MODULE 4:

SOCIALIZATION

SOCIALIZATION

Refers to the preparation of newcomers to become members of an existing group and to think, fee, and act in ways the group considers appropriate. Viewed from the group’s point of view, it is a process of member replacement.

INTERNALIZATION

Means taking social norms ,roles and values into ones own mind.

3 MAJOR ASPECTS OF SOCIALIZATION

1. The context in which it occurs.2. The actual content and processes people use to socialize others.3. The results arising from those contexts and processes.

THE CONTEXT OF SOCIALIZATION

Socialization occurs within biological, psychological, and social contexts. Each of these offers possibilities and limitations that may influence socialization.

BIOLOGICAL CONTEXT• Biological features are regularly suggested

as sources of human behavior.• Sociobiologists suggest that some human

capacities may be wired into our biological make up.

• Sociobiologists argue that traits which aid survival and reproduction will survive, whereas others

will tend to die out.• Biology sets the stage, on which a very

broad range of human behavior occurs.• Most or all of the important differences

between societies are due to social rather than biological factors.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

EMOTIONAL STATES AND UNCONSCIOUS

• The primary factor in the psychological context of socialization is the psychological state of the person being socialized.

• Psychological states such as fear, anger, grief, love and happiness or a sense of emotional deprivation.

• Strong feeling of one or more of these emotions might very well inhibit or promote socialization of particular kind.

• Knowing something about the feelings of the people involved (the psychological context) helps explain the results of the socialization process

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

• A number of psychologists emphasize the series of stages through which humans progress.

• Although emotional concerns can be involved, these theorists focus on cognitive (intellectual) development, which occurs in a systematic, universal sequence through a series of stages.

• Whether or not they all agree on the unfolding of specific stages, cognitive development theorists see children as increasingly trying to make sense of their social worlds as they grow up.

• Children try to see patterns in the way things happen.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTEXT

Participants in Socialization

The Family• In rural societies, children have most of their early

social contract with the family. Today, however, the family’s importance in child’s life is changing.

• On the contrary, the family continues to be a major means of passing on values, attitudes, and behaviors.

• Different social positions may be related to different socialization for children even when they live in the same society.

Day Care• Is an important agent of socialization.

Schools

• As societies become more complex and there is a greater division of labor, family member cannot spend all day every day teaching children what they need to know to function effectively as adults in society. Therefore, most societies have established schools to teach youngsters certain skills. Schools teach values and attitudes as well. These values and attitudes include, for example, competitiveness or cooperation, conformity or innovation.

Peers• Peer Group consist of friends and associates who

are about the same age and social status. • Children learn to share toys and other scare

resources.• Peers may reinforce behaviors that are stressed

by parents and schools.• Peer groups may provide social rewards—praise,

prestige, and attention—to individuals for doing things adults disapprove of.

Community and country• Exposed to the political and economic ideals that

are considered important for citizens of a particular country.

• Children form economic ideas fairly early in life. Mass Media• Include many forms of communication—such as books,

magazines, radio, television, and movies—that reach large numbers of people without personal contact between senders and receivers. In the last few decades, children have been dramatically socialized by once source in particular television. Studies have found that children spend more time watching TV than they spend in school.

Social Position as Part of the Context• Your family’s social class, economic position, and

ethnic background– as well as your gender– can affect the ways in which you will be socialized.

Socialization Through the Life Cycle• Socialization continues throughout the life cycle.

At each distinct phase of life there are transitions to be made or crises to be overcome. Thins includes facing death as the termination of physical existence.