ABSTRACT
Socialization is an important topic of study within sociological social psychology because it explains how society comes to exert such a strong effect on the perceptions and behaviors of individuals. This chapter discusses a prominent model of the socialization process within sociological social psychology called the interpretive approach that expands on Piaget's model of cognitive development. Interpretive sociologists view primary socialization as a continuous creation and reorganization of knowledge. This process is shaped by children's developing cognitive skills and by the expansion of their interactive encounters to contexts beyond that of the family. Gender differences in peer interaction, and the types of activities that characterize children's peer cultures, are the likely root of the observed difference in role-taking propensity. Cross-cultural studies offer additional evidence that gender differences in perception and behavior are learned rather than innate. Researchers studying secondary socialization processes have focused primarily on the interactions that occur in work and educational settings.
