Analysis Of Desperately Seeking Susan

Socialization is a necessary and inevitable part of every person 's life. It is how we develop our personality, our values, our knowledge and more. Oftentimes we are socialized without even being aware of it. In this personal ad, Desperately Seeking Susan, Shawn displays many different aspects of his own socialization and self identity and he assumes many social identities.

One example of Shawn 's socialization comes observational learning. Observational learning is a process of socialization where people learn behaviors after watching other people 's behavior and observing the consequences. Shawn 's personal ad shows an example of observational learning in the life plan section where he talks about wanting to be a nurse and his mother 's

He displays signs of being both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation is when a person is motivated by their own being, rather than by outside sources. In his ad, Shawn discusses how he enjoys helping people and he knows that he would want a nurse that enjoyed his/her job. He also mentions that he regrets not having graduated college yet. This displays intrinsic motivation because he is working toward becoming a nurse because he feels it is something he would be good at and he has set this goal for himself and wants to achieve it. His motivation comes from within. Despite this, Shawn also shows slight signs of being extrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation is when someone is motivated by an outside source, usually a reward or a punishment. After discussing his love for helping people, Shawn mentions that the good pay of becoming a nurse definitely didn 't hurt his decision. This hints to the reader that he is slightly motivated by the reward of the job (the money), even if that isn 't his main motivation. Both his motivation from these sources and his learning from his mother help display another form of socialization: anticipatory

This is when you receive a positive reaction from an outside source. It can often affect a person 's self esteem. Shawn says in his profile that people often tell him that he is good looking. This positive feedback probably had a positive influence on his self esteem because he gained confirmation of his attractiveness from those around him. However, after hearing about his good looks from others, Shawn had to make sure for himself. This is where social comparison comes in.

Social comparison is the idea that we are able to gain an accurate sense of ourselves by comparing ourselves to others. Shawn talks about how he looks at other guys around his work, and in his community and says that he believes he 's in "the top third on the "looks" scale." This is an example of how Shawn has compared himself to others in order to determine where he fits in his society. There is, however, a third explanation for Shawn 's high self