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Genie
by Melissa Moscara, M.S.
On November 4, 1970 a girl was discovered. She had been
locked in a room alone for over ten years.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
Would any child be able to recover
completely from a childhood like
Genie's?
Describe what is referred to as the
"critical period” in language
development. How does this apply
or not apply to Genie?
Genie had a normal birth weighing in at seven pounds;
however, at three months old her pediatrician noticed her hip was
dislocated and she had to wear a splint. She came back in for
routine visits at five and six months, and was progressing
normally and weighed 14 pounds. Genie's visits were inconsistent
and she was not brought back to her pediatrician until she was 11
months old and was below the weight she should have been,
weighing only 17 pounds. At this point her splint was removed
and she was alert and seemed to progress normally for her age.
At 14 months Genie developed pneumonitis, and due to the high
fever that developed a doctor told her parents that she showed
signs of early intellectual disability (Curtiss, 1977). She was then
isolated immediately into a room away from her mother and
brother where her father only spoon-fed her milk and baby cereal.
Genie was only spoken to in barks and growls and beaten if she
would speak out. Her mother had gone blind and her father was
convinced that Genie would die soon, so he did not allow anyone
to go near her but him. At night her arms were restrained and she
Describe Genie's two environments
and the impact that each had on her
development.
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was sometimes put into an oversize crib with a
cover or tied to a potty chair (Curtiss, 1977).
Genie was rescued by a social worker after
her grandmother called the police when Genie's
mother fled to her home to tell her what had
been going on. Genie was put in a children's
hospital at 13 years old, weighing just 59
pounds. The only words she could say were
“stop” and “no more.” She was still in diapers
and not able to walk. Genie, who had never been
given solid foods, was not able to swallow or
chew. A team of scientists began working with
Genie and her mental and physical development
began almost immediately (Curtiss, 1977). She
appeared to be responsive when people spoke
to her and imitated some words that were
verbalized to her. Within several months, Genie
had a vocabulary of over one hundred words!
Recent research continues to support the
argument that human language acquisition can only
occur during what is referred to as a critical period from
infancy to late puberty. Case studies such as Genie's
further support the hypothesis that some language
acquisition can be past the critical period, because
Genie's language development was significantly limited
(Newport, 2003).
11.04.1970
Tap on the image to watch a short video about Genie
Genie was then placed into foster care with the
head scientist that she had been working with. Genie
was so eager to learn new words she would ask what
everything was and wanted to touch everything like a
young child would, yet she was still not able to form
complete sentences (Johnson & Newport, 1989). The
scientist concluded that she was not intellectually
disabled. Before more testing could be done to show
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her progress the funder dropped the “Genie Project,"
and her biological mother sued to get custody of her.
After the lawsuit was settled and after the suicide of
genie's father, she was returned to her mother. Genie's
mother was not an adequate caretaker for Genie,
because she was blind, so Genie was sent into
numerous foster homes where she was abused again.
Her mother then put her into a home for intellectually
disabled adults, and she is said to still be living there
(Johnson et al., 1989).
FEEDBACK
Click here to see the APA citations for this chapter.
Tap on the image to watch a longer video showing footage of
Genie with the researchers.
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CHAPTER 7
TUS
TÚNO
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION AND
THE LOOKING
GLASS SELF
The self cannot be perceived
without context: the way others
see us influences how we see
ourselves. It affects us in
everyday interactions, but also
on a broader scale, when we
consider ourselves part of a
particular culture, generation, or
historical period. This chapter will
show how two important theories
shaped this sociological view of
the self.
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The Sociological Imagination
and the Looking Glass Self
by Cristina Lucier, Ph.D.
Introduction
REVIEW QUESTIONS
What is the sociological imagination?
What is the difference between private
troubles and public issues?
What does Cooley mean by the looking
glass self?
Sociologists are interested in the scientific study of human
societies and human social interactions. When thinking about the
development of the individual “self,” sociologists emphasize the role
of social forces in shaping individual behaviors, perspectives, and
values. Social forces impact individuals on a range of levels. These
levels vary from that of everyday interactions (known as the “micro"
level) to that of a broader cultural and historical period in which an
individual lives (known as the “macro” level).
In this chapter, you will learn two concepts. First, you will learn
about the sociological imagination, a concept developed by
sociologist C. Wright Mills. The sociological imagination discusses
the intersection between individual biographies and public histories.
Second, you will learn about the looking glass self, a concept
developed by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley. The looking glass
self explains how our perceptions of ourselves are shaped by the
social feedback we receive.
Give an example of how your perspective
of another's perspective of you has
influenced a particular action, or inaction,
in your life.
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The Sociological Imagination
and the Looking Glass Self
by Cristina Lucier, Ph.D.
Introduction
REVIEW QUESTIONS
What is the sociological imagination?
What is the difference between private
troubles and public issues?
What does Cooley mean by the looking
glass self?
Sociologists are interested in the scientific study of human
societies and human social interactions. When thinking about the
development of the individual “self,” sociologists emphasize the role
of social forces in shaping individual behaviors, perspectives, and
values. Social forces impact individuals on a range of levels. These
levels vary from that of everyday interactions (known as the “micro"
level) to that of a broader cultural and historical period in which an
individual lives (known as the “macro” level).
In this chapter, you will learn two concepts. First, you will learn
about the sociological imagination, a concept developed by
sociologist C. Wright Mills. The sociological imagination discusses
the intersection between individual biographies and public histories.
Second, you will learn about the looking glass self, a concept
developed by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley. The looking glass
self explains how our perceptions of ourselves are shaped by the
social feedback we receive.
Give an example of how your perspective
of another's perspective of you has
influenced a particular action, or inaction,
in your life.
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The sociological imagination
Millennials Living at Home, 2012
% of adults ages 18 to 31 living at the home of their
parent(s)
All Millennials
36
Age
18-24
56
25-31
16
Gender
Imagine you have recently graduated from college
(finally!), and you are at a party with others in your age
group. You hear from a friend that one of your
acquaintances that graduated from college about two
years earlier had moved back in with his parents. What
would you think about this acquaintance in light of this
information? In the United States, at least, it is socially
expected that, after college, young adults will be living
away from the home they grew up in. Therefore, many
people might have something of a negative impression
of a college graduate who is living at home with his
parents. Further, such individuals probably have a
negative view of their own situation, thinking that their
lack of initial career success is a result of their own
failures or shortcomings.
Male
40
Female
32
Educational attainment
HS grad or less
40
43
Some college
Bachelor's
degree+
Labor force status
18
Employed
29
Unemployed
45
Not in labor force
50
Is such a situation the result of individual
shortcomings? Is there any other way to make sense of
this situation? Well, as sociologist C. Wright Mills would
advocate, it is important to look beyond such individual
circumstances and consider the broader conditions in
the society during that period. According to Pew
Research, in the United States 16% of adults aged
25-31 were living at home with their parents in 2012 (Fry,
2013). This trend was found to be strongly associated
with declining marriage rates, along with levels of
Notes: "Living at home" refers to an adult who is the child or
stepchild of the head of the household, regardless of the
adult's marital status.
Source: Pew Research Center tabulations of March 2012
Current Population Survey (CPS) Integrated Public Use Micro
Sample
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Tap on the image to read the article “A Rising Share of
Young Adults Live in Their Parents' Home” by Richard
Fry (2013).
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The first fruit of [the sociological] imagination--and the first lesson of the social
science that embodies it—is the idea that the individual can understand his own
experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that
he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all
individuals in his circumstances. In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many
ways a magnificent one. We do not know the limits of man's capacities for
supreme effort or willing degradation, for agony or glee, for pleasurable brutality
or the sweetness of reason. But in our time we have come to know that the limits
of 'human nature' are frighteningly broad. We have come to know that every
individual lives, from one generation to the next, in some society; that he lives out
a biography, and that he lives it out within some historical sequence. By the fact
of his living he contributes, however minutely, to the shaping of this society and
to the course of its history, even as he is made by society and by its historical
push and shove (Mills, 1959, para. 9).
People make choices every day that influence the course of their own lives, the lives of others around them, and,
in a small way, the society in which they live. At the same time, the society in which we live shapes the range of
choices that are available to us, and makes it more likely that we will choose certain options. In short, the sociological
imagination emphasizes the importance of understanding the reciprocal, or mutually reinforcing, relationships
between: 1. personal biographies and human history; 2. personal problems and political issues; and 3. social
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education and employment (Jones, 2014). Other
research has shown that the rate of young adults living
at home has been increasing for a number of years.
Given this context, individual shortcomings no
longer seem like the only way to explain the
circumstance of a college graduate returning to live at
home with his parents. While some situations are
clearly the result of individual poor decisions, C. Wright
Mills insists that many of the situations that we assume
are “private troubles” are actually closely tied in with
broader "public issues” that we do not control. This
misunderstanding has implications for individuals,
since they tend to feel an unrealistic amount of blame
or pride for their own situations, and they fail to
recognize how much of their situation is shaped by
circumstances beyond their control. This
misunderstanding also has implications for public life,
because if everyone thinks that they have created their
own fates, then fewer people will be interested in
participation in the public sphere.
C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
This reimagining of society as shaping the self,
and the self as shaping society, is the key contribution
of the sociological imagination. This concept is
important because it allows us to understand the role of
social forces in shaping individual biographies. The
sociological imagination also provides a way of
understanding how individual decisions and interactions,
taken together, can shape the course of history. As C.
Wright Mills (1959) explained in The Promise:
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structures and individual agency (defined as “the ability
to act”).
In the next section, you will learn about another
classic sociological concept that also emphasizes the
importance of understanding individual behaviors in
terms of the particular social context in which they
occur.
The looking-glass self and Charles Horton Cooley
As you learned in the previous section, C. Wright
Mills' sociological imagination emphasizes the ways in
which individual choices shape, and are shaped by, the
larger historical context in which individuals live. In this
section, you will learn more about the ways in which our
more immediate, everyday social and cultural
environment is shaped by the forces of socialization, and
in turn, how this environment shapes our self-
perceptions.
survival skills, but that
we are taught them in
much different ways
according to factors
such as our social
class, our race or
ethnicity, our gender,
or the country in which
we grow up. In other
words, children in a
rural village in India
are not subject to the
same socialization
Charles Cooley
process as children
growing up on the
(1864-1929)
Upper East Side of
Manhattan. These children are learning to eat different
foods, walk and talk differently, and to consider some
chores or survival skills as more crucial than others. This
socialization process is generally geared toward
teaching children the skills, tastes, and sensibilities that
they will need in order to fit in the social environment
where they are being raised. Socialization is also the
means by which social norms (seemingly natural or
normal practices, such as shaking someone's hand to
greet them) are passed on through generations.
Consider this question: What does it mean to raise a
child? Even if you have no direct experience with this,
you can probably think back to all of the things that your
family had to teach you in order to prepare you to live
independently. Growing up, pretty much all humans
learn the basics of walking, talking, hygiene, cooking, or
other chores. What is interesting to sociologists,
however, is not that we are all taught these same basic
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