Agents of Socialization

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Agents of Socialization

• 5.3

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Agents of Socialization

• Specific Situations that shape socialization.
• Describe the specific individuals, groups, and
  institutions that enable socialization to take
  place.

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Primary Agents of Socialization

• Family
• Peer Groups
• School
• Mass Media
• Resocialization

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The Family

• Most important agent of socialization in almost
  every society.
• The principal socializer of young children
• Values, norms, beliefs are first taught among
  the family.
• Socialization can be both deliberate and
  unintended.
• Deliberate
• A father may teach importance of telling the
  truth, being considerate of others.
• Unintended
• Suppose a father is teaching his child to be
  polite and the child sees several situations
  where the father is impolite.

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The Peer Group

• A primary group composed of individuals of
  roughly equal age and similar social
  characteristics.
• As children grow older, forces outside of the
  family increasingly influence them.
• Children begin to relate more to their peer
  groups.
• Most influential during pre-teenage and teenage
  years.

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Peer Groups cont

• Winning peer acceptance is a powerful force.
• Without peer acceptance children are often
  labeled as misfits, outsiders, etc
• To win acceptance, young people willingly adopt
  the values and standards of the peer group.
• They shape themselves into the kind of person
  they think the group wants them to be.

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The School

• Plays a major role in socialization. Between the
  ages of 5 and 18 you spend 30 weeks a year in
  school.
• Much of school socialization is deliberate.
• Teaching reading, writing, math, and other
  skills.
• Extracurricular clubs, sports, dances.
• A large amount of unintended socialization
  occurs.
• Teachers may become models for students
• Manners, styles of speech, styles of dress, etc..

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The Mass Media

• Instruments of communication that reach large
  audiences with no personal contact between those
  sending the information and those receiving it.
• Books, films, internet, magazines, newspapers,
  and television.

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Mass Media cont

• Television has the most influence on the
  socialization of children.
• 98 of the homes in the US have an average of at
  least two TVs.
• Children watch an average of 28 hrs/week of
  television.
• Television is the primary after-school activity
  for 6-17 year olds.
• Most children spend almost twice as much time
  watching TV as they spend in school.

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Resocialization

• Resocialization involves a break with past
  experiences and the learning of new values and
  norms.
• Directed towards changing an individuals
  personality and social behavior.
• Accomplished by stripping away all identity with
• Uniforms, standard haircuts, individual freedoms.
• Once your sense of self is broken they can
  re-mold you and help you conform to new patterns
  of behavior.

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Resocialization

• Total Institution is a setting in which people
  are isolated from the rest of society and are
  subject to tight control.
• Prison, Boot Camp, Monasteries, Psychiatric
  Hospitals.

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• The End

13
Super Ridiculous Video Clip Which Has Nothing to
do With Sociology or the Agents of Socialization
Unless You Consider the Peer Group
InfluenceYeah, Thats it, Peer Group.
S.R.V.C.W.H.N.W.S.A.S.U.Y.C.P.G.Y.T.P.G.
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• Trough Diving
• Prison Dancing