Socialization factors
By scale, factors are divided (A.V. Mudrik) into:
- megafactors;
- macro factors;
- mesofactors;
- microfactors.
Megafactors
These are global factors that influence any person: space, Earth, humanity.
Space is considered as a kind of spatially ordered structure of the Universe, which includes all space and all material objects and forms of energy in it. Man is part of the Universe. Humanity has already gone beyond the boundaries of planet Earth, and, although it is only taking its first steps, it has the prospect of becoming a transformative force on the scale of the Solar System, the Galaxy and the Universe as a whole. In this regard, understanding one’s place in the universe and taking responsibility for human actions on a global scale influence the formation of the individual and his actions in society.
Planet Earth is the homeland of our civilization. The vast majority of people, with the exception of a few, spend their entire lives on Earth. In this regard, the physical and biological living conditions dictate a person’s part of his needs: the need for clothing, shelter, food supplies. And these needs already dictate the very need for social interactions, both as a method of more effective activity than individual activity, and as well as the forms of these interactions.
Society as a whole, humanity, in the words of V.I. Vernadsky, has long been a geological force transforming the appearance of the planet. In this regard, the individual person begins to be influenced by the consequences of such a transformation, primarily in the form of the technosphere. Humanity exerts a global influence on its internal processes, although this influence today is predominantly unsystematic.
Macro factors
This is a state, country, society (in the sense of a specific cultural and economically determined community).
Country as a basically geographical concept defines, to a first approximation, the territory that a person considers as “his own,” building his relations on the basis of territorial affiliation. Natural and climatic features influence human behavior both directly (through temperature, available crops for cultivation and nutrition) and indirectly (through transport accessibility, economic prospects for activity, etc.).
The state is a political concept. A person acts as an object and subject of civil rights, masters forms of legal interaction with other people. A citizen has a number of fixed obligations to the state, and vice versa, the state has a number of obligations to each citizen.
Society is a direct participant in the socialization of a person as a source of norms, rules, and guidelines. As a subject authorizing and evaluating various forms of behavior, and as an object of redistribution of resources and information regarding an individual and social groups of various sizes. Each society has a specific set of culturally and historically determined norms; in this regard, the circumstance arises that when moving to a new society, an individual may experience the need for new socialization. Society has a structure of strata (sometimes castes, as in India), belonging to which leaves its mark on the norms of behavior with others, the volume and structure of knowledge necessary for assimilation, value attitudes, etc.
Mesofactors
This is an ethnic group, a region, a type of settlement, and means of communication (including mass).
Ethnicity as a national-cultural community is the bearer of traditional values, a genetically determined appearance accepted as the norm, and, most importantly, language as the basis of thinking and the basis for interaction with culture. Here ideas about beauty, consumption standards, housing features, methods of self-realization, etc. are formed. That is, a person acquires concepts about vital needs and the nature of satisfying these needs on the basis of social interaction and acquired mental values. The spiritual makeup of an ethnic group largely determines the main status of a person before the start of professional activity.
The region of residence can be described as a “small homeland”, i.e. This is the part of the planet where the first years of a person’s life pass, which he perceives as directly his territory. It is known, for example, that people who frequently move at the age of 10-15 years do not have an image of their homeland in their psyche and do not acquire it in the future. The region of residence provides specific life examples of the interaction of large groups of people, their influence on nature, and contributes to the formation of human interaction with specific phenomena of living and inanimate nature.
The type of settlement mainly influences the formation of the nature of interaction with living and inanimate nature, and the technosphere. It influences the availability of medical, educational and other needs and related services, local mobility, and the frequency and strength of social contacts and connections. Socialization in cities takes place with a huge concentration of the population, people live literally on top of each other (multi-story buildings), the nature of social interactions is highly anonymous, contacts are frequent and massive, the requirements for compliance with hostel standards are of increased rigidity. In this regard, the scale of criminalization of society and opportunities for criminal socialization are growing. The larger the city, the more clearly these features appear. In rural areas, population density is significantly lower. The frequency of social interactions is several times lower and acquires greater value, personal significance and depth than in the city.
Mass communication media (MSC) are technical means (print, radio, cinema, television) that disseminate information to quantitatively large, dispersed audiences. They implement a mechanism for individual and group selection, evaluation and interpretation of reported information. When considering social media as a mesofactor of socialization, one must keep in mind that the direct object of influence of the flow of their messages is not an individual, but the consciousness and behavior of large social groups, i.e. mass consciousness and behavior.
Microfactors of socialization include school, family, peer group, etc.
During training, the student becomes familiar with various facets of the culture accumulated by humanity, gaining knowledge about the outside world. And a huge layer - the inner world of a person - remains virtually outside the boundaries of school curricula.
Modern school teaches us to exist in the world of knowledge, skills, abilities, and not to live among people. Interaction with wildlife, especially in urban schools, is developing poorly.
The parental family is crucial in the formation of the emotional world, self-awareness and moral foundations of the individual in the first years of life. If this is not done or done poorly, it is extremely difficult to make up for the loss. Later, especially in adolescence, parental attention noticeably weakens, giving way to other factors - school, peers, etc.
The need to communicate with peers exists at any age. Already a six-month-old child responds with crying to the crying of his peer. At one and a half years old, children can smile at each other and exchange toys. For older preschoolers, communication is simply necessary. A child deprived of such communication loses in his communicative development.
Although children learn language mainly from adults, some intuitive and communicative abilities are formed only in communication with peers.
Stages of personality socialization
Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, who left behind an outstanding scientific legacy, identified the following stages of socialization:
- Early - psychogenetic - is when the first forms of need satisfaction are developed.
- Middle - symbolic, figurative - when habitual actions are influenced by symbols and sounds.
- The highest - intellectual - when a person controls himself and other people with the help of his learned experience, while simultaneously acquiring new skills.
Socialization is a natural process; it is subject to the laws of social development. The initial stages of human socialization take place in childhood.
In adulthood, people continue to socialize. As an example, a new place of work and associated changes in life. Changing jobs is almost always stressful for a person, even if the person does not think so. In a new place you have to get used to the conditions and people again. If a person is a socialized person, then the process of adaptation and adaptation to the conditions of society, from the point of view of psychology, proceeds much easier. Here a lot depends on the person himself, how much of an accomplished person he is. But no less important is organizational socialization, which was discussed above.
The process of socialization of an individual occurs throughout life. A person changes his attitudes, behavior patterns, and adapts to new conditions. Characteristic criteria for socialization in adulthood are stabilization of personal qualities and adjustment of one’s own lifestyle. In maturity, there is a re-evaluation of what has been lived. At this time, a person more often begins to think about the meaning of life and look for ways for self-realization in society.
American psychiatrist, MD Roger Gould believed that the socialization of an adult is the processing and overcoming of psychological attitudes that developed in childhood. He argued that the main thing in adult socialization is to overcome the childhood belief that everyone should take care of you. The scientist believed that at the stage of socialization in adulthood it is necessary to dispel the “illusion of security” formed in childhood. As a result, realistic expectations will be formed, people will become less vulnerable, kinder and more tolerant.
In moments of crisis, when the stable development of society is disrupted and people’s living conditions change, a lot of negativity appears in socialization. During difficult periods, a person’s self-preservation instincts “switch on,” selfishness becomes more pronounced, and alienation and disunity become more pronounced.
It is believed that progressive, developed individuals are not inclined to fully accept the principles imposed on them. Such individuals will try to form their own life position and value system, independent of the generally accepted one.
One of the most famous psychotherapists of the last century, the American scientist Milton Erickson considered several psycho-social crisis “stages” that a person experiences throughout his life. The professor called the “crisis” that young people experience in their search for sexual intimacy an important stage of socialization. If a young person does not have appropriate relationships, then this situation often leads him to isolation and withdrawal.
Recently, the Internet has had a noticeable impact on adaptive social processes. The Internet is an important factor in the socialization of an individual. The global network provides users with a variety of communication and information services. The capabilities of the network force a person to spend a lot of time in the virtual space, this affects the socialization and behavior of a person.
The Internet helps in study and work; it gives people the opportunity to learn to communicate with a large number of people and correctly express their thoughts. The Internet helps self-expression and develops a person creatively. A fundamentally new type of relationship between people has emerged on the Internet. However, there is also a downside to the influence of the Internet, associated with human socialization. People who “live” their lives online often experience dissatisfaction and difficulties in communication in real life. When real life begins to be replaced by virtual space, it turns into a social problem.
Mechanisms of socialization
The mechanisms of socialization include: socio-psychological and socio-pedagogical.
The first group includes : imprinting, copying, reflection, existence.
Imprinting is the creation of attachments to what is seen for the first time; in the future, a person experiences the joy of recognition and emotional attachment. Copying behavior is adopting behavioral norms directly from the people around you. Reflection is the creation of a system of behavior based on internal logical reasoning. Existence is the acquisition of skills, including language, under the influence of the immediate environment.
The second group includes : traditional, institutional, interpersonal, stylized.
In the traditional mechanism, the individual’s environment does not make any specific efforts for socialization and socialization occurs spontaneously. Institutional is socialization in kindergartens, schools and other public institutions of socialization. The interpersonal mechanism works in conditions of emotional closeness, when an individual’s behavior is influenced by an emotionally significant subject and this influence is purposeful. The stylized mechanism is the influence of the subculture in which the individual is included.
What is socialization?
Socialization is the adaptation of a person to a social role in society. Let us examine in detail what personal socialization is, from the point of view of the individual’s adaptation to living conditions.
Personal socialization is an extremely popular topic in psychology. Social psychologists study the relationship between the individual and society. They observe how a person adapts under the conditions of established rules, values and orientations in society. When people integrate into a social structure, they change themselves and change the structure itself.
The term “socialization” in a close to modern meaning was introduced by the American psychologist F. Giddings in his work “The Theory of Socialization” (1887). According to Giddings' theory, socialization can be understood as the process of development and preparation of “human material” for life in society. The problems of socialization began to be actively studied in the 30s of the last century. Even in the mid-twentieth century, socialization was considered only an interdisciplinary field of science. Today, social psychology is a popular direction in human studies.
The term “socialization” is not always interpreted unambiguously. For example, Sigmund Freud believed that man is driven by his desires and reflexes. Followers of Freud's teachings tend to consider socialization exclusively the adaptation of innate behavioral attitudes to living conditions in society.
Socialization refers to the process in which a person, as he becomes familiar with social rules and traditions, integrates into society. Socialization is seen as a two-way process. On the one hand, the individual assimilates certain social experiences and enters the environment. On the other hand, a person, through his activities, influences the social environment into which he enters.
The process of socialization depends on many factors: the people around them (their age, intellectual level, etc.), a person’s own experience, characteristics of the “habitat,” upbringing, culture.
The process of socialization takes place simultaneously with the formation of personality. Socialization of an individual is an important component of his well-being and normal life in society.
Features of permanent socialization
Primary and secondary socialization - what is it?
Human life is changeable. The socialization of the individual, having originated in one life environment, can continue and take place in changed conditions. Moving to another city, country, changing profession or new team - all this affects the further development of socialization.
Attention! The ability of an individual to adapt to constantly changing social conditions is called permanent socialization.
It is natural if life changes systematically and measuredly. But during revolutionary changes, when one social system collapses and another arises, many citizens cannot cross new boundaries and get used to new foundations. This not only knocks them out of an understandable rut in life, but also throws them to the sidelines of life, causing irreparable moral trauma.
An example is the internationalist warriors. Fulfilling their international duty in Afghanistan, they returned from the war to a completely different country. Market relations, the collapse of the economy, and rampant crime were so different from what they “protected,” losing lives and health, that many were never able to recover morally. There was no housing, no work, and to complaints and questions, officials from the new government answered: “We didn’t send you there!” Not all military officers were able to step over honor and conscience and choose one of the options: go into business or join one or another criminal group.
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.
Stages of personality development
Socialization is a process of assimilation by an individual, which occurs gradually and consists of several stages. The following series can be distinguished:
- adaptation – knowledge of basic norms of behavior;
- individualization – manifestation of deviant and antisocial behavior for the sake of personal self-affirmation;
- integration – professional development with the aim of directing creative energy in the direction of interest and searching for colleagues and associates.
Interesting. Sometimes the course of socialization is divided into stages: pre-labor, labor, post-labor. Not all psychologists adhere to this classification, but such a division does occur.
Stages of socialization
His psychological and economic standard of living depends on the socialization of an individual. Conscious or forced asociality interferes with normal existence in society. Lack of support from society, social institutions and the state negatively affects all aspects of human life.
Forms of socialization
For socialization, it is customary to distinguish the presence of two forms.
- Undirected implies the spontaneous formation under the influence of the immediate social environment of certain human qualities. That is why it is called spontaneous. The environment is considered to be relatives, closest friends, and colleagues.
- Directed socialization involves a built-in system of influence methods created by social institutions in order to instill in individuals certain values and ideals characteristic of society as a whole.
Among the methods of directed socialization it is necessary to include education. It is understood as a consistent process of influencing a person during the period of his formation and development in order to develop a certain perception of the world, a set of values and attitudes of a social nature, allowing for the full preparation of a person for a full-fledged independent existence within society.
Existing forms of socialization under certain conditions can be connected with each other, but a complete lack of coordination is also possible. The emergence of contradictions becomes the basis for conflicts, which become an obstacle to the further socialization of the individual.
Spontaneous socialization, formed in the immediate environment, often faces the obsolescence of stereotypes (what is a stereotype?) and forms of perception characteristic of older generations, which have lost some of their relevance in the modern world. In this case, it is capable of carrying a negative aspect along with positive aspects. The result of such influence is the manifestation of social pathologies.
In turn, the implementation of undirected socialization without the use of targeted measures can lead to the disadvantage of an individual or social group. That is why targeted influence is an important element in the socialization of individuals.
