The Role of Socialization - Assignment Example

The Role of Socialization Socialization is the method by which children and adults learn from others. The process onset right from the infant stage and continues throughout the life. We like to learn from others may it be a sport, art or any kind of musical instrument, how to get solution to the problem or some conducts. This kind of sociology shows positive attitude, while some social learning could be agonizing like witnessing a riot, assault, harassment or abuse and puts negative impact on our minds. Thus, socialization is an act of learning to lead a social life (What is socialization process). Socialization or learning could be – 1. Natural- it is learning when we ourselves explore our world, play and discover. It is seen in our environment from animals to human. 2. Planned socialization occurs when others take actions to make us learn like teachers or trainers. It is solely a human trend. Both these interactions bring along positive and negative features but wisdom is required to learn the best (What is socialization process). Positive socialization brings pleasure and excitement and fills us with zeal, enthusiasm and motivation. An appreciation by the teacher, love and care given by parents or a reward achieved. Sometimes we come across negative socialization when we get punished, or get harsh criticism or anger this brings a feeling of abhorrence/ hatred towards the kind of socialization an also towards a person who enforce it on us. When the ratio of positive socialization is high we are happier and tend to learn all the valuable information to cope with the day-to-day challenges, but reverse (unhappiness, pessimism and defeats) is the case when the ratio of negative socialization is higher. It is this ratio that shapes the personality of an individual, patterns of thought, feeling and action and formulates the cognitive, emotional and behavioral approaches of life. Socialization is therefore called a continuous process starting from birth, childhood, maturity, old age, and death. During the early stages of development it affects more as these are the formative years of life and influence of the ratio between positive and negative socialization puts a deep impact on the psychology of an individual (What is socialization process). A constant debate (nature vs. nurture) is still going on. Initially it was an effort to ascertain that human behavior as either primarily inherited (nature) or learned (nurture) but now social scientists have established that it is a complex interaction of heredity and learning. The formative years play crucial role in framing the personality of individual therefore isolation has devastating effects. Children kept in isolation (feral children) lacks the attitude to develop close bonds with others and do not show normal development, similar case is also observed when the children are allegedly raised by animals, possessed few human characteristics. Not only inheritance is imperative but nurturing is more vital in shaping the personality, institutionalized children, such as those raised in orphanages, indicate they are weak in expression in terms of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development as compared to children raised in families. To further demonstrate this, Harlow experimented with monkeys. Those reared in isolation could not develop normal social, sexual, or emotional behavior. Thus, it is not only humans who need socialization but also animals do require a cognitive atmosphere for their development. Every individual is different. As the knowledge about self emerges, the experience for being conscious about the actions also comes along. This is the sign when individual becomes aware about the personal identity and it gradually becomes more focused when we interact with other people. C. H. Cooley explained development of personality as a social "mirror" in which we can view how others react to us. The responses we get from others about our appearance, behavior, and other factors provide information about our personal qualities. According to Cooley, this interaction is a 3 step process. In the first step we have our own image, we imagine our own appearance, when we interact with others we get feedback about others' reactions to us, and amalgamation of both these steps helps us in developing self-concept. According to G. H. Mead, socialization helps us in judging ourselves and also we can anticipate what others expect from us, thus we can modify our behavior accordingly. It is apparent that Role-taking is the process of pretending to take, or actually taking, the roles of others in order to see oneself and the world from their viewpoints. When we are young we internalize the expectations of limited people especially to parents. When we grow and become aware about our surroundings, we internalize the attitudes and values of society as a whole. Through three stages of role-playing (imitation, play, and games), children become capable of understanding about themselves and about the social life. Mead looked at socialization as an ongoing process, since the "I" (the unsocialized self) is never completely under the control of the 'me' (the socialized self). The theories of both Cooley and Mead emphasize that emergence of self and social interactions are well connected and go together. Society is build by we the people and our agents of socialization are- the family, the school, the peer group and the mass media. We interact with people and sometimes come across sharp break with different ideas norms and values to socialize, this is Resocialization. Cultures vary with the geography and this decides the priorities of people. Like, American society does not adequately prepare individuals for old age, and socialization for death is nonexistent but now things are changed as per the need of the society. Wrong discussed the idea of man's variation within the prohibited and self imposed limits of behavior. Individuals are all different and are not machines or robots to be of similar nature so we do need room for variation. We need open environment to grow and there is a strong urge to conform to the cultural norms available. The society has unlimited ways in "making" its members conform, but on committing punishable offense or if the person is causing any kind of nuisance then for them the society has norms of incapacitation (prisons, mental institutions, etc.). Thus, society has norms set for all the good deeds and have well discriminated between the good and bad deeds. The continuums along which behaviors fall are modified by the principle of choice and freedom. One must understand that we were not able to select our parents; also we have no control over 10 or 20 years of our socialization, but gradually we learn to influence socialization as we gain experience in life. It is therefore imperative to understand that we all come into life with a multiplicity of psychology systems that foster self-actualization and support the development of our human potential. We must emphasize on exploration, play, creativity, wisdom, and positive reinforcement to generate positive socialization and to cultivate happy and motivated environment to promote growth and progress of the society References: 1. Henslin, J., Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach. 8th Edn. MySoclab Series, 2008. 2. Wrong, D., The oversocialized conception of man in modern society. American Sociological Review, 26, pp. 183-193. 1961. 3. What is socialization process? http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/baldwin/classes/soc142/scznDEF.html Read More