The importance of this shift resides in how others come to perceive the individual differently, the different expectations that others hold for the person, and changes in how the person sees himself or herself.
Thinking Sociologically
Find someone who has grown up in a different culture and ask her or him about rites of passage from adolescence to adulthood where she or he was raised. How are the patterns similar to or different from your own?
Even the retired and elderly members of society are constantly undergoing socialization and resocialization in the process of developing their sense of self. The type of society influences the socialization experience of the elderly and how they carry out their roles, as well as their status in society. Consider the changes that have taken place in the lifetimes of those born before 1945, as described by one elder:
We were born before television, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic contact lenses, Frisbees, and the Pill. . . . We never heard of artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt, and guys wearing earrings. For us time sharing means togetherness—not computers and condominiums. (Grandpa Junior 2006)
The elderly are vitally important to the ongoing group in more settled agricultural societies. They are the founts of wisdom and carry group knowledge, experiences, and traditions valued in societies where little change takes place. In industrial and postindustrial countries that continually undergo rapid changes, the wisdom of the elderly is not as relevant. Yet the number of elderly people is growing rapidly as medical science keeps people alive longer, diets improve, retirees have more resources, and diseases are brought under control. Average life expectancy in all of Europe’s 28 countries was 81 years in 2016, with a gender gap favoring women by 5.4 years (Eurostat 2018). The average life expectancy in the United States for those born in 2017 was 76 years for men and 81 years for women.
In modern systems, social participation by the elderly often drops after retirement. Retirement is a rite of passage to a new status, like that of marriage or parenthood, for which there is little preparation. As a result, retired people sometimes feel a sense of uselessness when they abruptly lose their occupational status. Retirees in Western societies generally have many years of life yet to live. The most socially satisfied retirees tend to develop hobbies, attend classes, enjoy sports, volunteer their time, travel, or have new jobs they can pursue after they retire. The point is that even your grandparents are going through a period of socialization, as are parents entering the empty nest stage.
▲ Some retirees, rather than taking up hobbies, decide on a part-time job, like this man who enjoys people and is now a greeter at Walmart. Others take on a postretirement job because they need the income.
© J.D. Pooley/Stringer/Getty Images
Dying is the final stage of life (Kübler-Ross 1997). Death holds different meanings in different cultures: passing into another life, a time of judgment, a waiting for rebirth, or a void and nothingness. In some religious groups, people work hard or do good deeds because they believe that they will be rewarded in an afterlife or with rebirth to a better status in the next life on earth. Thus, beliefs about the meaning of death can affect how people live their lives and how they cope with dying and death. Each stage of the life cycle involves socialization into new roles in the social world. Many social scientists have studied these developmental stages and contributed insights into what happens at each stage (Clausen 1986; Gilleard and Higgs 2015; Handel et al. 2007; Papalia, Feldman, and Martorell 2015; Piaget 1989; Putt 2014). For example, some sociologists focus their research on the study of old age (gerontology) and death and dying.
Death ends the lifelong process of socialization, a process of learning social rules and roles and adjusting to them (see the photos of death rituals on the next page). When an individual has passed on, society continues. New members are born, are socialized into the social world, pass through roles once held by others, and eventually give up those roles to younger members. Cultures provide guidelines for each new generation to follow. The social world perpetuates itself and outlives the individuals who populate it.
▲ Death rituals differ depending on the culture and religion of the group. In India (top left), this body is being cremated on the banks of the holy Ganges River to release the soul from earthly existence. The closest relative lights the funeral pyre. The top right photo shows the Muslim tradition of washing and wrapping the dead before burial in Najaf, Iraq. At the bottom left, a U.S. Honor Guard carries a casket with the remains of U.S. Air Force personnel at Arlington National Cemetery. A celestial burial master (bottom right) feeds the body of a dead Tibetan to the vultures in northwest China’s Qinghai province. In Tibetan regions, the practice is known as jhator, which literally means “giving alms to the birds”; people there believe in rebirth and see no need to preserve the body.
© istockphoto.com/Carsten Brandt
© Jehad Nga/Corbis
© iStockphoto.com/Alan Eisen
© ZHAO ZP/EPA/Lando
Thinking Sociologically
How were you socialized to view death and dying? What have you learned in your family about how to cope with death? Is death a taboo topic? If so, why?
Process of Resocialization
If you have experienced life in the military, a boarding school, a convent, a mental facility, or a prison, or had a major transition in your life such as divorce or the death of a spouse or child, you have experienced resocialization. Resocialization is the process of shedding one or more social positions and taking on others, which involves learning new norms, behaviors, and values suitable to the newly acquired status (Goffman 1961). Sometimes resocialization takes place in a total institution—a place that cuts people off from the rest of society and totally controls their lives during the process of resocialization. These include prisons, mental hospitals, monasteries, concentration camps, boarding schools, and military barracks. Bureaucratic regimentation and the manipulation of residents for the convenience of the staff is part of the routine (Goffman 1961).
We often associate resocialization with major developmental stages in adult life—leaving home to go to college or take a job, having a baby, divorce, retirement, and widowhood. Changes in status present opportunities to move in new and often exciting directions, such as going to college. Resocialization can also mean adjusting to living alone, raising children alone, loneliness, and possible financial problems.
Sometimes, resocialization occurs when individuals are forced to correct or reform behaviors defined as undesirable or deviant. Prison rehabilitation programs provide one example. However, research suggests that the difficulty in resocializing prisoners is rooted in the nature of the prison environment itself. Prisons are often coercive and violent environments, which may not provide the social supports necessary for bringing about positive change in a person’s attitudes and behaviors.
Although resocialization is the goal of self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Parents Anonymous, drug rehabilitation groups, and
