Question

vocab definitions of Personality
Heredity
Instinct
Sociobiology
Aptitude
Socialization
Self
Looking-glass self
Role-taking
Significant others
Generalized other
I
Me
Dramaturgy
Impression management
Agents of socialization
Peer group
Mass media
Resocialization
Total institution

Answer 1

- Personality: The organized set of attitudes, behaviors, feelings, and traits that make an individual unique and relatively stable across situations and time.

- Heredity: The biological transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to offspring that influence physical traits and predispositions (including some behavioral tendencies).

- Instinct: An innate, fixed pattern of behavior present in all members of a species that appears without prior learning and is triggered by specific stimuli.

- Sociobiology: A theoretical perspective that explains social behavior in terms of evolutionary biology and genetic adaptation (associates social traits with survival and reproductive advantages).

- Aptitude: A natural ability or potential to learn certain skills or acquire knowledge quickly; often used to predict success in specific tasks or occupations.

- Socialization: The lifelong process by which individuals internalize society’s norms, values, roles, and expectations and learn to function as members of a social group.

- Self: An individual’s awareness of being a distinct person with an identity, formed through social interaction and reflection.

- Looking-glass self: (Charles Horton Cooley) The idea that a person’s self-concept develops through imagining how others see them, interpreting others’ reactions, and internalizing those judgments.

- Role-taking: The process of mentally assuming the perspective of another person to understand their thoughts, feelings, or expected behavior (key concept in George Herbert Mead’s work).

- Significant others: Specific people (parents, close friends, mentors) whose opinions and approval are especially important in the development of an individual’s self and behavior.

- Generalized other: (Mead) The internalized attitudes, expectations, and norms of the larger community or social group that guide an individual’s behavior across situations.

- I: (Mead) The spontaneous, impulsive, and creative aspect of the self that responds immediately to the social world.

- Me: (Mead) The organized set of attitudes of others that an individual assumes; the socialized, conforming aspect of the self that reflects the generalized other.

- Dramaturgy: (Erving Goffman) A perspective that analyzes social interaction as if individuals are actors on a stage, managing performances to create desired impressions.

- Impression management: The deliberate effort to control the image or impression one presents to others in social interactions.

- Agents of socialization: People, groups, or institutions (family, schools, peers, media, religion, workplaces) that influence an individual’s social development and learning.

- Peer group: A social group of roughly equal age, status, or interests that provides companionship, social identity, and informal influence outside the family.

- Mass media: Channels of communication (television, newspapers, radio, internet, social media) that reach large, diverse audiences and shape public perceptions, norms, and information.

- Resocialization: The process by which individuals discard former behavior patterns and adopt new ones, often through intense training or life transitions (common in institutions, rehabilitation, or major role changes).

- Total institution: (Goffman) A setting in which people are isolated from wider society and subjected to strict control and standardized routines (e.g., prisons, military boot camps, psychiatric hospitals), often used to accomplish resocialization.