Right and Wrong: Moral Development in Children
Do most people get their values from their parents or from society at large? At what age, and with what tools, do children begin to work out what is right and wrong? Can young children distinguish between actions that are morally deviant and those t...
Fitting In: Socialization and the Media
Perhaps more than any other socializing force, the powerful reach of the media extends throughout the life course. It has become especially important in today's society, both because it is so pervasive and because we are such a mobile society that m...
Fitting In: Socialization Within the Family
Socialization is the lifelong process by which people develop their personalities and learn about their culture. For virtually everyone, that process begins within the family, during the earliest days of life.
Fitting In: Peer Groups and Adolescence
Adolescence is a time during which many teens not only distance themselves from their parents, teachers, and other adult authority figures, but find themselves in active conflict with them. During this period, teens often turn to peers for answers a...
Fitting In: Socialization in Non-Intact Families
There are many aspects of family life that play an important role in a child's socialization experience. The stability of the family unit is one of the most crucial.
Fitting In: Socialization and Social Class
One of the most striking contrasts between working class and middle class parents is reflected in their very different attitudes about rules and authority. Often, children from working class or poor families are taught that it's never okay to break ...
Fitting In: Socialization in School
Apart from home and family, school is arguably the most influential setting in which childhood socialization takes place.
Childhood: Program 4. In the land of the giants
This program features three- to five-year-olds learning the social and psychological intricacies of family life. Observer Urie Bronfenbrenner characterizes the family as "the most efficient means for making human beings human." As the wider world af...