Socialization

Socialization is a process that introduces people to social norms and customs. This process helps
individuals function well in society, and, in turn, helps society run smoothly. Family members,
teachers, religious leaders, and peers all play roles in a person's socialization. According to most
social scientists, socialization essentially represents the whole process of learning throughout the
life course and is a central influence on the behaviour, beliefs, and actions of adults as well as of
children.

Agents of Socialization:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Socialization helps people learn to function successfully in their social worlds. How does the
process of socialization occur? How do we learn to use the objects of our society’s material
culture? How do we come to adopt the beliefs, values, and norms that represent its nonmaterial
culture? This learning takes place through interaction with various agents of socialization, like
peer groups and families, plus both formal and informal social institutions.

1. Social Group Agents

Social groups often provide the first experiences of socialization. Families, and later peer groups,
communicate expectations and reinforce norms. People first learn to use the tangible objects of
material culture in these settings, as well as being introduced to the beliefs and values of society.

Family
Family is the first agent of socialization. Mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents, plus
members of an extended family, all teach a child what he or she needs to know. For example, they
show the child how to use objects (such as clothes, computers, eating utensils, books, bikes); how
to relate to others (some as “family,” others as “friends,” still others as “strangers” or “teachers”
or “neighbors”); and how the world works (what is “real” and what is “imagined”). As you are
aware, either from your own experience as a child or from your role in helping to raise one,
socialization includes teaching and learning about an unending array of objects and ideas. Keep in
mind, however, that families do not socialize children in a vacuum. Many social factors affect the
way a family raises its children. For example, we can use sociological imagination to recognize
that individual behaviors are affected by the historical period in which they take place. Sixty years
ago, it would not have been considered especially strict for a father to hit his son with a wooden
spoon or a belt if he misbehaved, but today that same action might be considered child abuse.

Sociologists recognize that race, social class, religion, and other societal factors play an important
role in socialization. For example, poor families usually emphasize obedience and conformity
when raising their children, while wealthy families emphasize judgment and creativity (National
Opinion Research Center 2008). This may occur because working-class parents have less
education and more repetitive-task jobs for which it is helpful to be able to follow rules and
conform. Wealthy parents tend to have better educations and often work in managerial positions
or careers that require creative problem solving, so they teach their children behaviors that are
beneficial in these positions. This means children are effectively socialized and raised to take the
types of jobs their parents already have, thus reproducing the class system (Kohn 1977). Likewise,
children are socialized to abide by gender norms, perceptions of race, and class-related behaviors.

In Sweden, for instance, stay-at-home fathers are an accepted part of the social landscape. A
government policy provides subsidized time off work—480 days for families with newborns—
with the option of the paid leave being shared between mothers and fathers. As one stay-at-home
dad says, being home to take care of his baby son “is a real fatherly thing to do. I think that’s very
masculine” (Associated Press 2011). Close to 90 percent of Swedish fathers use their paternity
leave (about 340,000 dads); on average they take seven weeks per birth (The Economist, 2014).
How do U.S. policies—and our society’s expected gender roles—compare? How will Swedish
children raised this way be socialized to parental gender norms? How might that be different from
parental gender norms in the United States?

Peer Groups

A peer group is made up of people who are similar in age and social status and who share interests.
Peer group socialization begins in the earliest years, such as when kids on a playground teach
younger children the norms about taking turns, the rules of a game, or how to shoot a basket. As
children grow into teenagers, this process continues. Peer groups are important to adolescents in a
new way, as they begin to develop an identity separate from their parents and exert independence.
Additionally, peer groups provide their own opportunities for socialization since kids usually
engage in different types of activities with their peers than they do with their families. Peer groups
provide adolescents’ first major socialization experience outside the realm of their families.
Interestingly, studies have shown that although friendships rank high in adolescents’ priorities,
this is balanced by parental influence.

2. Institutional Agents

The social institutions of our culture also inform our socialization. Formal institutions—like
schools, workplaces, and the government—teach people how to behave in and navigate these
systems. Other institutions, like the media, contribute to socialization by inundating us with
messages about norms and expectations.
School

Most U.S. children spend about seven hours a day, 180 days a year, in school, which makes it hard
to deny the importance school has on their socialization (U.S. Department of Education 2004).
Students are not in school only to study math, reading, science, and other subjects—the manifest
function of this system. Schools also serve a latent function in society by socializing children into
behaviors like practicing teamwork, following a schedule, and using textbooks. School and
classroom rituals, led by teachers serving as role models and leaders, regularly reinforce what
society expects from children. Sociologists describe this aspect of schools as the hidden
curriculum, the informal teaching done by schools.

For example, in the United States, schools have built a sense of competition into the way grades
are awarded and the way teachers evaluate students (Bowles and Gintis 1976). When children
participate in a relay race or a math contest, they learn there are winners and losers in society.
When children are required to work together on a project, they practice teamwork with other people
in cooperative situations. The hidden curriculum prepares children for the adult world. Children
learn how to deal with bureaucracy, rules, expectations, waiting their turn, and sitting still for hours
during the day. Schools in different cultures socialize children differently in order to prepare them
to function well in those cultures. The latent functions of teamwork and dealing with bureaucracy
are features of U.S. culture.

Schools also socialize children by teaching them about citizenship and national pride. In the United
States, children are taught to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Most districts require classes about U.S.
history and geography. As academic understanding of history evolves, textbooks in the United
States have been scrutinized and revised to update attitudes toward other cultures as well as
perspectives on historical events; thus, children are socialized to a different national or world
history than earlier textbooks may have done. For example, information about the mistreatment of
African Americans and Native American Indians more accurately reflects those events than in
textbooks of the past.

The Workplace

Just as children spend much of their day at school, many U.S. adults at some point invest a
significant amount of time at a place of employment. Although socialized into their culture since
birth, workers require new socialization into a workplace, in terms of both material culture (such
as how to operate the copy machine) and nonmaterial culture (such as whether it’s okay to speak
directly to the boss or how to share the refrigerator).

Different jobs require different types of socialization. In the past, many people worked a single job
until retirement. Today, the trend is to switch jobs at least once a decade. Between the ages of
eighteen and forty-six, the average baby boomer of the younger set held 11.3 different jobs (U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). This means that people must become socialized to, and
socialized by, a variety of work environments.
Religion

While some religions are informal institutions, here we focus on practices followed by formal
institutions. Religion is an important avenue of socialization for many people. The United States
is full of synagogues, temples, churches, mosques, and similar religious communities where people
gather to worship and learn. Like other institutions, these places teach participants how to interact
with the religion’s material culture (like a mezuzah, a prayer rug, or a communion wafer). For
some people, important ceremonies related to family structure—like marriage and birth—are
connected to religious celebrations. Many religious institutions also uphold gender norms and
contribute to their enforcement through socialization. From ceremonial rites of passage that
reinforce the family unit to power dynamics that reinforce gender roles, organized religion fosters
a shared set of socialized values that are passed on through society.

Government

Although we do not think about it, many of the rites of passage people go through today are based
on age norms established by the government. To be defined as an “adult” usually means being
eighteen years old, the age at which a person becomes legally responsible for him- or herself. And
sixty-five years old is the start of “old age” since most people become eligible for senior benefits
at that point.

Each time we embark on one of these new categories—senior, adult, taxpayer—we must be
socialized into our new role. Seniors must learn the ropes of Medicare, Social Security benefits,
and senior shopping discounts. When U.S. males turn eighteen, they must register with the
Selective Service System within thirty days to be entered into a database for possible military
service. These government dictates mark the points at which we require socialization into a new
category.

Mass Media
Mass media distribute impersonal information to a wide audience, via television, newspapers,
radio, and the Internet. With the average person spending over four hours a day in front of the
television (and children averaging even more screen time), media greatly influences social norms
(Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout 2005). People learn about objects of material culture (like new
technology and transportation options), as well as nonmaterial culture—what is true (beliefs), what
is important (values), and what is expected (norms).

The Socialization Process in Three Parts

Socialization involves both social structure and interpersonal relations. It contains three key parts:

1. Context
2. Content and process
3. Results
Context, perhaps, defines socialization the most, as it refers to culture, language, social structures
and one’s rank within them. It also includes history and the roles people and institutions played in
the past. One's life context will significantly affect the socialization process. For example,
a family's economic class may have a huge impact on how parents socialize their children.

Research has found that parents emphasize the values and behaviors most likely to help children
succeed given their station in life. Parents who expect their children to work blue-collar jobs are
more likely to emphasize conformity and respect for authority, while those who expect their
children to pursue artistic, managerial, or entrepreneurial professions are more likely to emphasize
creativity and independence.

Gender stereotypes also exert a strong influence on socialization processes. Cultural expectations
for gender roles and gendered behavior are imparted to children through color-coded clothes and
types of play. Girls usually receive toys that emphasize physical appearance and domesticity such
as dolls or dollhouses, while boys receive playthings that involve thinking skills or call to mind
traditionally male professions such as Legos, toy soldiers, or race cars. Additionally, research has
shown that girls with brothers are socialized to understand that household labor is expected of
them but not of their male siblings. Driving the message home is that girls tend not to receive pay
for doing chores, while their brothers do.

Race also plays a factor in socialization. Since white people don't disproportionately experience
police violence, they can encourage their children to know their rights and defend them when the
authorities try to violate them. In contrast, parents of color must have what's known as "the talk"
with their children, instructing them to remain calm, compliant, and safe in the presence of law
enforcement.

While context sets the stage for socialization, the Content and Process constitute the work of this
undertaking. How parents assign chores or tell their kids to interact with police are examples of
content and process, which are also defined by the duration of socialization, those involved, the
methods used, and the type of experience.

School is an important source of socialization for students of all ages. In class, young people
receive guidelines related to behavior, authority, schedules, tasks, and deadlines. Teaching this
content requires social interaction between educators and students. Typically, rules and
expectations are both written and spoken, and student conduct is either rewarded or penalized. As
this occurs, students learn behavioral norms suitable for school.

In the classroom, students also learn what sociologists describe as "hidden curricula." In her book
"Dude, You're a Fag," sociologist C.J. Pasco revealed the hidden curriculum of gender and
sexuality in U.S. high schools. Through in-depth research at a large California school, Pascoe
revealed how faculty members and events like pep rallies and dances reinforce rigid gender roles
and heterosexism. In particular, the school sent the message that aggressive and hypersexual
behaviors are generally acceptable in white boys but threatening in Black ones. Though not an
"official" part of the schooling experience, this hidden curriculum tells students what society
expects of them based on their gender, race, or class background.
Results are the outcome of socialization and refer to the way a person thinks and behaves after
undergoing this process. For example, with small children, socialization tends to focus on control
of biological and emotional impulses, such as drinking from a cup rather than from a bottle or
asking permission before picking something up. As children mature, the results of socialization
include knowing how to wait their turn, obey rules, or organize their days around a school or work
schedule. We can see the results of socialization in just about everything, from men shaving their
faces to women shaving their legs and armpits.