This chapter will help you do the following:

1. Summarize the nature-versus-nurture debate and the sociological perspective on it.

2. Predict the impact of isolation and neglect on children.

3. Defend the position that groups at each level in our social world have a stake in how we are socialized.

4. Describe how we develop a self through interacting with others.

5. Explain how micro- and meso-level agents of socialization influence individuals.

6. Discuss how macro-level agents of socialization can impact children today.

7. Identify policy questions that rely on an understanding of socialization.