▲ This family shares a playful moment together as they interact with one another. Even in such carefree moments, parents act as socializing agents for their children.
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Isolated and Abused Children
What would children be like if they grew up without human contact or only negative interactions? Among the most striking examples are the few cases we know of severely abused and neglected children whose parents kept them isolated in cellars or attics for years without providing even minimal attention and nurturing. When these isolated children were discovered, typically they suffered from profound developmental disorders that endured throughout their lives (Curtiss 1977; K. Davis 1947). Most experienced great difficulty in adjusting to their social world’s complex rules of interaction, which people normally start to learn from infancy onward. Recent medical studies also show how social isolation and deprivation in early life harm brain development and can result in mental health problems (C. Y. Johnson 2012).
In case studies comparing two girls, Anna and Isabelle, who experienced extreme isolation in early childhood, Kingsley Davis (1947) found that even minimal human contact made some difference in their socialization. Both “illegitimate” girls were kept locked up by relatives who wanted to keep their existence a secret. Both were discovered at about age 6 and moved to institutions where they received intensive training. Yet the cases were different in one significant respect: Prior to her discovery by those outside her immediate family, Anna experienced virtually no human contact, was fed only milk, and when found was barely alive. She saw other individuals only when they left food for her. Anna could not sit, walk, or talk and learned little in the special country school in which she was placed. When she died from jaundice at age 10, she had learned the language and skills of a 2- or 3-year-old.
When found, Isabelle was physically ill from an inadequate diet and lack of sunshine. She made only croaking sounds and gestures. During her first 6 years she lived in a darkened room with her deaf-mute mother, who provided some human contact. Isabelle, unlike Anna, did progress. She learned to talk and played with her peers. After 2 years, she reached an intellectual level approaching normal for her age but remained about 2 years behind her classmates in skill and competency levels. By age 14, she was attending regular school, participating in social activities, and was near normal for her age (K. Davis 1940, 1947; Foley and Harris 2014).
Contemporary cases of children neglected or abused in their family settings, forced into slavery or prostitution, or fighting wars reinforce the importance of early social interaction. Although not totally isolated, these children experience problems and disruptions in the socialization process. They have to deal with socially toxic abusive, violent, and dead-end environments with harmful developmental consequences for these children (War Child 2014). Consider the case of the Chibok schoolgirls from northern Nigeria’s Borno State. On April 14, 2014, 276 students were kidnapped by Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic terrorist organization, with more girls kidnapped from Dapchi, Nigeria, in February 2018. Although a few escaped, most of the girls were forced into sexual relationships and made to marry Boko Haram fighters. Some girls were forced to fight alongside their captors or to become suicide bombers. The socialization process for these girls became very negative, something they will live with for life (The Guardian 2018).
Other young children have been forced into armies as soldiers or to work on plantations as slaves. A recent video, Invisible Children, went viral on YouTube, showing the plight of children kidnapped by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army into a world of drugs, sex, and violence (Terra Networks 2013). Most will have a difficult time integrating back into society after their traumatic experiences, even if they have a chance to do so. Some organizations are trying to help the released children readjust to their societies.
These cases illustrate the devastating effects of isolation, neglect, and abuse early in life on the socialization process. To develop into social beings, humans need more from their environments than food and shelter. They need positive contact; a sense of belonging; affection; safety; and someone to teach them language, knowledge, and skills. Through this socialization experience into the world, every person develops a self. Before we examine the development of the self in depth, however, we consider the complexity of socialization in the multilevel (micro, meso, and macro) social world.
Socialization and the Social World
Ram, a first grader from India, had been in school in Iowa for only a couple of weeks. The teacher was giving the first test. Ram did not know much about what a test meant, but he rather liked school, and the red-haired girl next to him, Elyse, had become a friend. He was catching on to reading a bit faster than she, but she was better at the number exercises. They often helped each other learn while the teacher was busy with a small group in the front of the class. The teacher gave each child the test, and Ram saw that it had to do with numbers. He began to do what the teacher had instructed the children to do with the worksheet, but after a while, he became confused. He leaned over to look at the page Elyse was working on. She hid her sheet from him, an unexpected response. The teacher looked up and asked what was going on. Elyse said that Ram was “cheating.” Ram was not quite sure what that meant, but it did not sound good. The teacher’s scolding of Ram left him baffled, confused, and entirely humiliated.
This incident was Ram’s first lesson in the individualism and competitiveness that govern Western-style schools. His teacher was socializing him into a new set of values. In his culture of origin, competitiveness is discouraged, and individualism is equated with selfishness and rejection of community. Often, athletic events end in a tie so that no one will feel rejected. Indeed, a well-socialized person would rather lose in a competition than cause others to feel badly because they lost. Like Ram, each of us learns the values and beliefs of our culture. In Ram’s case, he moved from one cultural group to another and had to adjust to more than one culture within his social world. Many migrants and immigrants around the world go through similar experiences. Some immigrants face humiliation and bullying as they learn the social norms of their new culture.
At the micro level, most parents teach children proper behaviors to be successful in life, and peers influence children to “fit in” and have fun. In fact, the process of socialization in groups allows the self to develop as individuals learn to interact with others in their culture. Interaction theory, focusing on the micro level, forms the basis of this chapter. At the meso level, religious denominations and political groups teach their versions of the truth, and educational systems teach the knowledge and skills considered by leaders as necessary for functioning in society. At the nationwide macro level, television ads encourage viewers to be more masculine or feminine, buy products that will make them better and happier people, and join the military or other institutions. From interactions with our significant others to dealing with government bureaucracy, most activities are part of the socialization experience that teaches us how to function in our society.
Keep in mind that socialization is a lifelong process. Even your grandparents are learning how to live at their stage of life. The process of socialization takes place at each level of analysis—micro, meso, and macro—linking the parts of society. Groups at each level have a stake in how we are socialized because they all need trained and loyal group members to survive. Organizations need citizens who have been socialized to devote the time, energy, and resources that these groups rely on to survive and meet their goals. For example, volunteer and charitable organizations cannot thrive unless people are willing to volunteer their energy, time, skills, and money. Lack of adequate socialization means social organizations will not receive the support they need to thrive—or even, possibly, survive.
Most perspectives on socialization focus on the micro