Culture, Society, and Child Socialization

• Socialization is the process whereby, through contact with other human beings, the helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable human being, skilled in the ways of the given culture.
• According to G. H. Mead, the child comes to understand being a separate agent by seeing how others behave toward him or her in social contexts. At a later stage, entering into organized games and learning the rules of play, the child comes to understand "the generalized other"—general values and cultural rules.
• Jean Piaget distinguishes several stages in the child's capability to make sense of the world. Each stage involves acquiring new cognitive skills and depends on the successful completion of the preceding one. According to Piaget, these stages of cognitive development are universal features of socialization.

Socialization through the Life Course

• Agents of socialization are structured groups or contexts within which significant processes of socialization occur. In all cultures, the family is the principal socializing agent during infancy. Other influences include peer groups, schools, and the mass media.
• Through the process of socialization and interaction with others, individuals learn about social roles—socially defined expectations for a person in a given social position. One result of this process is the development of a social identity, the characteristics that other people attribute to an individual. If social identities mark ways in which individuals are the same as others, self-identity sets us apart as distinct individuals. The concept of self-identity, which draws on symbolic interactionism, refers to the process of self-development through which we formulate a unique sense of ourselves and our relationship to the world.
• The development of mass communications has enlarged the range of socializing agents. The spread of mass printed media was later accompanied by the use of electronic communication. TV exerts a particularly powerful influence, reaching people of all ages every day.
• Gender socialization begins as soon as an infant is born. Even parents who believe they treat children equally tend to produce different responses to boys and girls. These differences are reinforced by many other cultural influences.
• Socialization continues throughout the life cycle. At each phase of life there are transitions to be made or crises to be overcome.

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