Socialisation is defined as a process in which human beings interact with each other individually and in groups. It is the process by which one learns the traditions, customs and accepted behaviours in any given society.
The identity of a person consists of who they are and where they come from.
Human beings are nothing but social animals, we require social experiences to learn our culture and thrive in society, we aren’t born with values and skills.
We learn from what we read, what we watch and most importantly the people we interact with, over time, this cumulates to form part of our identities.
Primary is what we learn from our family when we are young, secondary is what we learn in school, and tertiary is what we learn throughout our lives.
The more we interact with others, the more we understand ourselves.
Our identities aren’t set in stone
Identity formation starts at a young age, thus, parents tend to keep children away from bad influences that can unpleasantly affect their identities.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study Experiment (1971)
Zimbardo (American psychologist) on 14 Aug 1971, decided to experiment to find out whether the prison guard brutality reported in American prisons was due to the sadistic personality traits of the guards or had to do more with the environment of the prison.
Zimbardo predicted the situation made people act the way they do rather than their personality.
To study the same, Zimbardo went ahead and converted a basement in the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison.
Twenty-one male volunteers judged to be the most physically and mentally stable, and the least antisocial were chosen to be part of the study. (The participants didn’t know each other prior to the commencement of the study)
Participants were assigned to either the role of a prisoner or a guard.
The participants were divided into ten prisoners and eleven guards.
Every aspect of their arrest was simulated to perfection, the prisoners were treated like actual criminals, arrested at their homes (without any prior warning), and even taken to their local police stations where they were ID’d, photographed and booked.
The deindividuation process began at the simulated prison.
Guards were instructed to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison and to command the respect of the prisoners.
Zimbardo observed the behaviour of the subjects while acting as the prison warden.
The prisoners quickly displayed prisoner-like behaviour, as they started to tell ‘tales’ on each other to the guards.
The prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders and given pointless tasks to accomplish and were generally dehumanized.
On the second day of the experiment, the prisoners took off their caps, ripped off their numbers, and barricaded themselves inside cells by putting their beds against the door as a form of rebellion against the authority.
The guards retaliated by using a fire extinguisher and forced the prisoners away from the doors. Next, the guards broke into each cell, stripped the prisoners naked and removed their beds.
The leaders of the rebellion were placed in solitary confinement.
One of the three cells was designated a "privilege cell" for prisoners least involved in the rebellion, they were given back their uniforms and beds and were permitted to wash their hair and brush their teeth.
Throughout the experiment, the guards were firmly in control and the prisoners were dependent on them.
Nearly 36 hours into the experiment, Prisoner #8612 began suffering from emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage. The guards offered him a position as an informant, he returned to the cell and began to act crazy. The psychologists decided to let him out.
The next day, the guards held a visiting hour for parents and friends. They were worried that when the parents saw the state of the jail, they might insist on taking their sons home. Guards washed the prisoners, had them clean and polish their cells, fed them a big dinner and played music on the intercom.
The guards again escalated the level of harassment, forcing them to do repetitive work like cleaning toilets with their bare hands.
Zimbardo invited a priest who had been a prison chaplain to evaluate the realism of the prison simulation. Half of the prisoners introduced themselves by their number rather than name.
While talking to the priest, #819 broke down and began to cry hysterically
While this entailed, one of the guards lined up all the prisoners and had them chant aloud:
"Prisoner #819 is a bad prisoner. Because of what Prisoner #819 did, my cell is a mess, Mr. Correctional Officer."
#819 heard the chant and rushed back into his cell where he was found sobbing uncontrollably. The psychologists tried to get him to leave the experiment, but he said he could not leave because he had been labelled a bad prisoner.
Zimbardo said, "Listen, you are not #819. You are [his name], and my name is Dr Zimbardo. I am a psychologist, not a prison superintendent, and this is not a real prison. This is just an experiment, and those are students, not prisoners, just like you. Let's go."
#819 replied, “Okay, let's go” as if nothing had ever happened.
The experiment was terminated on the sixth day, due to concerns for the mental health of prisoners, and excessive aggression of the guards.
According to Zimbardo and his colleagues, the Stanford Prison Experiment displayed how people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards.
Because the guards were placed in a position of authority, they began to act differently.
The Clark Doll Experiment (1939)
The Clark doll experiment was carried out by Dr Kenneth Clark and his wife, where they asked black children to choose between a black doll and a white doll.
The children that took part in the experiment ranged from 6 - 9 years old.
Most of the children said the white doll was nicer and the one they preferred, whereas the black doll was labelled the ‘bad doll’.
Unlike now, racism was much more prevalent then. Schools were segregated between white and black kids. This segregation had a negative impact on the black kids, distorting their minds and causing them to hate themselves. These children had lost their identities as they longed to be like someone else.
We are losing free will
This is Jaron Lanier's first argument in his book, “10 arguments to delete your social media accounts right now”.
He argues that old-school advertising methods were innocent, they shared a product on the radio or newspaper and people either ignored it or bought the product, there wasn’t anything more to it.
However, what companies like Facebook can do now is much more sinister.
Dynamic data is collected on who we are, what we pay attention to and what actions we take.
The algorithm tends to push posts that we are more inclined to be intrigued by, as a result, we end up committing to an endless hamster wheel of scrolling, which allows them to generate wealth, at nothing but the cost of our time and attention.
Social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram tend to repeat the same genre of content in our feed in hopes of increasing the amount of time we spend on their platforms, this tends to restrict our thoughts, since we view similar content for hours on end, we are deprived of fresh inputs.
These algorithms don't have empathy for us.
If they detect that a certain type of content gets greater engagement, they'll boost that content to more and more people.
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Nadine Stair, an 85-year-old woman from Louisville, Kentucky, shares her answer when asked, "How would you have lived your life differently if you had a chance?"
"If I had my life to live over again, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax. I’d limber up. I’d be sillier than I’ve been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances, I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans.I would, perhaps, have more actual troubles but fewer imaginary ones. You see, I’m one of those people who was sensible and sane, hour after hour, day after day.
Oh, I’ve had my moments. If I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else—just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.
I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I could do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.
If I had to live my life over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances, I would ride more merry-go-rounds, I would pick more daisies."
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SOURCES (+ LEARN MORE)
https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27861986?read-now=1&seq=12#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/sociology/socialization-leads-to-identity-formation-sociology-essay.php
Image source: Unsplash
How socialisation influences us
Good writing.