Socialisation is the ways in which people learn how to act in accordance with current social norms and values. Human behaviour is influenced by socialisation in as much as we are taught from a very early age that certain actions are acceptable in society and certain actions are not. For example young children are taught to use the potty instead of excreting faecal matter onto the floor. Socialisation is all around us, from our peers to our parents, but just how far is human behaviour actually influenced by these agents of socialisation?
The best way to find out whether humans are affected by socialisation at all and to what extent, is to find a control for this test. However, no human being can be totally void of any socialisation. The closest case to this control is feral children. This uncommon phenomenon is when a child, for whatever reason, has been abandoned by their parents and has been left in the care of animals. Such cases include “The Portuguese Chicken Girl”, “The German Dog-Boy” and two Indian sisters that were raised by wolves. In the latter, two sisters were abandoned by their mother at birth and left to fend for themselves in the jungle. They were picked up and cared for by wolves. These girls had no idea of how to smile, cry, communicate in speech or even recognise humans. This shows quite clearly that even the basics of what we humans perceived to be present at birth is actually learnt through socialisation. However, new evidence shows that babies do smile and even cry in the womb, meaning that these feral children may be born with these innate behavioural patterns pre-programmed into them, but after living alongside the animals for a period of time they are socialised to ignore these emotions.
The case study above is part of a wider debate known as the ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate. This discussion has two opposing views, with sociologists on one hand and socio-biologists and biologists on the other. Genetics plays a large part in this argument. Sociologists believe that both boys and girls start off with the exact same set of emotions and feelings, but boys are taught through agents of socialisation to be more aggressive, where as girls are taught to be more submissive. Socio-biologists on the other hand argue that humans are pre-programmed and have instincts that they cannot ignore.
Recent studies suggest that if you leave young boys and girls in a room the girls will sit quietly and play whilst the boys totally lose control and start running, and jumping, screaming and scratching. However this does not mean that boys have a more aggressive tendency it means that boys are socialised from a young age to act in an aggressive manner.
Norms and values are what make up an ideology, and an ideology is a set of rules and values that govern a society. Without these basic norms and values society as a whole would crumble and be reduced to anarchy, for example Colin Turnbull’s study of a people without any form of socialisation. Therefore governments and people in power establish social institutions and agents of socialisation that have the aim of enforcing and informing us of society’s ideologies. Social agents are people groups or institutions that teach individuals norms and values of a society. Agents of socialisation range from schools, mass media, governments, law courts, the workplace, peer groups, parents etc. These agents of socialisation can hand out formal or informal punishments. Agents such as the law courts can hand out formal punishments such as jail sentences or in some countries even death. However, informal punishments such as exclusion from peer groups, and ridicule can be handed out by agents of socialisation like peer groups and the mass media.
Socialisation can be divided into two groups, primary and secondary. Primary socialisation starts with an individual’s parents. The individual’s parents will teach them the basic norms and values of a society, such as blue for boys and pink for girls, boys don’t cry and girls don’t fight. Secondary socialisation is everything afterwards, from nursery school to nursing home. A person’s behaviour is also based on their identity and how they are perceived in society. Society as a whole is full of stereotypes, these occur when a certain social group is judged by the actions of a few individuals. For example, poor people are stereotyped as being sneaky and light fingered. These stereotypes are based on gender, ethnicity, age, and class.
An individual’s identity can also be shaped by their master status. A master status is when an individual is judged by a major action that has occurred in the past. For example if a person commits a crime and is sentenced to jail time, even after they have served their sentence they will find difficulties getting a job because they have a criminal record.
As humans we crave acceptance in society and will do whatever it takes to be likened by our peers, in most cases conformity is the answer. Identity plays a large role in this as our identity is what makes us individuals. Gender plays arguably the largest role in defining our behaviours. Behaviour is most definitely affected by socialisation.
it's a great essay,, (Y) wish can realization in real life.
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