Socialisation

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Every society is faced with the necessity of making a responsible member out of each child born into it. The child must learn the expectations of the society so that his behaviour can be relied upon. He must acquire the group norms. The society must socialise each member so that his behaviour will be meaningful in terms of the group norms. In the process of socialisation the individual learns the reciprocal responses of the society.

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Socialisation is a processes with the help of which a living organism is changed into a social being. It is a process through which the younger generation learns the adult role which it has to play subsequently. It is a continuous process in the life of an individual and it continues from generation to generation.

Meaning of Socialisation:

The newborn is merely an organism. Socialisation makes him responsive to the society. He is socially active. He becomes a ‘Purush’ and the culture that his group inculcates in him, humanises him, and makes him ‘Manusha’. The process indeed, is endless. The cultural pattern of his group, in the process gets incorporated in the personality of a child. It prepares him to fit in the group and to perform the social roles. It sets the infant on the line of social order and enables an adult to fit into the new group. It enables the man to adjust himself to the new social order.

Socialisation stands for the development of the human brain, body, attitude, behaviour and so forth. Socialisation is known as the process of inducting the individual into the social world. The term socialisation refers to the process of interaction through which the growing individual learns the habits, attitudes, values and beliefs of the social group into which he has been born.

From the point of view of society, socialisation is the way through which society transmits its culture from generation to generation and maintains itself. From the point of view of the individual, socialisation is the process by which the individual learns social behaviour, develops his ‘self.

The process operates at two levels, one within the infant which is called the internalisation of objects around and the other from the outside. Socialisation may be viewed as the “internalisation of social norms. Social rules become internal to the individual, in the sense that they are self-imposed rather than imposed by means of external regulation and are thus part of individual’s own personality.

The individual therefore feels an urge to conform. Secondly, it may be viewed as essential element of social interaction. In this case, individuals become socialised as they act in accordance with the expectations of others. The underlying process of socialisation is bound up with social interaction.

Socialisation is a comprehensive process. According to Horton and Hunt, Socialisation is the process whereby one internalises the norms of his groups, so that a distinct ‘self emerges, unique to this individual.

Through the process of socialisation, the individual becomes a social person and attains his personality. Green defined socialisation “as the process by which the child acquires a cultural content, along with selfhood and personality”.

According to Lundberg, socialisation consists of the “complex processes of interaction through which the individual learns the habits, skills, beliefs and standard of judgement that are necessary for his effective participation in social groups and communities”.

Peter Worsley explains socialisation “as the process of “transmission of culture, the process whereby men learn the rules and practices of social groups”.

H.M. Johnson defines socialisation as “learning that enables the learner to perform social roles”. He further says that it is a “process by which individuals acquire the already existing culture of groups they come into”.

The heart of socialisation”, to quote kingsley Davis.” is the emergence and gradual development of the self or ego. It is in terms of the self that personality takes shape and the mind comes to function”. It is the process by which the newborn individual, as he grows up, acquires the values of the group and is moulded into a social being.

Socialisation takes place at different stages such as primary, secondary and adult. The primary stage involves the socialisation of the young child in the family. The secondary stage involves the school and the third stage is adult socialisation.

Socialisation is, thus, a process of cultural learning whereby a new person acquires necessary skills and education to play a regular part in a social system. The process is essentially the same in all societies, though institutional arrangements vary. The process continues throughout life as each new situation arises. Socialisation is the process of fitting individuals into particular forms of group life, transforming human organism into social being sand transmitting established cultural traditions