Role and importance of each agent of socialization -
1. Family :
Family plays the most important role in the formation of an individual’s personality. The first set of values, norms, and beliefs that an individual acquires is from the family.
2. Peer groups :
Peer group socialization begins in the earliest years, and it continues when the children grow into teenagers. Peer groups are important because around this time is when children begin to develop an identity separate from their parents and start to exert independence. Peer groups also provide opportunities for socialization outside the realms of their families.
3. Institutional agents :
The social institutions of our culture also impact our socialization. Institutions such as schools, offices, workplaces, government, etc teach us how to behave in such formal environments.
4. School :
Children spend 7 hours in a school for about 180 days of the year, which makes it incredibly hard to deny the importance of school on their socialization. Other than various subjects such as English, math, science, etc, students also learn a lot of social skills from school, such as practicing teamwork, following a schedule, etc.
5. The workplace :
Adults spend a significant time at their workplace. Workplaces teach us both material culture (such as how to use a copying machine) and nonmaterial culture (such as how to speak to your senior executive). Different jobs require types of socialization. Because of the trend of switching jobs, people must become socialized to and socialized by a variety of work environments.
6. Religion :
Religion is an important agent of socialization for a lot of people. Institutions such as temples, churches, mosques, etc teach the participants how to interact with the religion’s material culture. For some people, important ceremonies such as functions, marriages, births are related to religious celebrations. Organized religion encourages a shared set of socialized values that are passed on through society.
7. The government :
Many of the rites of passage people go through today are based on age norms established by the government. For example, to be defined as an “adult” usually means being eighteen years old, the age at which a person becomes legally responsible for him/herself. Sixty-five years old is the start of “old age” since most people become eligible for senior benefits at that point. Each time we embark on one of these new categories—senior, adult, the taxpayer—we must be socialized into our new role. These government dictates mark the points at which we require socialization into a new category.
8. Mass media :
Mass media distributes information to the audience via television, newspapers, radio, etc. because of this, media greatly influences our social norms. People learn about objects of material culture, as well as nonmaterial culture.
