1. Theories made up of concepts linked in causal relationships. Example from film, "Baby Talk." Scaffolding>>>>>>>>>>>>>>language development
2. Concept: a definition that singles out some aspect of social reality that a the social psychologist believes will be important in understanding a particular social pattern. Scaffolding: repetitive situations that allow for the progressive development of language and grammar. For example, the books we read to children. Goodnight moon.
3. Research: the empirical process by which theories are tested. It isn't enough for the ideas of social psychology to be convincing. They need to be operationalized and tested.
4. Science = the invention, testing, elaboration, and modification of theories through systematic research
5. Chomsky's proposal in the late 1950s of a language acquisition device (LAD) initiated a scientific revolution in our understanding of language. The old paradigm had emphasized imitation. The emphasis in this new theory is on the inherent genetically programmed capacities of the developing brain. With the new LAD paradigm, the new field of psycho-linguistics emerges.
a. Pragmatics... the practical uses of language, which in the first instance are often social... e.g. "hi," "bye bye," and the like as earliest words
b. Syntax... how the parts of language fit together (the rules of grammar , but even more)... treatment of characteristic mistakes that are found in many languages (a universal child grammar???)
c. Semantics...the meaning of words, the relationship between language and thought
1). Which comes first, or do they develop more or less simultaneously?
2) Do different cultures (with their associated languages) reflect different ways of thinking/perceiving/feeling?
d. Scaffolding... patterned repetition which allow the child to discern pragmatics, semantics, and syntax all at once as s/he solves the puzzle of communication... the child's desire to read the same books again and again... the endless repetition, with the child chiming in or even correcting the parent at crucial points. Something similar probably happens in other routinized settings-getting up, taking a bath, going to bed.
e. Pre-verbal children
1) turn-taking aspect of communication: e.g. the nursing baby (imagine the difference if you just prop the bottle in some way) (we all know adults who don't seem to get this aspect of conversation, who continually interrupt or who never pause)
2) From the start we address babies as if we are both participants in a conversation... as the "Baby Talk" puts it, "we draw intentionality out of the preintentional child. " Do parents always know how to interact with their children in ways that optimize child development?
3) "Pre-verbal"... a key limit is vocal chord development ... babies can learn sign language even earlier than speech
4). Evidence of babies paying such close attention to human faces and to voices from an extremely early age.
f. Playfulness... learning norms of language and culture, but also the capacity for surprise, innovation, humor... think of the young child trying to figure out jokes...
g. Imagine the deficit for the institutionalized child or the child with parent(s) or other caregivers who are largely distracted or negligent or just don't know how important this is.
1) Janellen Luttenlocher, University of Chicago... research showing that at 20 months, babies with talkative mothers averaged an extra 131 words of vacabulary... at 24 months, 295 words... tv was not an adequate substitute (which supports the basic premise of social interactionism)... imagine what that gap might be at 5 years old
2) importance of home visitation programs (e.g. Elmira) and preschool programs (Abecedarian Project).
h. Timing: Is the timing of this whole process critical, or is there a lot of flexibility (remember Isabelle, from the Kingsley Davis article--she had little or no language at age six, but by ten impressed Davis as "bright, cheerful, energetic")
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A. Looking glass self: the imagination of my appearance to the other person, the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification
"Society is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves. I imagine your mind and especially what your mind thinks about my mind and what my mind thinks about what your mind thinks about my mind. I dress my mind before you and expect that you will dress yours before mine. Whoever cannot or will not perform these feats is not properly in the game."
B. Primary group: a group that heavily influences my sense of who I am; initially, often the family.
Lewis Coser, Masters of Sociological Thought: "The notions of the looking-glass self and of the primary group are closely intertwined in Cooley's thought. Sensitivity to the thought of others--responsiveness to their attitudes, values, and judgments that is the mark of the mature man according to Cooley--can be cultivated and fostered only in the close and intimate interactions of the primary group. Hence, this group is the cell in which characteristically human growth takes place. In the primary group the immature and self-centered person is slowly attuned to the needs and desires of others and becomes fitted to the give-and-take of mature social life. The primary group fosters the ability to put oneself into the position of others, drawing the individual out of egotistic isolation by building into him that sensitivity to the clues of others without which social life would be impossible. 'In these [primary groups] human nature comes into existence. Man does not have it at birth; he cannot acquire it except through fellowship, and it decays in isolation.'"
VI . George Herbert Mead(1863-1931): University of Chicago Philosphy Department, where he taught the course, Advanced Social Psychology . Key book: Mind, Self, and Society
A. Mind = my communication with myself... how is that possible?
B. Two parts to the self
1. the "me"... very similar to Cooley's "looking glass self"
2. the "I"-- individual and unique
Most of the time, I control the "I" to maintain and enhance a particular "me," but I am never a social robot. At times "I" may become very discontented with "me" and set out to remake my self. E.g. son in junior high, myself in my current church
C. Stages in the Development of Self
1. Imitative stage: mere mimicry, no real self-consciousness
2. Play Stage: taking the role of the other first appears, but in limited ways. For example, as a young child, my mother is simply "Mother"; she's probably father's mother too, and certainly I have no idea that grandmother may be father's mother. Relationships still primarily egocentric.
3. Game stage. Now I can take the role of the other in performances that don't even involve me directly. I can imagine myself as daddy being a husband to mother as wife.
4. Generalized other. I build a more general sense of what is socially acceptable out of the sum of my social imaginings.
5. Additional points about this process
a. The role of language (symbolic interactionism): not just for communicating with others
b. Mind and freedom
c. Temporal priority of the social
Against behaviorism (rational choice), Mead says: "We interpret things largely in terms of the action we are prepared to take toward them, instead of this being a stimulus-response. The individual 'remakes' each stimulus and responds only to a stimulus of his or her own (social) making."
a. Relationship with Mead
b. Move to UC Berkeley, which becomes a center of symbolic interactionism
c. Summary of Symbolic Interactionism in terms of three propositions
1)"Humans act toward a thing on the basis of the meaning they assign to the thing."
In this context, "thing" includes people, places, occasions, etc.
2) "Meanings are socially derived, which is to say that meaning is not inherent in a state of nature. There is no absolute meaning. Meaning is negotiated through interaction with others."
3) "The perception and interpretation of social symbols are modified by the individual's own thought processes."
Video: "Through Deaf Eyes"