation, two or more competing parties reach a mutually
satisfactory agreement. However, when negotiations fail, conflict or coercion sometimes arises. In extremely
formal type of negotiation, certain agreements are arrived at, either verbal or written, depending on the
seriousness of the process and the legality of the matter being negotiated.

5. Coercion. At a glance, coercion appears to be one-sided, one imposing an action or behavior on another.
However, every act of coercion is at least partially determined by the expected reaction to it. Therefore, there
is relationship between the coercer and the coerced. Example of this is the relationship between a prisoner
and the guards, between a master and a slave, between captives and their captors, where there may be
interactive relationship although very asymmetrical.
Coercion occurs through the use of physical force like that between a group of rallyists or
demonstrators and a group of policemen guarding them and eventually dispersing them, or a parent putting a
young child to bed. Coercion may involve the use of social sanctions such as ridicule, with holding of love,
excommunication, failure to grant recognition, suspension of benefits, or the decision not to give the favor
asked for, like in the case of a child not following what his/her mother asked him/her to do.
SAQ #2: Explain and give specific example of the following types of social interaction: (5 points)
a. Cooperation
b. Conflict
c. Competition
d. Negotiation
e. Coercion
Elements of Social Interaction
Schaefer (1999) identified four elements of social interaction as statuses, social roles, groups, and institutions.
They make up social structure with foundation, walls, ceilings, and furnishings making up a building structure.
1. Statuses. Ordinarily, the term "status" means prestige. However, in sociology, status refers particularly
to a position in social stucture; any position that determines where a person fits within the society
(Light et al. 1989). For instance, being a student, professor, a maintenance worker, and a security guard
are statuses in a school setting. Being a waiter, a customer, or a bartender are statuses in a hotel or a
restaurant. Being a grandparent, a mother or a father, son or daughter, or husband or wife are statuses
in the family.

Ascribed status and achieved status. These are the two basic types of statuses. Some statuses
are assigned to people without effort on their part. They are called ascribed status, the social position
that is received at birth or involuntarily assumed later in the life course. Examples of ascribed status
are one's being a daughter, a teenager, a senior citizen, or a widow.

On the other hand, achieved status refers to a social position that is assumed voluntarily and
that reflects a significant measure of personal ability and efforts. It is attained through the personal
effort of the individual. One achieves the role of being a college Dean. Some may be awardees because
of outstanding accomplishments. Others may become pilots due to trainings they underwent within a
long period of time. On the other hand, a person may be described as a drunkard simply because of
his/her habit to drink liquor every now and then.

It has to be noted that what people achieve is heavily shaped by the opportunity structure
available to them. For instance, the achieved status of the son of an informal settler family living along
the railways in Manila is different from that of a son of a rich businessman living in Forbes Park in
Makati. Each individual holds many different statuses. Some may connote higher social positions, while
others, lower positions. However, there is an overall position viewed by others in the light of the
existing statuses.

Sociologist Everett Hughes once said that societies deal with such inconsistencies by agreeing
that certain statuses are more important than the others. This is known as master statuses. These are
the statuses that dominate others and thereby determine a person's general position within society.
For instance, while the late Aurora Aragon Quezon may be known as the founder of the Philippine
National Red Cross (PNRC), her status being a former First Lady and wife of the late Manuel Luis
Quezon, the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, was known more by many.
Moreover, Ronald Reagan's status as a former president of the United States of America far
 outweighed his status as a movie actor. Moreover, the late Fernando Poe Jr. was more known for his
being Da King or King of Philippine Movies, than the husband of Susan Roces. One may be known more
as a professor, than as a columnist in the daily newspapers.

Therefore, a master status is a status that has exceptional importance for social identity, often
shaping a person's entire life. It is actually a crucial element of one's self-concept and may be the result
of any combination of ascription and achievement. Being the president of the Republic of the
Philippines entitles one to many other statuses such as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, speaker during the State of the Nation Address, before the opening of Congress, or a
husband of the First Lady (or a wife of the First Gentleman), among others. More commonly in our
society, a master status is related to one's occupation and profession. There is no question that one's
being a priest or a pastor becomes the master status of a person in that state of life. In the same
manner, one's being a physician becomes the master status of those in that profession.

2. Roles. Every status carries with it socially prescribed roles, that is, expected behavior, obligations, and
privileges (Light and Keller 1986). Role is the second major component of social structure. It refers to
patterns of expected behavior attached to a particular status. It may be referred to as the dynamic
expression of a status. Role refers to the collection of culturally defined rights, obligations, and
expectations that accompany a status in the social system. One may associate his/her status of being a
friend by being helpful, caring, loyal, and understanding to his/her friend. Meanwhile, a professor may
be expected of various roles as one who is knowledgeable of his/her subject, good in public relations,
effective communicator, and eloquent speakers, among others. People learn how to play their roles by
observing and interacting with other people who are more experienced than themselves. This process
is known as socialization.

A role exists not by itself but in relation to other roles. For instance, the role of a student can be
understood well in the context of the teacher and of the school. The role of a daughter cannot be understood
well if not viewed in the context of the parents or of the family. Furthermore, one status typically involves
several roles. This is called role set. It is the cultural norms that suggest how a person with a particular status
ought to act. This is called role expectations.

Role Strain, Role Conflict, and Role Exit. In the daily lives of people, most of them try to bring their role
performance in line with their role expectations. Sometimes, however, this is not easy and possible. Some
people find it difficult to perform the role expected to them. This is referred to by sociologists as role strain,
the problems of individuals in meeting or fulfilling their roles. Role strain refers to the incompatibility among
the roles corresponding to a single status.

Meanwhile, one common source of role strain is role conflict. Role conflict occurs when the carrying
out of one role automatically results in the violation of another. This may happen when a certain physician may
not want to give injection to her baby daughter because she is thinking of her role as a mother who should
give comfort to her baby and cause her no discomfort. Role conflict is experienced when one finds
himself/herself pulled in various directions while trying to respond to the many statuses he/she holds at the
same time.
Role exit is the process by which people disengage from social roles that have been central to their
lives. For instance, a Catholic priest who decides to get out of priesthood and decides to get married has to
disengage from his role as a priest. Husband and wife who have decided to apply for divorce have to
disengage from their roles as husband and wife. A former drug addict who decides to get rehabilitated has to
forget his/her habit and behavior as a drug addict.
In addition, powers noted that roles exist in relation to each other. For instance, the role of a bank
teller cannot be viewed apart from the role of bank depositors or clients. This also points out that a single
status typically involves several roles. However, sometimes, there are unclear expectations associated with
particular social positions. This is called role ambiguity. For instance, being someone's friend is one of the most
loosely defined statuses in society. As such, it generates a great deal of role ambiguity.

3. Groups. Group is a natural context in which an individual finds authentic self-expression. Group
provides the context for socialization and it is in the group that an individual is socialized. Socialization in this
sense implies the process of turning a child into an adult or an outsider into an insider as the case with
newcomers to a group. Each time we join a new community, organization, village, town, or workplace, we
slowly get initiated in the life of that particular group. It is only through these processes that we are able to
feel at home and to relate well with the newfound group.

4. Institutions. This fourth element of social interaction is traditionally referred to as social institutions
in anthropology. Social institutions have been classified into five: family, education, religion, economy, and
government. Macionis (2006) thought of them as providers of human needs and sustainer of human
continuity. Along that framework, social institutions are viewed as an integrated system consisting of five
components: recruitment, training, vision, resources, and leadership.
Recruitment is a way of generating population that forms human communities through child birthing
(internal recruitment) or immigration (external recruitment) to ensure a healthy continuity of human existence
and civilization. This applies to all human groups. They need members.
Training is a way by which the recruited members of the human community are educated, trained, or
oriented in order for them to fully function. This process transforms recruited members into participants in
the life of the community or organization.
Vision is what provides the purposes, goal, and objective upon which a human community finds
stability and a collective sense of meaning. In political terms, nationality and citizenships are meaningless
without a shared vision. For many communities, this typically takes a form of constitutional functions that
provide shared purposes of our social existence, a collective conscience, and ties so that even as we embrace
changes and progress, it serves to direct us back and to remain each other's keeper, that our date remains
together.
Resources are the basis of economic life. It covers natural and man-made resources needed to sustain
our existence. This component covers the entire system of production, generation, gathering, developing,
innovating, inventing raw material and the by-product in the production line. Covered here is a whole scope of
resources, investments, employment, and their redistribution in the service of our collective human survival
and enjoyment.
 Leadership is a dimension that functions to provide a repository role of our shared power, authority,
information, responsibility, and accountability for collective life as a human community group. Institutions
provide social interaction at the most profound level. For this reason, we use actuations in the institutions to
understand both our individual and collective quality of life.

Influences on Social Interaction

Tischler (1990) indentified four major influences on social interaction: (1) the ends or goals it is intended to
achieve, (2) the motivation why it is undertaken, (3) the situation or context within which it takes place, and
(4) the norms or rules that govern or regulate it.

1-2. Goals and motivations. Social interaction is a basic concept use in understanding and explaining
the nature of social life in any given context. It involves goal and motivation. Goal is the state of affairs one
wishes to achieve. For example, one drinks to satisfy his/her thirst. We eat to satisfy hunger. However, there
can be more than one goal for doing such: to be polite to the one offering us food, to prevent sickness from
ulcer, or to taste food we never have tasted before. On the other hand, motivation is a person's wish or
intention to achieve goal.

3. Situation or context. The situation where the social interaction takes place makes a difference in
what it means. Context refers to the conditions under which an action takes place. There are three elements
that define the context of social interaction: (a) the physical setting or place, (b) the social environment, and
(c) the activities or events surrounding the interaction, whether preceding it, happening simultaneously, or
succeeding it.

4. Norms or rules. The norms or rules that govern behavior comprise another major component of
social interaction. Sociologists point out that human behavior does not randomly take place. It is patterned
and predictable at the most. What makes individuals act predictably in any situation indicates the presence of
norms or certain rules. Norms are specific rules of behavior that are agreed upon and shared, and prescribe
limits of acceptable behavior. They tell us things we should both do and not do. When an Asian bows to
another person, it may indicate the same intention when an Westerner shakes hands with another person.
People have norms on how to present themselves to others.

SAQ #3: In what way does each of the following influence social interaction: (5 points)

a. Goals and motivations

b. Situation or context
c. Norms or rules

Institutions and Social Organizations

In society, there are at least five areas where the basic needs of the people have to be met: (1) the
family sector, (2) the education sector, (3) the economic sector, (4) the religious sector, and (5) the political
sector.
Of all the social institutions, the family is considered as the most basic or fundamental autonomous
unit. Primarily, the family regulates social behavior. It is where a child is born, trained, and raised to become fit
into the society. Social institutions are therefore organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic
social needs. They are organized in response to particular needs. For instance, the family meets the need to
replace people in society who die, leave, or become dysfunctional and incapacitated. Meanwhile, through
education new members of society have to learn and accept society's values and customs, and preserve and
transmit the society's culture. Economy and business become responsible in producing and distributing goods
and services. The government is needed for the preservation of order in society. Religion is needed to provide
and maintain a sense of purpose among people. Meanwhile, social organization refers to the relatively stable
patterns of social relationships among individuals and groups in society. These are based on the systems of
social roles, norms, and shared meanings that provide regularity and predictability in social interaction. The
nature of social organization differs from one society to another.

The Process of Socialization

The long period of dependency allows children to have time to learn things they need to know in order
to care for themselves and become members of society. The long and complicated process of social
interaction through which the child learns the intellectual, physical, and social skills needed to function as a
member of society is called socialization.
The process of socialization begins at birth and continues throughout lifetime. During early childhood,
we learn, most of all, from our parents who teach us values, norms, and skills that they have. The child also
learns by observation and imitation. While learning skills through interactions with our parents, we also
acquire a self-identity, a conception of who we are. We come to realize that as brothers or sisters, sons or
daughters, students or friends, we play a number or roles and that certain behavior is expected from us in
each of these roles.
Socialization is therefore the long complicated process of social interaction through which a child learns
the intellectual, physical, and social skille he/she needs to function as a member of society . According to
Fitcher (1997), socialization is a process of mutual influence between a person and his/her fellowmen, a
process that results in an acceptance of, and adaptation to, the patterns of social behavior.
Socialization can be described from two points of view: objectively and subjectively. Objective
socialization refers to the society acting upon the child while subjective socialization is that process by which
the society transmits its culture from one generation to the next and adapts the individual to the accepted and
approved ways of organized social life. Thus, the functions of socialization are: (1) to develop the skills and
disciplines which are needed by the individual, (2) to instill the aspirations and values and the design for living
which the particular society possesses, and especially (3) to teach the social roles which individuals must enact
in society.
Subjectively, socialization is a process which goes on in the individual while he/she is adapting to the
people around him/her. The person takes on the habits of the society where he/she lives. From infancy, an
individual becomes gradually socially broken. As an immigrant, a person becomes sociologically naturalized to
his/her adapted society.

Importance of Socialization
The process of socialization plays a very important role in the life development of every individual and
in the history of every community.
1. Socialization is vital to culture. Socialization is important to societies as it is to individuals. It is
through this process of socialization that every society transmits its culture to succeeding generations.
Through this continuing process, each generation acquires the elements of its society's cultur - knowledge,
symbols, values, norms, beliefs, and others.
2. Socialization is vital to personality. The process of socialization plays a very vital role in personality
formation and development of an individual. The training of every child received through the process of
socialization greatly affects his/her personality. Human infants develop social attachments when they learn to
feel for others and see that others care for them. Again, the element of isolationism affects the personality
development of an individual.
3. Socialization is vital to sex role differentiation. Socialization provides every individual the expected
role he/she is to play in the society according to their sexes. In the past, it was believed that differences in
behavior between boys and girls, men and women, were inborn and natural. Biological factors determined the
abilities, interests, and traits of the sexes. Biology not only made men bigger and stronger, generally, than
women; it also endowed them with instincts for hunting, fighting, and organizing. Biology gave women the
ability to bear children, insticnts to complement them- gentleness and domesticity.
However, Margaret Mead, a world renowned anthropologist, proved otherwise. Mead studied
primivite societies where sex roles differed sharply from those found in Western society. Mead observed that
in one tribe, men and women were equally maternal toward children; in another; both men and women were
fierce and aggressive; and in the third tribe, women were more dominant than men; men were submissive.
Mead concluded that masculine and feminine behavior is not inborn but learned.
Training children with the behavior appropriate to their sex starts in infancy and continues into
adolescence. Almost unconsciously, at first, parents usually handle baby girls more warmly and affectionately
than boys, and are more tolerant of physical aggressiveness in boys. Quite soon, however, the pattern
becomes deliberate. Usually, little boys are expected to act like big boys; behavior that is dependent and
effeminate is highly discouraged. On the other hand, dependent or clinging behavior on the part of a little girl
is more likely to be accepted by their parents. She is expected to be docile and compliant. Her parents
probably will give her a doll and toy dishes; she is already being socialized for the role of mother and
housewife. Gifts to boys are usually toy guns, rockets, war tanks, and the like. He is being socialized to be
aggressive, adventurous, and competitive. Many Filipino parents would tolerate their girls playing and
enacting roles in their bahay-bahayan, and the boys, in their war games.

Social Learning
The process of socialization can ultimately be reduced to the fact that an individual learns by contact
with society. The process refers not to individual knowledge, which also comes from contact with others, but
to shared knowledge which has social significance. From this point of view, the manner in which he/she learns
does not differ from that of simple learning. The difference between simple learning and social learning is not
in who learns, or in how he/she learns, but in what he/she learns.
Certain terms of the learning process will be useful: drive is the biological impulse, subconscious wish,
or conscious desire to acquire certain satisfactions. This characterizes the human being that derives him/her to
want to learn. Cue is the characteristics of the idea, object, or situation to which the person is drawn. The
interaction between the learner and the thing learned is called response. It is what occurs when the particular
drive in an individual is coordinated with the particular cue in an object. Reward refers to any object or event
which strengthens or makes easier the responses of an individual in striving to learn.
 From the point of view of social science, there are certain conditions and qualifications surrounding the
process of social learning. All of these have to do with the process of learning in relation to other persons. The
process of learning in social situations is a process that occurs with and among the people and therefore
always involves social relations.
The following are some of the numerous subprocesses of social learning:
1. Imitation is the human action by which one tends to duplicate more or less, or exactly, the behavior of
others. It is commonly recognized not only in the way children copy their parents but also in the way
adolescents and even mature adults take on the characteristics of people whom they appreciate and admire.
2. Suggestion is a process outside the learner. It is found in the works and actions of those who attempt to
change the behavior of the learner. A person may take a suggestion not only from the conscious and
deliberate persuasion of another but also without the other person knowing it.
3. Competition is a stimulative process in which two or more individuals vie with one another in achieving
knowledge. It is particularly important in social learning of children because it is often involved in the desire of
the child to obtain the approval of others. Competitive learning is a clear indication that people tend to learn
and to conform to the approved ways of behaving in society and to shun the ways that are disapproved.

George Herbert Mead, an early symbolic interactionist, argued that human beings are the only animals
who can manipulate symbols or communicate through language. He argued that other animals' apparent
usage of signs is instinctive. It had been proven by linguists and other researchers that no other animals except
man can assign meanings to symbols. Man is therefore the only being that lives in a world of symbolic
meaning. If humans cannot manipulate complex symbol systems, what would social life be like?

Dynamics of Socialization
There are three theoretical perspective that contribute to the understanding of the process of
socialization:

1. Functional approaches. Functionalism approaches socialization from the perspective of the group
rather than the individual. From this, we gain the image of people adapting to the attitudes of others,
conforming to role expectations, and internalizing the norms and values of their community. The object of
socialization is to pass on the cultural patterns of a given society or group so that new members can function
effectively within it. This incorporation of values and roles occurs through emotionally significant reactions
that are shaped by the social group. The functionalist perspective assumes that small children are relatively
unformed. Through socialization, they develop a social self that reflects the society in which they live.

2. Symbolic interaction. An analysis of what people say and do is not sufficient to explain human
behavior. We also need to understand the meaning that people attach to their words and actions. According
to this perspective, people employ symbols to convey meanings to one another. In this fashion, they define
situations, negotiate interaction and order, and construct reality. According to symbolic interactionist, we not
only attribute meanings to other people and the world about us, but we also attribute meanings to ourselves.
The self is the notion that each of us possesses a unique and distinct identity - that we are set apart from other
things and people. It is the cluster of ideas that we employ in defining ourselves. Like other aspects of social
life, our self-images and self-conceptions are not given. Rather, they are derived from our interaction with
other people. By virtue of the self, we experience ourselves as distinct entities, being who have continuity
across time and who possess individual identities.
Charles Horton Cooley developed the idea of the looking-glass self. In our imagination, we mentally
assume the stance of other people and look at ourselves as we believe others see us. We acquire our sense of
self by seeing ourselves reflected in the behavior of others and their attitudes toward us and by imagining
what others think about us. According to Cooley, the looking-glass self involves three processes: presentation,
identification, and subjective interpretation. We start by imagining the way we appear to others, then we
identity with how we imagine others judge that appearance, and finally we interpret those judgments for our
own self-image.
George Herbert Mead traced the development of self-awareness back to the interaction between
parent and child. Mead believed that the self is composed of two parts: the active, spontaneous, idiosyncratic
self, which he called the I and the social self (the internalized social expectations and demands) which he
called the me. The subjective I is the product of individual distinctiveness; the objective me is the product of
socialization. Without the me, orderly social interaction could not occur; without the I, social interaction could
be mechanical and monotonous. With these two complementary parts, we are able to reflect on our own
behavior and develop a sense of inner continuity or identity.
According to Mead, the self is something which has a development pattern. It is not initially present at
birth but arises in the process of social experience and activity that is being developed in an individual as a
result of his/her relations to the socialization in the society where he/she belongs. With this new sense of self,
children begin to take on the social roles they observe around them. In effect, the child identifies with people
who appear importantly in his/her social world, whom psychiatrist Harry Sullivan called significant others. By
enacting the behavior of the significant others, children come to incorporate the standards, attitudes, and
beliefs of parents and teachers within their own personalities, a process termed internalization. Gradually,
children develop a generalized impression of what people expect from them and of where they fit in the
overall scheme of things - what Mead called generalized other.

3. Conflict theory. The conflict perspective puts the experience of socialization in a different light. It
takes note of how social customs and institutions are arranged to perpetuate class distinctions. This theory
argues that child-rearing practices vary boy social class and effect the life chances of those being socialized.
Children are treated differently from various social classes, thereby perpetuating the dominant of one social
class over another in a subtle and powerful way - by subjecting children to it before they are old enough to
know what is happening to them.
According to Karl Marx, capitalist society is torn by a fundamental conflict of interest between
capitalists and workers. He contends that institutions such as the educational system and other forms of
communication are employed by the capitalist class to foster a false consciousness among the masses. To him,
these institutions seek to legitimize social inequality by propagating an ideology that states existing
arrangements are right and reasonable. They glorify individual achievements and the pleasure of consumption
that capitalism brings. In addition, they foster the workers' hope for upward social mobility. As a result,
workers are socialized in tradition, and this contributes to passivity and compliance.
Sigmund Freud also took the conflict view of socialization. This is what is called the social and biological
conflict. He was concerned with conflict not between classes but between society and the primal biological
drives of sex and aggression. Freud believed that every society has to repress and channel the primitive drives
of people; otherwise, civilization will be destroyed.
In this theory of psychoanalysis, he said that we begin as amoral, egocentric, aggressive, pleasure-
seeking infants. He used the word id to describe the part of the self that is the reservoir of sexual biological
givens dominated by the pleasure principle. As the child struggles to accommodate to the parental demands,
ego begins to develop. Ego is the rational part of the self that interprets information obtained through the
senses and that finds realistic and acceptable ways of satisfying biological cravings. Children begin to
internalize their parents' ideas of right and wrong and so the superego conscience develops. They learn to
represent socially unacceptable desires and, ideally, to redirect their energies into socially approved channels.
Cooley and Mead saw socialization as the gradual complementary merger of individual and society,
while Freud argued that socialization was forced on small children very much against their will. Freud believed
that socialization is never complete. The id continues to press for gratification. The ego's function is to control
these lustful and anti-social drives, while at the same time modifying the unrealistic demands of the
perfection-seeking superego.

Agencies of Socialization
`It may be said that any person or institutions that shares a person's values and behavior is an agent of
socialization. Although these agents are particularly important in the early years of the life cycle, socialization
is a lifetime process that continues across the entire life span. To be effective, it appears that the socializer
must be respected by the person to be socialized.
Most important socializers in our lives fall into seven major categories- the family, peer groups, the
media, the school, the workplace, the religion, and the neighborhood.
1. Family. Family is the basic unit of any society. It serves as the primary agency for socialization.
However, it could be said that the society is the main agency of socialization. Between the individual and
society, there are institutions that play this role. The most basic of these agencies is the family. Preschool
influences act upon the child from many directions. The little circles and relationships in which he/she
participates with parents, relatives, friends, nurses, and others are all important in showing him/her how to be
a good little child. Observers of child rearing contend that childhood is again undergoing profound changes.
Children today lack the innocence that their parents and grandparents had as children. Youngsters, once
ignorant of adult matters, are now aware not only of sex and violence, but also of drug abuse, injustice, deceit,
death, political corruption, and economic instability. This is due to the sexual revolution of recent decades and
the erotic materials on television and social networks. Additional factors include divorce and working mothers.
2. Peer groups. In the Philippines, and in other countries, the peer group plays a very important role in
the process of socialization. Children are relatively equal, while the inequality of parents and children enebles
parents to force children to obey rules they neither understand nor like. By virtue of their age, sex, and rank
(as child and as student), peers stand in the same relation to persons in authority and therefore see the world
through the same eyes. Peers learn many things from one another. The importance of the peer group
increases as children grow older, reaching its peak when they become adolescent. This coincides with the
diminishing of parental influence as young people gain independence from adults. While peer groups are
important to all adolescents, they are especially influential when parental guidance, affection, and attention
are lacking. Alienated and delinquent adolescents are more deeply affected by their peers than are
adolescents who are close to their families and do not have a history of delinquency.
 3. Media. Media, like the television, radio, and other broadcast media, as well as print media play a
very important role in the process of socialization. The radio or television program to which the child is
exposed will certainly influence his/her personality, values, and belief system. According to experts, television
viewing can have both positive and negative effects. Experiments show that watching programs that
emphasize sharing, cooperation, and self-discipline encourages these types of social behavior in children.
Television can aslo portray good health attitudes, such as not smoking. For children who live in improvised
environments, television is undoubtedly a major source of stimulation and instructions. However, violence and
sex role stereotypes can be promoted by the media. In many countries, like the Philippines, these are
promoted not only by television but also by movies, comics, and commercials.
4. School. School is an institution that is established explicitly for the purpose of socializing people. In
modern societies, the school is considered the primary agent for weaning children from home and introducing
them into the larger society. Here, it can be said that is a drastic change from home to school. At home,
relationships are built upon emotional ties. While the official purpose of school is to teach young people
technical and intellectual skills, it also serves the function of teaching cultural values and attitudes and
preparing them for their roles as adults in an office or factory. Schools are now viewed as agents of change.
5. Workplace. Formal socialization takes place in the workplace. However, much of the socialization to
the organization's values and outlook happen informally. Learning the skills and orientation to one's job means
socialization at the workplace. While some careers build on a person's existing qualities, others (such as
medicine, law, the military, the police, and the nurses) require resocialization. Training programs are designed
to strip away the self-images and perspectives that are the results of previous socialization - a process known
as desocialization, and to replace them with a new outlook and self-image. Resocialization appears gradually
over a period of time and is experienced differently from profession to profession and from individual to
individual.
6. Religion. The religion to which the individual is introduced will certainly affect his/her being. The
religious beliefs, as well as practices will surely influence the individual's belief system and value judgments. In
the Philippines and in other Asian country, religious groups have played a vital role in the process of
socialization. Children are introduced to the various religious tenets and practices. In most cases, these beliefs
and tenets influence the individual's behavior and outlook in life.
7. Neighborhood. Street corner education is very common in the country. A child is introduced to the
realities of life in the neighborhood. He/She learns particular sets of values and beliefs from the people in the
neighborhood.

SAQ #5: Select one of the agents of socialization. Describe its essential characteristics and evaluate it in
terms of its strengths and weaknesses. (3 points)

Views on the Stages of Socialization

Several authorities have been recognized for their contributions as far as social development is concerned.
Some of them are the following:
1. Erik Erikson and psychosocial development. Erikson's major concern is the feelings people develop
toward themselves and the world around them. In his book Childhood and Society, he described eight stages
of human development which he referred to as crises — periods when one confronts major issues of life.
Success at each stage depends on the growth and degree of resolution attained at each stage. The eight
periods are the following: (a) infancy— trust versus mistrust; (b) early childhood—autonomy versus shame
and doubt; (c) the play stage—initiative versus guilt; (d) school age—industry versus inferiority; (e)
adolescence—identify versus role confusion; (f) young adulthood—intimacy versus isolation; (g) middle
adulthood— generativity versus stagnation; and (h) old age— ego integrity versus despair.
2. Sigmund Freud and psychosexual development. An Austrian physician, in his theory of
psychoanalysis, concluded that what happens to people during childhood affects them later as adults.
According to Freud, if problems during early stages (oral and anal stages) were not satisfactorily resolved, a
person could become arrested (fixed) at that stage.
3. Jean Piaget and psychomotor-cognitive development. Piaget focused on thinking or cognitive
development stages. Through interaction with their environment, children acquire new ways of thinking and
new schemes. All children move through stages of cognitive development that involve increasingly greater
complexity of thought and shift from egocentric perspective to perspective which takes others into account.
Piaget was one of the first to recognize that cognitive development—the process of learning to talk, to think,
and to reason— is a social as well as a psychological phenomenon. He outlined the process and stages into the
following: (a) sensorimotor, (b) language acquisition, (c) concrete operations, (d) abstract thinking.
4. George H. Mead and symbolic interactionism. He is the founder of symbolic interaction perspective
in sociology, and developed a theoritical scheme for conceptualizing the development of the social being or
self. His scheme is supported by the data collected by subsequent researchers such as Piaget. Mead argued, as
did others, that early in life, children appear to be unable to understand anyone else's perspective except their
own. After acquiring some mastery of language, they learn their names and some of the expectations other
people have about how they should behave. Children recognize that they are distinct from other people. Yet it
is generally easy to recognize that they have difficulty distinguishing their own perspectives.
Mead pointed out the stages (play and game) involved in being able to maintain a personal perspective
and at the same to take others' perspective into account. After human beings recognize their own
distinctiveness, they begin to recognize the characteristics of others. Children go through a play stage during
which they act as if they were other people. Play is therefore a stage of social development when a child can
imitate or play at being another person. Mead also argued that children take an important step toward
functioning in larger society when they are able to participate in a game. It is that stage when they are able to
understand multiple perspectives including the abstract perspective of the generalized other. To participate in
a game, each player has to understand his/her role, the roles of other players, and rules of the game.
5. Lawrence Kohlberg and moral development. Kohlberg formulated six stages of development: (a) A
child first judges the morality of an act by its physical consequences. If doing something leads to punishment,
then it should not be done. (b) The child begins to realize that conforming to rules can bring rewards, not just
the avoidance of punishment. (c) The child progresses to a level known as good child morality — when they
judge the morality of an act according to how much it conforms to the standards of other individuals, thereby
gaining their approval and good will. Ideas about right and wrong behavior develop. (d) The stage that
emphasizes law and order, and strict compliance and conformity to the social order is accepted as right and
any deviation as wrong. Emphasis is on one's doing his/her duty. (e) The person recognizes that while it is
important to adhere to social rules, it is also possible to change those rules if such a change would benefit
greater number of people. Here, morality is seen as rooted in basic human rights such as life and liberty. (f) A
person internalizes ideas of Justice, compassion, and equality and conforms both to these ideas and to social
standards.
SAQ #6: Give the major contributions of the following people to the study of socialization: (5 points)
a. Charles Horton Cooley
b. George Herbert Mead
c. Sigmund Freud
d. Erik Erikson
e. Lawrence Kohlberg

SUMMARY
● A social interaction is an exchange between two or more individuals and is a building block of society.
Social interaction can be studied between groups of two (dyads), three (triads) or larger social groups.
● By interacting with one another, people design rules, institutions and systems within which they seek
to live. Symbols are used to communicate the expectations of a given society to those new to it.
● The empirical study of social interaction is one of the subjects of microsociology. Methods includes
symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology as well as later academic sub-divisions and studies
such as psychosocial studies, conversational analysis and human-computer interaction.
● With symbolic interactionism, reality is seen as social, developed interaction with others.
Ethnomethodology questions how people’s interactions can create the illusion of a shared social order
despite not understanding each other fully and having differing perspectives.

REFERENCE:

● Palispis, Epitacio S. and Sampa, Elias M. (2015). Introduction to Sociology and Anthropology

EVALUATION

Identify the term being described by each item about the social interaction and socialization. Write your
answer on the space provided for before the number.

__________1. A sociologist who emphasized the social ploys all of us are using but we seldom admit. All of us
have an image of how we want be seen by other people.

__________2. Sometimes, it is referred to as bargaining, compromising and trading off, mediating,

exchanging, wheeling and dealing, and secret agreements.

__________3. It appears to be one-sided, one imposing an action or behavior on another.

__________4. The social position that is received at birth or involuntarily assumed later in the life course.

__________5. These are the statuses that dominate others and thereby determine a person's general position
within society.
__________6. It refers to patterns of expected behavior attached to a particular status. It may be referred to
as the dynamic expression of a status.

__________7. A dimension that functions to provide a repository role of our shared power, authority,
information, responsibility, and accountability for collective life as a human community group.

__________8. He was concerned with conflict not between classes but between society and the primal
biological drives of sex and aggression.

__________9. He developed the idea of the looking-glass self. In our imagination, we mentally assume the
stance of other people and look at ourselves as we believe others see us. We acquire our sense of self by
seeing ourselves reflected in the behavior of others and their attitudes toward us and by imagining what
others think about us.

__________10. He is the founder of symbolic interaction perspective in sociology, and developed a theoritical
scheme for conceptualizing the development of the social being or self.

ASSIGNMENT

Make an interactive video presentation about social interaction and socialization that takes place in
our society. Afterwards, upload it in our google classroom.
 SHEPHERDVILLE COLLEGE
(FORMERLY JESUS THE LOVING SHEPHERD CHRISTIAN COLLEGE)
Talojongon, Tigaon, Camarines Sur, Philippines
Tel. No. (054) 884-9536
“Excellence in truth in the service of God and Country”

Name: ____________________________________________Course/Year/Sec: ________________ Date: ____________

Competency # 12 Answer Sheet

Social Interaction and Socialization

SAQ #1: What is the significance of social interaction in the development of a person and of society? (4
points)

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SAQ #2: Explain and illustrate the following types of social interaction: (5 points)
a. Cooperation
b. Conflict
c. Competition
d. Negotiation
e. Coercion
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SAQ #3: In what way does each of the following influence social interaction: (5 points)
a. Goals and motivations
b. Situation or context
c. Norms or rules
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SAQ #4: Give at least three examples of practical applications of social interaction in a real-life context
based on the insights you have gained from this lesson. (3 points)
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SAQ #5: Select one of the agents of socialization. Describe its essential characteristics and evaluate it in
terms of its strengths and weaknesses. (3 points)
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SAQ #6: Give the major contributions of the following people to the study of socialization: (5 points)
a. Charles Horton Cooley
b. George Herbert Mead
c. Sigmund Freud
d. Erik Erikson
e. Lawrence Kohlberg
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EVALUATION

Identify the term being described by each item about the social interaction and socialization. Write your
answer on the space provided for before the number.

__________1. A sociologist who emphasized the social ploys all of us are using but we seldom admit. All of us
have an image of how we want be seen by other people.

__________2. Sometimes, it is referred to as bargaining, compromising and trading off, mediating,

exchanging, wheeling and dealing, and secret agreements.

__________3. It appears to be one-sided, one imposing an action or behavior on another.

__________4. The social position that is received at birth or involuntarily assumed later in the life course.

__________5. These are the statuses that dominate others and thereby determine a person's general position
within society.

__________6. It refers to patterns of expected behavior attached to a particular status. It may be referred to
as the dynamic expression of a status.

__________7. A dimension that functions to provide a repository role of our shared power, authority,
information, responsibility, and accountability for collective life as a human community group.
__________8. He was concerned with conflict not between classes but between society and the primal
biological drives of sex and aggression.

__________9. He developed the idea of the looking-glass self. In our imagination, we mentally assume the
stance of other people and look at ourselves as we believe others see us. We acquire our sense of self by
seeing ourselves reflected in the behavior of others and their attitudes toward us and by imagining what
others think about us.

__________10. He is the founder of symbolic interaction perspective in sociology, and developed a theoritical
scheme for conceptualizing the development of the social being or self.

ASSIGNMENT

Make an interactive video presentation about social interaction and socialization that takes place in
our society. Afterwards, upload it in our google classroom.