Personality socialization: what is it, signs and stages

Socialization of the individual as a process of integration of a person into the general social system of society provides the necessary skill of communication with the environment. And to the question “what is it” there is only one answer - this is the process of assimilation by a human individual of patterns of behavior, psychological attitudes, social norms and values, knowledge, and skills that allow him to function successfully in society.

When a person is born, he immediately enters into socialization with the people around him and finds himself in a certain environment formed first by parents, medical staff of the clinic, relatives and close family friends. In the future, the role of socialization of the individual only intensifies: with the expansion of the boundaries of the world, the number of connections and people with whom one has to interact increases, and it is extremely important that the process proceeds smoothly and is not disrupted.

In the process of growing up, children not only acquire personality, self-awareness, learn communication skills, but also expand the scope of their interests and become increasingly involved in the process of interaction with family members, neighbors, other children, learn to communicate, find compromises, give in and defend their point of view .

Main age stages of socialization

Psychologists distinguish the following stages of personality socialization:

primary socialization is the process of socialization that occurs from the birth of a person to the final formation of his personality;
secondary socialization is the process of a formed personality entering society.

Primary socialization includes a person’s acquisition of social norms and rules in the early stages of life, from birth to adolescence; the secondary stage begins gradually with the expansion of the teenager’s social circle, the appearance in his life of more hobbies and groups formed in society under the influence of these hobbies.

The stages of personality socialization are clearly divided, but there is no hard boundary between them. It cannot be said that until the age of 14, for example, a person exclusively shapes himself, and after that he learns to fit himself into society. On the contrary, in essence, both stages are characteristic of us throughout our lives, it’s just that at an early stage of development, the child’s psychological characteristics are aimed at knowing himself, and later they are redirected outward, towards fitting himself into society, but even at retirement age one should not think as if the personality is completely formed and cannot be changed.

Features of socialization in childhood

It is in childhood, thanks to family influence, that the child develops those patterns that he considers generally accepted, and which he later guides during subsequent socialization.

At this stage, the child learns basic rules and norms exclusively from family members, since his inner world is extremely small and his environment is limited. And if a certain set of prejudices is accepted in the family, then the individual will enter the next stage of socialization with an opinion already formed in his head, taking into account the main family “party line”.

One of the problems of personal socialization associated with raising a child is the concept of the norm of family violence. If violence in a family is considered an indispensable attribute, if the father raises his hand against the mother, and the mother tolerates it and does not try to leave home, the child begins to perceive this situation as a given, and family violence as a variant of the norm for the entire society as a whole. And in the future he goes out into the world with the confidence that all his friends in the house have the same thing going on, they just, like him, are forbidden to talk about it.

Such a child may get a whole bunch of problems in the future when he is faced with the fact that for trying to raise his hand against a girl he will be scolded and ostracized in every possible way, and he will not be able to understand that the problem lies in his behavior, since for him personally this is an absolute norm.

Socialization of the school period

Socialization of the individual at the stage of school education gradually moves the child from the stage of primary socialization to secondary.

At school, an individual’s social circle expands sharply: after a couple of dozen people with whom he constantly communicates or occasionally meets in a kindergarten or clinic, the child finds himself in a big world full of classmates and children from parallel streams.

The attention of adults is not as carefully controlled as it was before, and the child gradually learns to establish relationships with other small individuals, acquires likes and dislikes, learns to behave in accordance with the new rules adopted in the group of students, gets used to the new environment and develops qualities that which in the future will help him establish contact with work colleagues and representatives of other social groups.

At this stage, the problems of socialization are those habits and typical reactions that are formed in him in response to the influence of others.

If a child was brought up in a family like a little prince, was surrounded by the love of his grandmothers and mother, if he grew up in the confidence that all his actions are correct and no one has the right to be dissatisfied with him, he will most likely not fit into the group of classmates, as a habit demanding obedience is unlikely to be appreciated by other children as a pleasant character trait.

Teenagers and self-discovery

Adolescence is a stage of development at which the child begins to spend more time with peers rather than with family members, and thereby makes his transition from the primary stage of socialization to the secondary stage - the formation of not only personality, but also the search for his place in the world .

At this stage, active group socialization of a person begins - he is looking for groups in which he could feel comfortable, be approved, significant, where he could share experiences and thoughts; Gender socialization enters the active phase - awareness of oneself as a representative of a certain gender and assessment of the social roles of representatives of one’s gender in society, acceptance or rejection of these roles in relation to oneself; the process of resocialization begins - a reassessment of previously mastered skills and values in view of gaining new experience and broadening one's horizons.

One of the common problems in the socialization of a teenager’s personality is the situation when he finds himself in an environment that accepts other, unusual standards of behavior as the norm and is left with a choice: to overestimate his own judgments or to defend his opinion and receive rejection from group members.

Types of personality socialization

Let's look at what socialization is like using examples of the most common types.

1. Primary socialization.

Primary socialization begins from the first minutes of a person’s life and lasts until adulthood. Primary socialization is the basis for the formation of the relationship between man and society.

Varieties of primary socialization - upbringing, children's games, studying at school and university, obtaining a specialty. Initial socialization largely depends on the family, where the child begins to receive his first knowledge about everything that surrounds him, and where this “environment” is given certain assessments.

Foreign studies have found that children whose parents treated them with warmth and understanding, while controlling their behavior, in adulthood became inquisitive, friendly and had a high level of self-confidence, maturity and independence.

Education is actually identified with socialization. The child is very susceptible to the attitudes adopted in the family. In most cases, parents are models and teachers for children in the field of relationships between people. Children internalize the value orientations accepted by their parents. A small family member develops “signal heredity” - behavioral stereotypes through imitation of adults. In most cases, children follow the norms and rules accepted in the family, accept family values and express existing “family” assessments of various events. Usually such “nested” stereotypes are very stable.

The behavior of parents determines a person’s attitude towards the surrounding reality. If the family has a negative attitude towards some social phenomenon or event, the child projects this opinion. For example, the boy’s father has an extremely negative attitude, with aggression and condemnation, towards representatives of sexual minorities. The father tries to instill in his son maximum brutality, to raise him strong and courageous. Most likely, the son of such a person will follow the vector of upbringing and will have the same attitudes as his father. However, in such situations there are exceptions. Under certain circumstances, in families with intolerance to same-sex love, children become representatives of sexual minorities.

Psychologists believe that socialization takes place most intensely in childhood and adolescence. During this period, basic value orientations are assimilated. During primary socialization, children learn how to behave, communicate, act, and react to different situations. At this stage, the child develops shame and guilt associated with the reactions of other people.

Primary socialization depends on the educational institution and the organization of the educational process in it. The relationships accepted at school or preschool educational institution become factors in the socialization of the child.

If the educational environment takes into account the child's activity level and is able to meet these needs, then this contributes to development and positive socialization. If kindergarten teachers force an active child to “calm down and sit up straight,” then there will be no harmonious personality development. A child whose activity has been suppressed may develop into a socially maladapted, anxious personality.

During primary socialization, a person is included in social relationships, and at the same time his psyche develops. If a child is deprived of experience of social interaction with other people, this negatively affects the formation of personality.

If a child has not developed social skills and abilities to the required extent, then this is called social neglect. Let us remember the so-called “Mowgli children” who were raised by animals. Such children did not know how to speak, sit, eat at the table, dress, or wash. When they are returned to human society, a long process of adaptation begins; for a long time, children continue to behave as before. The earlier social neglect is detected, the easier it is to change everything and return a person to society, to normal life in society.

2. Secondary socialization is known to many under another name - resocialization. It is easy to understand what resocialization is if you understand how the word was formed. The first part “re” - translated from Latin means “repeat, anew”, hence resocialization is the process of a person’s adaptation to new conditions. At this stage, changes occur that adapt a person to new conditions.

A striking example of resocialization is emigration - the move of a person to another country, where the customs, traditions, political and economic are different than in the place where the person lived previously. There is a weakening of connections or a break with a past life. Habitual living conditions are changing. A person is exposed to new concepts, there is a need to study the features of a new way of life and integrate into a new society. It happens that people in exile fail to complete the socialization process, and a person lives with the feeling that he is a “stranger” here.

Child psychologists highlight resocialization when a child enters a family from an orphanage. In the family, all the needs and desires of the child are satisfied quickly, whereas previously they had to wait their turn. In such cases, resocialization occurs abruptly, and not always smoothly and painlessly. This is why psychological preparation of parents who want to take a child from an orphanage is so important.

Secondary socialization, when people move to another group, society, society, is the most difficult. During secondary socialization, many psychological problems arise; specialists deal with them.

Resocialization of convicts is the social adaptation of a person after release from prison, the main goal is to minimize the negative consequences of isolation.

The Large Legal Dictionary calls resocialization the process of re-"getting used to" the convicted person into the value system existing in society.

Resocialization of convicts is the restoration of the “person-society” connection, establishing contacts, and facilitating entry into society. To resocialize a convicted person, it is necessary to change his psychology and worldview and the consent of society to accept him. It is believed that the main source of resocialization for a released convict is his family. That is why prisoners who have served their sentences and have lost their family and family relationships are at risk.

Resocialization of those convicted by law begins long before release. In places of detention, to correct and prevent them from committing repeated crimes, “corrective influence” is used - regime, community service, educational work, social influence, vocational training and education. Statistics show that criminals who received a higher education while in prison are five times less likely to commit repeated crimes after release.

The concepts of rehabilitation and resocialization of convicts should not be confused. Rehabilitation is the restoration of a person’s rights. Resocialization is the process of adaptation of an individual to the social environment. It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of desocialization and resocialization. Desocialization is the unlearning of old norms, rules of behavior, social roles and values. With resocialization, the next stage of acceptance and assimilation of new norms and values takes place to replace the old ones.

Secondary socialization is an ongoing process during which old life attitudes and behavior patterns are replaced by new ones. For example, secondary professional socialization occurs when a person needs to learn new skills and abilities to implement professional activities.

Socialization in adulthood is formed on the basis of life experience and against the backdrop of changing conditions in society. When a need arises for resocialization (mastering new knowledge and skills instead of old ones), a person in adulthood may experience deep personal feelings about his professional inadequacy and unsuitability. In addition, resocialization requires additional energy expenditure.

3. Proactive Socialization

Proactive socialization is when a person tries to change or adjust the model of his social behavior in order to secure a new role in society or easy accession to a new group in society. In this case, the person is preparing for a new social position. Or he needs to be accepted in a social group or society that is different from where the person is at the moment. This may be the so-called “high society” - an environment where in order to fit in you will need to increase your status and position.

The concept of anticipatory or anticipatory socialization was first defined by the American sociologist, the founding father of modern sociology, Robert King Merton. Based on a study of the American Armed Forces (1949), the scientist found that enlisted soldiers who modeled the behavior of officers in their attitudes and behavior were much more likely to be promoted than those who modeled their behavior as privates.

Medical students who try to behave like qualified doctors, people in adulthood preparing for retirement, an ordinary employee “trying on” the chair of a manager, preparing to take a higher position - all these are examples of proactive socialization.

The desire of parents to find out the gender of the child before his birth can also be considered a manifestation of proactive socialization. Knowing who will be born - a boy or a girl - prepares the future mother and father to interact with the child in a certain way.

One of the methods of selecting employees in organizations is proactive socialization. In this case, when selecting and appointing a specific position, the employee’s promotion plan at work, his professional and career growth are taken into account.

4. Organizational socialization

Many people have to deal with organizational socialization. Modern corporate culture requires maximum immersion of employees in the philosophy, image and mission of the company.

Organizational socialization presupposes a person’s comfortable “entry” into the organization: his training in performance standards, the formation of contacts, and adherence to the corporate “spirit” of the company. In addition, in any work rules and behavioral standards that must be followed while performing their duties.

Familiarization with all components makes it easier for workers to adapt to a professional environment and makes their work more efficient and effective. The success of each employee is determined not only by the content of the work, but also by the social conditions in which this work is carried out. Organizational socialization also aims employees at long-term cooperation by forming the foundations of certain corporate behavior, training and identifying individual abilities.

There is also a reverse process to organizational socialization. Its name is individualization, when the active actions of certain employees are aimed at changing the corporate culture of the company. This usually happens when an employee, holding a high position, has the opportunity to influence the social system, and his actions come into conflict with the principles and fundamentals of the company.

The process of organizational socialization is aimed at the relationship between the interests of the individual and the company. The stability and efficiency of an organization depends on how well it is able to socialize new and old employees. The success of socialization determines how a person will work, how his interaction with other employees will be structured, and how productive his work will be.

Ideal socialization in an organization leads a person to success. And achievements in work in this case will be felt as success in life.

5. Group socialization

People's personalities are always formed through interaction. This can be seen in group socialization. A person living in society is included in various social groups. This is group socialization, examples are a company of friends, a work team, a group of students. In each group, a person has some position and status. In each team, a person masters a certain role; this is an important component of the socialization of the individual.

Thus, group socialization is when the process of adaptation occurs in a certain group, in a community. In such conditions, people actively accept the models, norms and standards of behavior adopted within this group. In the process of group socialization, a person adapts to the orderliness and peculiarities of interaction between people in a group. Members of groups develop common (group) habits, develop certain identical manners of behavior and similar communication etiquette. In the process of socialization, each group member develops his role function.

An example of group socialization is a sports team or any community where participants are united by the same idea, the same lifestyle and interests.

The complexity of group socialization lies in the fact that each person, in one way or another, is a member of various public social groups. And each such group has its own foundations and rules. Therefore, additional socialization awaits a person in every society.

In the process of socialization, a teenager belongs to several groups. The values that are instilled at school often differ from the attitudes accepted in his company of peers. Sometimes such differences lead to internal conflict and make the child worry about such “disagreements.” But at the same time, such experiences and the search for the right attitudes lead to the self-development of the individual.

An example of how important the role of the group is in the socialization of the individual is service in the army. A young man, having barely reached conventional maturity, follows the strict conditions of army life for a long time. Along with the honorable task of acquiring skills in the service of the Fatherland, young people sometimes gain invaluable experience of living in difficult conditions. Military service helps many children with social adaptation in civilian life. The young man returns from the army noticeably stronger physically, disciplined and independent.

Group socialization

The assimilation of norms accepted as fundamental in society, rules of behavior, restrictions and unacceptable actions is the process of education and instilling in a child a clear understanding of the boundaries within which he must move in order not to be rejected by others.

Our society is structured in such a way that an individual needs to receive social approval, belong to a group, and feel the support of members of this group. And for this we are forced to behave in a certain way, follow certain rules of behavior and fall into the pattern set by the group we want to join.

Patterns of behavior among groups can be different and even diametrically opposed: for some groups, community based on financial solvency is important, others, on the contrary, are formed by uniting poor members of society and declare themselves to be opposed to wealthy circles.

It is important to understand that it is impossible to socialize universally one hundred percent in such a way as to ideally fit into absolutely all segments of the population and groups, precisely because they value different qualities and opposing values. It’s not for nothing that people say: “You’re not a piece of gold to please everyone!” - you cannot please everyone, and in the process of socialization a person has to choose which group to join, and also oppose himself to some other group of people.

Stages of socialization and their factors

If we consider socialization as a continuous process of adaptation of a person to society, then several stages can be distinguished depending on the uniqueness of social conditions. This classification of stages of socialization was born in Soviet social psychology, which put the socio-economic aspect in first place.

Depending on the social role of a person and his place in social relations, three stages are distinguished.

The pre-labor stage covers the entire period of growing up before the start of work and is divided into the primary and educational stages. During the pre-labor stage, basic norms of behavior are learned, and the main socializing factor is educational influence.
Labor stage. During this period, all the abilities of the individual are revealed, and its development occurs against the background of interaction with other elements of society. This is a period of active development of social roles and formation of social status. The main socializing factor is the desire for professional growth. And the main institution of socialization is the work collective, the system of social relations.
The post-labor stage begins with a person’s retirement. It manifests itself in the restructuring of the system of social relations and the loss by the individual of a number of his social functions. The main factor of this stage is the change in a person’s social position and the restructuring of his activities. A person has to learn to exist in new conditions and look for new ways of self-expression and personal development. Not everyone succeeds in this, so the fact of losing their social significance is experienced quite hard.

This classification of stages of socialization is not supported by all psychologists; to many it seems artificial. The third stage is the most criticized, because in adulthood a person should not lose value for society, but rather the opposite. After all, he has something that younger representatives of society do not have - invaluable experience - both professional and social.

Consciousness of group selection

The choice of social group with which you interact is not always up to you. We make a conscious choice when we decide to take up a particular sport, enroll in a certain university, or move to another neighborhood. In this case, we can prepare ourselves for the norms that will most likely be characteristic of the environment in which we will find ourselves, since we will have time to study the issue, work on our reactions and socialization skills.

But sometimes, due to circumstances beyond our control, we find ourselves in an environment that cannot be called successful, and this is especially dangerous for not fully formed individuals - children and adolescents.

In the event of a forced move to a less favorable area, adult family members are able to distance themselves as much as possible from their neighbors and establish contact with them that does not include accepting their social standards of behavior. But a child or teenager, communicating with classmates and neighbors, does not yet know how to resist someone else’s authoritative opinion, and unconsciously absorbs and adopts those norms of behavior that he should not include in his picture of the world as correct.

This problem of personal socialization cannot always be solved by parents prohibiting the child from communicating with “bad” friends, but the environment in which your child grows up is a very important factor in growing up and shaping his personality.

Factors of socialization.

Socialization factors are the mechanisms through which the socialization process occurs. The main factors identified by social educator A.V. Mudrikom, three:

Macro factors are global mechanisms that influence the social development of an individual (planet, space, state, country, society, government).
Mesofactors are conditions that influence socialization, mainly on a territorial or ethnic basis (place and type of settlement, region, town, city, people, ethnicity).
Microfactors are factors that have a direct impact on a person’s socialization (family, peers, school, place of study and work).

Each factor has an active element, thanks to which socialization occurs. For example, in a family there are parents, brothers, sisters, in school there are teachers and classmates. These elements are called agents of socialization.

Gender socialization

The socialization of the individual cannot be fully accomplished without the individual mastering the cultural system of relationships between men and women characteristic of the society in which he lives, as well as awareness of gender roles and his place in this system.

Society begins to instill certain behavioral stereotypes in children literally from the cradle: in stores, for the most part, they offer a choice of only pink or blue baby care items, boys’ clothes are made mainly in blue, and girls’ in red, boys are given cars and pistols, and girls - dolls and decorations.

In the future, looking at the parents and guests of the family, the child absorbs those standards that pass before his eyes in the process of growing up: if the mother and her friends are mostly housewives and take care of cooking, cleaning and the house, and the father and his friends earn money and drive cars and play football, the individual will most likely internalize such a traditional value system, and in the future will begin to apply it to himself in accordance with his gender: a boy will strive to become a “breadwinner”, and a girl will be aimed at finding a husband who meets certain criteria, and dream of marriage and children.

If it is accepted in the family that mother works equally with father, and father cleans on weekends with mother, in the future the girl will not understand if her husband begins to demand that she sit at home and cook soups, and the boy does not appreciate his wife’s desire to become a housewife and study exclusively family matters.

Examples of personality socialization

We figured out why socialization of the individual is so important and how it develops; the examples above illustrate the process at different stages.

In order to better understand the essence of socialization, I will continue to highlight the significance of this process at different stages of life.

Knowledge of social norms does not always guarantee compliance with them. A criminal steals and takes someone else’s property not because he doesn’t know that this is not contrary to the law. It’s just that the norm “you cannot appropriate someone else’s property” was not adapted and did not become the norm of this person’s behavior.

The socialization of a child begins from the first days of life. Parents try to instill certain skills in their child, teach him to evaluate his own and others’ actions, and behave in society. From birth, young children have no need to brush their teeth, eat with a spoon, clean up after themselves, or say hello to adults. But gradually such actions become the baby’s habit, and he already feels the need for them.

If we imagine a unique situation where a person lived his life in the same city, worked in the same team and lived in the same family, this does not mean at all that he will not encounter socialization. Society is constantly changing, and human adaptation occurs constantly. However, with gradual, not abrupt transformations and changes in society, human socialization proceeds slowly. During periods of global and revolutionary changes, the normal social rhythm is disrupted. At such moments, people with strong “old” attitudes and an inflexible psyche may experience psychological problems, discomfort, and confusion.

A person’s life is connected with his social position and the place he occupies in society. Being in society, communicating, people feel more important, needed, express their emotions more easily and do not suffer from loneliness.

Let's turn to the literature. Using the example of the protagonist of a novel about a shipwrecked sailor, writer Jules Verne describes a man who has lived for years in complete isolation and loneliness. Robinson Crusoe experiences different feelings: fear, joy from being saved, freedom and melancholy from lack of communication. To avoid going crazy from loneliness on a desert island, Robinson Crusoe talks to animals, fills out a calendar, and keeps a diary. But nothing replaces his communication with people.

Robinson Crusoe

It has been proven that people living outside society often feel depressed and are prone to depression. People with strong leadership qualities are less able to tolerate isolation and life outside society.

A striking example of the socialization of a child is his presence in kindergarten. Previously, parents simply “dropped” their child to kindergarten. Because everyone had to go to work and because it was customary. Today, a kindergarten or other preschool institution, where children communicate in groups, is assessed from the point of view of the socialization of children.

In a group, a preschooler gets to know people, learns about new concepts, games, patterns, tries on certain “roles”, learns to control his emotions and correctly take a place in the group. A large family and the child’s active communication in the format “with peers in the yard” partly replace attending preschool institutions. However, in single-parent families, only children, or children from disadvantaged families, psychologists recommend that they attend kindergarten.

With an unprofessional approach, disinterest or negligent attitude of kindergarten teachers towards the educational process, desocialization may occur: children cry and do not want to go to kindergarten, the child’s character deteriorates, and bad habits appear. Here parents need to be attentive and not let everything take its course. Kindergarten is just one option among many places where children learn to interact with peers and gain essential social experiences. The well-known expression that “the environment shapes” largely refers to the choice of an educational institution for a child.

It happens that the socialization of both adults and children in a new place is affected by lack of knowledge of the language. If a child does not understand well the speech (language) spoken by his peers, he experiences problems in socialization, and in a group of children he may become an outcast. As an example, children of migrants.

As a demonstration of proactive socialization, I will give an illustrative example. Often, teenagers from economically disadvantaged families or areas strive not to become scientists or artists, but drug dealers. They are usually criticized and accused of lack of motivation. But sociologists explain this phenomenon by the fact that such teenagers have virtually blocked access to the artistic or scientific environment. Therefore, young people reject the norms of this group and begin the process of proactive socialization with more “receptive” communities - they become involved in the processes alongside which their primary socialization takes place. Thus, difficult teenagers pragmatically adjust the opportunities that they have.

As soon as a person understands his gender, gender socialization begins. The right guidelines will help a girl become a woman, and a boy - a man. A simple example is that girls wear dresses and play with dolls, while boys are interested in cars and other “brutal” toys.

Resocialization

The concept of personality resocialization is closely related to the stages of growing up. In essence, this term denotes the secondary socialization of the individual, which continues throughout life and includes a constant reassessment of previously accepted values.

Resocialization begins with the child going out into the outside world and observing people with different cultural, social and gender stereotypes. The more such observations a child accumulates, the more work happens in his head: he begins to understand that not all the words of mom and dad are axioms, that there are other points of view and a different view of the world. And under the influence of these factors in adolescence, the individual completes the formation of his personality, leaving some of the previous family attitudes, and replacing the remaining attitudes with others accepted from the outside and regarded by him as more suitable for him personally.

Over time, an individual’s social circle expands more and more, goes beyond the boundaries of school and university, and includes colleagues, friends in the gym, acquaintances from different segments of the population, therefore resocialization as an important element of personality formation is an endless process.

Personality as a subject and object of social relations

Man is simultaneously both the subject and the object of all social relations. The personality as a subject of social relations is characterized by a certain degree of independence from society, the ability to oppose itself to it. Personal independence is associated with the ability to control one’s behavior, which is impossible without self-awareness and self-esteem. When considering personality as an object of social relations, the emphasis is on the influence of society on accuracy, on its dependence on social and cultural expectations, social attitudes of the environment where the personality is formed.

Legal socialization

Legal socialization of an individual is the development in a person of certain ideas about his place in society, as well as about his social role and the culture of society as a whole.

The main feature of the legal socialization of an individual is the process of assigning to a person certain typical (predictable) reactions, ways of perceiving information and forms of activity accepted in this particular society.

Having perceived the norms and rules accepted in the society around a person as the basic and only true ones, the individual subsequently reacts negatively to any deviations from this norm, often evaluates them as an attempt to violate public order as a whole, and even actively opposes those who exhibit unusual behavior for the given person. reaction society.

Legal socialization of an individual is a necessary and important process, at the same time closely connected with society’s attempts to discard any progressive ideas unusual for it, which seem to successfully socialized members of society to be a violation of the very foundations of the existence of a social group or the nation as a whole.

Legal socialization of the individual makes it possible to build a clear hierarchical structure of the group, within which subjects who most clearly adhere to the standards of behavior approved by society easily increase their status and are fixed on the upper tiers of the pyramid, and individuals with non-standard views on life are rejected.

Introduction

This topic is relevant, since such a problem as understanding the individual as an object and subject of social relations has not been sufficiently studied.
Personality is a concept that is fundamental in the science of sociology. There are philosophical concepts, as well as psychological theories, that have an important influence on the study of personality. If psychology studies the individuality of people, and this includes character, temperament, and specific behavior, then philosophy considers a person completely: the role of man in the Universe, and the meaning of human life.

In sociology, personality is one whole of a person’s social properties. Personality brings the individual into a system such as the system of social relations.

The purpose and objectives of this work are: to study the socialization of the individual, as well as to consider the individual as an object and subject of social relations, identifying specifics.

Structure: the work consists of five chapters, three of which are structural elements, two are the main content, the second chapter has three paragraphs. The total volume of the abstract is sixteen pages.

Desocialization

The concept of desocialization of the individual is closely related to resocialization, and means the destruction of previously mastered and accepted norms and rules of behavior, the destruction of previous attitudes. What is it and why is this process needed?

This process is used by psychologists when a person’s learned norms of behavior prevent him from successfully fitting into society. In this case, a person must desocialize - abandon previous attitudes, and then resocialize - accept new rules of behavior adopted in the group.

Desocialization is necessary for victims of domestic violence, people who went through wars and lived in combat zones, as well as those who moved to other countries with a different cultural heritage or when re-educating individuals suffering from deviant behavior - alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals. “Reconfiguration” of the head in such cases is necessary, and the process plan usually begins with an assessment of the attitudes that the individual sees as unshakable, and proof that this unshakability is apparent.

Socialization functions

This mechanism is of great importance for the development of personality. Among the main functions there are:

Normative and regulatory. This means that absolutely everything that surrounds a person can have one influence or another on him. In this case, we are talking about family, country politics, religion and much more.
Personally transformative. In the process of communicating with other people, a person begins to show his individual qualities and characteristics. Thus, it is separated from the total mass.
Value-oriented. This category is reminiscent of the regulatory category. However, in this case, a person adopts from everything around him not experience, but certain values.
Information and communication. In this case, the individual’s lifestyle forms its way of life based on the experience of communicating with various representatives of society.
Creative. If a person is brought up in the right environment, this will help a person learn to improve the world around him.

Deviant behavior

Deviant behavior is behavior that deviates from socially accepted norms, principles and standards.

Deviant behavior is not always a sign of something bad: for a patriarchal society, in which it is accepted, for example, that a woman does not have the right to vote, is obliged to hide her face, wear a skirt and remain silent, the behavior of an ordinary European woman will be regarded as extremely deviant, while in Europe they simply will not pay attention to it, since it fits into the standards of behavior accepted there.

The socialization of individuals can occur with disturbances, and then psychologists also talk about deviant behavior - it is because of improper socialization that people become criminals, they show a tendency to violence, cruelty, and illegal actions. Teenagers who are trying to stand out from the crowd and express their “I” also show signs of deviant behavior.

Deviant behavior is always the result of problems with the socialization of the individual, but, unfortunately, the socialization process cannot be written down as a plan and strictly followed.

Types and agents of socialization.

Socialization

- the process of an individual’s assimilation of patterns of behavior, psychological attitudes, social norms and values, knowledge, skills that allow him to function successfully in society, beginning in infancy and ending in old age.

Types of socialization: 1. Primary socialization

. This stage covers the process of formation and development of personality, that is, the process of caring for, raising and educating children primarily in the family, carried out by those agents of socialization who are in direct and regular contact with the child in early and late childhood. During primary socialization, passive assimilation of information, skills, and ideas predominates.

2. Secondary socialization.

This stage covers the rest of the person’s “adult” life. At this stage, the development of the social environment occurs consciously, most of the information coming from outside is subjected to critical consideration. The individual makes a meaningful choice from several options.

3 Early socialization

represents a “rehearsal” for future social relations. For example, a young couple may live together before marriage in order to have an idea of what family life will be like.

4. Resocialization

is re-socialization that occurs throughout an individual's life. Resocialization is carried out by changes in the individual’s attitudes, goals, norms and values of life

5. Organizational socialization

is the process by which an individual acquires the values, abilities, norms of behavior and social outlook that are important for gaining weight in the organization and full participation in it as an employee

6. Group socialization

is socialization within a specific social group. Group socialization is the process of inculcating ideas and principles into an individual as he internalizes the basic values and symbols of the group in which he is involved.

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Memory structure. Processes of storing and processing information

... memory is studied in cognitive psychology because the processes of storing and retrieving information form the basis of mental processes. There are several theories that claim to describe the work... the quality of an object (What?) and its localization (Where?). These two types of information enter the associative memory, where comparison with existing samples occurs. ...

7. Gender socialization

- this is the assimilation, internalization of social roles, differentiation of activities, statuses, rights and responsibilities of individuals depending on gender.

Agents of Socialization

- these are structural groups or environments in which the most important processes of socialization take place. In all cultures, the most important agent of primary socialization for a child is the family. However, in later stages of life, many other agents of socialization come into play. Agents of secondary socialization of an individual are school, university, army, church.

Peer groups, the media, mass printed publications, and electronic communications have a great socializing effect on a person.

Organizational socialization

Organizational or professional socialization is the process of an individual mastering the skills and attitudes adopted in an organization for the successful performance of basic functions, as well as for establishing relationships with colleagues.

At first, upon entering the workforce, newcomers become familiar with generally accepted standards of behavior in the organization, master the jargon, communication style, learn to comply with the dress code, and perceive the balance of power between people. This is also the socialization of the individual, and very important - often we have problems with work not because we are bad professionals, but only because even an excellent professional who is unable to establish relationships with people will bring nothing but harm to the organization.

To improve organizational socialization, it is customary for companies to organize various joint holidays, field trips, and conduct games and activities to improve communication between colleagues.

Personal socialization is a complex process that lasts a lifetime, associated with endless knowledge of the outside world and self-knowledge, developing the ability to establish relationships with other people in any social environment.

The ability to successfully fit into any system is useful to everyone, and one cannot think that socialization is important only for those who are not successful and do not fit into the framework. Since any framework has its values exclusively in a given period of time, and there is no guarantee that tomorrow the concept of the norm will not change, and that yesterday’s successful person will not find himself on the sidelines of life with his mossy concepts of the norm.

Man, Individual, Personality

A person is connected with such principles as biological, spiritual, social, as well as consciousness and the sphere of the subconscious. If we consider the concept of “man” as it is considered in science, then man is the result and formation of cosmic evolution and the product of the long-term development of living nature. And a person both lives and is born in a social environment. A person knows how to think - this is no less important, because it is with the help of this that the spiritual world of a person is realized.

In such concepts as “individuality”, “individual”, “personality” there are both natural elements and social elements of the “human” system. There is a concept of “subject”. In philosophy, this concept is one of the main collective concepts. It includes all the concepts that were listed above.

And so, the subject is a person who is active, with all his knowledge, experience, as well as practice.

“Subjectivity” is the most important aspect of a person’s individual existence, his relationship with social existence. “Human subjectivity” is the world of thought, will, as well as feelings that are inherent in man. “Subjectivity” and “human subjectivity” are different concepts, so they should not be mixed or confused.

Man is a subject of socio-historical activity and culture, a biosocial being with consciousness, articulate speech, moral qualities and the ability to make tools.

There are still concepts in science that are uncertain and controversial. “Personality” refers precisely to a number of such concepts. An important aspect in understanding personality is that a person is a biosocial being. It is impossible to separate him from his corporeality and from his own nature. However, he has both a soul and consciousness. It is on the basis of all this that the personality characterizes two patterns:

natural-biological;
socio-historical.

The human individual as a subject of relationships and conscious activity - this is how philosophy defines personality.

There is another meaning of personality: it is a system of socially significant traits that is stable; it characterizes the individual as a member of a particular society.

Personality is a special quality acquired by an individual thanks to social relations, emphasized A. N. Leontyev.1

One is not born a personality, one becomes a personality by taking enormous efforts for this - this is exactly what the authors of the concept of “personality” adhere to.

After all, not every person is an individual. A person who has gone mad, a human child, a person who existed in a tribal system - all of them are not a person. For a person to become an individual, he needs to go through the path of socialization. A person needs to learn the social experience that has been accumulated for a long time among generations of people, to join the existing system of social connections and relationships.

The turn in a person’s relationship to environmental changes is the stage from which the history of man begins. As soon as a person ceases to react to changes in the world around him, when a person laid the foundation for his own artificial environment, then the social history of man begins. Due to these forms of social adaptation, there was a division of labor, its specialization, and the complication of forms of herd and then group organization. These forms of social adaptation are reflected in the complication of the function of brain activity.

These factors gave a person the opportunity to gain enormous opportunities to ensure his own life2. The improvement of tools and the emergence of surplus products - all this had an impact on the organization of social life: life became much more complex, society acquired structure. And what role a specific person can play in resolving contradictions that arise in social processes depends, first of all, on their scale, the ratio of the necessary and the accidental in them, and on the characteristics of society.

The specificity of personality has a tremendous impact on social processes. 3 There is a change in the circumstances of one’s own life, the line of one’s destiny is determined and developed - all this happens after the individual begins to be involved in social processes. In other words, we can say that social activity is the main factor in the self-determination of an individual.

Next, consider in the figure the factors that influence the formation of personality:

Figure 1 – Personality formation factors

So, now let’s summarize everything that has been said above: a personality is an individual person who is a subject of conscious activity, who has a set of socially significant traits, qualities, properties - all of which a person embodies in social life.

Personality cannot exist separately from communication and social activity. An individual can manifest his social essence, develop value orientations, and also form his own social qualities only when the individual is involved in the process of historical practice.

All this means that personality is a product of the integration of processes, which, in turn, carry out the life relationships of the subject.

Successful socialization

In the process of socialization, a person goes through three main phases of development:

Adaptation is the mastery of sign systems and social roles.
Individualization is the isolation of an individual, the desire to stand out, to find “your own way.”
Integration is integration into society, achieving a balance between the individual and society.

A person is considered socialized if he is taught to think and act in accordance with age, gender and social situation. However, this is not enough for successful socialization.

The secret of self-realization and success is a person’s active life position. It manifests itself in the courage of initiative, determination, conscious actions, and responsibility. A person’s real actions shape his active lifestyle and help him occupy a certain position in society. Such a person, on the one hand, obeys the norms of society, on the other, strives to lead. For successful socialization, to succeed in life, a person must have the following basic characteristics:

desire for self-development and self-actualization;
willingness to make independent decisions in situations of choice;
successful presentation of individual abilities;
communication culture;
maturity and moral stability.

A passive life position reflects a person’s tendency to submit to the world around him and follow circumstances. As a rule, he finds reasons not to make efforts, strives to avoid responsibility, and blames other people for his failures.

Despite the fact that the formation of a person’s life position is rooted in his childhood and depends on the environment in which he is located, it can be realized, comprehended and transformed. It's never too late to change yourself, especially for the better. People are born a person, but they become a person.

The essence of socialization

The need for socialization is determined by human nature itself. He is a unique phenomenon, because he is the only living creature that has virtually no innate forms of behavior. A child who has not undergone socialization is unable to communicate as a person, establish relationships with relatives, or behave as is customary in society. It is a cat or a dog that has innate programs of species behavior, but a person needs to learn everything.

Socialization, in essence, is the process of human adaptation in society. But this is not just knowledge of how to behave in a given situation. Knowledge of social norms does not guarantee compliance with them. For example, a criminal does not steal because he does not know that it is illegal. He knows this very well. But the norm “don’t steal” did not go through the process of socialization, was not appropriated by him, and did not become his intrapersonal norm of behavior. The phenomenon of transition of a social norm or meaning from the external to the internal level is called internalization.

This is the basis of socialization, its basic process. Initially, all norms of behavior and methods of social activity are external for the child. Parents, sometimes through persuasion and sometimes through coercion, instill in their child the habit of performing certain actions, making assessments of their own actions and the actions of others. For example, a small child does not feel any need to eat with a spoon, fasten buttons on his blouse, brush his teeth, say hello, much less put away his toys. But if the parents are persistent and patient enough, then these actions become habitual, and in a similar situation the child himself will feel the need for them. So, we, adults, will experience obvious discomfort if we have to eat salad with our hands or go out to strangers casually dressed.

The complexity of socialization also lies in the fact that a person is a member of different social groups with different norms and rules. We have to undergo additional socialization in every society we happen to find ourselves in.