Analysis of Socialization Agents and Harlow's Experiment in Sociology

This essay explores the agents of socialization, primarily focusing on the influence of family and school in shaping an individual's beliefs, norms, and values. It further analyzes Harry Harlow's experiment on rhesus monkeys to understand the impact of maternal separation and social isolation, drawing parallels with cases of isolated children like Isabelle, the wild boy of Aveyron, and Genie. The essay highlights the crucial role of social interaction and maternal care in development, contrasting the outcomes of monkeys raised with terry cloth surrogate mothers versus those raised with wire mesh surrogates, and emphasizing the lasting effects of early social deprivation.

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24 May 2018
Discussion one: Agents of socialization
Socialization is the process through which individuals become internalized into the
ideologies and norms of a society through learning and teaching. Socialization leads to the
continuity of cultures and societies. Socialization is a continuous process and usually occurs
through socialization agents such as School, family, mass media and peers. Out of the four,
family and school have influenced me the most. The family as the first socialization agent that I
was introduced to has played a major role in shaping my personality. It also instilled in me a set
of beliefs, norms, and values that distinguish me from other human beings. These beliefs and
norms and values have influenced my ethnicity, religion and social status. Apart from the
cultural values, the family has also played a major role in influencing my attitude towards me
and other people (Giddens et al 36).
The school comes second after the family. It has particularly played a major role in
shaping my thinking process by widening my perspectives on the way I perceive myself and the
society. It has also influenced my social life by introducing me to social regulations, rules and
rights thus it has helped me to live according to my own knowledge and ideas. My ability to
manage matters in my everyday life has been as a result of arithmetic, writing and reading
concepts that I’ve learnt in school (Grusec and Hastings 88).

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Discussion two: Classical experiment
Back in the 1950’s An American Psychologist Harry Harlow conducted an experiment to
establish the impact of maternal separation and social isolation. He used a series of experiments
on Rhesus monkeys to establish the impact that separation and isolation would have in lives later
on. He separated monkeys form their biological mother’s 6 to 12 hrs after birth and placed them
under the care of a heavy wire mesh and terry cloth surrogate mothers both able to provide
nourishment, in his first experiment. In his second experiment, he separated the monkeys and
placed them with either surrogate or heavy wire mesh mother, in this case leaving them with no
alternatives. This also involved the introduction of stressful variables. In his first experiment, he
observed that the infants spent more time cuddling with terry cloth surrogate mothers. In the
second experiment, he observed an emotional attachment between the terry cloth mother and the
infants in the presence of stressful variables, whereby the infants would run and cuddle with the
terry cloth mother until all was calm. On the contrary, for the infants placed with heavy wire
mesh mothers, they rocked back and forth and threw themselves on the floor when faced with
stressful variables (Suomi et al 42).
Similarly, lack of social contact had a negative impact on Isabelle who reacted with fear
and hostility to strangers and was unable to communicate. Similarly, the wild boy Aveyron had
developed a strange behavior of escaping from human beings and an emotional attachment to
animals as a result of isolation. The result also compares with Genie, whose isolation had
affected both her development and emotional attachment (Dombrowski, et al 22).

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Work Cited
Dombrowski, Stefan C., et al. "Feral Children." Assessing and Treating Low Incidence/High
Severity Psychological Disorders of Childhood. Springer, New York, NY, 2011. 81-93.
Giddens, Anthony, et al. Introduction to sociology. WW Norton, 2016.
Grusec, Joan E., and Paul David Hastings, eds. Handbook of socialization: Theory and research.
Guilford Publications, 2014.
Suomi, Stephen J., Frank CP Van der Horst, and René Van der Veer. "Rigorous experiments on
monkey love: An account of Harry F. Harlow’s role in the history of attachment theory."
Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 42.4 (2008): 354-369.