Socialization of an individual is a person’s mastery of basic social norms, values, culture, standards of relationship models in the society to which the individual belongs. It consists of accepting and mastering the values, morals, norms of behavior, and knowledge prevailing in society. Socialization contains agents and institutions that specialize in the processes of introducing an individual to society.
Socialization is divided
:
- Primary – mastery of a basic set of values and behavior patterns in society by a child;
- Secondary – mastery of a new value-normative basis by an adult individual.
Definition of socialization
Before discussing this topic, it is necessary to understand what socialization as such is.
Psychological science says that
socialization is the process of an individual entering a social system, mastering its norms, rules of behavior, values, knowledge and skills, and psychological attitudes.
Another, “unofficial” definition says that socialization is what allows a person to live in harmony with the world around him. How is this harmony achieved?
Man is the only creature who, let’s say, is not born by himself. Any animal at birth belongs to a certain species - the same one to which its parents belonged. And only a person, in order to obtain the characteristics inherent to his species, is obliged to undergo a long and complex process of socialization, individual forms of which occur throughout his entire life. In fact, if a newborn is left in the forest and there he randomly survives, then he will not learn to speak, or build, or even hunt. Certain forms of learning, of course, exist in many animals, but they take place only for a short time; an animal that has not undergone “socialization” still has a great chance of surviving and producing offspring, since the basic skills are embedded in its instincts. Long and complex socialization is observed only in higher primates, which proves that this phenomenon did not arise suddenly, but was inherited from our animal ancestors and evolved over thousands of years.
Youth and maturity
Socialization is a process that continues during youth and then into adulthood. In this case, a person must go through several steps: finish school, receive (often) a higher education, find his first job, and become established as an employee. Many people take this as a life plan.
However, in the present, deviations from the traditional version are completely permitted. The modern concept of socialization allows for a lack of education, especially if it is replaced by self-education with a sufficient level of control. In fact, everyone can make their own study plan and follow it.
A separate issue is career. A few decades ago, it was considered completely normal to work constantly at one company and receive promotions. Now the level of horizontal mobility in the professional sphere has increased significantly. Now there is no specific plan; a person may well change several professions and a huge number of companies.
Ideas about what constitutes maturity have also changed. Previously it was believed that it occurs at about 30 years of age. Now these time frames have shifted by 10 years, and people perceive the period between 30 and 40 as the peak of activity, acquisition of the maximum number of useful skills and their further improvement.
Types of socialization
Socialization is a difficult, even contradictory process. In the process of his development, an individual becomes acquainted with both humanity as a whole and individual groups of people who have their own rules, goals and guidelines.
Therefore, experts distinguish several types of this phenomenon:
- Primary socialization begins at the birth of a child and ends with the formation of a mature personality. It lays the foundations for all subsequent development of a person, and to some extent determines the scenario of his future life. The family is of greatest importance, because it is the first thing a child sees in his life. It is necessary to keep in mind that children perceive what they see around them uncritically, therefore they regard the behavior of adults in the family as basic, standard. Alcoholism and sloppiness, unsanitary conditions in the house - all this is “imprinted” in the child’s mind and can remain with him for life if he does not go through the subsequent stages of socialization. And vice versa - intelligence and cleanliness learned in the family will also accompany him in the future. In the future, kindergarten, school, a group of friends and peers become new social environments, where the child has to get accustomed to a new environment and act in accordance with new rules.
- Secondary socialization, or resocialization , is the process of eliminating previous patterns of behavior and learning new ones. This process continues throughout the individual's life. During resocialization, a person experiences a complete break with his past and feels the need to assimilate new values that are strikingly different from those that he previously adhered to. Typically, the changes that occur during secondary socialization are less than during primary socialization.
- Group socialization is a process that takes place within a social group. So, if a child spends more time with his peers than in the family, then he more actively adopts the norms and rules inherent in the peer group.
- Gender socialization is a process that involves learning the role of a man or woman in society. At the same time, boys learn to be men, and girls learn to be women. In the past, gender socialization was an important and necessary part of a person's entry into society, but nowadays gender has largely ceased to have any meaning. Equality of rights and opportunities eliminates the need to “command” and “obey”, and representatives of both sexes have the opportunity to master the same professions, occupy the same positions and take on the same social roles (for example, in a family, both parents can take turns working and raising children, either the wife works, and the husband looks after the household and raises the children, or “the old fashioned way” - the husband works, and the wife takes care of the household and children). The principles of gender socialization are still strong in traditional, backward societies (in the countries of Asia and Africa), but even there they are gradually losing their position.
- Organizational socialization is a process in which an individual who is part of an organization learns its norms and rules and masters the skills of his work within its framework.
- Early socialization is the process of mastering norms, rules and skills that do not correspond to the current level of physical, psychological and social development. First of all, this type of socialization is understood as a game - a kind of “rehearsal” for future social activity.
Stages
In psychology, it is customary to distinguish several stages of socialization development. The classification is based on the socio-economic aspect.
The first level is pre-labor. It includes the assimilation of basic norms and behavior patterns. The process takes place under the influence of educational factors.
The second level is labor. The individual develops all his abilities and undergoes professional guidance. A social role and status is being formed.
The third level is post-labor. Starts after retirement. At this time, new skills of existence are consolidated, the old system of ideas becomes obsolete. A person is forced to look for new ways of self-expression. Differences between stages reveal the degree of socialization of a person.
Stages of socialization
Socialization is a complex and gradual process that takes place in several stages. The first step should be social adaptation. This is the name given to the active adaptation of an individual to the conditions of the social environment in which he finds himself. It is believed that adaptation takes place at three levels - physiological, psychological and social.
At the physiological stage, a person explores a new environment for himself, enters into new social connections and studies his capabilities, which will help him to realize himself in a given social group. At this time, the individual actively communicates and gets used to living by new rules, after which he tries to make his own efforts to achieve results that are relevant for the given team.
At the stage of individualization, a person is already firmly aware of himself as a unit of society. In fact, the formation of a personality takes place - an individual who has his own beliefs, abilities, skills, and his own assessment of what is happening. If at the first stage of socialization he learns to be like others in everything, then at the next stage he tries to become unlike others, having his own characteristics, which, however, are part of the general system of values and are regulated by it.
However, individualization is a rather subjective process. The assimilation of general rules and common experience and self-realization in a social group occur differently for each person. Some, for example, decide to become as conformal as possible, that is, to follow the norms and rules in everything; Such pedantry in some individuals reaches the point of absurdity. Others, during socialization, overcome stereotypes, break certain rules and behave non-standardly, however, ensuring the overall development of the group. Finally, still others destroy the very foundations of a given social group, resulting in either its disintegration or the expulsion of a given individual from the group.
The next stage of socialization is integration . This term came to social science from exact and natural disciplines - mathematics, biology, physics; and it means the process of acceptance of personality by other members of a social group. Society reaches some consensus - agrees to at least “tolerate” a newcomer who promises to live at least by basic general rules and not interfere with others. More successful integration occurs if the newcomer is useful in some way to a given social group; For this individual, society is even ready to forgive certain “weaknesses” and inconsistencies.
It should be noted that the complete absence of any discrepancies in socialization is undesirable, at least in developed societies. Absolute conformism is usually perceived as one of the forms of deviant behavior, because a conformist does not bring anything useful to society. The main part of a particular social group has a certain “degree of freedom,” but in such a way as not to violate the foundations of this group. However, in undeveloped, primitive societies, absolute conformism is encouraged; in such societies the slightest deviation from the norm, even if it is beneficial to the entire group, is persecuted and eliminated. In such societies, each person is obliged to hold a spoon in a strictly defined hand at dinner, get out of bed on a strictly defined leg, chew food at a strictly defined speed of jaw movement, etc. An example of such a society is the population of Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world. In developed societies, rules and norms are perceived only as a means to help organize all members of the group into a system; and in primitive societies, norms and rules are an end in themselves, and socialization comes down to memorizing them.
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Resocialization
In the life of any person, roles change, and new patterns of behavior have to be adopted. This process does not always lead to a positive result.
Resocialization is the inability to internalize certain norms. Because of this, personal changes do not occur and a person’s life does not improve. His value system remains the same as before; he cannot define new goals for himself.
When in this state for a long time, an individual is capable of dramatic changes, for example, emigration, changing religion, profession, etc. Such a process is not always negative; retraining can be beneficial for personal development.
Features of socialization are considered within the framework of a subject such as social studies. It identifies the characteristic features of all stages, their course, on which the speed of assimilation depends.
In pedagogy, teachers study ways to speed up the process - this makes it easier to form a team
Techniques that make it easier for a newcomer to join a work group are used by all large firms. The effectiveness of the activity depends on how quickly this stage passes.
In political science, the term is understood as the process of acquiring political knowledge, skills, and norms. This allows you to adapt to the existing political system.
Socialization involves the assimilation of norms that are accepted in a certain group. The science of sociology studies this phenomenon. It collects all the current data and statistics that reflect the characteristics of the current society.
Different approaches
In total, there are two concepts in psychology. According to the first, the essence of socialization lies in the fact that society itself is interested in uniform norms of behavior.
In a work team, everyone has their own role; mastering the rules allows you to increase productivity
A similar theory was adhered to by J. Ballantyne, T. Parsons and others. Another concept is based on the idea that during socialization an individual undergoes internal changes. A similar idea belongs to J. Mead.
