Socialization

By Bidhya Khatri & Divya Regmi

 Introduction

• Socialization is the process whereby an individual learns and is trained on the

basic norms, values, beliefs, skills, attitudes, way of doing and acting as
appropriate to a specific social group or society.
• According to Green,“socialization is the process by which the child acquires a
culture content, along with selfhood and personality”.
• 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”.
 Features
1. Inculcates Basic Discipline
2. Helps to Control Human Behavior
3. Socialization Takes Place Formally and Informally
4. Socialization is a Continuous Process
5. Socialization Differs from Society to Society
6. Socialization Differs also by Subculture
 Importance of Socialization
• Maintain the Society
• Transmits Culture
• Contributes to Development of Personality
• Helps to become disciplined
• Helps to enact different roles
• Provides the knowledge of skills
 Function of Socialization
• It transmits values, customs and beliefs from one generation to another.
• Social control by which members are encouraged to the way of group’s
norms and values.
• It enables the individual to grow and develop into a socially functioning
person.
• It prepares an individual to fit in the group and to perform social roles.
 Stages of Socialization
1. The First Stage (The Oral Stage)
2. The Second Stage (The Anal Stage)
3. The Third Stage ( The Oedipal Stage)
4. The Fourth Stage (The Stage of Adolescence)
 The First Stage(The Oral Stage)
• Begins with the birth of the child continues up to the completion of 1 year.
• In this stage, the child gets to interact in himself and his mother. Sigmund
F Freud called this stage the stage of primary identification which means
the child merges his identity with that of the mother.
 The Second Stage(The Anal Stage )
• Begins soon after the first year and is completed during the 3rd year.
• It is at this stage that the child learns that he cannot depend entirely on his
mother and that he has to take some degree of care for himself.
 The Third Stage (The Oedipal stage)
• Starts from the 4th year of the child and extends up to puberty (age of 12
and 13).
• According to Sigmund Freud, in this stage, the boy develops the “Oedipus
complex” i.e. the feeling of jealousy towards father and love towards
mother. In the same way, the girl develops the “Electra complex” i.e. the
feeling of jealousy towards the mother and love towards the fathers.
 The Fourth Stage (The Stage of
Adolescence)
• Starts with the period of adolescence where the physiological and the
psychological change take place within the individuals.
• 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.
• Parents encourage them to select their line of the education, their
occupation and their life partners.
 Types of Socialization
1. Primary or Childhood Socialization
2. Secondary or Adulthood Socialization
3. De-socialization
4. Re-socialization
5. Anticipatory Socialization
6. Reverse Socialization
 Agents of primary socialization
• Family: First social institution that a learner comes into contact with
immediately after birth.In the way of Socialization the most valuable connects
are between a child and his or her parents and siblings.

• Peer group: Next to the family,peer group are the most powerful socializing
agent in society. This is the only agent of socialization in childhood and youth.
 Agents of secondary socialization
• Educational institution :in modern societies, social institution such as schools universities
have taken their role to socialize their children . Children learn how to behave in a socially
acceptable way through school rules and role modeling of teacher. Learn and practice social
values such as sharing ,completing and corporation.
• Marriage:the marriage provides an oppourtunity for couples to ,learn to be economically and
socially responsible as parents and members of the family ,learn to compromise situation in
life .
• Kin group : the kin group the oppourtunity for individual to ; learn to respect elders and love
junior.
• Neighbourhood : the neighbourhood socialize children through the following ways :
by giving guidance on roles and social responsibilites to young people .
• Mass media : the mass media such as television ,radio,movies,video,tapes, maganizes
etc.are also important agents of socilaization .
• Political institution: the political institutions socialize the citizens by making the laws
for the people and lays down models of conduct (behaviour)expected of them .
• Religion :many families identify themselves with a religious group. The religious
institution provides the opportunity to follow moral codes that generates moral
behaviour.
• Work place : the work place is a major agent of socialization for
adults .the workplace provides the oppourtunity to: learn the value of
cooperation, learn to respect authority and follow workplace norms and
social norms at large .
 Theories of socialization
1. John locke’s cultural determinism theory
2. C.H .cooley’s ‘looking glass self theory ‘
3. G.H.Mead’s ‘theory of self
4. Sigmund freud’s ‘psychosexual theory of personally development
5. Jean piaget’s theory of cognitive development
1. John locke’s /cultural determinism theory : locke believed that we are
born ain a clean state , that we have no personality and that we learn this
through the social environment . He believed that one person could be
moulded into whatever he wanted the environment to be .
• C.H. Cooley’s ‘looking glass self theory : one of the theories of
socilaization is the looking glass self .cooley believed in the looking glass
shelf refers to the interactive process by which we develop an image of
ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others. Others people
act as a mirror , so they reflect back the image we project through their
reactions to our own behaviour .
According to Cooley , the process of developing a self contains three steps :

1. We imagine how we appear to others .

2. We then , interpret others reactions ( how they evaluate us ) and
3. We develop a self concept i.e we think we have a good ‘self ‘
( personality ) if others evaluate us positively and vice versa .
 Mead’s theory of ‘self
• Mead founded theory of the self believed that in the begining , we see
ourselves as to how others see us and eventually we are not only see
ourselves as how others see us but actually take on or pretend to take the
roles of others ,allowing us to anticipate what others expects of us , thus
learning through the eyes of others.
• According to mead , the two parts of self are I and me
• I : the acting ,subjective part of the self (a self awareness)
• Me : the conventional , objective part of the self ( as self image )
 Development of ‘self goes through the
following stage : ( called role –taking )
1. Imitation ( children initially can only mimie the gestures and words of
others)
2. Play ( beginning at age 3 , children play the roles of specific people,such
as firefighter, policeman , hero, villain in movies etc.)
3. Team games ( in the first years of school, children becomes involved in
organized team games and learn the role of each members of the team ).
• It is also known as “Psychosexual Theory Of Personality Development”.
According to this theory , children progress through 5 psychosexual
stage during psychosexual development. They are oral ,anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

Sigmund freud’s theory of socialization

• Stage 1 oral (0-18 months ): pleasure centers on the mouth sucking , chewing ,
biting .
• Stage 2 anal stage (18 month -3year): pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder control
(with holding or eliminating feces or urine )coping with demand for control .
• Stage 3 phallic (3yr -6year): freud suggested that during the phallic stage , the
primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. Oedipus complex in males and elctra
complex in females . The boy begin to view their fathers as a rival for the mother’s
affection. The boy will have the desire to posses his mother and displace his father
and the girl want to posses the father and remove her mother .
• Stage 4 : latency ( 6yrs- puberty ) ; Dormant /inactive sexual
feeling . No fixation occurs as the child energy is focused on peer
activities and person mastery of learning and physical skills .
• Stage 5 : genital ( puberty on wards ) (maturation of sexual interest )
sexual interest in opposite sex increases . The child improves their
personal identies , develop caring feeling towards others , establish a
loving sexual relationship and progress in successful carrers .
• In his later work , freud proposed that the human psyche (mind) could be
divided into three parts :
1. Id
2. Ego
3. Super ego
 Id :

• According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the
primary component of personality.
• Id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
• This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and
primitive behaviors.
• For example:Imagine trying to convince a baby to wait until lunchtime to eat their
meal. The id requires immediate satisfaction, and because the other components of
personality are not yet present, the infant will cry until these needs are fulfilled.
 Ego :
• According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the
impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real
world.
• The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
• The ego is the personality component responsible for dealing with reality
The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the
id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways . For example :
• Imagine that you are stuck in a long meeting at work. You find yourself
growing increasingly hungry as the meeting drags on. While the id might
compel you to jump up from your seat and rush to the break room for a
snack, the ego guides you to sit quietly and wait for the meeting to end.
 Super ego :
• According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.
• The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from our
parents and society (our sense of right and wrong).
• The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.
• The superego has two parts:
• The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by parents and
society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad consequences, punishments,
or feelings of guilt and remorse.
• The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviors that the ego aspires to. 5
 Jean plaget’s theory of cognitive
development
• Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that intelligence
changes as children grow.
• A child’s cognitive development is not just about acquiring knowledge,
the child has to develop or construct a mental model of the world.
• Cognitive development occurs through the interaction of innate capacities
(nature) and environmental events (nurture), and children pass through a
series of stages.
 Stage
• Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
• Preoperational stage: 2 to 7 years
• Concrete operational stage: 7 to 11 years
• Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
Stage Age Goal

Sensorimotor Birth to 18-24 months Object permanence

Preoperational 2 to 7 years old Symbolic thought

Concrete operational Ages 7 to 11 years Logical thought

Formal operational Adolescence to adulthood Scientific reasoning

• The Sensorimotor Stage
• Ages: Birth to 2 Years
• The first stage is the sensorimotor stage, and during this stage, the infant focuses on physical sensations and on learning to
coordinate their body.
• Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
• The infant learns about the world through their senses and through their actions (moving around and exploring their
environment).
• During the sensorimotor stage, a range of cognitive abilities develop. These include: object permanence;
self-recognition (the child realizes that other people are separate from them); deferred imitation; and representational play.
• They relate to the emergence of the general symbolic function, which is the capacity to represent the world mentally
• At about 8 months, the infant will understand the permanence of objects and that they will still exist even if they can’t see them
and the infant will search for them when they disappear.
• The Preoperational Stage
• Ages: 2 – 7 Years
• Piaget’s second stage of intellectual development is the preoperational
stage. It takes place between 2 and 7 years. At the beginning of this stage
the child does not use operations, so the thinking is influenced by the way
things appear rather than logical reasoning.
• Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
• Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and
mental imagery.
• During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one
thing, such as a word or an object, stand for something other than itself.
• A child’s thinking is dominated by how the world looks, not how the world is. It is not yet capable of
logical (problem solving) type of thought.
• Moreover, the child has difficulties with class inclusion; he can classify objects but cannot include
objects in sub-sets, which involves classify objects as belonging to two or more categories
simultaneously.
• Infants at this stage also demonstrate animism. This is the tendency for the child to think that non-living
objects (such as toys) have life and feelings like a person’s.
• The Concrete Operational Stage
• Ages: 7 – 11 Years
• By the beginning of the concrete operational stage, the child can use
operations (a set of logical rules) so she can conserve quantities, she
realizes that people see the world in a different way than he does
(decentring) and he has improved in inclusion tasks. Children still have
difficulties with abstract thinking.
• Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
• During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events.
• Children begin to understand the concept of conservation; understanding
that, although things may change in appearance, certain properties remain
the same.
• During this stage, children can mentally reverse things (e.g. picture a ball of
plasticine returning to its original shape).
• During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think
about how other people might think and feel.
• The Formal Operational Stage
• Ages: 12 and Over
• The formal operational period begins at about age 11. As adolescents enter this stage,
they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the ability to combine and classify
items in a more The Formal Operational Stage
• Ages: 12 and Over
• The formal operational period begins at about age 11. As adolescents enter this stage,
they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner, the ability to combine and classify
items in a more sophisticated way, and the capacity for higher-order reasoning.
• way, and the capacity for higher-order reasoning.
 Personality and socialization
• Personality is the combination of how we think,feel and act.
• Socialization can be define as an ongoing life-long process where by an indivisual learns and
is trained on the basic norms, values, beliefs, skills as appropriate to a specific social group or
society.
• NATURE OF PERSONALITY
1. Personality is a dynamic whole .
2. Personality measures behaviour
3. Personality is the outcome of the interaction of heredity (nature ) and environment (nurture)
4. Motive factor
 Static and dynamic nature of personality

• Factors determining personality

Biological factors : known as heredity factors .
1. Physique and personality
2. Intelligence
3. Sex differences
• Environment factor : (sociocultural factors of personality development )
1. Geographical environment
2. Childhood experiences
3. School
4. Culture