SEMINAR ON: - “CONCEPT OF SOCIALISATION. AGENTS OF SOCIALISATION: FAMILY, PEER GROUP, SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY’’

BARPETA B.T. COLLEGE,BARPETA

PAPER: (1) FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION

HELD ON – 22-02- 2014

SUBMITTED BY

MD. AYNUL BARI

SOCIALISATION

• Socialization or socialisation) is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and educationalists to refer to the life long process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies, providing an individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within his or her own society. Socialization is thus ‘the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained’.

Introduction:

Meaning:

• Socialization is the process by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society, and is the most influential learning process one can experience. Unlike other living species, whose behavior is biologically set, humans need social experiences to learn their culture and to survive. Although cultural variability manifests in the actions, customs, and behaviors of whole social groups (societies), the most fundamental expression of culture is found at the individual level. This expression can only occur after an individual has been socialized by his or her parents, family, extended family, and extended social networks.

DEFINITIONS:

•1. J.S.Ross : “ Socialisation is the

development of we feeling in association

and the growth in the growth in the and

will to act together”.

• 2. W.F. Ogburn: “Socialisation is the process by which the individual learns to conform to the norms of the group.”

• 3.Cook : “Socialisation is process as result of which children take on themselves the various social roles, social learning and development tasks.”

Concept of Socialisaton:

• Socialisation is a social process. It is a process by which an individual is made social, socially acceptable and emotionally matured enough to deal with the other in a friendly manner. As we know that the human child has a remarkable capacity to imitate others. It is through socialization that he is transformed from the animal in to the human, and it is socialization which gives him a balance personality. Scialisation teaches him to retain control over himself in the interest of others. Through the process of socialization an individual is led to understand the society’s status, structure and the behavior associated with different positions in this structure.

Agents of Socialization:

• Socialisation obviously occurs through the interaction with various agents during an individual's personal lifetime and these comprise of the family, the peer group, the school and the mass media among others.

• 1.THE FAMILY:• The family is the most important agent of socialization because it is the center of the child's life, as infants are totally dependent on others. Not all socialization are intentional, it depends on the surrounding. The most profound affect is gender socialization, however the family also shoulders the task of teaching children cultural values and attitudes about themselves and others. Children learn continuously from the environment that adults create. Children also become aware of class at a very early age and assign different values to each class accordingly.

The School:• When a child reaches school age, he/she started to widen his/her socializing cycle via school setting here learning is more of formal type since there is an obvious transition from an environment of personal and intimate relationship to one which is more impersonal. At school, talents are evaluated on the basis of sets of standards and requirements. The school helps the child to adapt to social order through the hidden curriculum and functions in order to prepare the latter for a stable adult life. Moreover, the school is specialized to impart certain technical, intellectual skills and cultural heritage of society so that the individual is able to integrate society. In many cases, socialization provided by the school sometimes erodes values learnt at home and which are contrary to the dominant culture.

The community: • Community is a group of human being living in clearly defined geographical area having a specific name, possessing common customs, traditions and mores which link one member of the group to another. Like Hindu community, Muslim community etc. each community has its own customs, traditions, style of walking or talking and manner of behavior. Children learn many important things from these units of the society also. These are better places of exposure for an immature child and his caste or community may tolerate many undesirable behavior of the child easily.

The Peer group:

• A peer group is a social group whose members have interests, social positions and age in common. This is where children can escape supervision and learn to form relationships on their own. The influence of the peer group typically peaks during adolescence however peer groups generally only affect short term interests unlike the family which has long term influence. However, as a child grows up, he/she starts to choose his/her peer group on a couple of criteria usually based on common interests, activities, similar income level and status. As we can easily note, the peer group is the only socializing agent that is not controlled by adults and they indeed affect the individual in such issues like appearance, lifestyles, fads and fashion, social activities and dating, drugs, sex and technology.

Importance of socialization:

 • The importance of socialization can hardly be exaggerated since it transforms the biological being to a social being. Socialization contributes for the development of personality and this is a product of society. In the absence of groups or society the human being is merely an individual without culture. To support this view, several anecdotes of children not socialized and who have never bear context with human being are presented.

1. Socialization converts man, the biological being into man, the social being:

Importance of socialization:

• 2. Socialization contributes to the development of personality:

• 3. Helps to became disciplined:• 4. Helps to enact different roles:• 5. Provides the knowledge of skills:• 6. Helps to develop right aspiration in life:

• 7. Contributes to the stability of the social order:

• 8. Helps to reduce social distance:• 9. Provides scope for building the bright future:

Conclusion:

Socialisation is the process a human being will go through to make them who they are. They will learn about different types of cultures, norms and fashions, all of these they will take on throughout their life. Nature vs nurture has a great role in this, and, personally, I believe that nurture makes the largest amount of impact.

The general process of acquiring culture is referred to as socialization.  During socialization, we learn the language of the culture we are born into as well as the roles we are to play in life.  For instance, girls learn how to be daughters, sisters, friends, wives, and mothers.  In addition, they learn about the occupational roles that their society has in store for them.  We also learn and usually adopt our culture's norms through the socialization process.  Norms are the conceptions of appropriate and expected behavior that are held by most members of the society.  While socialization refers to the general process of acquiring culture, anthropologists use the term enculturation for the process of being socialized to a particular culture.  You were enculturated to your specific culture by your parents and the other people who raised you.

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