8 - The socialization of prosocial behavior: theory and reality

Summary

In this chapter we shall be concerned with two aspects of the socialization process. First, we shall discuss psychological theory and research designed to establish the most effective ways of training children to adapt to the values and demands of society, and second, we shall then consider research concerned with the actual behavior of parents who have the responsibility of instilling these values in their children. The question of interest is the extent to which psychological theory and parent behavior are similar. Do parents behave the way psychologists say they should? If not, why not? To anticipate, the concordance between psychological dictate and parent behavior is not always perfect, and we shall speculate about why this is so.

Theories of child-rearing

One of the chief tasks parents face is transmitting to their offspring information about socially acceptable ways of behaving and motivating them to behave in accord with this information even in the absence of surveillance. For a psychologist attempting to understand the socialization process, then, the challenge is to find out how societal values are internalized, that is, how children come to adopt them as their own. Throughout the history of psychological thought and theorizing, a number of suggestions have been offered. For Freud, socialization came about as the result of resolution of the Oedipal conflict, in which the child identified with the threatening parent as a way of reducing anxiety about the possibility of castration.