In this lecture, we shall discuss some of the intricacies involved in the processes of socialization.

Becoming a Social Being

Socialization refers to the ways in which people learn to conform to their society's norms, values, and roles.

Primary socialization refers to the ways in which the newborn individual is moulded into a social being.

Secondary socialization occurs in later childhood and adolescence as a child is influenced by adults and peers outside his or her family.

Adult socialization occurs when a person learns the norms associated with specific adult statuses.

There are a number of unresolved issues in the study of socialization:

• The relative strength of biological and social influences (nature versus nurture).
• How does a person develop a sense of self?
• How do social environments affect socialization?
• How does gender socialization occur?

Nature and Nurture

Sigmund Freud believed that the personality develops in infancy as the child is forced to control his or her bodily urges.

Freud’s model of the personality is divided into three parts: The original, unsocial zed urges arise out of the id. The norms, values, and feelings taught through socialization belong to the superego, and the ego is one's conception    of oneself in relation to others.

Freud believed that the ego is formed as a result of conflict between the infant's basic biological urges and society's need for a socialized person.

Behaviourism takes the opposite view from that of sociobiology. Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned.

By training a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell, Ivan Pavlov demonstrated that conditioned reflexes could be developed.

John B. Watson showed that emotions such as fear could also be conditioned.

Feral children are children who have been raised in isolation. Studies of such children show that the absence of parental love and nurturance damages the individual's ability to become a social person.