Sociology concepts and applications

Sociology

Cooley and Mead's theories on the process of socialization as opposed to that of Freud

Charles Cooley and George Herbert Mead are proponents of a similar theory of socialization. Cooley uses the metaphor of the looking glass to explain how a child uses others' perception of himself to understand himself and develop an identity. According to Cooley, each of us closely monitors how others react to us and adjust our behavior to get the most desirable response -- like looking at ourselves in a mirror and adjusting our posture or expression.

Mead also explains the process of socialization in a similar manner by theorizing that children internalize the feelings of others while developing the "Self." He says that children imitate the behavior of others by role-playing in the Play Stage (ages 3-4), which helps them to define themselves. In the Game Stage (school going age) they are exposed to rules of the society and learn to adapt their behaviors in line with the expectations of others.

Freud described the personality in terms of id (the unsocialized part of self), the ego (conception of self in relation to others) and the superego (part of the self that has internalized the rules of the parent / society). Freud's theory differs from Cooley and Mead's theory of socialization by emphasizing the importance of the unconscious in the development of personality and the idea that the conflicts of childhood reappear throughout life.

Ethocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Ethnocentrism is "The tendency to view one's own culture as best and to judge the behavior and beliefs of people in other societies by one's own standards" while Cultural Relativism is the belief that that one should try to evaluate and understand another culture/society on its own terms and relative to its own values and beliefs.

Most societies and individuals are ethnocentric to some extent but some people, particularly the anthropologist, strive to be as non-ethnocentric as possible.