Overview
Socialization is how we become human. It is the lifelong process of learning the norms, values, and skills needed to participate in society. Without it, we would be feral children.
Core Idea
The core idea is internalization. Society isn’t just out there; it gets inside our heads. We learn to police ourselves.
Formal Definition
The process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, language, social skills, and value to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into a group or community.
Intuition
- The Looking-Glass Self (Cooley): I am not who I think I am; I am not who you think I am; I am who I think you think I am. We build our identity by mirroring others.
- Agents of Socialization:
- Family: The primary agent (0-5 years).
- School: The hidden curriculum (obedience, schedules).
- Peers: Teenage rebellion and conformity.
- Media: Shaping our view of the world.
Examples
- Gender Socialization: We wrap boys in blue and give them trucks; we wrap girls in pink and give them dolls. This shapes their future roles.
- Resocialization: Stripping away an old identity to build a new one (Boot Camp, Prison, Cults).
Common Misconceptions
- Misconception: It stops when you grow up.
- Correction: It continues forever. You are socialized into a new job, parenthood, and retirement.
- Misconception: It’s brainwashing.
- Correction: It’s inevitable. You can’t exist without it. But we do have agency to resist it.
Related Concepts
- Role: The behavior expected of a status.
- Nature vs. Nurture: Socialization is the “Nurture” side.
- Deviance: Failure of socialization.
Applications
- Education: Schools are factories for socialization.
- Parenting: The conscious effort to socialize kids.
Criticism and Limitations
- Over-socialized conception of man: Wrongly assuming people are just passive vessels for society’s rules. We fight back.
Further Reading
- Mind, Self, and Society by George Herbert Mead
- The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman