Socialization

Introductio
n
• 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 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 is called ‘Socialization’.
 Introduction
• The process of socialization is conditioned by culture.
• Since every society has its own culture the ways of the process of
socialization also differ from society to society.
• Further, the same culture and the same ways of socialization may
have diverse effects on the development of the personality of the
members of the same society.
• Socialization is a process of moulding a human infant to a member
of society to which he/she belongs.
Definitio
n
• W.H. Ogburn says “Socialization is a process by which the individual learns
to conform to the norms of the group”.
• Bogardus define “Socialization as the process of working together,of
developing group responsibility, of being guided by welfare needs of
others”.
• Green says “Socialization is the process which the child acquires a cultural
content, along with selfhood and personality”.
• Peter Worsley explains socialization as the process of “transmission of
culture, the process whereby men learn the rules and practices of social
groups”.
 Process of
Socialization
• Socialization is the process of learning group norms, ideals, habits,
behaviours and customs.
• The process of Socialization starts long before the child is born.
• The parents courtship, marital selection, the customs concerning
pregnancy and birth.
• Whole system of cultural practices surrounding the family are
important for the child’s growth.
• But direct socialization begins only after birth.
Importance of
socialisation
 Importance of
socialization
• Socialization converts man, the biological being into the social
being.
• Socialization contributes to the development of personality.
• Helps to become disciplined.
• Helps to enact different roles.
• Provides the knowledge of skills.
• Helps to develop right aspiration in life.
• Contributes to the stability of the social order.
• Helps to reduce social distance.
• Provides scope for building the bright future.
• Helps the transmission of culture.
 Importance of
socialization
• Socialization converts man, the biological being into man, the social
being.
• Man is not born as social.
• He becomes social by virtue of the process of socialization.

• Socialization contributes to the development of personality.

• Personality is a product of society.
• In the absence of groups or society no man can develop a personality of his
own.
• But socialization is a process through which the personality of the new
born child is shaped and moulded.
• The process of socialization prepares the child to lead an approved way of
social life.
 Importance of
socialization
• Helps to become disciplined.
• Social learning is essentially the learning of rules of social behaviour.
• It is through socialization that the child learns not only rules of social behaviour
but also the values, ideals, aims and objectives of life and the means of attaining
them.
• Socialization disciplines an individual and helps him to live according to the social
expectations.

• Helps to enact different roles.

• Every individual has to enact different roles in his life.
• Every role is woven around norms and is associated with different attitudes.
• The process of socialization assists an individual not only to learn the norms
associated with roles but also to develop appropriate attitudes to enact those
roles.
 Importance of
socialization
• Provides the knowledge of skills.
• Socialization is a way of training the new born individual in certain skills
which are required to lead a normal social life.
• These skills helps the individual to play economic, professional, educational,
religious and political roles in his later life.

• Helps to develop right aspiration in life.

• Every individual may have his own aspirations, ambitions and desires in life.
• All these aspirations may not always be in consonance with the social
interests.
• Some of them may even be opposed to the communal interests.
• But through the process of socialization an individual learns to develop those
aspirations which are complementary to the interests of society.
 Importance of
socialization
• Contributes to the stability of the social order.
• It is through the process of socialization that every new generation is trained
according to the cultural goals, ideals, and expectations of a society.
• It assures the cultural continuity of the society.
• At the same time it provides enough scope for variety and new
achievements.

• Helps to reduce social distance.

• Socialization reduces social distance and brings people together if proper
attention is given to it.
• By giving proper training and guidance to the children during their early
years, it is possible to reduce the social distance between people different
castes, races, regions, religious and professions.
 Importance of
socialization
• Provides scope for building the bright future.
• Socialization is one of the powerful instruments of changing the destiny of
mankind.
• It is through the process of socialization that a society can produce a
generation of its expectations.
• By giving appropriate training to the new born children the coming
generation can be altered significantly.

• Helps the transmission of culture.

• By transmitting the contents of cultures such as ideas, beliefs, language, skills,
etc., from one generation to the other, socialization contributes to the
continuity to culture also.
 Agents of
Socialization
 Agents of
Socialization
• Family and parents
• Peers or Age mates
• School or Teachers
• Literature and Mass Media of
Communication
 Agents of
Socialization
• Family
• The process of socialization beings for every one of us in the family.
• Hence, the parental the maternal influence on the child is very great.
• The intimate relationship between the mother and the child has a great
impact on the shaping of child’s abilities and capacities.
• The parents are the first persons to introduce to the child the culture of his
group.
• The child receives additional communications from his older siblings, i.e.
brothers and sisters, who have gone through the same process – with
certain differences due to birth order and to the number and gender of the
siblings.
 Agents of
Socialization
• Peers or Agemates
• ‘Peer groups’ means groups made up of the contemporaries of the child,
his associates in school, in playground and in street.
• He learns from these children, facts and facets of culture that they have
previously learnt at different times from their parents.
• The members of peer groups have other sources of information about the
culture – their peers in still other peer groups – and thus the acquisition of
culture goes on.
• The ‘peer culture’ becomes more important and effective than the
‘parental
culture’ in the adolescent years of the child.
 Agents of
Socialization
• Teachers
• The teachers also play their role in socialisation when the child enters the
school.
• It is in the school that the culture is formally transmitted and acquired, in
which the lore and the learning, the science and art, of one generation is
passed on to the next.
• It is not only the formal knowledge of the culture that is transmitted there
but most of tis premises as well – its ethical sentiments, its political attitudes,
its customs and taboos.
• The communications they receive from their teachers help to socialise them
and to make them finally mature members of their societies.
 Agents of
Socialization
• Literature and Mass Media of Communication
• The civilisation that we share is constructed of words or literature.
• Words rush at us in torrent and cascade; they leap into our vision, as in
billboard and newspaper, magazine and textbook; and assault our ears, as
in radio and television.
• The media of mass communication give us their message.
• These messages too contain in capsule form, the premises of our culture, its
attitudes and ideologies.
• The words are always written by some one and these people too – authors
and editors and advertisers – join the teachers, the peers and parents in the
socialization process.
 Socialization Throughout the
Life Course
•Socialization is a lifelong process, each time we experience a change in
status, we learn a new set of rules, roles, and relationships.

• Even before we enter a new status, we often participate in anticipatory

socialization – the process by which knowledge and skills are learned for
future roles.

•The most common categories of age are childhood, adolescences, and

adulthood (young, middle, old)
 Socialization Throughout the
Life Course
During early childhood, family support and guidance are crucial to a
child’s developing self concept. Some families reflect the
discrepancy between cultural ideals and reality where children
grow up in settings of fear, danger and risks that are created by
parental neglect, emotional maltreatment, or premature economic
demands
 Socialization Throughout the
Life Course
Anticipatory socialization for adult roles often is associated with adolescence,
however, some young people may plunge in adult responsibilities at this time.

In early adulthood (until about 40) people work toward their won goals of
creating meaningful relationships with others, finding employment, seeking
personal fulfillment. Occupational Socialization has 4 phases:

•Career choice
•Anticipatory socialization
• Conditioning and commitment
•Continuous commitment
 Socialization Throughout the
Life Course
Between the ages of 40 & 60 people enter middle adulthood and many begin
to compare their accomplishments with their earlier expectations.

In older adulthood some people are quite happy and content, other are not.
Difficult changes in attitudes and behavior may occur in the last years of life
when people experience decreased physical ability and social devaluation
 Socialization Throughout the
Life Course
Late adulthood is a time when many people experience ageism, prejudice and
discrimination against people on the basis of age.

Negative images contribute to the view that women are older ten or fifteen
years sooner than men.

Many buffer themselves against ageism by continuing to view themselves as

being in middle adulthood.