1. What Is Socialization In Simple Words?
Socialization is the process of learning and acquiring social skills. Socialization is a lifelong process, but it begins with children developing the ability to use language.
2. What Are The 4 Main Agents Of Socialization?
There are four main agents of socialization: parental, peer, academic, and community. These agents work together to enforce the norms and expectations of society. These include things like language, societal values, and religious beliefs.
The role of socialization is to inform individuals about the norms and values of a given group or society. It prepares the platform for individuals to participate in a group by being aware of the expectations of such a group or society.
It is very important for children, who begin the socialization process at home with family and continue the process at school. They are taught what society expects of them as they grow and become full members of a social group or the whole society.
The concept of Socialization is also important for adults who wish to join new social groups. Explicitly defined, socialization is the process of transferring norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors to future societies.
Family is the number one agent of socialization. Fathers and Mothers, siblings and grandparents, and members of the entire family, all at one point teach children certain norms like how to use objects, greeting, dancing, and other activities. As we are all aware, either from personal experiences when we were children or our experience in raising a kid, socialization includes teaching and learning about an unending array of activities, objects, and ideas.
The stages of socialization includes:
- Oral: It is a stage that begins from birth till the child is at least 1 year. At this stage, the child is helpless absolutely and depends on others for survival.
- Anal: In this stage, the child starts to depend on himself for certain things which he can do. At this stage, he starts acquiring basic skills and starts recognizing right and wrong behavior.
- Oedipal: At this stage, the child becomes a member of the family, he begins to recognize his place in the family
- Latency: This is the stage where the child learns to be independent. It is often referred to as the gang stage by sociologists.
- Adolescence Stage: This is the final stage where puberty comes in. The child becomes mature and begins to make personal decisions about his life.
Without socialization in our society, we would not even have a society because there would be no platform through which norms, values, ideas, and customs that a society is composed of could be transmitted to future societies.
It is through socialization that we know and does what is expected of us in a society or a given situation.
Practically, socialization serves to preserve social order by keeping us updated with what is expected of us in society. It is an informal way of social control.
The goals of socialization are to teach us to control our biology as children or adults, to develop a conscience that’s well suited with the norms of present society, to teach and give meaning to our social life, and to prepare us for various social roles in the future.
The socialization process involves acquiring and disseminating norms, social values, and customs, and all the necessary skills that will aid social relationships.
Socialization can range from simply observing societal norms or interaction within a social group
Positive socialization is those norms that are pleasurable and enjoyable for us. Negative norms, however, are harsh and critical ways of learning social norms and behaviors. For example, someone may criticize for not greeting or saying Thanks!
- It teaches basic discipline: Socialization teaches people basic skills about norms and values
- It is a form of behavioral control
- Socialization is very broad and rapid
- Socialization is both formal and informal
- It is a continuous process
Author
Abbey Johnson has a Masters degree as an engineer and has over 3 years of teaching and research experience. He is happiest when on a bike and is also interested in electric energy and computer Science.