Many scholars have tried to study the growth and development of twins so that they can understand the nature and nurture question. Identical have the same genes, and many researchers have concluded that the different between them is the effect of the environment. When twins are separated at birth, their behavior is not similar, they dress in a different manner depending on the environment they have grown in, and they might talk in a different language and have different goals and dreams in life. The environment that twins grow in determines their differences. As much as they have similar genes, their behavior is different.
Heredity and environment play a key role in individual development; the personality of a person has a direct relationship with heredity, there are traits that are transferred from parent to child, and they become more intense as a person grows up. Some people are born with inborn talents such as music, which are acquired, from their parents. There are also some developmental traits acquired from the environment, one's exposure to issues taking place in the society determines his/her development. Children who grow up in a violent environment are likely to grow up being violent (Ridley, 2003).
In the theory of “looking glasses self”, Cooley explains that our self-concept and personal identity is a reflection of what other people in the society perceive us. The beliefs that others have concerning us shape our ideas and life at large. The theory has three stages, in the first stage Cooley explains that human beings imagine how they appear or seem to appear to other people, through social interactions one can understand what other people think of him/her. The third stage involves imagining how other people judge us; one cannot tell who he/she is until other people tell him/her. Human beings experience a reaction when they imagine how other people judge them of how they appear to other people. The reaction to how people judge or think of a person determines how one interacts with other people (Jacobs, 2006).
The concept of “I” and “Me” by George Herbert defines the two sides of self. According to George”, Me “is a representation of the attitudes and expectations of others, the others in this case is generalized. “I” serves as a response to “Me” and represent the individuality of a person. The other serves as an instrument for social control whereby there is a social mechanism, which the society uses to control the conduct of its members. The stages of self-development identified by George are the preparatory stage where children interact socially through imitation, the play stage where children learn social interaction through play and the game stage (Forrester, 2000).
Ervin Hoffmann analyzed social interaction and concluded that human beings live their lives as actors who are performing on stage. How people represent themselves varies on the environment and people that we are interacting with, how one appears before his/her boss is different from how he/she appears in front of his/her family members. On the front, stage one gets to perform before an audience while, at the back stage, it is where preparation takes place for the main performance. Many employees will try to be friendly with their bosses and other office colleagues but once they are not in the office, they talk of how they hate them. People try to be friendly while in certain social groups but once they have left, they describe how boring and irritated they felt.
There are many agents of socialization; however, the main four agents are the family, school, mass media and peer groups. Gender socialization is highly influenced by gender roles, in pupils and boys get to interact in an educational environment, they get an equal opportunity to compete academically. There are many activities in school such as games where both girls and boys get to participate. Unlike the peer groups where there are so many gender roles, the school provides few gender role activities hence better and health interaction. Technology has changed the socialization structure from the traditional methods of socialization to modern ones. People can easily interact through the social media and get to engage in social discussions. The internet has made the world a global village where social interactions take a faster and easy path.
Ervin Goffman described a total institution to be an enclosed and isolated social system where the aspects of its participants are controlled. The first characteristic of the total institution is that all aspects of life have to be performed in the same place under one central authority. Daily activities of the members are done on a group’s basis, and all members are treated equal. All daily are planned and arranged in different phases, and all the enforced activities are consolidated in onesingle rational plan .A degradation ceremony gives one a new identity and renewal of personal dignity so that a person can become acceptable in the society. The society provides support to the elderly population; in some nations, they get financial support from the government. The young generation has a social obligation to take care of the elderly, however, in some societies they are neglected with nobody to look after them. According to the activity theory of aging, as people grow old, they still maintain their regular activities and social pursuits, while, in the disengagement theory, there is mutual social withdrawal and decreased social activities as one gets old. In the activity theory, as one grows old, he/she finds substitute for the activities he/she has been engaging in while in disengagement theory there is no substitutes. Ageism can be dealt with through developing activities that old people can engage in and supporting the aged in the society.
References
Forrester, M. A. (2000). Psychology of the image. London: Routledge ;.
Jacobs, G. (2006). Charles Horton Cooley: imagining social reality. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Macionis, J. J. (2003). Sociology (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Ridley, M. (2003). Nature via nurture: genes, experience, and what makes us human. New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins.
