Stages of Socialization

The human child comes into the world, as a biological organism with animal needs. He is gradually moulded in society into a social being and learns social ways of acting and feeling. No individual could become the person and no culture could exist without it. This process of moulding and shaping the personality of the human infant is called “Socialization”. The human infant enters this world as a biological organism like all other animals as a bundle of muscles, bones, vital organs and all other biological parts needed for life. At the birth, he is just a human being. A human child cannot survive unaided for at least the first four or five years of life. At this stage, the newborn human baby is helpless. Not only is it physically dependent for the satisfaction of biological needs such as hunger and protection on older members of the species but it also lacks the behaviour patterns necessary for living in human society, In order to survive, the infant has a lot to learn the skills, knowledge and accepted ways of behaving of the society. It must learn a way of life. This learning in sociological terminology is called Socialization.

Man is not only social but also cultural. It is the culture that provides opportunities for man to develop the personality. Development of personality is not an automatic process Every society prescribes its own ways and means of giving social training to its newborn members so that they may develop their own personality. This social training is called ‘Socialization’. The process of socialization is conditioned by culture. Socialization is a gradual process of learning. Socialization is not confined to childhood; it is a lifelong process. It is no longer regarded as the exclusive preserve of childhood, with the primary agents being the family and school. Socialization means the child’s learning to participate in social roles. Socialization is a life process, but is generally divided into two parts. Primary socialization takes place early in life, as a child and adolescent. Secondary socialization refers to the socialization that takes place throughout one's life, both as a child and as one encounters new groups that require additional socialization.

Socialization is conditioned by culture. Since every society has its own culture the ways of the process of socialization also differ from society to society. Further the same culture and the same ways of Socialization may have diverse effects on the development of the personality of the members of the same society. Thus, a culture need necessarily produce stereotype personalities. There is scope of individuality in the process of Socialization. But the fact the culture puts limitations on the development of personality cannot be ignored. Little of man’s behaviour is instinctive. Rather man’s behavior is learnt behaviour. Socialization means the process whereby an individual becomes a functioning member of society. Learning the rules and practices of social groups socializes the individual. This helps the group to maintain its order. By this process the individual develops a personality of his own. It is recognized that the Socialization is not simple a one ways process in which an individual learns how to fit into the society. He may also redefine his roles and obligations and a result he affects society. Every man tries to adjust himself to the conditions of his environment. This process of adjustment is itself socialization. The social order is maintained largely by Socialization. Everyone is born with defined capacities. Though there may be some limits to what a man can do, this limitation can be overcome and is being overcome by the development of civilization. Man’s capacity to learn may be increased by the development of new techniques of instruction and incentives.

Durkheim’s theory of ‘Collective representations’ throws some light on the study of the process of socialization. In this theory of socialization Durkheim has asserted that the individual be comes socialized by adopting the behaviour of his group. By ‘Collective representations’ he meant the body of experiences, ideas and ideals of a group upon which the individual unconsciously depends for his ideas, attitudes and behaviour. To Durkheim, collective representations are objects or factor of social values. These objects are symbol-products and are mutually owned mutually proclaimed.

Stages of Socialization

Socialization is a gradual process of learning; the newborn baby is not thought all the things about social life at once. It proceeds from simplicity to complexity. During the early stage of life Socialization takes place within the simple limited social world. Gradually this social world becomes broader and the child is confronted with several things to learn and to adjust. Socialization is not confined to childhood; it is a lifelong process. It is no longer regarded as the exclusive preserve of childhood, with the primary agents being the family and school. It begins at birth and continues until death. Socialization means the child’s learning to participate in social roles. Hence the main objects to be internalized by the child are the social roles themselves. In order to perform any social role adequately, one must know the other social roles in the same social system. Hence the child must internalize the role that he is expected to perform by himself and also the roles of the other persons with whom he interacts. In fact the internalization of roles is almost the same thing as the growth of personality. At each stage of Socialization the child internalizes a system of roles, not just the one role.

Now, we shall describe briefly four important stages of Socialization from infancy to old age. They are –

1. Oral Stage.
2. Anal Stage.
3. Latency Stage.
4. Adolescence Stage.

1. 1. Oral Stage

This stage begins with the birth of the child and continues up to the completion of one year. Before birth the child in the mother’s womb is in the foetal from and is warm and comfortable. In this year of life child’s contact with the outside world, including its mother is channeled through the mouth and lips. The mother is the first parent who begins the process of Socialization. For everything the child cries a great deal. By means of crying the child establishes its oral dependency. The child here develops some definite expectations about the feeding time. The child also learns to give signals for his felt needs. In this stage the child is involved in himself and his mother.

At this stage, the child makes no difference between persons and things, the mother’s breast and the nipple of the bottle are equally and solely means of organic satisfaction. Crying, smiling and eye movement in response to other are forms of early social behaviour. The roles of the mother and the infant are merged at the stage of development. Sigmund Freud called this stage- the stage of “primary identification”. It means the child merges his identity with that of the mother. The child only tries to establish some control over the hunger drive. According to Talcot Parsons, “Child is a mean of recreation for others in this stage. Generally he can recognize his mother and become happy when he comes in contact with his mother.

1. 1. Anal Stage.

The second stage normally begins soon after the first year and is completed during the third year. It is here that the child learns that he cannot depend entirely on the mother and that he has to take some degree of care for himself. Toilet training is the main focus of new concern. The child is thought to do some tasks such a toileting, keeping clothes clean, etc. During this period the child learns how to eat their food and talk in a polite way. The child develops a sense of control over itself and its environment, although it is still dependent on its parents. He starts recognizing the family relations. During this stage, the child internalizes two roles his own and that of his/her mother now can clearly separate. The child receives ‘care’ also ‘love’ from the mother and learns to give love in return. The child is enabled to difference between correct and incorrect actions. The correct action is rewarded and the incorrect action is not rewarded but punished. In this stage the socializing agent that is the mother plays the dual role. The dual role of the mother helps the child to participate in a more complex social system.

1. 1. Latency Stage.

This stage mostly starts from the fourth year of the child and extend up to puberty (the age of 12 or 13 years). It is in this stage the child becomes the member of the family as a whole. It is here the child has to identify himself with the social role ascribed to him on the basis of his sex. In family child comes to know about the status of members because now he comes to know about different relations like who is father, who is mother, who is uncle, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister etc. During these years the child shifts his interest more and more from the social world of family to the group life of his/her peers. Social consciousness develops rapidly, the chief interest is in-group activities and group loyalty becomes highly important. In this stage sufficient social pressures are brought on the child to identify with the right sex. Boys begin to be rewarded, for behaving like boys and girls are rewarded for acting like girls. After the age of six the child is able to understand the sexual difference. The boy tries to identify himself with the father and the girl with the mother. When the children go to the school or mix with other children they prefer to join their respective playgroups. In this stage the boys makes three kinds of identification – 1. He identifies with his father and brother. 2. He identifies with all his siblings. 3. He identifies with the family as a member. At this stage the child learns t behave himself in various contexts of his activity, particularly when interacting with adults, besides, child also internalizes all the four roles of the family, for example husband-father, wife-mother, son-brother, daughter-sister.

1. 1. Adolescence Stage.

The fourth stage starts with the period of adolescence. Due to the psychological changes that take place within the individual this stage assumes importance. In this stage it is not possible for parents to control their children because children think that they are mature enough and they need more freedom. At the same time they cannot completely escape from their dependence on their parents. They want to be free in doing various activities. But the parents continue to control many of their activities. In the modern society the parents intend to give more freedom to the boys and girls to do some of their activities independently. The parents try to lessen the open expression of their emotional attachment towards the adolescent children. They encourage them to select their line of education, their occupation and their life partner. They expect the adolescent children to accept responsibility and learn new roles assigned to them.

Conclusion

Socialization generally refers to the process in which people learn the skills, knowledge, values, motives, and roles of the groups to which they belong or the communities in which they live. Socialization is seen as society's principal mechanism for influencing the development of character and behavior. Most sociologists treat socialization "as a cornerstone both for the maintenance of society and for the well-being of the individual" Every society prescribes its own ways and means of giving social training to its newborn members so that they may develop their own personality. This social training is called ‘Socialization’. Even after these stages of Socialization after marriage and after becoming father, this process of socialization moves on that how he has to behave in new roles. But after these four stages the process of Socialization is not so complex because till this age he learns to adopt himself with the society and learns to adapt himself according to the situation. The success of the process of socialization depends upon these stages.