Socialization is a process through which individuals learn about social expectations and interaction with others. Socialization spans throughout an individual’s lifetime with the most important part occurring during childhood. The three main agents of socialization include family, schools, and peers. Infants rely on their families to survive. Parents teach the child their first set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that reflects upon their social status, ethnicity, and religion. Schools equip the child with life skills such as obeying authority and patience. The teacher builds upon the values that the parents instill at an early age. The education system is designed to develop students based on their unique needs and personal capabilities. Peers help one to develop their social behavior. At this stage, individuals are introduced to other beliefs from their friends, which they may choose to keep or abandon.
Agents of socialization are referred to as the agents that affect an individual’s culture and orientations to life including self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behavior. These agents include the family, social class and type of work, social class and type of play, the neighborhood, schools, religion, peer groups, and the workplace. For example in the agent of family, social class affects how a child is brought up to relate with other people. A child brought up by wealthy parents is encouraged to ask questions or challenge the doctor during a checkup at the hospital. Children from less fortunate families are expected to accept everything the doctor said without voicing their opinions. Less fortunate kids are taught to submit to the authority or elders while wealthy kids are taught to challenge the authority thus affecting how each child socializes. Children from middle class families are therefore more likely to grow up with better values based on their parent’s ability to reason with them rather than using physical punishment.
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