Explanations:
Primary socialization is carried out by the immediate informal environment, primarily by the family (in the parental home), as well as other relatives. The primary socializing community may not be the family (friends, teachers, doctors, etc.). Primary socialization ends: with mastery of a certain profession and the beginning of work; obtaining an education that meets a particular standard; the beginning of independent family life and the acquisition of the status of “parent”; acquiring the fullness of political, legal and other rights and obligations; consolidation of personal (self) identification.
In societies of traditional and especially archaic types, the boundaries of completion of primary socialization are fixed quite clearly, for example, through the passage of initiation rites, and are characterized by the coincidence (at least correlation) in time of all components of the socialization process.
In industrial-type societies, the components of primary socialization are, to one degree or another, autonomous from each other, which leads to an increase in their asynchrony over time.
In “late modern” and/or postmodern societies, the desynchronization and autonomization of these components intensifies many times over, and primary socialization itself stretches to the limit in time, intruding with its individual components into the phase of “social maturity,” which is fundamentally defined as lying outside the boundaries of primary socialization. This is due to changes in the nature and parameters of other sociocultural processes. The most significant factors in this regard: a fundamental change in demographic behavior, acceleration, and other strategies for building marriage and family relations; increasing requirements for the standard of education received, the duration and complexity of mastering modern professions, increasing qualification requirements; growth of territorial and social mobility, maximum dynamization of sociocultural life, the need for constant adjustment and change of acquired identities; extreme urbanization of the way of life, its strict subordination to temporary rhythms, anonymization of social relations; changing patterns of environmental, economic, political, cultural and individual behavior; the influence of mass culture, advertising, media, new computer and information technologies; psychological factors (loneliness, stress, culture shock, mental illness, etc.).
What is human socialization: concept
Socialization
Socialization of a person is the process of obtaining a set of character qualities, without which a full existence in society is impossible. It occurs through human interaction with the external environment, as well as other members of society.
The result of the process is the transformation of a person into a full-fledged personality. Thus, throughout life, a person accumulates experience and knowledge that force him to change and develop his own traits and manners of behavior and communication. At the same time, it cannot be said that socialization is a process that has some kind of completion. The fact is that it passes throughout life. Moreover, regardless of age, people tend to overestimate their views.
It is also necessary to take into account that socialization is two-way. That is, a person not only accumulates certain knowledge and experience, but also ensures the formation of relationships between people. In the process of communication, people begin to form personal preferences and preferences. At the same time, the individual always takes on the functions characteristic of society.
Since people very rarely find themselves alone and live in a group life, the question of a person’s entry into society never loses its relevance. And it is socialization that is the process that allows you to join existing social groups.
Family functions in human socialization: features
Family and socialization
Human socialization begins with the family. It greatly affects the physical and mental qualities of the individual. The family is one of the main institutions of education. In particular, it lays down the future qualities of a person.
A family is a group of people united by kinship ties. It always has its own traditions and foundations. It is the main institution that forms the child’s life principles and moral principles.
Thus, the family promotes personality development, strengthens mental health, develops reliability and confidence in children, and also helps in self-realization and security. In addition, in the family, children learn to express their individuality.
The success of a child’s socialization depends on the structure of his family, that is, whether it is complete or not, and relatives can also raise the child. When the family is incomplete, there is a decrease in educational abilities. In particular, the child begins to experience a lack of emotions, or too many feelings are shown towards him. At the same time, in dysfunctional families, socialization is difficult and even disrupted. In this case, the basic family functions are ignored, and there are shortcomings in upbringing. This is where “difficult” children appear.
In what cases is a person called a victim of socialization?
Victims of socialization
It happens that a person’s socialization goes far enough and he becomes its victim. Of course, everyone is capable of creating their own life and setting certain goals for themselves, and therefore a person can be considered as a subject of socialization.
When a person becomes a victim of socialization, he has internal contradictions. That is, successful socialization is when a person has effectively adapted to society and is also able to resist it to some extent. More precisely, to fight those collisions that do not allow normal development and self-affirmation. However, this conflict must be balanced. Then the adaptation is considered successful.
If a person completely accepts society as it is and has no conflict, that is, he is a conformist, then he may well be considered a victim. This can also be called a dissident or dissident who is in no way adapted to society. That is, he constantly deviates from the norms accepted in society.
There are such victims in every society. For example, a democratic society, contrary to its principles, most often produces victims. At the same time, a totalitarian society forces conformists to appear.
Types of socialization
When they talk about socialization, they most often mean a child, his upbringing, mastery of speech and basic norms of behavior. But socialization is not limited to childhood; it is also characteristic of adults. Moreover, for accomplished individuals this process is more complex and problematic from a psychological point of view.
Three types of socialization can be distinguished: primary, secondary and permanent.
Primary socialization
This type of socialization can also be called children's. It begins at birth and continues until the beginning of independent life, more precisely, until the moment when a young man or girl becomes a full-fledged member of society.
Children's socialization is the most studied type of this phenomenon, because for a long time the description of the process as a whole was limited only to it. The peculiarity of primary socialization is that it is predominantly unconscious in nature; the child, in fact, is not a subject, but an object of the socializing influences of society. Adults play the role of both guides of social norms and those who exercise social control over their implementation: parents, educators, teachers. And the child, at best, only imitates the older members of the group. Therefore, the main condition for the success of primary socialization is a prosperous family in which social norms are observed.
True, the older the child becomes, the more conscious efforts he makes to master the norms. Or to resist them. Yes, and this happens when, for example, a teenager finds himself under the influence of an antisocial group. In this case, he is faced with a choice: to follow generally accepted norms of behavior that are supported by the adult society, or to abandon this for the sake of the values offered by the informal community. The choice is not easy, and it largely depends on how much the child has internalized social norms by adolescence.
Under normal conditions of upbringing, rules of behavior are learned quite early, become a person’s intrapersonal norms and restrain his antisocial behavior. The fact is that in the process of socialization a special mechanism of internal control is formed. It manifests itself in a feeling of shame or guilt when the norms accepted by the child are violated for some reason. These are quite unpleasant feelings, and they play the role of a behavior regulator.
But this happens if the process of socialization proceeds correctly, that is, adults not only themselves support social values and norms, but also show activity and persistence in instilling in the child the correct attitude towards them. Only under these conditions can social norms undergo a process of internalization.
Secondary or re-socialization
This is the socialization that a person goes through when moving to another group. It can also occur in childhood, for example, when entering kindergarten, school, or a sports section. An adult who gets a job in another team must also go through it. After all, everywhere there are rules and procedures that differ from those already familiar.
But if transitions occur within one society or state, then the basic norms are preserved. A person experiences the most serious difficulties when moving to another country, where even the customs and traditions differ from those that he learned in childhood and, as they say, absorbed with his mother’s milk. In some cases, the norms of life in another society seem so alien that the process of socialization is not completed, and the person feels like a “black sheep” for the rest of his life or returns to his homeland.
It is secondary socialization that gives rise to the greatest number of psychological problems that require the attention of specialists. It often happens that only a psychologist can help a person adapt to a new group. Moreover, this also happens in one’s own society, for example, when a young man joins the army, where the living conditions are very different from the usual.
Permanent socialization
Even if an individual has lived all his life in the same country, in the same family and worked in the same team, he still cannot avoid socialization. Permanent socialization is a person’s adaptation to an ever-changing society.
Our life does not stand still, conditions and activities change, new norms, values, ideals appear and old ones lose their meaning. People change along with society, for some it is easier, for others it is more difficult, but permanent socialization affects everyone. And she may also have psychological problems.
If changes in society occur gradually, then people get used to them and hardly notice the changes, and they themselves also gradually adapt to them. But when changes are revolutionary in nature, then disruptions occur in natural permanent socialization. Some people with a less flexible psyche or with more firmly internalized old norms cannot quickly integrate into the transformed society. They experience a feeling of discomfort and confusion because they feel like strangers in their native country. This phenomenon can be observed after revolutions, in an era of radical restructuring of the social system.
Differences in the socialization of a growing and adult person: features
The socialization of an adult and a growing person is different. This is reflected in several factors:
- In adults, socialization consists of changing external behavior. At the same time, children’s basic value orientations are corrected
- Children often have only two concepts - good and bad. As for adults, they always understand that there are many “shades of gray” between these two concepts.
- The socialization of an adult consists of him mastering certain skills. At the same time, in children, socialization largely forms the motivation for their behavior.
This is precisely what distinguishes the socialization of an adult from a child.
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.
The essence of the process
At birth, a person has only a set of physiological characteristics that allow him to survive in the environment. But for a comfortable existence, each individual needs to learn to interact with other people. It is possible to master social norms and rules only in the process of socialization of the individual. Development is carried out in 3 stages:
- Mastering basic norms and values. A person tries to fit in with his surroundings, copying the behavior of loved ones.
- Personalization of personality. The teenager strives to actively influence other people, compares himself with others and finds differences.
- Integration of a person into social group. The individual accepts the “rules of the game” and actively interacts with society.
Socialization of a person occurs through a set of means characteristic of a particular society. For example, each family has its own traditions, methods of reward and punishment, and elements of spiritual culture. There are 2 forms of the process: adaptation and integration.
Specific people who influence the formation of an individual's personality are called social agents. For example, in the first years of a child’s life, parents, sisters and brothers, and close relatives enjoy great authority. In adolescence, their place is taken by friends, classmates, teachers, and coaches.
Institutions, that is, institutions of socialization, also influence the development of the individual:
- kindergarten, school and other educational institutions;
- army;
- church;
- sections and circles;
- MASS MEDIA.
Personal characteristics also depend on global factors: state, religion, race, nationality. Individuals go through all phases of socialization in different ways. Psychologists note the dependence of the speed of adaptation on a person’s temperament and intelligence.
Functions and purpose
Mechanisms of personality socialization - what are they, types
With the help of special organizations, desirable behavior is encouraged and undesirable behavior is suppressed. For example, at school, children are required to obey certain rules, which are then maintained into adulthood.
Each institute has its own complete set of norms and rules of conduct. This makes people's behavior predictable. Another function is regulatory. It allows you to maintain certain patterns of behavior that help build relationships between people.
The main task of socialization institutions is integrative. It unites members of society and strengthens the connection between them. This is done by instilling norms, values, and rules.
Family is an important stage in a person’s life; everyday experience is passed on in it.
The most significant purposes of social institutions are to maintain the stability of society and meet the needs of people. Without this, the group will not be able to coexist peacefully. Psychology allows us to study the characteristics of relationships and develop effective methods for improving the atmosphere in a team.
How the state influences human socialization: examples
State and socialization
The state is an agent that helps in the socialization of a person. It has great potential and influences the integration of the individual into the requirements of society. Moreover, the state regulates this process.
The methods of regulation are:
- Ideology . Within the framework of this method, a person rethinks the history of his nation, its place in modern society, as well as problems and prospects. In addition, a person develops values that are important for the consolidation of the nation and are approved at certain stages of development. At the same time, a value system is mandatory for every member of society. They are oriented by basic institutions such as the media, family, and education. So, in order to become part of society, a person must accept all this as his own.
- Institutional . In this case, the state regulates the activities of basic institutions. That is, the education system, parties, media. This is especially important during the transition from traditional to modern society. If the intensity of the processes is too high, then the person simply does not have time to adapt.
Thus, the state has a priority role in the process of managing socialization. This manifests itself on these two levels. The state forms social values and develops basic institutions that allow people to assimilate these same values.
