Socializations

The newborn is merely an organism. Socialization makes him responsive to the society.
He is socially active. He becomes a ‘Purush’ and the culture that his group inculcates in
him, humanizes him, and makes him ‘Manusha’. The process indeed, is endless. The
cultural pattern of his group, in the process gets incorporated in the personality of a
child. It prepares him to fit in the group and to perform the social roles. It sets the infant
on the line of social order and enables an adult to fit into the new group. It enables the
man to adjust himself to the new social order.

Socialization stands for the development of the human brain, body, attitude, behavior and so
forth. Socialization is known as the process of inducting the individual into the social world. The
term socialization refers to the process of interaction through which the growing individual
learns the habits, attitudes, values and beliefs of the social group into which he has been born.
From the point of view of society, socialization is the way through which society transmits its
culture from generation to generation and maintains itself. From the point of view of the
individual, socialization is the process by which the individual learns social behavior, develops
his ‘self.

The process operates at two levels, one within the infant which is called the
internalization of objects around and the other from the outside. Socialization may be
viewed as the “internalization of social norms. Social rules become internal to the
individual, in the sense that they are self-imposed rather than imposed by means of
external regulation and are thus part of individual’s own personality.

The individual therefore feels an urge to conform. Secondly, it may be viewed as

essential element of social interaction. In this case, individuals become socialized as
they act in accordance with the expectations of others. The underlying process of
socialization is bound up with social interaction.

Socialization is a comprehensive process. According to Horton and Hunt, Socialization

is the process whereby one internalizes the norms of his groups, so that a distinct ‘self
emerges, unique to this individual.

Through the process of socialisation, the individual becomes a social person and attains
his personality. Green defined socialization “as the process by which the child acquires a
cultural content, along with selfhood and personality”.
According to Lundberg, socialization consists of the “complex processes of interaction
through which the individual learns the habits, skills, beliefs and standard of judgement
that are necessary for his effective participation in social groups and communities”.

Features of Socializations:

Socialization not only helps in the maintenance and preservation of social values and norms
but it is the process th
1. Inculcates basic discipline:
rough which values and norms are transmitted from one generation to another
generation.

Socialization inculcates basic discipline. A person learns to control his impulses. He may
show a disciplined behavior to gain social approval.

2. Helps to control human behavior:

It helps to control human behavior. An individual from birth to death undergoes
training and his, behavior is controlled by numerous ways. In order to maintain the
social order, there are definite procedures or mechanism in society. These procedures
become part of the man’s/life and man gets adjusted to the society. Through
socialization, society intends to control the behavior of its-members unconsciously.

3. Socialization is rapid if there is more humanity among the- agencies

of socialization:
Socialization takes place rapidly if the agencies’ of socialization are more unanimous in
their ideas and skills. When there is conflict between the ideas, examples and skills
transmitted in home and those transmitted by school or peer, socialization of the
individual tends to be slower and ineffective.

4. Socialization takes place formally and informally:

Formal socialization takes through direct instruction and education in schools and
colleges. Family is, however, the primary and the most influential source of education.
Children learn their language, customs, norms and values in the family.
5. Socialization is continuous process:
Socialization is a life-long process. It does not cease when a child becomes an adult. As
socialization does not cease when a child becomes an adult, internalization of culture
continues from generation to generation. Society perpetuates itself through the
internalization of culture. Its members transmit culture to the next generation and
society continues to exist.

Types of Socialization:
Although socialization occurs during childhood and adolescence, it also continues in
middle and adult age. Orville F. Brim (Jr) described socialisation as a life-long process.
He maintains that socialization of adults differ from childhood socialization. In this
context it can be said that there are various types of socialization.

1. Primary Socialization:
Primary socialization refers to socialization of the infant in the primary or earliest years
of his life. It is a process by which the infant learns language and cognitive skills,
internalizes norms and values. The infant learns the ways of a given grouping and is
moulded into an effective social participant of that group.

The norms of society become part of the personality of the individual. The child does not
have a sense of wrong and right. By direct and indirect observation and experience, he
gradually learns the norms relating to wrong and right things. The primary socialization
takes place in the family.

2. Secondary Socialization:
The process can be seen at work outside the immediate family, in the ‘peer group’. The
growing child learns very important lessons in social conduct from his peers. He also
learns lessons in the school. Hence, socialization continues beyond and outside the
family environment. Secondary socialization generally refers to the social training
received by the child in institutional or formal settings and continues throughout the
rest of his life.

3. Adult Socialization:
In the adult socialization, actors enter roles (for example, becoming an employee, a
husband or wife) for which primary and secondary socialization may not have prepared
them fully. Adult socialization teaches people to take on new duties. The aim of adult
socialization is to bring change in the views of the individual. Adult socialization is more
likely to change overt behavior, whereas child socialization molds basic values.

4. Anticipatory Socialisation:
Anticipatory socialisation refers to a process by which men learn the culture of a group
with the anticipation of joining that group. As a person learns the proper beliefs, values
and norms of a status or group to which he aspires, he is learning how to act in his new
role.

5. 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. Such re-socialization takes place
mostly when a social role is radically changed. It involves abandonment of one way of
life for another which is not only different from the former but incompatible with it. For
example, when a criminal is rehabilitated, he has to change his role radically.

Agencies of Socialization:
Socialization is a process by which culture is transmitted to the younger generation and
men learn the rules and practices of social groups to which they belong. Through it that
a society maintains its social system. Personalities do not come ready-made. The process
that transforms a child into a reasonably respectable human being is a long process.

Hence, every society builds an institutional framework within which socialization of the
child takes place. Culture is transmitted through the communication they have with one
another and communication thus comes to be the essence of the process of culture
transmission. In a society there exists a number of agencies to socialize the child.

To facilitate socialization different agencies play important roles. These agencies are
however interrelated.

1. Family:
The family plays an outstanding role in the socialization process. In all societies other
agencies besides the family contribute to socialization such as educational institutions,
the peer group etc. But family plays the most important role in the formation of
personality. By the time other agencies contribute to this process family has already left
an imprint on the personality of the child. The parents use both reward and punishment
to imbibe what is socially required from a child.
The family has informal control over its members. Family being a mini society acts as a
transmission belt between the individual and society. It trains the younger generation in
such a way that it can take the adult roles in proper manner. As family is primary and
intimate group, it uses informal methods of social control to check the undesirable
behavior on the part of its members. The process of socialization remains a process
because of the interplay between individual life cycle and family life cycle.

According to Robert. K. Merton, “it is the family which is a major transmission belt for
the diffusion of cultural standards to the oncoming generation”. The family serves as
“the natural and convenient channel of social continuity.

2. Peer Group:
Peer Group means a group in which the members share some common characteristics
such as age or sex etc. It is made up of the contemporaries of the child, his associates in
school, in playground and in street. The growing child learns some very important
lessons from his peer group. Since members of the peer group are at the same stage of
socialisation, they freely and spontaneously interact with each other.

The members of peer groups have other sources of information about the culture and
thus the acquisition of culture goes on. They view the world through the same eyes and
share the same subjective attitudes. In order to be accepted by his peer group, the child
must exhibit the characteristic attitudes, the likes and dislikes.

Conflict arises when standards of the peer group differ from the standards of the child’s
family. He may consequently attempt to withdraw from the family environment. The
peer group surpasses the parental influence as time goes on. This seems to be an
inevitable occurrence in rapidly changing societies.

3. Religion:
Religion play a very important role in socialization. Religion instills the fear of hell in
the individual so that he should refrain from bad and undesirable activities. Religion not
only makes people religious but socializes them into the secular order.

4. Educational Institutions:
Parents and peer groups are not the only agencies of the socialization in modern
societies. Every civilized society therefore has developed a set of formalized agencies of
education (schools, colleges and universities) which have a great bearing on the
socialisation process. It is in the educational institutions that the culture is formally
transmitted and acquired in which the science and the art of one generation is passed on
to the next.

The educational institutions not only help the growing child in learning language and
other subjects but also instill the concept of time, discipline, team work, cooperation
and competition. Through the means of reward and punishment the desired behavior
pattern is reinforced whereas undesirable behavior pattern meets with disapproval,
ridicule and punishment.

In this way, the educational institutions come next to the family for the purpose of
socialization of the growing child. Educational institution is a very important socializer
and the means by which individual acquires social norms and values (values of
achievement, civic ideals, solidarity and group loyalty etc) beyond those which are
available for learning in the family and other groups.

5. Political Parities:
Political parties attempt to seize political power and maintain it. They try to win the
support of the members of the society on the basis of a socio-economic policy and
programme. In the process they disseminate political values and norms and socialize the
citizen. The political parties socialize the citizen for stability and change of political
system.

6. Mass Media:
The mass media of communication, particularly television, play an important role in the
process of socialization. The mass media of communication transmit information and
messages which influence the personality of an individual to a great extent.

In addition to this, communication media has an important effect in encouraging

individuals to support the existing norms and values or oppose or change them. They
are the instrument of social power. They influence us with their messages. The words
are always written by someone and these people too – authors and editors and
advertisers – join the teachers, the peers and the parents in the socialization process.