Microsoft Word Socialized Choices 31-12 pod docx

Socialized Choices - Labour Market Behaviour of Dutch Mothers 
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has shown the mechanisms of how parents of different social classes vary in their 
transmission of social-cultural advantages. These cumulative differences, like 
fostering children’s talents by offering structured leisure activities and wider 
ways of thinking (defined as ‘concerted cultivation’), create advantages for 
middle-class children in terms of  how they interact with professionals (doctors 
and educators) and other adults outside the home. Kraaykamp (2009) emphasised 
that while studying the process of socialization one should pay attention to the 
quality of the home situation. The reproduction of norms and values would 
proceed much easier and smoother in a warm nest than in a problematic 
household: trust and the quality of affective relationships are decisive. 
The reciprocal character of socialization 
Contemporary socialization theory further enhances our understanding of primary 
socialization processes, and acknowledges how socialization does not have the 
same effect for every child, since children within one family may pursue different 
behaviours. The course and direction of primary socialization processes depend, 
for example, on the child’s temperament, talent and intellect, as well as the 
quality of the child-parental relationship (Grusec and Hastings, 2007; 
Kraaykamp, 2009). Children within the same family are able to develop disparate 
personality treats, “because they draw upon different parental and sibling 
symbolic attributes” (Bandura, 1977, p.48).  In addition, it is recognised that 
socialization is characterised by mutual reciprocity. Within the process of 
socialization, parents and children are continuously structuring and restructuring 
the rules of the game (Grusec and Hastings, 2007; Huijnk and Liefbroer 2012). 
Several studies confirmed the bi-directional nature of attitude transmission, and 
demonstrated that mutual influential nature depends upon the concerned subject 
and the stage of the life course (Glass, Bengston and Durham, 1986). Although 
the transmission often remains asymmetrical, it is acknowledged that parents 
influence their children more than vice versa (Axinn and Thornton, 1993; De 
Roos and Bucx, 2010; Huijnk and Liefbroer, 2012, p.72). 
Berger and Luckmann (1967) made a distinction between primary 
socialization (or internalization) during childhood and secondary socialization, 
also referred to as adult socialization, which occurs throughout life. Primary 
socialization is the most important process of socialization, which an individual 
undergoes during childhood as they become a member of society. Secondary 
socialization is any subsequent process that initiates an already socialized human 
being into new segments of the objective world that he or she shares with fellow 
inhabitants (Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.150). Firstly, I shall attend to the 
theory of primary socialization, wherein emotional identification, symbolic 
learning, and internalization of generalized others, are key concepts.   

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Chapter 2 - Theoretical framework and hypotheses 
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Primary socialization 
Primary socialization takes place in the period during which children meet the 
parents (or other people who are in charge of upbringing the child), with whom 
they identify emotionally. Childhood is seen as the most important period in life, 
where the basic structure of the individual’s objective social world (the base-
world) is built and with which all later situations are compared. Within childhood, 
a child proceeds from an unsocialized, new-born state towards increasingly 
socialized participation in society. From this perspective, socialization concerns 
the face-to-face social interaction with one’s most important significant others - 
the parents - and the outcomes of those interactions, such as the growth of human 
sentiments (whereof empathy is especially important), the acquisition of 
language, and the development of the self (I and me) (Handel, 2006, p.16).  
The first step of socialization is social interaction. In the beginning of a new 
life, socialization largely consists of care-giving activities, which are the first 
experiences a newborn has with the social world it has been born into (Handel, 
2006, p.12). Through the empathy of its carers, their capacity to place themselves 
imaginatively in the baby’s situation and to understand what needs to be done, the 
child learns what empathy is - a very important ability for functioning in social 
life. A wide variety of human sentiments are learned accordingly, such as 
happiness, sadness, anger, loneliness, etc.. 
The person who cares for the new-born infant also makes use of 
communication and significant symbols, the importance of which was 
emphasised by Berger and Luckmann. They defined language as a system of 
vocal signs, which they view as the most important sign system in human society 
(Berger and Luckmann, 1967, p.51). This primary carer also teaches the child to 
have internal conversations, since not everything that is said is meant in the way 
it sounds. Internal conversations are also needed to make a correct interpretation 
of the words that have been said - an important aspect of language. Berger and 
Luckmann referred to language as the vehicle for the on-going translating process 
between subjectivity and objectivity within individuals (Berger and Luckmann, 
1967, p.153) 
Thirdly, the child develops a self – it becomes aware that it is a person distinct 
from other persons (objects). The manifestation of a self is only possible when the 
significant others who take care of the new-born have interests - whether 
automatically or enthusiastically - in developing the child. This interest can be 
expressed through various kinds of appraisals (Handel, 2006, p.14).) These initial 
appraisals construct the beginning of the self: “the ideas he has of himself are, at 
first, ideas he gains from others about himself” (Handel, 2006, p.15). And again, 
language is imperative in bringing about this process, like ‘good child’ or ‘bad 
behaviour’. 
The concept of the self is developed in particular by George Herbert Mead 
(1934).
 
Mead theorised the idea about the two-part structure of the self, the ‘I’ 
and the ‘me’. As the child grows older, the communications, appraisals from 

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