What is Socialization?

ANS: Generally, socialization is the process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and actions
appropriate for members of a particular culture (Schaefer, 2010:76).

From a micro-sociological perspective, socialization helps us to discover how to behave “properly”

and what to expect from others if we follow society’s norms and values.

From a macro-sociological perspective, socialization provides for the transmission of a culture from
one generation to the next and thereby for the long-term continuance of society.

Thus socialization is a learning process that involves the development or changes in the individual’s
sense of ‘self’, group culture, etc. When your parents teach you how to behave politely, when your
teachers teach you about your country’s history, when a priest teaches you to behave a certain way
(i.e. listen to God’s commandments), you are being socialized. When you are being socialized, you
are taking part (willingly or unwillingly) in a learning process.

Social Experience: The Key to our Humanity

 Human Development: Nature versus Nurture • Social Isolation

Social Isolation
In 1962, psychologists Harry and Margaret Harlow observed rhesus monkeys.
Six month’s Isolation & Three month’s Isolation

Sigmund Freud: The Elements of Personality Freud says that humans respond to two
fundamental needs or drives. First, humans have a basic for bonding, which Freud termed
the life instinct. The second is an aggressive drive he called the death instinct.

Freud developed a three-part model of personality: id, ego, and superego. The id represents
the human being's basic drives, which are unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction.
The ego represents a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives
with the demands of society. The superego is cultural values and norms internalized by the
individual.
The superego is a conscious drive, and it helps us grasp why we cannot have everything that
we want. The id and superego remain in conflict, but in a well-adjusted person, the ego
manages these two opposing forces. If conflicts are not resolved during childhood, Freud
claimed they may surface as personality disorders later on.

George Herbert Mead: The Social Self Mead's central thought is self, a dimension of
personality composed of an individual's self-awareness and self-image.
First, Mead said that the self is absent at birth and develops. The self is not a part of the
body and it does not exist at birth. Mead rejected the view that humans have biological
drives (Freud's view) or develop only with biological maturation (Piaget's view).
Second, the self develops only with social experience as the individual interact with others.
Third, Mead claimed social experience is symbolic interaction or the exchange of symbols.

George Herbert Mead: The Social Self Fourth, humans comprehend intention by learning to
take the role of the other. Charles Cooley coined the phrase looking glass self to mean a
conception of self-based on the responses of others. We come to know ourselves from how
others think and act toward us. Mead's fourth argument is that, by taking the role of another
we become self-reflective.

Agents of Socialization

►The Family ►The School ►The Peer Group ►The Workplace ►The Mass Media

Socialization and the Life Course

 Childhood  Adolescence  Adulthood  Old Age  Death and Dying

Re- socialization

Re- socialization refers to the process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting
new ones as part of a transition in one's life. Re-socialization is a two-part process: •Breaking
down inmates’ existing identity •Building a new self through a system of rewards and
punishments

Total Institution

This term was coined in 1961 by Erving Goffman and was designed to describe a society,
which is generally cut off from the rest of society but still provides for all the needs of its
members. Therefore, total institutions have the ability to resocialize people either
voluntarily or involuntarily. For example, the following would be considered as total
institutions: prisons, the military, mental hospitals, convents, etc. (Schaefer & Lamm, 1992:
113).

Goffman lists four characteristics of such institutions: All aspects of life are conducted in
the same place and under the same single authority. Each phase of a member’s daily
activity is carried out in the immediate company of others. All members are treated alike
and all members do the same thing together. Daily activities are tightly scheduled. All
activity is superimposed upon the individual by a system of explicit formal rules. A single
rational plan exists to fulfill the goals of the institution.

MCQ, Fill in the gaps, true/false Short Question

1. What is socialization? Discuss the debate between nature vs. nurture 2. What was the
basic reason for the experiment on Social Isolation by Harry and Margaret Harlow? 3. Briefly
explain Freud's Model of Personality 4. What is the difference between Sigmund Freud and
George Herbert Mead’s theory 5. What is re-socialization and why do we need this? 6. What
is the total institution? What are the characteristics of the total institution? 7. How do
gender roles become different? Broad Question 1. Discuss the agents of socialization,
illustrating examples from your own society.