Another important theory that is related to social behaviorism is the looking-glass self.

This is basically like mirroring what we think others think of us. If we think others view

you as being “good looking,” then you will see yourself as being good looking, or if you

think people think that you are fat then you will have that image of yourself. People take

the roles of other people during development. Infants have very little knowledge so they

tend to mimic others. Children often have creative minds and take on roles of other

significant others or people such as parents that have a special importance in their social

development. For example, children will play house in which someone will take the role of a

mother while another take that of a father. As they age children will learn to take various

roles and adjust to their surroundings. As we continue to age we will continue to see

changes in our social life. There are a lot of critics of Mead’s theories and some claim

that he focus too much on the society in developing an individual’s behavior. Another

sociologist Erik H. Erikson stated that unlike Freud who believed that personality was

pretty much set in stone in the first couple of years of an individual’s life, that

personality changes in stages and occurs all the way up to death. His theory is not all that

accurate as well, because people experience changes in different orders and time.

Through all of the disagreements, sociologists generally agree on this main idea, and that

is that the family has the greatest impact on an individual’s socialization abilities. When

an individual is an infant they have no control and usually rely on their parents and family

members to help nurture them. Through family they learn several of communication techniques

such as trust, culture, and beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, not all learning comes solely from

family; they can come from the environment as well because in a lot of cultures they use the

environment to help raise a child. I guess the saying is true in which it takes a “village

to raise a child.” It may not be surprising to you that different social classes tend to

raise their children differently. An interesting survey that happened in the United States

compared what a lower class family would want in a child compared to that of an upper class

family. A lower class family would usually favor obedience and conformity while an upper

class family would tend to favor creativity and good judgment (NORS, 2003).

Have you ever wondered why? Well the reason is lower class workers tend to have jobs that

they must be very obedient in and are highly supervised. Subconsciously they are gearing

their children towards that route and will even use physical punishment to achieve it. In

upper class workers they tend to have jobs that inspire individuality and creativity which

is very similar to the traits they would like to have in their children. School also has a

large effect on an individual’s personalities. If you think about it you spend a huge chunk

of time each day at school. It’s also interesting to note that children tend to play with

people as the same race and gender, and that boys are more physical and aggressive while

girls are more well behaved. Boys also tend to find abstract activities more interesting

like video games and girls tend to be more artistic.

The same thing follows when they get to college because boys tend to major in physical

sciences, and computing while girls usually major in humanities and arts. In school is where

children discover peer groups or individual that has similar interest as themselves. People

tend o indemnify more with their peer groups and can have conversations about things they

understand like clothes, music, and style. Peer groups are a way for individuals to escape

adult supervision, and people are usually more out spoken in peer groups. During the

adolescent years people tend to identify more with their peer groups because they identify

themselves as an adult and that is also a time in which parents are concerned about who

their children hang around because they know that who they hang around influence their

behavior deeply. During these years the mass media heavily affects individuals as well.

Studies have showed that television have made people more passive and lesson their

creativity. In the United States we spend he most time watching television and own the most

T.V sets per household.