The Evidence that Socialisation Plays a Major Part in Shaping Human Behaviour

One of the oldest debates in the history of Psychology is about Nature versus Nurture. Today, we know that both play a significant role in human’s life. Some people believe that it is genes which affects our way of life and some people believes that it is none other but our environment that greatly influences our lifestyle and some believe that both has tremendous impact on one’s way of life. Indeed in certain cases both our nature (our genes) and our environment roughly play an equal role in human life.

Chapter 3 of Essential of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach by James M. Henslin discusses the topic of socialization, which is the process by which people learn the characteristics of their group—the knowledge, attitudes, skills, norms, values, and actions thought appropriate for them. Sociologists try to determine how much of a person’s characteristics comes from “nature” (heredity) and how much from “nurture” (social environment). Studying feral, isolated, and institutionalized children, such as The Skeels/Dye Experiment, have helped them understand how “society makes us human.” The theories and research of Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Piaget to explain socialization into the self and mind. Cooley’s looking-glass self theory focuses on how we believe others perceive us.

Socialization is the lifelong process through which people learn culture and become functioning members of society. Socialization establishes our social identity, teaches us role taking, controls our behavior, and transmits culture to the next generation (Introduction to Sociology, 2015). We are who we are because of socialization. Culture that is passed to the next generation are languages, beliefs, norms, valves, and symbols.

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,

Human behavior is affected both by genetic inheritance and by experience. The ways in which people develop are shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential. Each person is born into a social and

Human behavior is affected both by genetic inheritance and by experience. The ways in which people develop are shaped by social experience and circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic potential. Each person is born into a social and cultural setting – family, community, social class, language, religion, and eventually develops many social connections. The class into which people are born affects what language, diet, tastes, and interests the will have as children and therefore

Analysis1: Socialization is invoked by experiences children have as they learn from their environment and friends. Parents, friends, religion, social status, culture, and economical status they are raised in play a part of internalizing prejudice. Matters like race, religion, language, social

For many years psychologist, sociologists, novelist, students, people in general have debated over which side, nature or nurture makes us who we are. Each side of the debate has compelling arguments and facts to support their claims, however it is foolish to say one has a greater impact than the other. I believe that humans are the product of society and biology, and that they come hand in hand. That both nature and nurture make us human because there are too many facts from each side of the argument to say that one is more influential than the other. Our biology is what differentiates males and females, and our sense of self develops from the interaction with other humans and society.

Individuals learn what is socially acceptable so they can be viewed normative and not deviant. These norms are learned through parental guidance and exposure to what society views as acceptable thus shaping the individuals mindset. According to Berger and Luckman (1966) “Every individual is born into an objective social structure within which he encounters the significant others who are in charge of his socialization” (p. 18). This socialization is known as primary socialization since it is the first exposure an individual has to what is viewed as acceptable behavior. Outside of primary socialization, and individual goes through secondary socialization when away from their family and significant others.. Secondary socialization is defined by Berger and Lucian (1966) as “the internalization of institutional or institution-based ‘subworlds’… ‘subworlds’ internalized in secondary socialization are generally partial realities in contrast to the ‘base-world’ acquired in primary

The development of human being during the entire course of life, focus on biological and psychological growth (Berk, 2010). Human development hold several outcomes that are altered by both positive and negative influences. Genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) influences place significant impact on human development. In fact, Pinker (2004) submits that behavior is the result of a complex collaboration among inheritance and environmental factors in human development, ultimately supporting that nature-nurture work collectively (Pinker, 2004).

Why does a person behave the way they do? Why does each person have a distinct personality? Scientists believe that this has to do with nature and nurture. Meaning, a person's social activities, and personality are dictated by the traits they have inherited from their parents, but also from environmental influences. There are four agents of socialization that have been chosen as the most impacting on a person's life. These agents of socialization influence how a person will behave, influence, and think among society. Although the family has been categorized as the most influential agent of socialization, this is not the only agent that impacts a person life. In this essay, I will go over how family, peer groups, school, and mass media affect a person from an early age and the impacts it brings to society.

Throughout history, our society’s socialization, or lifelong social experiences, has been debated upon quite vigorously. It is quite evident that we all obtain certain characteristics and abilities through heredity factors, but many still argue that this is not the only explanation for how our lives are determined. The argument of nature versus nurture is still being discussed by many, although both have been seen to have an impact on our life experiences.

The agents of socialization discussed above (family, school, and peer group) are all involved in interactive and personal contact. Mass media on the other had are various impersonal modes of communication intended for large audiences (e.g., radio, television, motion pictures, newspapers). Mass media can have an enormous effect on our attitudes and behavior. The media influence socialization by providing additional and alternative role models as well as social norms and values. It appears that most influential mass medium today is television. A positive view of television is that it provides an excellent medium of instruction and an entertaining way of expanding the horizons of children by exposing them to places and events they may not be able to experience first hand. The negative view of television is that it makes children more passive and less likely to use their imagination; it stresses the unrealistic nature of many

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

For more than a century, researchers and psychologists, such as Sir Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and many others, have been trying to understand how people are transformed by their environment. Researchers have mainly argued whether it is in fact our environment or rather genetics, our biological pre-wiring, which has influenced human behavior. This concept ultimately facilitated what is now known as the Nature versus Nurture debate. The Nature aspect states that human behavior is predetermined by our inherited genes or is the product of our innate behavior. The Nurture side of the disagreement postulates that human behavior stems from acquired attributes through individual learning and experiences. Correspondingly, the Object Relations Theory in psychoanalytic psychology supports the position that a person’s natural environment (i.e. family, peers, acquaintances, society) forms human development. The Object Relations theory stresses that it is the relationships between people, more specially family, often between mother and child, that crafts the human psyche.