Outlining Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Outlining - Essay Example Twin studies have shown that there is an interaction between environmental factors and heredity. The preliminary outcomes from the conducted twin studies imply that both genetic factors and socialization processes are essential in human development (ibid). This is the scientific and systematic study of the biological underpinnings of social behavior. Sociobiologists in essence apply the principles of natural selection of the natural scientist Charles Darwin to the investigation of the human social behavior. They infer that specific forms of behavior become hereditarily connected to an organism if they play a significant role in is suitability to survive (Albrow, 1999). Individuals have diverse perceptions, sentiments, feelings and ideas about their identity and their attributes. However, these abilities of individuals to understand their position intrinsically and externally are not inborn. Sociologists argue that individuals establish their own description, which is the self. Both sociologists and psychologists have expressed interests in the process of individuals’ development and adjustment of the self because of social interactions (ibid). Cooley promoted the belief that individuals learn who they are through interacting with others. The viewpoint of individuals on themselves then not simply comes from direct reflection of their personal attributes, but also from their impression of how others identify them. Cooley referred to this process of self development as the looking-glass self which indicates that the self is the outcome of social interactions with other people (Schaefer, 1995). Georger Herbert Mead continued the tradition of sociological thinking of Cooley. He further explored the interactionist theory and the sociological understanding of the self. Mead formulated a useful model of the process by which the self surfaces, defined by three discrete stages (Smelser, 1967). These are the