- Discuss the ongoing debate over what most determines human behavior: "nature" (heredity) or "nurture" (social environment), and cite the evidence that best supports each position.
- Explain the statement, "It is society that makes people human."
- Discuss how studies of feral, isolated, and institutionalized children prove that social contact and interaction is essential for healthy human development.
- Understand, distinguish between, and state the respective strengths and limitations of the following theorists' insights into human development: Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Carol Gilligan, and Sigmund Freud.
- Discuss how socialization is not only critical to the development of the mind, but also to the development of emotions affecting not only how people express their emotions, but also what particular emotions they may feel.
- Know what is meant by gender socialization and how the family, media, and other agents of socialization teach children to act masculine or feminine based on their sex.
- Describe some of the "gender messages" in the family and mass media, and discuss how these messages may contribute to social inequality between men and women.
- List the major agents of socialization in American society, and talk about how each of these teach and influence people's attitudes, behaviors, and other orientations toward life.
- Define the term "resocialization" and provide examples of situations that may necessitate it.
- Understand why socialization is a lifelong process and summarize the needs, expectations, and responsibilities that typically accompany different stages of life.
- Discuss why human beings are not prisoners of socialization while providing examples of how people exercise a considerable degree of freedom over which agents of socialization to follow, and which cultural messages to accept or reject from those agents of socialization.
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