MANSFIELD UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

DISTANCE LEARNING
STUDENT NAME : DOROTHY SHIMOKA

NRC NO : 251295/81/1

STUDENT ID : 2021109
PROGRAM : DIPLOMA IN PRIMARY TEACHING EDUCATION

COURSE NAME : SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION

TUTOR : DR. NYAMBE .F

YEAR : TWO (2)

DUE DATE : 14TH JULY, 2025

QUESTIONS:

Socialisation is not a one way process of society or groups impacting on the individual, on the
other hand individuals also has some leeway on how to act. Discuss the important elements and
stages of socialization

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Socialization is a lifelong process where individuals learn and internalize the values, beliefs, and
norms of their society, developing a sense of self and social identity. Key elements
include learning social roles, developing a conscience, and acquiring the knowledge and skills
necessary for participation in society. Stages of socialization can be broadly categorized into
primary (early childhood) and secondary (later life) socialization, but the process is continuous
and dynamic throughout life.

Socialization is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group’s norms, values,
attitudes, and behaviors. Through socialization we learn the culture of the society into which we
have been born. In the course of this process, a personality develops. A personality is comprised
of patterns of behavior and ways of thinking and feeling that are distinctive for each individual
(Zamfir and L. Vlăsceanu, 1993). .

Babies are not born with the social or emotional tools needed to contribute to society as properly
functioning social actors. They have to learn all the nuances of proper behavior, how to meet
expectations for what is expected of them, and everything else needed to become members of
society. As newborns interact with family and friends they learn the expectations of their society
(family, community, state, and nation).

From the first moments of life, children begin a process of socialization wherein parents, family,
and friends establish an infant’s social construction of reality, or what people define as real because
of their background assumptions and life experiences with others. An average U.S. child’s social
construction of reality includes knowledge that he or she belongs, and can depend on others to
meet his or her needs. It also includes the privileges and obligations that accompany membership
in his or her family and community. In a typical set of social circumstances, children grow up
through a predictable set of life stages: infancy, preschool, K-12 school years, young adulthood,
adulthood, middle adulthood, and finally later-life adulthood. Most will leave home as young
adults, find a spouse or life partner in their mid-to late 20s and work in a job for pay.

When discussing the average U.S. child, most agree that the most imperative socialization takes
place early in life and in identifiable levels. Primary socialization typically begins at birth and
moves forward until the beginning of the school years. Primary socialization includes all the ways
the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and meeting the expectations
of society. Most primary socialization is facilitated by the family, friends, day care, and to a certain

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degree various forms of media. Children watch about three hours of TV per day (by the time the
average child attends kindergarten she has watched about 5,000 hours of TV). They also play video
games, surf the Internet, play with friends, and read (Maria Voinea, 2000) .

Children learn how to talk, interact with others, share, manage frustrations, follow the rules, and
grow up to be like older family and friends they know. When they live up to expectations they are
big boys and girls, when they don’t they are naughty. In the early years, tremendous attention is
required in the safety and nurturance of infants. As they begin to walk and talk they learn to
communicate their needs and wants and also to feed and clothe themselves. Younger children do
not have strong abstract reasoning skills until adolescence, so they rely heavily on the judgment
of their caregivers. Most importantly, they form significant attachments to the older people who
care for them.

Around age 4 to 5, pre-school and kindergarten are presented as expectations for children. Once
they begin their schooling, they begin another different level of socialization. Secondary
socialization occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to school and come under
the influence of non-family members. This level runs concurrently with primary socialization.
Children realize that at school that they are judged for their performance now and are no longer
accepted unconditionally. In fact, to obtain approval from teachers and school employees a
tremendous amount of conformity is required. Now, as students, children have to learn to belong
and cooperate in large groups. They learn a new culture that extends beyond their narrow family
culture.

This new culture with its complexities and challenges requires effort on their part and that creates
stressors for children. By the time of graduation from high school, the average U.S. child has
attended 15,000 hours of school away from home; they’ve also probably watched 15,000 hours of
TV, and spent 5-10,000 hours playing. Friends, classmates, and peers become increasingly
important in the lives of children in their secondary educational stage of socialization. Most 0-5
year olds yearn for their parents and family member’s affection and approval. By the time of the
pre-teen years, the desire for family diminishes and the yearning now becomes for friends and
peers. Parents often lament the loss of influence over their children once the teen years arrive.
Studies show that parents preserve at least some of their influence over their children by

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influencing their children’s peers. Parents who host parties, excursions, and get-togethers find that
their relationship with their children’s friends keeps them better connected to their children.

The K-12 schooling years are brutal in terms of peer pressure. Often, people live much of their
adult lives under the labels they were given in high school. Many new high school graduates face
the strikingly harsh realities of adulthood shortly after graduation. Anomie often follows and it
takes months and even years for young adults to discover new regulating norms which ground
them back into expectable routines of life. The third level of socialization includes college, work,
marriage/significant relationships, and a variety of adult roles and adventures. Adult socialization
occurs as we assume adult roles such as wife, husband, parent, or employee. We adapt to new roles
which meet our needs and wants throughout the adult life course.

Freshmen in college, new recruits in the military, volunteers for Peace Corps and Vista, employees,
travellers, and others find themselves following the same game plan that leads to their success
during their primary and secondary socialization years—find out what’s expected and strive to
reach those expectations. Though most live an average life course, few life paths conform perfectly
to it. People die of disease and accidents, marry and divorce, become parents, change careers, go
bankrupt, win lotteries, or pay off their mortgages. In each change that comes into their lives, they
find themselves adapting to new roles, new expectations, and new limitations. Socialization is an
ongoing process for everyone starting at birth and ending at death.

There has been much said and written about how important socialization is to our eventual human
adult natures. Historically, there has also been much research into the biological influence of who
we eventually become. Think about this question, “How much of our socialization is influenced
by our genetics and biology, and how much is influenced by the social environment we are born
into and in which we are raised?” Nature versus Nurture is the debate over the influence of
biological versus social influences in socialization. Heritability is the proportion of our personality,
self, and biological traits which stem from genetic factors.

In the history of social science the Blank Slate Theory was widely accepted. Tabula Rasa is Latin
for Blank Slate. It was a theoretical claim that humans are born with no mental or intellectual
capacities and all that they learn is written upon them by those who provide their primary and
secondary socialization (this claim was for 100% nurture in how we become human). Most social

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scientists reject any notion of 100% nurture, simply because the research does not support the
theory. Socialization alone does not explain adult outcomes.

Geneticists have conducted many studies of heritability which have yielded overriding conclusion
that biological factors alone do not explain socialization outcomes. Biological and environmental
factors are both influential, yet neither are deterministic. Steven Pinker argued that the brain is the
core issue in understanding how biology and social environment interact in the process of how we
become human. He argues that current scientific knowledge has articulated much of the biological
factor and some of the sociological factor, but fails to consider the brain’s influence in how a child
becomes an adult wherever she grows up in this world.

He states in his conclusion: “The human brain has been called the most complex object in the
known universe.” 1 No doubt, hypotheses that pit nature against nurture as a dichotomy or that
correlate genes or environment with behavior without looking at the intervening brain will turn
out to be simplistic or wrong. But that complexity does not mean we should fuzz up the issues by
saying that it’s all just too complicated to think about, or that some hypotheses should be treated
as obviously true, obviously false, or too dangerous to mention. As with inflation, cancer, and
global warming, we have no choice but to try to disentangle the multiple causes.

Musical talents, genius intelligence levels, athletic abilities, various forms of intelligence,
homosexuality, heterosexuality, conformity, and other traits have been correlated with biological
and environmental factors. Most scientists can conclude at this time that the biological factors are
only correlated to, not causally deterministic of, any adult outcomes. From the sociological
perspective, the focus is heavily on environmental factors which account for conflict, functional,
and interactionist theoretical underpinnings of nature versus nurture studies.

As was mentioned, part of socialization is the development of self-concept. It begins at birth and
continues through the school years, with slight modifications throughout the adult years. Your self
is at the core of your personality, representing your conscious experience of having a separate and
unique identity. Your self-concept is the sum total of your perceptions and beliefs about yourself.
It is crucial to note that your self-concept is based heavily on your social construction of reality—
that means others influence your perception of your self-worth and definition

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Feral children are wild or untamed children who grow up without typical socialization influences.
They are rare because most human newborns will not typically survive if they are not cared for by
an older individual. One of the earliest documented sociological studies of an isolated feral child
was reported on by Kingsley Davis in 1940. He discussed two similar cases of Anna and Isabelle.
Anna was five years old when she was discovered. She lived for years isolated in an attic and kept
barely alive. Anna only learned a few basic life skills before she died at age 10. Isabelle was also
isolated, but in her case she had the company of her deaf and mute mother.

When Isabelle was discovered at age six she quickly learned the basic human social skills needed
and was able to eventually attend school. Davis attributes the difference in outcome to nutrition
and the fact that Isabelle had at least some social interaction with her mother.3 In rare cases, human
feral children have survived. There are three categories of feral children 1) Children raised in
isolation, 2) children raised in confinement, and 3) children raised by animals (much less
common). To grow up feral is perhaps the cruelest version of child abuse because the crucial
primary socialization does not occur.

This means that feral children lack a sense of self-concept; a pattern of multiple attachments and
significant others; an awareness of self, others, groups, and society; and ultimately a void where
socialization and acculturation should be. A few movies are available that portray the
complications of being a feral child, especially when he or she tries to interact with socialized
members of society. Nell is based on a true story about a girl who grew up alone in the Carolina
back woods after her mother and sister died. The Young Savage of Aveyron is a true story about
a French boy discovered in the woods and taken into the care of a physician. Tarzan and The Jungle
Book are believed to have been inspired by true accounts of feral children raised by animals. For
example, Amala (8 years old) and Kamala (1½ years old) were discovered living with wolves in
Mindapore, India in 1920.

You already know that most humans can’t co-exist with wolves and other carnivorous animals. It
is rare to survive such an encounter, especially for an 18 month old child. Yet, cross-species
nurturing has been documented from time to time (e.g., dogs nurturing kittens or pigs). Another
feral child was discovered in 1970 in a Los Angeles suburb. A neighbor reported that a child was
locked in the back of a house. Police discovered a girl that was eventually nicknamed Genie. Genie
was about 12. Nova created a documentary on her called “Secret of the Wild Child.” In it you see

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what feral really means in the deprivation of acting, understanding, experiencing, and living
without having been socialized. See Figure 2 for a sketch of Genie.

Genie’s hair was cut short to keep her from eating it. Even though she was chained to a potty chair
her entire life, she needed to wear diapers. She spat, clawed, rubbed, and selfgroomed more like
an animal than a human. She had to be taught the basics of everything, and she did learn, but
nowhere near at the capacity of an average child. George Herbert Mead argued that the self
emerged out of social interactions as a result of countless symbolic interactions with other human
beings. To Mead, play and playful interactions laid the foundation of becoming human and gaining
our sense of self. Knowing that, how troubling must it be for children kept in isolation to play,
gain experiences through interaction, and come to know their self?

Charles Horton Cooley believed that the self developed through the process of social interaction
with others. He used the phrase looking-glass self to describe the three-stage process through
which each of us develops a sense of ourselves. First, we imagine how our actions might appear
to others. Second, we interpret how other people judge these actions. We do this regularly. If you
act up as child your parent gives you the look, you stop what you’re doing because you have
internalized what that look means, your parent is not happy with your behaviour. Finally, we make
some sort of self-judgement based on the presumed judgements of others. In other words, other
people become our mirror, or looking-glass, for ourselves.7 For example, 1. You imagine you are
a good child and then your parent smiles at you . 2. You interpret this smile as your parent being
pleased with you because you are a good child, and so 3. You feel good about yourself, the good
child.

The “I” also wishes to be free from the control of others and to take the initiative in situations. It
is also the part of the self that is unique and distinctive. The “me” portion of the self is made up of
those things learned through socialization from family, friends, peers, and so on. The “me”
regulates the “I’s” behaviors. Mead uses the term significant others to refer to those other people
whose evaluations of the individual are important and regularly considered during interactions,
such as parents and teachers. Generalized others are the viewpoints, attitudes, and expectations of
a society as a whole, or of a community of people whom we are aware of and who are important
to us. 8 Significant others affect our behaviors starting from a very early age, generalized others
influence us as our world expands to school and broader society.

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Erik Erikson stressed that development is a lifelong process, and that a person continues to pass
through new stages even during adulthood. He also paid greater attention to the social and cultural
forces operating on the individual at each step along the way. Human development is completed
in eight stages (Table 1) with each stage amounting to a crisis of sorts brought on by two factors:
the biological changes in the developing individual and the social expectations and stresses. In
each stage, the individual is pulled into two opposite directions to resolve the crisis. A resolution
in the positive direction positions a person well to enter the next stage. Stages that have been
resolved in a negative direction can be revisited later in life.

Let’s shift the focus of attention away from the socialization of individuals and towards the larger
socialization picture. In every society in the world today, there are both agents and agencies of
socialization. In the U.S., our agents include parents, siblings, relatives, friends, teachers, religious
leaders, bosses, and peers. Our agencies include the family, religion, schools, places of
employment, and the media. The cultures vary dramatically between the U.S. and Darfur, but the
structure of agents and agencies is very similar. In Darfur, agents are parents, other family, friends,
farmers, military leaders, religious leaders, and tribal leaders.

The agencies also include the family, religion, clan or tribe, military, and political structures. In
general, agents are people involved in our socialization while agencies represent the organizations
involved in our socialization. some members of society experience a total institution at some point
in their lives and the intense socialization that comes with them. A total institution is an institution
that controls almost all aspects of its members’ lives, and all aspects of the individual’s life is
controlled by those in authority in the institution. Boarding schools, orphanages, the military,
juvenile detention facilities, and prisons are examples of total institutions. To a certain degree
sororities and fraternities mimic the nature of a total institution in the strict rules and regulations
required. A core difference among these total institutions is the fact that some are voluntary while
others are mandated.

fundamental form of socialization is called primary socialization or basic socialization. It is

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socialization, an individual biological associate in relation to any human communities acquires its
first office I first social identity. In this regard, the primary socialization is tantamount to individual
humanization.
secondary socialization refers to the period in which a child begins to interact strongly with other
social environments than the family. According to some sociologists, it does not reduce strict in
childhood, but it continues throughout the entire life of the individual, with the purposeful creation
and strengthening of personality, therefore speak of secondary socialization, subsequent to the
primary. In this regard, N. Goodman defines this type of socialization continues, identifying it with
"formal education". Maria Voinea (2000) states that secondary socialization is the stage
immediately following the primary phase the young (and later the adult) acquires a series of
statuses and consequently successive roles, with integration into various group structure and wider
institutional.

Resocialisation is, in the opinion of I. Mihailescu (2000), in a process of learning new roles, while
abandoning previous roles. We also meet situations where some people go through a process of
radical resocialization, positive or negative. We use in this regard, the term "socialization" to
designate the process of converting from persons who have committed antisocial actions (Maria
Voinea, 2000). The aims resocialization certain drawbacks or limitations correcting basic
socialization. The aim is learn new roles offered by the society (as if professionalization, the
professional reconversion) or rehabilitation of those who have committed deviant or delinquent
roles and norms of life accepted by society. Resocialisation is concomitant with the desocialising
and consists in the orientation of learning and social contol the uptake and expression of individual
behaviors consistent with the board of values and attitudes of the new integrator system. It must
be said that the effectiveness of resocialization depends not only on individual responsiveness but
also the intensity of social control exercised by the new agent of socialization and the degree of
removal of previous gratified factors (Zamfir and L. Vlăsceanu, 1993).

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In conclusion, Study of socialization types should not be unilateral. For example, a child may be
the subject of primary socialization, but this can be restrictive and, at the same time, gender
socialization. In turn, the primary socialization may be partly spontaneous and partly planned. So
one aspect of knowledge beneficial to all types of social events is their simultaneity. Another point
is their interdependence. An effective professional socialization can only be achieved through
formal socialization. Current trends in education show that this can not be achieved through
restrictive social and especially by the participation. In the same way, we can study the failure of
socialization not only sided view, but on types of socialization interdependence.

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 REFERENCES

1. Dumitrescu, Alina (2010), SPORTUL DE MASĂ MIJLOC DE SOCIALIZARE A

2. ELIOT Lise (2011), Creier roz, creier bleu. Diferențe de gen la copii și adulți, Editura Trei,
Bucurestiy

3. Ferreol,Gilles, coord., (1998), Dicţionarul de sociologie, Editura Polirom, Iaşi

4. GRUNBERG Laura, (2002), (R)Evoluții în sociologia feministă. Repere teoretice,

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