III Mach the verb on the left with the correct definition on the right

1. to desire a) to respect and admire
2. to impose b) to want or hope for smth very much
3. to esteem c) to obtain or achieve smth important or valuable
4. to predicate d) to have a bad effect on someone by causing them problems
5. to gain e) to get or achieve something that will be permanent, especially after a lot of effort
6. to secure f) to be based on smth as the reason for doing smth else

 

IV Translate from RUSSIAN into English

Ценности – это предпочтительные для индивида или группы значения явлений. Это представления о значимом, важном, которые определяют жизнедеятельность человека. Ценности позволяют различать желательное и нежелательное, то к чему следует стремиться и чего следует избегать (оценка – отнесение к ценности).

Различают ценности:

1) терминальные (ценности цели);

2) инструментальные (ценности средства).

Таким образом, ценности выступают, во- первых, как желательное, предпочтительное для данного субъекта состояние социальных связей, содержания идей, художественной формы и т. д.; во-вторых, как критерий оценки реальных явлений; в третьих, они определяют смысл целенаправленной деятельности; в-четвертых, регулируют социальные взаимодействия; в-пятых, внутренне побуждают к деятельности. Иными словами, ценность и ориентирует человека в окружающем мире, и побуждает, мотивирует на конкретные действия.

Ученые определяют следующие ценностные системы:

1. смысложизненные ценности: представления о добре и зле, счастье, цели и смысле жизни;

2. универсальные ценности:

а) витальные (жизнь, здоровье, личная безопасность, благосостояние, образование, правопорядок и др.);

б) общественного признания (трудолюбие, социальное положение и др.);

в) межличностного общения (честность, бескорыстие, доброжелательность, сострадание и др.);

г) демократические (свобода слова, совести, национальный суверенитет и др.);

3. партикулярные (частные) ценности:

а) привязанность к малой родине, семье;

б) фетишизм (вера в Бога, стремление к абсолютизму).

В наши дни происходит изменение ценностей, как это наблюдалось и в другие исторические периоды.

 

V Comunicative practice

  1. The freedom of speech is one of the universal values. It is garanteed by our constuitution. Do we really have this right?
  2. Nowadays values are changing. Is our society becomming better if compared with socialism?
  3. Most industrialized cultures nurture individualists. Individualists give priority to personal goals. Other countries – especially those of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America – nurture collectivism. Collectivists give priority to the goals of their groups – often their family, clan, or work group. What is your priority? Why?
  4. What is the purpose of your life? What do you want to achieve?

Unit VI

Socializing new individuals into society

Text 1

Socialization is the process by which a society passes its norms, values, knowledge and technology to the next generation. Looking at this process from the perspective of each individual, socialization is the process by which we learn to become human. The process begins with the earliest interactions of a child with parents and continues lifelong.

Agents of socialization are those individuals or groups that provide you with information and by various means attempt to socialize you according to their interests. Agents of socialization include schools, teachers, church organizations, community groups, television programs, books, video games, friends, sports teams, parents, grandparents, and siblings. Each of us is unique, because our biographies are unique. No other person in the universe has had the exact socialization experiences that you have had. Even if you have an identical twin and both of you are raised in the same family, you and your twin will gradually develop different personalities as the years go by. This is because each of you in the early years encounters slightly different socialization experiences. Each of you also responds differently to these experiences.

If these twins had been separated at birth and one was socialized in the United States and the other in China, you might not even recognize them as identical twins. They would speak different languages and would be brought up in different cultures. Differences in diet alone could produce significantly different body shapes and weights. A casual observer might not even detect that this pair shared common biological origins: the same chromosomes and genes.

Clearly, the agents of socialization we have encounted have contributed a great deal to the way we are today. For most people the earliest socialization experiences come from the mother, next from the father and beginning around age two, from siblings. The argument is frequently made that these years are most important for influencing many of our later attitudes and predispositions.

The sociological view of socialization cannot be attributed to any single researcher but rather has been developed as a result of the work of many. Some of the most important researchers who have contributed to the field are E. Durkheim, Ch. Cooley, G. Mead, J. Piaget and many others.

Socialization is a lifelong process by which, through contact with others, one becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable human being, skilled in the ways of a given culture and environment. Socialization suggests interiorizing of social roles and cultural norms. The focus is on interiorizing, not learning because one can’t learn a social role after reading a book, although one can acquire knowledge how to do it. Each role includes various norms, rules and patterns of behaviour; it is locked with other roles by social contacts such as relations, rights, obligations. A human can’t simply learn all this. He should interiorize. So, interiorizing has a wider meaning than learning and includes learning as its part.

Socialization is a lifelong process because an individual, in his life, has to learn not one but a number of social roles while growing older, getting married or being promoted on the career ladder. People constantly change their habits, rules, behaviours up till the old age.

Socialization can be distinguished as deliberate and unconscious. Deliberate socialization refers to the socialization process when there is a deliberate and purposful intent to convey values, attitudes, knowledge, skills etc., for instance, when parents tell their child always to say “

Unconscious socialization occurs as a result of spontaneous interaction with no purposeful or deliberate attempt. An example of such socialization is learning to use foul language by children.

The aims of socialization are the following:

§ to instill disciplines (for instance: “Don’t walk in front of a moving car.);

§ to develop aspirations and ambitions (for instance: “I want to be a banker, rock star, great sociologist.);

§ to develop skills (for instance, reading, driving etc.);

§ to enable the acquisition of social roles, for instance,male, student, son, worker etc.).

Development of an individual should be considered in connection with the family, social group and culture he belongs to. His socialization begins from the very first hours of his life and traditionally includes five stages:

§ childhood – in medieval European paintings children were portrayed as little adults. In modern societies the separate character of childhood is diminishing once more, for instance, some observers point out that even small children may watch the same TV programmes as adults;

§ the teenager – the concept of a teenager did not exist until recently. In modern societies, teenagers live between childhood and adulthood, growing up and changing;

§ young adulthood – young adulthood seems to be a specific stage in personal and sexual development in modern societies. Affluent youths take the time to travel and explore sexual, political and religious affiliations;

§ mature adulthood – in modern societies, midlife crisis is very real for many middle-aged people;

§ old age – in traditional societies, the elder people usually had a major say over matters of importance to the community. In industrial societies, they tend to lack authority within the family and the wider social community.

By character socialization can be primary and secondary. Primary socialization occurs in infancy and childhood and is the most intense period of cultural learning. Family is the main agent, or agency of socialization during this phase. Secondary socialization takes place later in childhood and into maturity. Main agents of socialization include schools, peer groups, organizations, the media and the workplace.

All agents involved in socialization of individuals are differentiated as informal and formal ones.The family and peers are typical informal agents of socialization and the school and mass media represent formal agencies. For instance, peers become especially influential in schools. They provide opportunities to practice social roles, they are an important source of information, and they greatly influence values and attitudes in mate selection, sex relations, and forms of expression in music, sports and the like. It should be noted that some entities can serve as the agents of both primary and secondary socialization, for instance, peers of childhood and teenager period (primary) and peers at work (secondary). Defference berween primary and secondary forms also lies in the character of relations that’s why most intensity it takes in the first half of human life, although fading and going out slowly, it remains in the second half as well. Secondary socialization is the area of social relations and it occurs in the second half of human life whereby a person is faced with secondary agencies which have a great impact on developing personality. A principle asserting that development of personality is a lifelong ascending process based on consolidating of the interiorized before, is indisputable. But personal qualities moulded before are’t stableor unshakeblefor ever. When a person learns new roles, values or habits instead of those badly learnt before or obsolete, re-socialization occurs. It embraces a lot of activities – from lessons arranged to change the child’s reading skills to vocational retraining of workers. Development of any person is determined by a number of factors:

§ family – in any civilization, it is the main area of primary socialization of personality as it is characterized by a set of social norms, sanctions and patterns of behaviour which regulate interactions and relations among spouses, parents and children, other relatives. As a rule, a child learns those patterns of behaviour typical for its parents;

§ relations of equality – including into “groups of equal” (friends, peers of same age) also has a great impact on the process of personal development. Interrelations among peers are more democratic than those among parents and children. Individuals often keep these relations all their life;

§ education – its importance is determined by the fact that the society ensures development of education and upbringing of the growing generations in accordance with the values, ideals, standards of behaviour typical for a given society. Education is a process and result of learning systematic knowledge, skills, and at the same time a necessary condition of preparing a person for labour activities;

§ mass media (radio, press, TV, movie) are the most powerful factor of influence on human consciousness and behaviour that means that they influence the socialization process;

§ labour – the working process is an organizational framework within which an individual turns to a member of the labour collective. While turning to a worker, he learns not only professional roles but also gets to know what is to be an executive and subordinate, leader or outsider etc.;

§ culture is a specific kind of activity aimed at creating spiritual and material wealth, so its result comes to be a system of ideals, values, norms and patterns of behaviour embodied in the social development of a person and his spiritual world;

§ income plays an important symbolic role. High income means well-being, high professional qualification and good business aptitudes of personality;

§ organizations such as youth associations, church, sport clubs also participate in the development of a person.

Thus, the development of a person is determined by a number of socio-economic factors. At the same time the development of a person can’t avoid crises. An American psychologist and psychiatrist Erik H. Erikson hwo is also known for coining the phrase “identity crisis”, developed his theory on the social development of human beings with respect to the psychological analysis of S. Freud. E. Erikson described eight developmental stages of the Ego through which a human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage a person confronts new challenges which are hopefully mastered. Each stage builds on a successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages which are not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. It should be noted that E. Erikson was the first to identify eight stages of development, later his students added two moreto further refine adolescence and adulthood.

Thus, to E.Erikson, at each stage a human encounters the following crises:

a. infancy (birth – 18 months): trust versus mistrust;

b. younger years (18 months – 3 years): autonomy versus shame and doubt;

c. early childhood (3 – 6 years) initiative versus guilt;

d. middle childhood (6 – 12 years): industry versus inferiority;

e. early adolescence (12 – 18 years): group identity versus alienation;

f. later adolescence (18 – 22 years): Ego-identity versus identity confusion;

g. early adulthood (22 – 34 years): intimacy versus isolation;

h. middle adulthood (34 – 60 years): generativity versus stagnation;

i. later adulthood (60 – 75 years): Ego-integrity versus despare;

j. old age (75 years – death): immortality versus extinction.

According to E. Erikson, the Ego, around which the individual integrates a sense of identity, developes in the process of socialization. He thinks the society plays an important role in moulding personality. He emphasized that socialization is a lifelong process which goes through cycles from infancy to elderly adulthood.

 

I VOCABULARY

 

  1. to interact – взаимодействовать
  2. sibling – брат или сестра
  3. predisposition – предрасположение
  4. to interiorize – усваивать ценности и нормы
  5. deliberite – умышленый, намеренный
  6. unconscious – бессознательный
  7. foul language – нецензурная речь
  8. to instill – внушать
  9. to diminish – уменьшать (-ся), ослаблять, унижать
  10. mature – зрелый, взрослый
  11. peers – ровестники
  12. entity – филос.бытие, сущность, полит.организация, legal entity – юр.лицо
  13. to embody – воплощать, олицетворять
  14. alienation – объединение
  15. extinction – тушение, угасание, вымирание

 

II comprehention check

 

1. What is socialization?

2. When does the process begin? How long does it last?

3. What are agents of socialization? What do they do?

4. Why can’t people have the same socialization experience?

5. What notion has a wider meaning interiorizing or learning? Why?

6. What does deliberate socialization refer to?

7. When does unconscious socialization occur?

8. What are the aims of socialization?

9. What stages does socialization include?

10. What is primary socialization?

11. What is secondary socialization?

12. What factors is development of any person determined by?

2. What stages of the Ego did E. Erikson identify?