AGENTS OS SOCIALIZATION - HOME SCHOOL

1. Unit – 4
AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
Mrs. Catherene Nithya
Asst. Professor
Perspectives in Education

2. Agent
• a person or thing that takes an active role or
produces a specified effect.

3. Socialization
• the activity of mixing socially with others.
• the process of learning to behave in a way that is
acceptable to society.
• Connected to developmental psychology
• Sociology:
– “It is the process of internalizing the norms and
ideologies of society.”
– It encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus
"the means by which social and cultural continuity are
attained".

4. Definition - Socialization
• Ogburn
“Socialization is the process by which the
individual learns to conform to the norms of
the group.”
• Ross
“the development of the ‘we’feeling in
associates and their growth in capacity and
will to act together.”

5. Goals of Socialization - Arnett
1. Impulse control and the development of a
conscience
2. Role preparation and performance
3. Cultivation of sources of meaning, or what is
important, valued, and to be lived for

6. Characteristics
• Takes place formally & Informally
• Continuous and gradual Process
• Product of interaction of the organism and its
environment
• Rapid
• General to Specific
• Involves Change
• Unique & Individualised process

7. Agents of socialization
Institutions that can impress social norms upon
an individual, include the family, religion, peer
groups, economic systems, legal systems, penal
systems, language, and the media.

8. Family
• Primary Agent
• Most Important Agent
• “A family serves to reproduce society
biologically, through procreation, and socially,
through the socialization of children.”

9. Family
• Cradle of Social virtues
• Mini society
• Transmission belt from society to Individual
• Informal methods of social control
• Effect – gender socialization
• Types of family <-- Influencer

10. Robert. K. Merton
“it is the family which is a major transmission
belt for the diffusion of cultural standards to
the oncoming generation”.
 Intended/Unintended Activities
 Emotional Manipulation
Family

11. PEERS

12. Peers
• Forces outside the family
influences the child more.
• Able to relate more and
better with peers
• Peer Group: A primary
group composed of
individuals of roughly
equal age and similar
social characteristics.

13. Peers
• Particularly influential during the pre-teenage
and early teenage years  significant
influence on psychological and social
adjustments

14. Peers
• ‘Peer Acceptance’  willingly adopt the values and
standards of the peer group  shape themselves into
the kind of person they think the group wants them
to be  Peer Pressure
• Offer the chance to discuss interests that adults
may not share with their children or permit certain
things.

15. Peers
• Become important social referents for teaching
members’ customs, social norms, and different
ideologies.
• Serve as a venue for teaching gender roles.
• Adolescent peer groups provide support as they
assimilate into the adult society
– decreasing dependence on parents
– increasing feeling of self-sufficiency
– connecting with a much larger social network.

16. School
• Mini – Society
• significant source of gender socialization
• Artificial Society – Socialization & Cultural
Transmission

17. School
Formal or Explicit
Curriculum
(productive
members of the
society)
Hidden or Informal
or Implicit
curriculum
(Values/ Laws/
Beliefs)

18. 3 Main Physiological Perspectives of
Socialization
→ Functionalist Perspective:
- Schools socialize children and prepare them for the
world
- Teaches society’s culture, morals, values, ethics, politics,
religious beliefs, habits and norms
→ Symbolic Interaction:
- Focuses on the interactions and outcomes during school
- Teacher Expectancy Effect- teacher expects certain
students to behave in a certain way
→ Conflict Theory:
- Separates groups based on conflict: race, class, gender

19. Community
• A group of people living in the same
geographic area (neighborhood, town, or city)
under common laws.
• A group of people sharing fellowship, a
friendly association, and common interests.

20. Community
• Modeling by adults
• Values and norms instilled in children
• Enforcement of rules
• Serving as a context in which children can “try
out” behavior and experience consequences

21. Community
• Homogenousopportunitiesto interact with other children
of differing values and backgrounds & vice versa
• populationdensityand composition,play area, housing
arrangements etc
Physical factors
• Income level
• Repertoire of the neighbourhood.
Economic
Factors
• Gemeinschaft(communal,cooperative,close,intimateand
informal interpersonal relationships)
• Gesellschaft(associative,practical, objectiveand formal
interpersonal relationships)
Social &
Personal factors