Sociology Write short notes.

The process of unlearning old norms, roles, values and behavioural patterns and learning new patterns is called re-socialization. Sometimes an individual is caught in a situation where one has to break away from past experience and internalise different norms and values. Re-socialization can also be defined as a process which subjects an individual to new values, attitudes and skills according to the norms of a particular institution and the person has to completely re-engineer one’s sense of social values and norms.

The person may be in a jail, hospital, in religious organization, police, army etc. In such institutions there is total break up from the normal social life outside. A prison sentence is a good example. The individual not only has to change and rehabilitate one’s behaviour in order to return to society but must also accommodate the new norms required for living, while in prison.

There are different social groups which can be seen as agencies of socialization.
1. Family : Family is the main agent of socialization. The child learns language and other basic behavioural patterns in family. Socialization through family is varied because there is no single, uniform pattern to do so. A child brought up in nuclear family will undergo different pattern of socialization. Patterns of child rearing vary across families with different caste, class, and ethnic backgrounds.

2. Peer groups : Peer groups are friendship groups made up of people of similar age. In peer groups, the interactions are reasonably egalitarian as there is a greater amount of give and take, when compared to family or school. Peer groups use informal sanctions including positive sanctions like approving gestures or laughing at your jokes, and negative sanctions like disapproving jokes, labelling or rejecting your company.

3. Schools : Schooling and education are considered as secondary agencies. School involves learning values and norms at a step higher than those learnt in a family. Skills and values like team work, discipline, conformity to authority are learnt in schools and this helps prepare students for the adult world.

4. Mass Media : One of the significant forces of socialization in modern culture is mass media. Mass media are the means for delivering impersonal communication directed to a vast audience. Mass media includes traditional print media like newspapers and magazines, electronic media like radio and television and current IT enabled media and social media. Television has an influence on children from a very young age and affects their cognitive and social development. Modern technological advancements have strengthened and changed the role of mass media. Technology has certainly increased the spread of mass media.

5. Neighbourhood : A neighbourhood community is an important agency of socialization. A neighbourhood is a geographically localized community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are formed through considerable face to face interaction among members often living near one another. A neighbourhood community provides the base for an individual to extend social relations and interactions beyond the narrow limits of the home.

6. Workplace : Socialization is a life long process. Adult socialization indicates this continuous process of learning. One of the significant agents of adult socialization is the workplace.

Adult individuals spend significant amount of time at the workplace. Socialization through work place involves acquiring new skills, knowledge and behaviour patterns suitable to the requirements of the job.

George Mead has elaborated on the process of building social self which does not exist at birth. According to Mead, formation of self occurs in three distinct stages.
Stage 1 – Imitation : In this stage, children imitate behaviour of adults without understanding it. Example : A little boy might drive his mother to her office by driving his toy car or help his parents clean the floor by pushing a broom.

Stage 2 – Play stage : A child plays, sometimes as being a mother or a teacher, at times a postal worker, a police officer etc. In this stage, responses are not organized. A child internalises the attitudes of others who are significant to her/his through enacting the roles of others. A significant other is someone whose opinions matter to us and who is in a position to influence our thinking.

Stage 3 – Game stage : As a child matures, and as the self gradually develops, one internalises the expectations of a large number of people. Children learn to behave according to the impressions of others. They understand that role play in each situation involves following a consistent set of rules and expectations. For example, a child at this stage is likely to be aware of the different responsibilities of people in a restaurant who together, make for a smooth dining experience. Thus, the self is mainly formed through our interactions with others and our understanding of others responses. Socialization, in this sense is a process of self-awareness.

Genetics suggests that people are born with certain abilities derived from biological imperatives. Instincts or the fixed human traits play a significant role in shaping human behaviour. From this viewpoint, we are born with certain abilities that are integral to our ‘human nature’. The process of socialization on the other hand signifies the role of ‘nurture’ in human development. Sociologists use the term socialization to refer to the lifelong social experience by which human beings are transformed into social beings.