Socialization and Personality Development
What this domain tests
The exam tests the meaning and stages of socialization, the agencies involved, and theories of self and personality development, especially Cooley, Mead, Freud and Bandura. Application to a child's behaviour is common.
The process
- Socialization is the lifelong process by which individuals learn norms, values, skills, language and identity and become functioning members of society.
- Primary socialization occurs in infancy and childhood, mainly in the family; it is emotional and foundational. Secondary socialization occurs through school, peers and workplace and is more formal and role-specific.
- Adult socialization and re-socialization occur in new roles, professions, prison or migration.
- Agencies include family, school, peer group, mass media, religion, workplace and neighbourhood.
Theories
- Cooley's looking-glass self: we imagine how others see us, imagine their judgement and develop self-feeling.
- Mead: the self develops through role-taking; the I is spontaneous and the me is socialised. Play, games and the generalised other are stages.
- Freud: id, ego and superego; childhood shapes personality.
- Piaget studied cognitive stages; Kohlberg studied moral reasoning; Bandura showed learning by observation and imitation.
- Nature and nurture interact. Cases of isolated or feral children show that without social interaction, normal language and personality do not develop.
Personality
- Personality is a relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving, shaped by heredity, social environment and individual experience.
- Socialization transmits culture but also allows creativity and change.
Worked example
A child says thank you after receiving a gift. Initially parents prompt and praise; later the child does it without prompting. Cooley explains this through imagined parental approval that is internalised. Mead explains it through taking the role of the generalised other. Bandura explains it through imitation of models. Reasoning: name the mechanism and the agency.
Traps
- Socialization is not only childhood; it continues through life.
- Personality is not fixed at birth; heredity is not destiny.
- Socialization is not the same as socialising for leisure.
- Freud's id is not the socialised part; the superego internalises norms.
- Do not claim the family alone does everything.