What is socialization?
John Oates introduces us to socialization and the different views of child rearing
Basically, socialization is a general term for the many different ways and processes by which children come to be able to function as members of their social community. It is in part a process of learning and in part a process of being taught, but modern views of socialization also stress the active role of children in making sense of their social world, and constructing their own ways of being part of their social group. There are also strong predispositions, visible even in very young infants, to engage and interact with other people in preference to all the other objects in the world. Infants seem to be born as social beings.
But although babies come into the world with this ‘preparedness’ to be social, the immensely rich variety of different cultures in the world means that there is a lot of learning that has to happen. A large part of what goes on between parents and their children, in all cultures that have ever been studied, is to do with ‘training’ children in the ways of the culture, not just in ways of relating to others - including learning the culture’s language - but also in the myriad technologies to do with the necessities of everyday life.
Socialization is also a long, drawn-out process and in some respects can continue throughout our whole lifetime: for example when adults find themselves interacting with people from unfamiliar cultures. Even when we join a new social group in our own culture there may be a need to adjust to new ways of behaving.
Content last updated: 03/12/2004
About the author
John Oates is Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in the Centre for Childhood, Development and Learning at the Open University. He chaired the production of the OU Child Development course and contributes to other psychology courses in the OU and elsewhere. His main research interest is in mother-infant relations and the development of attachment.
