Socialization is a continuous process, which helps individuals to fit within their societies by understanding the shared values, behaviors, and norms. Individuals cannot leave apart from society as doing this would translate into isolation, which comes in the way of socialization. Of importance is the fact that socialization helps individual to control their impulse by developing a conscience and acceptable personalities. Several socialization agents help individuals to learn the shared values within their societies. Some of the socialization agents include the family, peers, schools, religious bodies among others. It should be noted that the socialization process relies on several theoretical concepts such as nature versus nurture, symbolic interactionism, moral development, self, and re-socialization. These theoretical aspects are used to explain why societies exhibit differences in social, cultural, religious, economic, and political interactions.
Who am I ?
My name is Pao-Chu Wheat and I must say that socialization has played a major role in shaping me into what I am today. I am a product of several socialization agents having been born and raised in Taiwan for my early years. During my infancy, I learned the Taiwanese languages and culture, which helped, shape my personality. Moreover, I became exposed to Taiwanese culture, norms, and values. I learned what it meant to be a Taiwanese in terms of social expectations. Later on, I moved to New Mexico where I became a US citizen. I must say that while here I encountered a very different culture from what I was used to back in Taiwan. The US society has different values, norms, and most of the times I found myself experiencing culture shock. However, this culture shock has not prevented me from socializing, my two daughters. I have socialized them to excel in their academics since this is the US culture. Here education for women is more valued than back home. I must say that the school has socialized my daughters to an extent that the elect has earned her Master's Degree and the other is pursuing her Bachelor's degree.
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Socialization, which is a continuous process, has caught up with me and just like my daughters, I have decided to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree. I must say that this nation has offered me this great opportunity considering that I have desired to go back to school to enhance my education. I am not sure if I would have achieved this dream back in my home country as it has different socialization in regard to women education. My husband and daughters who are my immediate family have played a significant role in my decision to enroll for a degree programme. Their encouragement goes ahead to prove that family is a major socialization agent that is capable of changing one's values, norms, and behaviors. Of importance is the fact that my peers at the Fort Bend Independent School District in Houston Texas have socialized me more on the US culture. The US culture is insistent on ensuring that all children in spite of the academic abilities get access to equal and quality educational opportunities. Following this socialization, I have devoted myself to mentor and care for the special students. Apart from this, I have found new hobbies, which are part of American culture. During my spare time, I grow and tend to my flowers as well find shelter for homeless dogs and cats. These hobbies resonate well within the US culture, which is keen on protecting its environment and natural endowments. I do not think that I would have developed these forms of hobbies and interests if I remained in Taiwan considering that Taiwan is entrenched in a different form of norms and values.
Description and Analysis of the Socialization Process
Socialization, which is a continuous process, begins at birth where a child is taught to relate with others from infancy by internalizing the societies shared values and norms until death. During the infancy stage, the child has no idea of what to eat, what to wear or how to communicate with the others as expected in a particular society. In this early stage of life, the family is the principal socializing agent allowing the child to understand what is expected of him or her. The child imitates what his or her elders are doing in what is known as incidental learning. Later on, the child gets in the school system where the educational system, the teachers, and the peers socialize him or her. From here, individuals get into the workforce where their peers and their seniors socialize them into the work culture. The socialization continues throughout life as each stage helps an individual to deal with the norms, values, and expectations for each of the phase. Effective socialization throughout the course of life ensures that an individual is equipped with all the right values, skills, morals to help him or she navigates through the demands of life at each stage.
Analysis of Agents of Socialization
Agents of socialization may be considered as those avenues that a society uses to transmit its values, norms, and expectations to all the members of the society there are several socialization agents that a society can use and they include the family, peers, school, religious bodies, and mass media.
The family
The family is the first socialization agent that a child encounters on birth. The family can be nuclear comprising of the parents and siblings or can be extended to include aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. The family members socialize the child by teaching him or her the main language of communication, how to eat, talk and behave acceptably. The same family helps the child to know what mannerisms are acceptable or not. Discipline is a core element, which is initiated and developed in the family (Yamamoto & Sonnenschein, 2016). In my case, I would say that the family has and continues to socialize me to who I am today. I thank my family for teaching me about my Taiwanese heritage, which defines how I relate with people. In as much as I am now an American citizen what my parents taught me have remained with me. If I was to go back to Taiwan, I am sure that I would engage in appropriate social norms and values thus enhancing my interactions. I believe I can foster meaningful relationships owing to the concept of the self. The self is my individuality, which I have developed on my own in as much as my family has socialized me. Essentially the self has helped me to become aware of myself hoping to become an independent individual. According to Mead, one must first participate in different social positions within a particular society to become self-conscious (Skinner, May & Rollock, 2016). Owing to this concept, I have held various positions which I have undertaken well putting me in a position to know who I am and what I want in life. Here in the United States, my immediate family who includes my husband and my two daughters has continued to socialize me. These are the very people who have pushed me to enroll for a Bachelor’s Degree program. It is true that I had the ambition to further my education but it may not have been possible without their input.
Peers
Peers play a significant role in the socialization process as they expand one's way of thinking and doing things. The peers can range from schoolmates, fellow employees, or individuals who attend the same religious group. I have had several peers from both Taiwan and the US. The most notable peers are the individuals I work with at the Fort Bend Independent School District in Houston, Texas. Here we help students with learning difficulties to have improved academic outcomes by mentoring and guiding them. I must admit that my peers have helped me get the hook of it considering that I had not done this type of work before. My peers have taught me the value of patience in dealing with these students. Of importance is the fact that my peers have helped me to understand the norms that go into ensuring that the work I do is ethical and acceptable. I must be willing to transform the lives of these students, as this is what is required of the American educational system. This transformation is related to Piaget’s theory of moral development, which is a product of effective socialization process. According to Beck (2017), this theory of moral development is said to occur when an individual develops proper attitudes towards other people based on cultural and social rules, norms, and laws. My peers have helped me to develop acceptable behaviors, which I then use towards the students with special needs.
Education
Education plays a crucial role in socializing people to fit within the social and cultural norms. The best thing with education is that it offers uniform and unified lessons regarding how individuals ought to relate in a particular society. Here individuals are taught to be responsible members of the society who are capable of contributing to amoral society. Having understood the central role that education plays in the socialization process, I have made sure that my two daughters get access to the highest form of education. I believe that this high level of education will help to alter their perspectives, as they will learn how to fit in the new educational levels. This education will help them understand their roles in the US, which may differ from Taiwanese roles. The same case applies to me as I join a Bachelor’s Degree program. I believe that I will undergo a re-socialization process learning very different values and norms as compared to what I had learned in Taiwan. According to Chen (2016), re-socialization occurs when one is forced to discard former behavior patterns and accepting new behaviors as one transit in life. I am sure that this new education will change my earlier thinking as it will help my daughters and me to fit into this new nation with different values and norms from Taiwan. Mass Media
The mass media is a significant socialization agent with a major ability to socialize an individual to either fit or fall out of social norms and values. The mass media is a tool that is used to advance popular culture, which may not be reflective of what is ideal in any particular society (Vandana, 2015). The US mass media differs from the Taiwanese mass media in terms of its priorities and connotations. The US mass media is freer to air out controversial political and social issues as opposed to the Taiwanese media, which is more restrictive. I am sure that the mass media will change my perspectives about various issues that are at the heart of the US culture. At this point, I believe that I will experience a nature-nurture conflict as I try to adjust my perspectives on a controversial issue. The nature-nurture concept establishes that an individual may either be shaped by the upbringing or the environmental factors (Sasaki, & Kim, 2016). I must agree that my Taiwanese upbringing has entrenched various values and norms but these may be put to test through the exposure to the content in the US media. I may change my perspectives on various social and political issues a change that is not deliberate but automatic.
In conclusion, socialization plays a critical role in shaping individuals to fit within the social and cultural norms and values, which define human societies. An individual is born without any prior knowledge of what is expected of them but the various socialization agents help them out. The family, which is the initial socialization agent, helps individuals to understand that they ought to behave in a certain way, which is acceptable to all. The school reinforces the norms and values in conjunction with the peers as the individuals move on the social ladder. The mass media is another influential socializing agent, which is capable of altering an individual's norms and values. The reason for this is the fact that individuals develop self, which comes because of holding several positions in society. It is to be noted that re-socialization can occur especially if an individual is exposed to a very different culture as in the case of Pao-Chu Wheat who moved to the US from Taiwan. Pao-Chu may be forced to undergo re-socialization to fit within the confines of the US norms and values to survive in this new country.
References
Berk, L. E. (2017). Development through the Lifespan (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education
Chen, W. et al., (2016). Effects of social isolation and re-socialization on cognition and ADAR1 (p110) expression in mice. Peer Journal, 2016(4), e2306.
Sasaki, J. Y., & Kim, H. S. (2016). Nature, nurture, and their interplay: A review of cultural neuroscience. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(1), 4-22.
Skinner, D., May, V., & Rollock, N. (2016). Self-Identity and its discontents: Sociology in the 1990s . SAGE Journals , 50(6), NP13-NP23
Vandana, U. L. (2015). A review on impact of socialization agents in breeding consumerism among children. SAGE Journals, 16(5), 867-878.
Yamamoto, Y., & Sonnenschein, S. (2016). Family contexts of academic socialization: the role of culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Research in Human Development, 13(3), 183-190.
