Socialization

Man is not only social but also cultural. It is the culture that provides opportunities for man to develop the
personality. Development of personality is not an automatic process. Every society prescribes its own
ways and means of giving social training to its new born members so that they may develop their own
personality. This social training called ‘Socialization’.
SOCIALIZATION:

 the lifelong process by which people acquire attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour patterns expected of
a specific society
 Socialization- the lifelong process of learning to become a member of the social world
 Socialization is predominately an unconscious process by which a newborn child learns the
values, beliefs, rules and regulations of society or internalizes the culture in which it is born.
Socialization: Active process whereby human beings 
 Learn how to become members of society
 Develop a self or sense of individual identity and
 Learn to participate in social relationships with others.
Agents of Socialization:
 Agents of socialization prepare us for our place in society
 Agents are the mechanism through which the self learns the beliefs, values, and behaviors of the
culture
 The importance of various agents change over the life course
 Agents can be formal or informal.
Agents of Socialization:
1. Family
2. School
3. Peer group
4. Mass Media
5. Religion
6. Sports

1. Family:
 The most important socializing agent
 Through close interaction with parents and small number of others, child:
 Learns to think and speak
 Internalizes norms, beliefs, and values
 Learns gender roles
 Develops capacity for intimate and personal relationships
 Socialization affected by:
 Social class of parents
 Parenting style
 Preparedness of parents for parenting role
 Psychological health of parents (e.g., neglect, abuse, or abandonment of child)
 Family type (e.g., single parent family, blended family)
2. School:
One of the first tasks at school is to learn to fit in by getting along with others. School provides
children with their first training in how to behave
School contribute to uniformity
Expected to both help children develop their potential and mold them into social conformity
The hidden curriculum- trains students to be patriotic, to believe in their country’s cultural values
and obey its laws.
1st time you were under control of an adult other than a parent.
 Teacher kind but not affectionate in same way as parents
 Teacher enforced rules impartially and did not allow the kind of exceptions to
them that parents might.
 Rules not negotiated
 Some children soon discovered, received more than others = rewards, and prizes
or more attention for undesirable behaviour
 Therefore classroom was an unequal place despite teachers efforts.
3. Peer group:
Peer group: Individuals usually of same age who enjoy approximately equal status
The Peer Group:

 a secondary agent
 Allow children and young people:
 Opportunities to engage in experiences not provided in family, including examining feelings,
beliefs and ideas not acceptable to family
 Opportunities for self-direction and self-expression
 teach or socialize individuals about how to share, handle conflict, participate in activities with
others, measure one’s physical social and mental abilities
 4. Mass Media:
A secondary agent. Teaches functions of society, norms, and values, ideals (both positive &
negative).
5. Religion:
 May have effect on moral outlook
 Children tend to develop the same religious beliefs as their parents.
 Very often those who disavow religion return to their original faith at some point in their
life, especially if they have strong ties to their family of origin and after they form
families of their own.
6. Sports :
 Through sports, men and women learn concepts of self.
 Men learn that being competitive in sports is considered a part of “manhood.”
 Current research finds that women in sports develop a strong sense of bodily competence,
which is typically denied to them by the prevailing cultural images of women’s bodies.

Re socialization:
Re socialization is the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors to match new
situations in life. Occurs each time we learn something that is contrary to our previous experiences,
such as going to work in a new job.
Gender Socialization:
The processes by which people learn to be masculine or feminine according to the expectations current in
their society.
 from birth, boys & girls are handled differently:
 Boys: play with more roughly, punished more, have more freedom.
 Girls: cuddled, talked more, punished with more gentle reprimands, encouraged to be neat,
obedient, feminine, quieter and passive, controlled.
 By 3 years of age, children understand that they are boy/girl; show preferences toward gender.
 Supported & reinforced by parents’ choice of toys.