Stages of Socialization

It was already past eight o'clock as I walked briskly along the cold, cement sidewalk to work. As I approached the corner Starbucks - whose circular, green window advertisement triggered a response - I saw that the line was overwhelmingly long and decided to forego my morning latte. Moving more quickly now, I listened to the even quicker pace of the world swirl by me. Then I saw her. In the dark corner of a doorway, beneath an abandoned building, I saw a young girl. She was squatting down in a garbage can, practically naked. It is hard to recall which was more alarming, her dirt-stained skin or her bones, which jutted out from every corner of her body. Nervous and alarmed, I stopped and asked, "Are you lost?" The child, about seven years old, looked taken aback, stared at the ground and sunk lower and further away. Again, I asked, "Are you okay? Where are your parents?" She did not make eye contact or let on that she could hear me at all, only let out a loud growl followed by a low moan. She shook her head wildly and so, already late, I turned away and hurried to work. All day, I wondered what the little girl had been doing in there. At her age, she ought to have been in school with her friends, not alone on a crowded street with nearly bare skin on a chilly day. Why had she ignored my questions, pretending not to hear me and refusing to offer any answer?

Further investigation led to findings that socialization is a life-long process through which people learn basic skills, norms, roles, statuses and values that are necessary to function as active members of society. There are four basic stages in the socialization process: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and age sixty-five and over. During each of these stages of life, people typically begin to learn and to develop important and useful skills; these skills continue to evolve, carrying over and preparing each of us for the next stages of life. Very early on, organized institutions and specific groups of people help us through these four stages. These agents of socialization include family, school, peers, media, religion and the workplace. Without experiencing the essential stages of socialization and interacting with the agents of socialization, a person's growth and opportunity become stunted.

Childhood is the most important stage of socialization. The first thing that humans go through in life is called primary socialization, in which children develop personality, motor skills, reasoning, language and most importantly, self-concept. A little later in childhood, they are introduced to roles, values and norms. Primary socialization is the building block for socialization throughout the rest of one's life. Without learning and developing these skills early on, a person is not likely to develop them and therefore, will not have the tools to become an active member of society. During the childhood stage, the family acts as the most important agent of socialization. The family provides a nurturing environment that is instrumental in normal cognitive, emotional and physical development. Interaction with one's family allows a person to develop language, to learn and refine simple motor skills - such as shoe tying and eating - as well as to share emotional care and understanding. After the child masters some of the simple life skills, the parents begin to teach the meanings of right and wrong, obedience and conformity; ultimately, our parents teach and give us the foundation for the future of our lives.

It becomes clear that without both the childhood development stage and its accompanying familial involvement, children would be entirely unprepared to survive alone, to interact with others and to move any further toward the next stage, adolescence. "Genie" is a famous example of a person who missed out on the childhood socialization process, as well as the socialization agent of her family, and could never completely assimilate into society. Having been locked up alone from age two until the age of thirteen, Genie was discovered almost entirely lacking socialization; she was viewed as practically subhuman. Having been punished for making noise through eleven years, Genie was unable to communicate verbally and having been denied human contact, Genie's social interactions were like those of a toddler. Genie was also denied solid food, clothes, toys and affection. Finally, Genie had spent her life strapped to a potty seat and so she could not stand, straighten her legs, or run. Once discovered, Genie was sent to a variety of hospitals and institutions in attempts to socialize her so that she might join society. Even after years of intensive speech therapy and social interaction, Genie demonstrates long-lasting effects from a lack of childhood socialization; she can only speak in words and short phrases and resides in a group home. The absence of interaction - particularly through her family's speech and guidance - was enormously detrimental to Genie's development and reinforces the incredible significance of the childhood stage, the socialization agent of family and their importance in human development.

Adolescence is the next stage in the socialization process; it continues the development of childhood lessons while, at the same time, setting us up for the socialization that will occur during adulthood. During adolescence, the biggest development is taking on independence from one's parents. This dramatic change is noted as anticipatory socialization, during which adolescents learn about and prepare for roles that they may take on later in life, in the stage of adulthood. Prevalent examples of anticipatory and adolescent socialization depend on the role of two agents of socialization, schools and peers. One of the most important things - that families try to set their children up for during the childhood stage - is the social challenges of school. Beyond teaching general knowledge, schools teach and reinforce society's culture, values, norms and ideals. For example, although more freedom of choice has opened up in recent years, girls are generally swayed toward taking home economics while boys usually gravitate toward technology or shop. In many middle schools throughout the country, this reinforced some of the gender norms that were likely learned during childhood and also, seemed to anticipate that girls would be housewives while men while went out into the workforce. Even beyond typical subjects and societal norms, schools teach children about following rules, obeying authority and finally, they are instrumental in introducing us to our peers.

Our peers have a big role in the process of socialization, particularly during the stages of adolescence and early adulthood. It is natural for a person to search for acceptance; and so, when one finds a group of people with whom they can identify, they tend to conform to the norms associated with that group. Conforming is also known as giving in to peer pressure, which can lead a person to do a number of things to fit in including, dressing in a certain style, using drugs and participating in extracurricular activities. While fitting into a desired group may be very important to the adolescent individual, this may cause conflict with their family, who helped to shape their personality earlier in life. This, among other conflicts, exemplifies the difficulties of adolescence, particularly with finding oneself and separating from one's parents.

The third stage in the socialization process is adulthood. At this stage, people are likely to be fully prepared for what they will face in life, given their anticipatory experiences during the previous two stages. Although anticipatory socialization exists to prepare us for what will most likely be our future role in society, we must go one step further and enter into the "real world." We will most likely get a job forcing us to go past anticipatory socialization and through professional socialization. This process prepares us for a job by providing the knowledge and cultural background to be successful in our respective work environment.

The workplace is the final ordinal agent of socialization. Most people spend a large portion of everyday at work for many years. People are socialized by their workplace in different ways depending on their occupation. For example socialization as a construction worker is much different from the professional socialization one would encounter as a businessman. A simple difference can be seen in the dress code of each job. They are drastically different, with the construction worker wearing jeans and a t-shirt while the businessman is expected to wear a suit.

The forth and final stage of socialization is referred to as age sixty-five and beyond. In our society, many people enter the world of retirement around the age of sixty-five; entering into retirement can also be called a role exit or referred to as leaving an important social role. This stage of socialization is much less important to the individual, as it does not really set them up for the next stage of their life and in most cases, retirees take up hobbies just to occupy their time.

While socialization is a lifelong process with accompanying socialization agents, it must be noted that both the media and religion are agents that constantly affect us throughout all four stages. Through advertisements, magazines, movies, television shows, billboards and commercials, the media bombards us with information. Many of us believe that we do not really pay much attention to these displays, however, most of us are greatly influenced by them. For example, the media portrays the female ideal as thin, with long hair and form fitting clothing. It is possible that nearly ninety percent of young girls who are looking to fit in are also striving to fit into all of these portrayed categories. Ultimately, the media reinforces societal norms and values and even if we do not think we are affected by it, all of us are in one way or another.

Religion can be an important agent of socialization for most people, too. It often instills in people values and morals, such as not becoming pregnant before being married. Most religions frown upon dating or marrying outside your race or religion. With that said, for people who follow their religious beliefs strictly, religion can play a major role in the way a person lives their life.

It is quite clearly demonstrated that the agents of socialization - family, schools, peers, media, religion and the workplace - play a key role in developmental stages throughout the lives of all people. An interesting idea for further exploration might be to look even more closely at the essential agents, and break them down, in an attempt to determine the least amount of agents required for satisfactory socialization. Even within these highly Americanized examples, there is a huge opportunity for variation within the direction and the rates of growth. Children and adolescents who are home-schooled probably do not have the advantage of interacting with peers in the classroom, but to what extent, if any, does this cause them to falter in adulthood? Also, some parents allow their children exposure to only a few appropriate television shows, while there are other children who have free reign with the remote. It has been said that children who watch violent television are more apt to act out in violence than children who do not watch violent television; how much do parental roles in children's television choices lead to negative behaviors and do these behaviors translate into later life? While it was not clearly stated, many readers may have assumed that the "family" agent refers to a nuclear family.

If removing the family unit is highly detrimental to a child's development, what happens when the child is surrounded by their extended family and is shown particular attention and love? And finally, even more interesting, would be to consider the influences of the different agents over several different countries and cultures, in which each of the agents might have a profoundly changed role or effect on development.

One cannot forget the prominent relationship shared between the agents of socialization and the stages of socialization. While family is the most important agent of socialization, it comes as no surprise that the most important stage of development is its counterpart, the childhood stage. Unfortunately, Genie is not the only example of a person who was denied many of their rights, neglected or abused and was ultimately, found unable to unnoticeably participate in society. Many other children have been studied, including two similar and notable cases about Anna and Isabelle, and hundreds of developmental theories have been raised through the years. Ultimately, however, all developmental studies and theories emphasize the fundamental importance of childhood in order to mature and to achieve socialization.