Do you recognize that some agencies are gaining significance while others may be experiencing some decline in their relative importance. Explore why these changes are occurring and the potential consequences of these changes. Socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. From a macrosociological perspective, socialization provides for the transmission of a culture from one generation to the next and thereby for the long-term continuance of a society. Today, most social scientists have moved beyond this debate, acknowledging instead the interaction of these variables in shaping human development.
Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological bases of social behavior.
Sociobiologists basically apply naturalist Charles Darwin's principles of natural selection to the study of social behavior. In its extreme form, sociobiology suggests that all behavior is the result of genetic or biological factors and that social interactions play no role in shaping people's conduct. In the early 1900's, Charles Horton Cooley advanced the belief that we learn who we are by interacting with others. Cooley used the phrase looking-glass self to emphasize that the self is the product of our social interactions with other people. George Herbert Mead continued Cooley's exploration of interactionist theory.