2.01 The Nature, Nurture, and Socialization of the Self

 HW:  Levine, Robert and Wolff, Ellen.  Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture.  Psychology Today. 1985.          

As we wait for students to show, please complete 20 statements about yourself; completing the statement, "I am  _____ ."

Do this quickly, without thinking too much about it.  Simply complete the the statement with the first 20 answers that come to mind. Work quickly and individually.

Here is a Google Doc of the Twenty Statements Test or you can do this on paper or in your own notes.

Unit 2: Social Structure; How has social structure shaped you?  

The poem below was written by Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who was a sociology major from Harvard. (She also wrote and read The Hill We Climb, the poem at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration). You can read more about her and hear her recite her poetry on this 2021 post from the NY Magazine.

 Arborescent I

by

Amanda Gorman

We are
        Arborescent-
What goes
        Unseen
Is at the very
        Root of ourselves.
Distance can
        Distort our deepest
Sense
        Of who
We are,
        Leave Us
Warped
        & wasted
As winter's
        Wind. We will
Not Walk
        From what
We've borne
        We would
Keep it
        For a while
Sit silent &
        Swinging on its branches
Like a child
        Refusing to come
Home. We would
        Keep.
Knowing how
        We would
Again
        Give up
Our World
        For this one.

Google Form for this lesson

1. What does Gorman mean by "We are arborescent"?
2. What are some things that "go unseen" that are "at the very root of ourselves"?

To begin this unit, this lesson will first examine evidence about how humans are programmed by their DNA and biology.  If we are programmed to grow/be/act a certain way then that is not social structure, that is biology.  Let's begin with an examination of biology v. society or nature v. nurture so that we can separate out what is social influence on people.

Like Gorman explains in her poem, people are like trees; We have a genetic programming, but that nature relies on our surrounding environment, or nurture. Tree roots under the soil are hidden but they are affected by the composition, nutrients, and water of the soil. All of us have been influenced in countless ways that we cannot see - ways that we were raised and interactions with other people. 

Human Nature is to be Nurtured

Humans are deeply interdependent on other humans to survive.  In other words,  it is human nature to be nurtured. Humans need to be cared for, and that is why we are born with a biology and a psychology designed for social interaction.  

There is lots of biological and scientific evidence for the connection between nature and nurture and the human social connection: 

Biological, Scientific and Medical data about Human Nurture

Blueprint by Nicholas Christakis

Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and medical doctor.  In his 2019 book, Blueprint, he explains that humans are born with a nature that makes us be nurtured.  This is what Christakis calls the "social suite:"

“At the core of all societies, I will show, is the social suite: 

(1) The capacity to have and recognize individual identity
(2) Love for partners and offspring
(3) Friendship
(4) Social networks
(5) Cooperation
(6) Preference for one’s own group (that is, “in-group bias”)
(7) Mild hierarchy (that is, relative egalitarianism
(8) Social learning and teaching”

  

Watch Christakis briefly summarize his book on youtube here or on the embedded video below:

For more info., Christakis has a 30 min interview with the RSA here that explains how his work can inform us during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Born Helpless

• From Scientific American,
• From Cornell,

Newborn horses can stand within an hour of birth. Baby wood ducks leap from a nest to splash down in a pond a day after hatching. Alpaca babies usually walk and nurse within 30 minutes of being born. Yet human babies, as well as the young of many other species of mammals and birds, require months or years of care before they reach full mobility and sensory function, let alone maturity.

        Neurobiology and psychology

• mirror neurons
• vagus nerve
• facial recognition
• language
• oxytocin
• left-cradling bias
• “A left-cradling bias arises from the right hemisphere advantage for social processing, for example, visual recognition of infant facial expressions,” the authors of the first study write. “The position of an infant on the mother’s left side may optimize maternal monitoring, by directing sensory information predominantly to the mother’s right hemisphere.”
  Allow us to translate. You probably learned in biology class that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and that the opposite holds true too. So if you’re holding baby on the left, your right hemisphere—the one responsible for processing emotion, making sense of what you see and facial recognition—is fully engaged. Your parenting muscles, in a sense, are fully flexed.

The Good Life; Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz

Book Review from Family Medicine, published at the NIH (2024);

• a longitudinal research endeavor that started in 1938
• The authors cover the evolving nature of our relationships through the course of a lifetime and give examples of how early childhood experiences are not always predictors of future relationships.
• The chapter on social fitness outlines a key theme of this book. Like physical health, social health and relationships take nurturing. The authors propose that we take an inventory of who is in our life and characterize the quality of these relationships (eg, depleting vs energizing). They offer a workbook, sold separately, for readers to reflect on these relationships.
• One avenue for cultivating our relationships is through our focused attention. Without this curiosity of others, we miss the opportunity to understand and be empathetic. The authors warn the reader about the negative impact of social media and smartphones on our ability to be mindful in our relationships. 
• “good relationships keep us happier, healthier, and help us live longer” (p. 278) 

 

Interview from Harvard Medicine here (2022). 

Ted Talk (2015). 

 

From Our World in Data,  

Dr. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States, recently wrote: “Loneliness and weak social connections are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day”. 

From the National Institutes of Health,

Social relationships—both quantity and quality—affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk. Sociologists have played a central role in establishing the link between social relationships and health outcomes, identifying explanations for this link, and discovering social variation (e.g., by gender and race) at the population level. Studies show that social relationships have short- and long-term effects on health, for better and for worse, and that these effects emerge in childhood and cascade throughout life to foster cumulative advantage or disadvantage in health. This article describes key research themes in the study of social relationships and health, and it highlights policy implications suggested by this research.

From Harvard Medical School,

Social connections like these not only give us pleasure, they also influence our long-term health in ways every bit as powerful as adequate sleep, a good diet, and not smoking. Dozens of studies have shown that people who have social support from family, friends, and their community are happier, have fewer health problems, and live longer.

 Dean Ornish's Reaserch 

Dr. Dean Ornish, a cardiologist who found through research that patients with medical issues, including surgeries like bypass surgery or mastectomies, healed quicker and more thoroughly if they had meaningful relationships in their lives. 

From Dr. Ornish's website:

At the Heart of Healing: Connection... there isn’t any other factor in medicine – not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery – that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death from all causes than loneliness and isolation.

Love and intimacy — our ability to connect with ourselves and others, is at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing. 

We are creatures of community. Those individuals, societies, and cultures who learned to take care of each other, to love each other, and to nurture relationships with each other during the past several hundred thousand years were more likely to survive than those who did not. Those people who did not learn to take care of each other often did not make it. In our culture, the idea of spending time taking care of each other and creating communities has become increasingly rare. Ignoring these ideas imperils our survival.

Awareness is the first step in healing, both individually and socially. Part of the value of science is to increase the level of awareness of how much these choices matter that we make each day. Not just a little, but a lot, and not just to the quality of life but also the quantity of life – to our survival. When we understand how important these issues are, then we can do something about it. These include:

• spending more time with our friends and family

• communication skills 

• group support

• confession, forgiveness, and redemption 

• compassion, altruism, and service 

• psychotherapy 

• touching

• commitment

• meditation

When we increase the love and intimacy in our lives, we also increase the health, joy, and meaning in our lives.

 

The Good Life

What Makes a good life? 

Ted Talk 

 

Bruce Perry's Research

Another researcher,  Bruce Perry,  has written extensively about the importance of nurturing humans as they grow, especially empathy.  Perry's research details the sad evidence that humans who are not nurtured by other humans will not grow and develop. There are numerous examples of kids who are fed and protected so that they survive, but they are isolated from other people and not shown love and caring.  Humans need more than nutrition and shelter to grow and develop.  

Watch both of the videos below about famous examples that are as revealing as they are sad:

Danielle, found in 2004.

Watch this video from the Oprah show which summarizes her initial finding and then updates how she is ten years later.  Ten years after she was found, the Tampa Bay Time did an update on her here.

    

Genie, found in 1970.  

This video below is about a girl named Genie who became a seminal case study in human neglect and child development. She was locked in a bedroom alone for 12 years of her life. Here is what Susan Curtiss wrote about her in her book, Genie; A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day Wild Child:

Genie was pitiful. Hardly ever having worn clothing, she did not react to temperature, either heat or cold. Never having eaten solid food, Genie did not know how to chew and had great difficulty in swallowing.  Having been strapped down and left sitting on a potty chair she could not stand erect, could not straighten her arms or legs, could not run hop, jump or climb.  In fact she could only walk with difficulty shuffling her feet and swaying from side to side. Hardly ever having seen more than a space of ten feet in front of her she had become nearsighted to exactly that distance....Surprisingly, however, Genie was alert and curious. She maintained good eye contact and...She was intensely eager for human contact.  

Feral Kids

Some people have been found to be living with wild (feral) animals. These feral people provide more evidence that humans are influenced by their surroundings. Check out this website for examples of feral children.

 

Nature-Nurture Conclusion

In conclusion, there is much evidence that humans are influenced and dependent on other humans in order to become who we are. We are conceived from a community of people and we need them after we are born to nurture us in order to grow and thrive.

3. Which research did you find most compelling for the idea that human nature is to be nurtured? Why?

Socialization before birth!

The process of nurture that shapes humans is called socialization.  As illustrated above, socialization from other humans is extremely important in human growth and development.  There is even evidence that this process begins even before birth! While still in utero, a baby is dependent on its parents for its genes. And then, as it develops in utero, it depends on its mother to make the baby's life viable; A prenatal infant can be impacted by the stress that the mother feels as well as the nutrition she gets, and the medical care she receives.

• This Ted Talk by Annie Murphy Paul explains some of the ways that humans begin learning before birth!
• Another example of prenatal socialization is in identical twins who have the same exact DNA and biology.  Because they are exactly the same, nurses will often paint the nails of twins differently so that they can quickly tell them apart.  But, often the parents of these twins can tell them apart from their earliest days because they have already started developing different personalities even before being born.

• The effects of alcohol and drugs on unborn babies are one example of prenatal effects on unborn babies that are well documented.  Additionally, other examples are the effects of prenatal vitamins and stress on the mother.  
• Yet another example of socialization happening in utero is that babies are influenced by what mothers eat during their pregnancy.  One study shows that the amniotic fluid around the baby can take on the flavor and smell of certain foods or spices.  Babies show a correlation to those foods after being born.  See more about this study here.
• There is even more recent research that has found that the experiences a grandmother has can affect the genes that she passes down to her grandchild!  In other words, the nurturing or socialization process that affects you, might start decades before you are even born!  This multigenerational effect on genes is known as epigenetics.   Here is a link to a PBS program called The Ghost in your Genes about epigenetics.  The researchers theorize that social experiences can affect the genes of a person and, more amazingly, these genes can be passed down to a generation or two. So the grandchildren may experience the effects of their grandparents' lives on their genes. How amazing is that? They call it the "ghost in your genes," explained on the BBC here.

The Self

Open the Twenty Statements Test and fill in 20 responses to the question, "Who am I?" Do this quickly, without thinking too much about it.  Simply complete the the statement with the first 20 answers that come to mind.

Try to fill in all 20 statements about yourself.   Work quickly and individually.

After you have answered 20 statements about yourself, proceed:

The "Self"

The combination of human nature and nurture allows humans to grow into conscious beings who are aware of their own identity and able to think about themselves. The Twenty Statements Test is a survey that has been used in various studies for over 50 years. (Note: this lesson is based on Rusty Schnellinger's lesson) The test is a qualitative measurement of how people think about themselves, or who they are as a person.   This conscious understanding of who we are as individuals is an example of what sociologists call a "self."  Similar to metacognition and how people think about thinking, a "self" is how individuals consciously think about who they are as an individual.  

Coding your responses.
When conducting qualitative data analysis, sometimes sociologists will code the responses to make sense of the data.  Code your responses to the Twenty Statements Test:

A mode responses: Physical characteristics.   

Ex. I am blonde, I am short, I am strong.

B mode responses: Socially defined statuses that associate you relative to a group.   

Ex. I am a student, I am Catholic, I am a quarterback, I am a daughter, I am a store clerk.

C mode responses:  Personal traits, styles of behavior or emotional states.  

Ex. I am a happy person, I am competitive, I am loud. I am tired.

D mode responses: General, more abstract or existential responses.   

Ex. I am me, I am part of the universe, I am human, I am alive.

After you code your responses, answer the following questions on your notes page:

4.  Individually:  Which type of response did you have the most of?  How many? Is that surprising or does that seem right to you?

Culture And your Sense of Self

5. Without reading any further, use your sociological imagination to hypothesize how these responses might have changed over time.  If you did this test in a different time, say 70 years ago, or in a different place, how might the different culture shape your responses to these?   

After you hypothesize about the question above, continue reading:

Peter Kaufman explains in the book A Sociology Experiment (2019) that researchers did find a change over time in the test responses and it concerned them:

In summary, this is one example that culture shapes how we think about what is important and what we value; culture may influence us to think about our "self" in certain ways.  

Erving Goffman's Dramaturgy

6.  Choose one of your responses that is a mode B response.  

a. Which one did you choose? 

b.  How do you express yourself to fit into this response?  In other words, how do you dress, talk and act in order to be like _______ (B mode response)?  What are the things that you do in order to be that role?

Discussion:  What were some examples for your answer to number two? For number two, this is exemplifying a sociological theory called Dramaturgy by Erving Goffman. Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life which theorized that people present themselves to the world based on their ideas about their "self". They create an image of how they want to be perceived. It is like being in a play, or a drama - when you go on stage you are dressed up to play your role, you have your lines and your costume etc... Goffman's theory in the form of an extended metaphor is known as dramaturgy. In Goffman's theory, every time we go into a social situation we are presenting ourselves to the world - playing a role such as sister, friend, teammate, student, girlfriend, coworker, etc... In all of these roles we talk a certain way, act a certain way and even dress a certain way.

One example might be if you answered, I am a student.  You may feel that you have your own style but I bet that you can find similarities to other students here at Loyola.  And you have learned to sit in the desk, raise your hand, show up to class, answer questions and do all the things that students do.

Agents of socialization

7.  Regarding your answer to number 6b above, what are some of the places that you have learned to talk/dress/act like this?  For example if you wrote I am a student. Where did you learn how to be a student? Where did you learn all the behaviors/habits/actions that a student does?

Discussion: Examples of where?

All the places where we learn how to act out this role are examples of what sociologists call agents of socialization, or, the most important groups that shape an individual's sense of self. (especially: family, school, peers/friends, media).  For example, if you answered I am a student, I bet learning that role happened even before you went to school.  You may have watched kids shows or cartoons about kids going off to school and what they do there.  Kids read books about the first day of school and what students do all day.  Parents tell stories about when they went to school.  And if you have older siblings, cousins or neighbors, you learn by watching and talking to them about their school experiences. Then, teachers themselves tell you what they expect from you.  A great deal of elementary school is learning how to do school.  Classmates also socialize us by sharing their habits preferences for studying and school supplies etc...  In other words, you didn't just show up and decide what kind of student you wanted to be, you were socialized by different agents throughout your life. 

Charles Horton Cooley's Looking Glass Self

8.  Also thinking about your answer to 6b, can you think of a time when one of the ways you expressed yourself was received positively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?

For example, if I answered I am a student and one of the ways I express that is by participating in class and commenting on readings, I can specifically recall a few different teachers of mine telling me that it was a pleasure having me in class to discuss the readings and challenge them on somethings while helping to generate class discussion.  

9.  Can you think of a time when one of ways you expressed yourself was received negatively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?

These are examples of Charles Horton Cooley’s theory called the “Looking Glass”.  By “Looking Glass” he is referring to a mirror.  His theory is that we learn to act a certain way because of our interactions with others and how they react to us.  Their reaction to us is like looking into a mirror that reflects back on us.  We learn from others' reactions to us how we are perceived in the world and this shapes our sense of self.

In Sum

We are influenced from the moment we are born (even before) by important groups around us including culture which we are born into.  The process by which we are shape by these social groups is called socialization.  This process not only helps us to survive but it also develops a self or our conscious way of thinking about who we are as an individual.  These most important groups that socialize us are called agents of socialization.

Please don't forget to read chapter 1 from Carolyn Deck's book, Mindset for our next lesson.