Agents And Stages Of Socialization

Discuss the concept of adolescence as a social construct and its validity for different cultures.

Socialization is an ongoing process in which individuals obtains a personal identity, learns norms, values and behaviour appropriate to his/her position. People constantly require approval of the things they do, they continually seek to be socially competent and to be accepted by those around them. It is human nature to want to be similar from others in order to be accepted in a certain social spheres but at the same time wanting to be different and unique. There are primary and secondary agents of socialization. The primary agents are those that are basic and fundamental to social beings, these include family and friends from which we learn behaviour at young age; they transmit norms and values to us. The secondary agents are those that are more external to us than family such as social institutions/organisations, these include schools,

The representatives of socialisation are emotions, self-concept, attitudes and behaviour they are likely to change in a person’s life due to influences around them. The two major influential agents to children’s growth in the Australian society are family and school. This tasker will justify the vocabulary of “Socialisation” and discover the two principals “Agents of Socialisation” in Australian society and culture.

“Cut from the same cloth”, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, “A chip off the old block”; most of us have heard these types of idioms at one point or another, ways of likening us to our parents. Sometimes they are right, while other times it couldn’t be farther from the truth; leaving us to wonder, “what is it that makes us who we are?” Are we simply the product of our environments, a collective sum of our interactions and experiences? Or, do our genetics pre-determine who we are, complex variations in our DNA that dictate our individual personalities? Some scientists argue on behalf of the nurture theory, that our personalities are continually changing and growing, influenced by the world and people around us. Others believe that we are pre-wired by genetics alone, that while external factors may magnify or diminish some aspects of that wiring, everything we are is already programmed into us from the moment of conception. So, who is right?

There are many factors that affect the physical, cognitive, social, moral, and personality development in an adolescent. Adolescence, as defined in the Webster dictionary, is the transition period from childhood to adulthood. It is a period that can bring various and drastic physical, social, and emotional changes. Adolescence begins with the onset of puberty and extends to adulthood. This usually occurs during the ages between twelve and twenty years old. Puberty, as defined in the Webster dictionary, is the period during which the reproductive system matures. This is a process characterized by a marked increase in sex hormones.

Our socialization process consists of eight phases. According to Eric Erikson they are Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry (competence) vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Ego Integrity vs. Despair. They all occur at different stages in our life span.

According to an article Social cognitive development article it states that during adolescence years’ social development has a huge role in teen lives. It is during these young adult years which is the transition period from

Notebaly, in societies, the family is the most and the primary agent of socialization on young children. By interacting with their families, children are able to first learn the values, norms, and beliefs of society. "Socialization in a family setting can be both deliberate and unintended. A father may teach his children about the importance of telling the truth or being considerate of others." Likewise, a mother might teach her children the aspects of spending and saving money, these are deliberate or intended social activities. Usually, unintended social activities have more of an impact on children than deliberate attempts do. For example, a father might tell its child

Adolescence is not cultural universal. In some societies, young children go straight from childhood to the adult life once they have done the necessary puberty rites. Puberty rites are formal ceremonies that mark the entrance of young

Agents of socialization in short are the people, groups, and social institutions, as well as the interactions within these groups that influence a person’s social and self-development. Agents of socialization are believed to provide the critical information needed for children to function successfully as a member of society. Some examples of such agents are family, neighborhood, schools, peers, religion, sports, the workplace, and especially the mass media. Each agent of socialization is linked to another. For example, in the media, symbolic images affect both the individual and the society, making the mass media the most controversial socialization agent. One of the most obvious places agents of socialization lay is in the malls of

The teenage social experience is a fundamental stage of development. How a teenager develops socially dictates how effective she will be as an adult. Through interaction with peers, a teenager learns about herself. This is an important period of time to construct personal identity. If this period is cut short, she will not be competent to meet the challenges that come with raising a child. Teenagers also tend have poor eating

Adolescence is the distinct transitional stage between childhood and adulthood in human development, extending primarily over the teenage years and terminating legally when the age of majority is reached (Rathus, 2014). However in some instances, this biological, cognitive, social and emotional maturity may not be reached until a later stage and may be dictated by gender. Adolescence is characterised by rapidly changing and unpredictable behaviour (Freud, as cited in Rathus 2014), heightened and unstable emotions (Hall, as cited in Rathus 2014), disturbances in identity, the gradual development of one’s moral reasoning (Kohlberg, as cited in Rathus, 2014) and the gradual establishment of one’s independence. Several of these changes may occur at differing phases in adolescent growth. This development is categorized into three separate stages; early adolescence, middle adolescence, and late adolescence. Early Adolescence, commencing from the ages of eleven or twelve until the age of fourteen, comprises of several features such as rapid biological development and maturity, heightened stress levels and limited coping capabilities. On the other hand, middle adolescence, from the approximate age of fourteen to sixteen, involves the gradual cease of biological change, an increase in coping strategies and declined stress levels. Furthermore, late adolescence, commencing from the age of sixteen until the age of eighteen or nineteen, encompasses physical maturity, whereby the

There are four main agents of socialization family, school, peer groups (friends and collogues), and mass media.

Socialization is “the process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior and social skills that are essential appropriate to his or her social environment.” Socialization applies to our daily life and it’s the most important process of human society. Without socialization the human would not be able to take part in group life and develop human characteristics. The world wouldn’t never be organized and everyone would have their own ways of doing thing. The general rules that we follow every day tells us what we should and shouldn’t do and how we should interact in situations. There are always consequences if we violate the rules and everyone recognizes the rules. Individual personality is really important in socialization. As a child, we start to learn and imitate others behavior, and as we get older, we start to understand the social life and accustom to the environment we live in, which can have effects on our personality. Personality refers to the patterns of feeling, thought, and action that characterizes human beings. The experiences we go through in life can change our personality too. Socialization essentially represents the process of learning throughout the life course. The important theories of socialization are defined by Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, Erving Goffman, Sigmund Freud and Judith R. Harris. Charles Cooley, George Mead and Erving Goffman mention the importance of the social side of

The most important agent of socialization is family, which helps mold an individual. The family values, beliefs, and religious inclinations shape