What is Socialization? Explain types of Socialization.
What is Socialization? Explain types of Socialization.
Introduction
Socialization is the process by which individuals become self-aware and learn the culture of the society. Different societies have different ways and methods to train their newborn members so that they are able to develop their own personalities. This training of building the personality of the child is called socialization. Socialization is a process of learning rules, habits and values of a group to which a person belongs whether it is family, friends, colleagues or any other group. It is the process by which a child slowly becomes aware of her/himself as a member of a group and gains knowledge about the culture of the family and also the society into which she/he is born.
Socialization provides people with common goals; teaches them the appropriate behavior associated with appropriate roles (e.g. the roles of mother, teacher, student and friend); and allow them to learn the norms of social life. Socialization is also considered as the passing of culture from one generation to the next. During the process of socialization, children learn about their family traditions from their elders and preserve them and pass them on to the next generation as they grow older. Socialization helps children to learn and perform the different roles and responsibilities which they have learnt from their elders.
Some Definitions of Socialization –
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Anthony Giddens: “Socialization refers to the process which transforms a quite helpless human infant into a self-aware, knowledgeable person who is skilled in the ways of their society’s culture”.
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Peter Worsley: “By socialization, it is simply meant as the transmission of culture, the process whereby men learn the rules and practices of social Socialization is an aspect of all activity within all human societies”.
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Tony Bilton: “The process by which we acquire the culture of the society into which we are born, the process by which we acquire our social characteristics and learn the ways of thought and behavior considered appropriate in our society – is called socialization”.
Types of Socialization
Socialization is a process that continues throughout life from birth till adulthood. However, the process occurs in different phases, and we categorize these phases as different types of socialization
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Primary Socialization – It is the most important feature in the process of socialization. It happens during infancy and childhood. The primary stage basically takes shape during infancy and childhood where basic knowledge and language or behavior is This phase of socialization usually takes place within the family. During this phase infants learn language and certain basic behavior forms of the family and the society in which she/he lives. Talcott Parson argued that the family is the most important agency of primary socialization. He saw, socialization is taking place primarily through identification with adults. Children identify with adults of the same sex (particularly mothers and fathers) and tend to imitate them.
Frønes argued, “Primary socialization refers to the internalization of the fundamental culture and ideas of a society; it shapes the norms, values and beliefs of the child at a time when it has little understanding of the world and its different phenomena, and the basic socialization agent Moulding the child in the family”
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Secondary Socialization –Secondary socialization occurs once the infant passes into the childhood phase and continues into During this phase more than the family some other agents of socialization like the school and friends’ group begin to play a role in socializing the child. Different kinds of social interaction through these different agents of socialization help the child to learn the moral standards, customs and principles of their society and culture.
Talcott Parson argued that school is an important agency of secondary socialization. He described school as a focal socializing agency because it acts as a bridge between the home and society at large.
Frønes argued that institutions and people in specific roles and positions usually carry out secondary socialization.
Further, it involves the “acquisition of knowledge and conscious learning, and thus opens for critical reflection, while primary socialization points to the transmission of naturalized cultural patterns”
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Gender Socialization: – Different agents of socialization shape children’s thoughts and teach them different gender roles, which we can understand as the process of gender socialization.
Gender role refers to “social roles assigned to each sex and labelled as masculine or feminine” Infants learn quite a lot from visual and symbolic Differences in the manner of dressing, hairstyle, different cosmetic products used by men and women, provide children with indicators of variation between the male and female. Within two years of age children begin to vaguely understand what gender is.
Apart from adults around them children receive a lot of clues about gender roles and differences from television programmers, toys they play with as well from their coloring and picture books.
For example, people often see baby girls playing with dolls and/or a kitchen set, while boys typically play with toy cars and /or toy guns. In school, teachers enforce gender differences by arranging separate seating for boys and girls, organizing contests between them, referring to ‘the boys’ and ‘the girls’ in the classrooms, or getting the children into two separate lines of boys and girls.
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Anticipatory socialization – The famous Sociologist Robert K introduced the term anticipatory socialization. Merton. Through anticipatory socialization, people consciously socialize themselves for future occupations, positions, and social groups they wish to or have to join, so that entry into the group does not seem very difficult.
Some Sociologists suggest that parents are the primary source of anticipatory socialization when it comes to socializing their children for future careers or social roles. For example, a child leaves home to stay in a boarding school with the anticipation of better socialization by his parents.
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Re-socialization –Re-socialization refers to the process of leaving certain behavior patterns and roles in order to adopt new ones as part of one’s evolution in Re-socializations occurs when there is a major transformation in the social role of a person. It occurs throughout life where individuals experience radical breakthroughs from their past experiences and learn new manners and values which are starkly different from what they had learnt previously.
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Adult socialization – Adult socialization takes place in adulthood when individuals adapt to new roles such as that of a husband, a wife or an employee. This is related to their needs and wants. People continue to learn values and behavior patterns throughout Socialization does not have any fixed time period. It begins at birth and continues till old age. In traditional societies the older people had a significant influence in important matters related to the family. In modern times we can find this elderly influence decreasing in some families. For example, one’s workplace, social groups, senior citizens’ forums, clubs for recreation and some religious institutions also.