agents of socialization

(noun)

Agents of socialization, or institutions that can impress social norms upon an individual, include the family, religion, peer groups, economic systems, legal systems, penal systems, language, and the media.

Related Terms

Examples of agents of socialization in the following topics:

  • Gender Messages in the Family

    • Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gender-specific social behavior.
    • Family is the most important agent of socialization because it serves as the center of a child's life.
    • Socialization theory tells us that primary socialization - the process that occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions expected of individuals within a particular culture - is the most important phase of social development, and lays the groundwork for all future socialization.
    • Socialization can be intentional or unintentional; the family may not be conscious of the messages it transmits, but these messages nonetheless contribute to the child's socialization.
    • Justify how the family acts as the most important agent of gender socialization for children and adolescents

  • Informal Means of Control

    • Informal social control refers to the reactions of individuals and groups that bring about conformity to norms and laws.
    • The social values that are present in individuals are products of informal social control.
    • Finally, re-socialization refers to the process of discarding former behavior patterns and reflexes, accepting new ones as part of a transition in one's life.
    • The family is often the most important agent of socialization because it is the center of the child's life.
    • Agents of socialization can differ in effects.

  • Social Control

    • Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially acceptable ways .
    • Some may consider this type of socialization a form of indoctrination.
    • By means of social control, students are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
    • Schools can further goals of social control by socializing students into behaving in socially acceptable ways.
    • Discuss the use of school system and media as a means of exercising social control within a given society

  • Family

    • A family serves to reproduce society biologically, through procreation, and socially, through the socialization of children.
    • The primary function of the family is to reproduce society, both biologically through procreation and socially through socialization.
    • From the perspective of children, the family is a family of orientation: the family functions to locate children socially, and plays a major role in their socialization.
    • From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a family of procreation: The family functions to produce and socialize children.
    • Families have strong ties and, therefore, are powerful agents of socialization.

  • Theoretical Understandings of Socialization

    • While the basic idea outlined above has been a component of most understandings of socialization, there have been quite a variety of definitions and theories of socialization.
    • As a result, everyone becomes both a socializing agent (socializer) and a novice (socializee) in all encounters with others.
    • Socialization could be attributed to this or that but in order to truly understand what is taking place it is necessary to go beyond just pointing to socializing agents and specify what it is about those agents that is doing the socializing.
    • To accomplish this, Long and Hadden developed a new understanding of socialization, "socialization is the process of creating and incorporating new members of a group from a pool of newcomers, carried out by members and their allies".
    • Under this understanding, the principal agents of socialization are certified and practicing members of the group to which novices are being socialized.

  • Child Socialization

    • Primary and secondary socialization are two forms of socialization that are particularly important for children.
    • Primary socialization in sociology is the acceptance and learning of a set of norms and values established through the process of socialization.
    • Secondary socialization refers to the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
    • Basically, it is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society.
    • Justify the importance of socialization for children, in terms of both primary and secondary socialization

  • Socialization Throughout the Life Span

    • Socialization is the lifelong process of preparing an individual to live within his or her own society.
    • Some social scientists say socialization represents the process of learning throughout life and is a central influence on the behavior, beliefs and actions of adults as well as of children.
    • With limited social experience, infants can only develop a sense of identity through imitation.
    • Secondary socialization is the process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society.
    • It is the behavioral patterns reinforced by socializing agents of society like schools and workplaces.

  • Social Institutions

    • An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given community.
    • While institutions are obviously comprised of individuals and create rules through these individuals' agentic actions, institutions act as forces of socialization, meaning that they teach individuals to conform to their norms.
    • Sociology traditionally analyzes social institutions in terms of interlocking social roles and expectations.
    • Social institutions are created by and defined by their own creation of social roles for their members.
    • The social function of the institution is the fulfillment of the assigned roles.

  • Introduction

    • The basic idea of a social network is very simple.
    • A social network is a set of actors (or points, or nodes, or agents) that may have relationships (or edges, or ties) with one another.
    • To build a useful understanding of a social network, a complete and rigorous description of a pattern of social relationships is a necessary starting point for analysis.
    • The amount of information that we need to describe even small social networks can be quite great.
    • All of the tasks of social network methods are made easier by using tools from mathematics.

  • Sociology Today

    • The traditional focuses of sociology have included social stratification, social class, culture, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance.
    • The range of social scientific methodology has also expanded.
    • Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques.
    • Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new analytically, mathematically, and computationally rigorous techniques such as agent-based modelling and social network analysis.
    • These include new institutionalism, social networks, social identity, social and cultural capital, toolkit and cognitive theories of culture, and resource mobilization.