Explain the Importance of Socialisation as a Process Within Society.
Explain the importance of socialisation as a process within society. In this essay, i will examine the importance of socialisation as a process with in society. Socialisation is the process a human being will go through to make them who they are. They will learn about different types of cultures, norms and fashions, all of these they will take on throughout their life. Nature vs nurture has a great role in this, and, personally, I believe that nurture makes the largest amount of impact. Socialisation can be explained through different types of theory. Macro groups believe that influences from the outside world have an effect on the person.
Functionalism is a macro approach; they believe that society is a human body, with different social groups as different parts of the human. They believe that the family, which is the main social group people will be introduced to, as the heart. Through family, we learn our language, main culture, and family traditions. Their main focus is on institutions in society, such as the media and education. They believe that agreed goals are the way forward. Looking at functions of institutions, they also believe that society determines people’s behaviour and way of life, thus making social change evolutionary.
The one problem with this theory, is that it leaves out the aspect of free will and conflict. Marxism, another macro approach, believe that, without conflict, no social change will be brought about. Marxists believe that, conflict is needed to progress socially. They believe that all societies are characterised by the nature of their production and economic relationships, that the substructure of a society affects the superstructure. They also believe that those who have the means of power though production, take advantage over those who don’t.
The Micro belief, is that you make your own reality, you choose the things that will affect you, you choose your own reality. Social actionists take the main bulk of this belief, being you choose what influences you. Interactionists believe that the social world is a construction, it is created by the people who live within it, that people define, interpret and negotiate social interaction. Postmodernists have their main concern on diversity, that there are no grand theories of explaining social behaviour. Everything is relative. There are different types of concepts of socialisation too.
These are such things as norms and values. Values are widely accepted beliefs that many people accept. These are things like dress code, behaviour democracy and religious morals too. These values impact on how certain groups are perceived. They deal with things like stereotypes. For instance, if you say you’re part of a gothic group, morals would be your dress code and the type of music you listen to. Norms are certain rules that identify what is expected of people in certain settings. Things like folkways, mores, laws, concepts, statuses and roles are considered as such.
Folkways are generally seen as helpful guidelines that help us through life. Mores are considered vital for society to work. Laws are rules with sanctions if broken. These keep people in line, and help us behave like decent human beings. Customs are another set of behaviour norms within a certain culture. Statuses are our social standings in society, and how you have an effect on society as a being. Finally, roles are what we fulfil to exceed expected patterns of behaviour in certain circumstances. There are multiple main idea’s for the effects of socialisations in modern day cultures.
The main idea I will be using is the idea of peer groups, and how these have an effect on the person. For this, I will be using the character of 16 year old Geoff. Peer groups effect many people in many different ways. Through the micro approach, I believe that, dependant on the peer groups, Geoff will have the greatest impact through this. The idea of trying to ‘fit in’ has a huge role in this, and Geoff is constantly trying to ‘fit in’. To achieve this, he will go through many different processes. For example, Geoff wants to become the stereotypical homosexual.
Because he is in a peer group, of which is mainly dominated my homosexual men, he will have to make a few changes to ‘fit in’. He will have to change the way he dresses, the music he listens to, the way he speaks and will also have to change his likes and dislikes. Also, he will have to adapt his mannerisms to also cater for this. All of a sudden, Geoff is a new person, the stereotypical homosexual. Now, over time he will slowly detach from this peer groups as he changes his friends during the change of school or year. He will start socialising with, for example, a gothic group.
He will have to yet again change everything about him to yet again ‘fit in’. The point I am trying to portray, is that, for the typical teenager, difference is bad. You have to change yourself to ‘fit in’. This also happens in the Mass Media. Due to many people wanting to become like their ideal role model, they will also have to change. This is, however, a macro approach. Influences from the media seem to just rub off on the person, and this then adapts them. Say if your favourite program is ‘Will and Grace’, you’re are bound to change your mannerisms, you’re sayings and even you’re phrasing of certain words.
This also happens when you change country. Say if you’re British, and you move to America for 3 years, you will come back with an accent, mannerisms of an American and also a different dress sense. In conclusion, socialisation is so vitally important, as it changes you as a person. Dependant on the person(s) and the social groups you are in, you will be effected by this. Without socialisation, we wouldn’t be individual. We would all be the same. And, let’s be honest, that would be a boring world. Thanks to socialisation, we have the choice, the power and the confidence to be who we are today.
