Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
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significant others (partners, siblings, playmates, teachers and relatives) as well as 
their roles and feelings, all become increasingly ingrained in the self that Mead 
calls the ‘me’ - the self as the object of (generalised) others’ attitudes (Handel, 
2006, p.15). The ability to empathise the role of the ‘generalized other’ has life-
long importance, since the same ability is necessary in being able to be (or play a 
role as) a member of the family, work group, friendship circle, or any group or 
organisation to which he or she will belong (Handel, 2006, p.15). Besides the 
‘me’, the self also consists of the ‘I’, which is the more subjective aspect of the 
self - one’s own awareness of the physical self, and involves a certain kind of 
individuality (Handel, 2006, p.16). We achieve self-awareness, according to 
Mead, when we learn to distinguish the ‘me’ from the ‘I’.
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 Individuals develop 
self-consciousness when they are able to see themselves as others see them, 
which allows for an internal conversation between the individual ‘I’ and the 
social ‘me’ (Giddens, 2009, p.285).  
In other words, the self is a reflected entity, reflecting the attitudes first taken 
by significant others towards themself: “the individual becomes what he is 
addressed as by significant others” (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.152). Others 
are internalized within the self. This is a conclusive point in socialization. A 
person’s quality of generalised identification enables that his or her own self-
identification attains some stability and continuity. “What is real outside, 
corresponds to what is real within. Objective realty can readily be translated into 
subjective reality, and vice versa, the realities correspond to each other but are 
not completely merged. There is always more objective reality available than is 
actually internalized in any individual consciousness. The symmetry between 
objective and subjective reality is never a static, once and for all, state of affairs. 
It must always be produced and reproduced in actu, like an on-going balancing 
act” (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.154). The development of the ‘generalised 
other’ or the ‘me’ within people is especially relevant in this study. Through 
specific and different micro-socialization processes, the ‘me’ – i.e. the way 
‘others’ are internalised in the mother – clearly differs for each mother, which 
might add to the explanation of their diverse labour market behaviour.  
Theory of social learning  
Within the scope of primary socialization, the social learning theory of Bandura 
(1977) is relevant. Bandura argues that most behaviour is learned observationally 
through modelling: from repeatedly observing the behaviour of others, people 
                                                           
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  The 'I' is the unorganised response of the organism to the attitudes of others, a spontaneous bundle 
of wants and desires, a biological organism, which might be derived from genes together with an 
evolutionarily program (Wallace and Wolf, 2006, p.206-8). The concept of the 'I' represented the 
idea that persons have individuality and social characteristics that is shared with others. Mead may 
have reacted with his concept of the 'I' towards 'the oversocialized conception' of man in that 
period of time (Handel, 2006, p.16).  
 

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Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework and hypotheses 
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form ideas (coded information or symbolic representations) of how behaviours 
should be performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a 
guide for appropriate performances (Bandura, 1977, p.22). Bandura describes 
how observational learning is governed by four component processes. The first is 
the attentional process: attentions to others’ behaviour are needed in order to be 
able to internalise in the person. The grade of given attention depends on the type 
of person, but also varies by the complexity, salience and attractiveness of the 
behaviour, which varies for each individual as well. Furthermore, the types of 
behaviour that an individual repeatedly observes and hence learns most 
thoroughly, are not infinite, but depend on the people with whom one regularly 
associates, either through obligation (within childhood) or preferences (in later 
life). The second component of observational leaning refers to the retention 
process. People must be able to remember the activities that have been modelled 
at a certain point in time, also when the specific model of behaviour is no longer 
present. The third part of modelling involves converting symbolic representations 
into appropriate actions: the motor reproduction processes. Mostly these actions 
are first achieved by a close approximation of the new behaviour, and then they 
refined through self-corrective adjustments on the basis of informative feedback 
from performance, and from focused demonstrations of segments that have been 
only partially learned (Bandura, 1977, p.28). Rehearsal serves as an important 
memory aid, not only physically but especially mentally; rehearsal helps people 
to learn and remember the learned behaviour. The last component evolves the 
motivational  processes. People are more likely to adapt modelled behaviour if 
they value the results than if it has unrewarding or punishing effects. By 
observing the different outcomes of their actions, people can anticipate which 
responses are most desirable and appropriate in which settings (Bandura, 1977, p. 
17).  “Some forms of behaviour are so intrinsically rewarding that they hold the 
attention of people of all ages for extended periods” (Bandura, 1977, p.24).  At 
this point the theory of planned behaviour of Ajzen and Fishbein (1973, 2005) 
and social learning theory of Bandura (1977) are conjoined. The theory of 
planned behaviour holds that subjective norms and normative believes, expected 
approval or disapproval of significant others towards the intent action, will 
automatically and often unconsciously influence people’s intentions towards 
behaviour.  
Especially salient in the theory of social leaning is the aspect of symbolic 
learning, which means that one can learn behaviour by associating with certain 
symbols towards the behaviour that is learned. In this manner, a certain type of 
learned behaviour can produce many forms of behaviour that are to be associated 
with it. Observational learning relies mainly upon two representational systems – 
imaginable (visual imagery or mental associations with for example the person 
who was modelling the behaviour), and verbal coding. After modelled activities 
have been transformed into images and easily assessable and functional mental 
and/or verbal symbols, these memory codes serve as guides for performance 
(Bandura, 1977, p.26). For example, where children have learned to be polite and 

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