Socialisation

Explain the process, stages, factors, types, importance and agents of socialistic. Adult and child socialization.

1. Socialisation

2. Introduction 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 ‘Socialisation ’.

3. Intro… The process of socialisation is conditioned by culture. Since every society has its own culture the ways of the process of socialisation also differ from society to society . Further, the same culture and the same ways of socialisation 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 .

4. Definition 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 ”.

5. 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.

6. Factors for the Process of socialization Four factors are determine it Suggestion Imitation Identification Language

7. Factors for the Process of socialization Suggestion: Suggestion is the process of communicating information which has no logical or self-evident basis. It may conveyed through language, pictures or some similar medium . Propaganda and advertising are based on the fundamental psychological principles of Suggestion.

8. Factors for the Process of socialization Imitation: Imitation is copying by an individual of the actions of another. Thus, when the child attempts to walk impressively like his father swinging a stick and wearing spectacles, he is imitating. Imitation may be conscious or unconscious, spontaneous or deliberate.

9. Factors for the Process of socialization Identification: The child cannot make any distinction between his organism and environment. Most of his actions are random. As he grows in age, he/she comes to know of the nature of things which satisfy his/her needs. He/she gradually indentified what he/she need for happy in his/her life.

10. Factors for the Process of socialization Language: Language is the medium of social intercourse. It is the means of cultural transmission. At first the child utters some random syllables which have no meaning, but gradually he come to learn his mother-tongue. Language moulds the personality of the individual form infancy.

11. Importance of socialisation

12. Importance of socialisation Socialisation converts man, the biological being into the social being. Socialisation 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.

13. Importance of socialisation Socialisation 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 socialisation. Socialisation 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 socialisation is a process through which the personality of the new born child is shaped and moulded. The process of socialisation prepares the child to lead an approved way of social life.

14. Importance of socialisation Helps to become disciplined . Social learning is essentially the learning of rules of social behaviour . It is through socialisation 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. Socialisation 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 socialisation assists an individual not only to learn the norms associated with roles but also to develop appropriate attitudes to enact those roles.

15. Importance of socialisation Provides the knowledge of skills . Socialisation 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 socialisation an individual learns to develop those aspirations which are complementary to the interests of society .

16. Importance of socialisation Contributes to the stability of the social order . It is through the process of socialisation 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 . Socialisation 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.

17. Importance of socialisation Provides scope for building the bright future . Socialisation is one of the powerful instruments of changing the destiny of mankind. It is through the process of socialisation 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, socialisation contributes to the continuity to culture also.

18. Agents of Socialization

19. Agents of Socialization Family and parents Peers or Age mates School or Teachers Literature and Mass Media of Communication

20. Agents of Socialization Family The process of socialisation 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 sex of the siblings.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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 socialisation process.

24. Types of socialisation

25. Types of socialisation Primary socialisation Anticipatory socialisation Developmental socialisation Re-Socialisation

26. Types of socialisation Primary socialisation This is the most essential and basic types of socialisation. It takes place in the early years of life of the new-born individual. Anticipatory socialisation Men not only learn the culture of the group of which they are immediate members. They may also learn the culture of groups to which they do not belong.

27. Types of socialisation Developmental socialisation This kind of learning is based on the achievements of primary socialisation. It builds on already acquired skills and knowledge as the adult progresses through new situations such as marriage or new jobs. These require new expectations, obligations and roles. Re-Socialisation Not only do individuals change roles within groups, but they also change membership groups. Such re-socialisation takes place mostly when a social role is radically changed. It may also happen in periods of rapid social mobility. For example , a newly wedded housewife may be forced to become in a brothel.

28. Stages of socialisation

29. Stages of socialisation The first stage – The Oral stage The second stage – The Anal stage The third stage – The Oedipal stage The fourth stage – The Sage of Adolescence

30. Stages of socialisation The first stage – The Oral stage This stage begins with the birth of the child and continues upto the completion of one year . Before birth the child in the mother’s womb is in the foetal form and is warm and comfortable. At birth the little infant must breathe, must exert himself, to be fed and he must be protected from cold, we and other discomforts. For everything the child cries a great deal . By means of crying the child establishes its oral dependency . The child here develops some definite expectations about the feeding time. The child also learns to give signals for his felt needs .

31. Stages of socialisation The second stage – The Anal stage The second stage normally begins soon after the first year and is completed during the third year (1 year to 3 year). It is here that the child learns that he cannot depend entirely on the mother and that he has to take some degree of care for himself. The child is taught to do some tasks such as toileting, keeping clothes clean, etc. In this second stage the socialising agent, that is, the mother plays the dual role. S he participates in the interaction system with the child in a limited context and she also participates in the larger system that is the family. The dual role of mother helps the child to participate in a more complex social system.

32. Stages of socialisation The third stage – The Oedipal stage This stage mostly starts from the fourth year of the child and extends upto puberty (the age of 12 or 13). It is in this stage the child becomes the members of the family as a whole . It is here the child has to identify himself with the social role ascribed to him of the basis of his sex. After the age of six the child is able to understand the sexual differences . The boy tries to identify himself with the father and the girl with the mother. When the children go to school or mix with other children they prefer to join their respective playgroups. In this period interest in the opposite sex tends to be suppressed for the boy or girl is busy with learning various skills.

33. Stages of socialisation The fourth stage – The Stage of Adolescence The fourth stage starts with the period of adolescence ( upto teen age) . Due to physiological and the psychological changes that take place within the individual this stage assumes importance. During this stage the boys and girls try to become free from parental control . At the same time they cannot completely escape from their dependence on their parents. Hence they may experience a kind of strain or conflict in themselves. They want to be free in doing various activities . But the parents continue to control many of their activities. This is particularly true of sexual activity.

34. Adult socialisation

35. Adult socialisation In fact, socialisation is a life-long process. At no point in the life of a man to an end. Even at the door of death one has something to learn. Naturally, the adult individuals who are to undertake major responsibilities in life have many things to learn in the course of their adulthood. In the modern society adulthood is considered to be attained when a person can support himself or herself entirely independent of the parental family. Full adulthood also implies the ability to form a family of one’s own.

36. Adult socialisation The socialisation of adults is relatively easier than the socialisation of children for three reasons: The adult is normally motivated to work towards a goal which he has already picked up. The new role that he is trying to internalise has may similarities to the roles which he has already internalised . The socialising agent can communicate with him easily through speech . Still the socialisation of adults can be a prolonged and a tough process. This is particularly when the skills to be learnt are complex and the responsibilities of the role are heavy .

37. Adult socialisation It becomes still more difficult when the new role requires the internalisation of norms and attitudes that are almost the opposite of those which are established in his personality. For example , a rule youth who come from a male-dominated family may have to face difficulties when required to work under a female boss in a city office. Most of the adolescents want to become parents, workers, citizens, etc. They try to play these roles well when the time comes for that. Learning of these roles becomes easier if it is preceded by anticipatory socialisation.

38. Adult socialisation Sometimes, adult socialisation is affected by early socialisation . For example, the highly talkative children will face difficulties in exercising constraint over their talk in adult life. Even in the case of adults educational institutions, the mass media and peer groups continue to serve as agencies of socialisation . They are often supplemented by the complex organisations. These agencies help the new comer to get attuned to the established routine s and also to develop values and loyalties relevant to the new roles.

39. Adult socialisation & child socialisation: Differences

40. Adult socialisation – child socialisation: Differences Adult socialisation is more likely to change overt behaviour whereas child socialisation moulds basic values . Example: Adults can take on the roles of parents but their basic views on love, sharing, understanding, cooperation, etc. were formed in childhood. similarly, values also change in adulthood when, for example, religious conversations take place. Adult socialisation stresses the informal nature of social positions , whereas child socialisation highlights the formal aspects . Example: Young children tend to see teachers as authority figures, while adults would look beyond their social positions and see them as individuals.

41. Adult socialisation – child socialisation: Differences Adult realise that there is differences between behaviour and what can reasonably by expected. Children take ideal expectations seriously. Example: If the children are told, even if it is through stories, about the good qualities of a teacher who loves the students very much, they start expecting the same thing from the teachers. As they mature, children learn the distinction between the ideal things and what is really expected of them and of others.

42. Adult socialisation – child socialisation: Differences Adult socialisation often involves juggling the conflicting demands of various roles . Childhood socialisation, however, stresses conformity to rules and to one source of authority . Example: many employed women face the conflict between their commitment to their family as wives and mothers, and their commitment to their office or place of work as employees. But children are comparatively free from such conflicts . At home, they are trained to accept and submit to the authority of the parents and elders, and in schools of the teachers.

43. Adult socialisation – child socialisation: Differences Adult socialisation is designed to help the person gain specific skills whereas childhood socialisation is more generalised . Example: Adults are socialised to do specific jobs . Children are socialised to do things like sex-appropriate behaviour and adherence to the values of their class, caste, ethnic or religious groups.

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