— INTRODUCTION

SOCIALIZATION AND PERSONALITY

INTRODUCTION

Socialization is the process through which individuals become members of society. It includes the
processes of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors necessary to
function within society. Socialization begins at birth and continues throughout the life of a person.
Socialization plays an important role in the formation of a person’s personality; much of human
personality is the result of our genes. However, the socialization process can mold it in particular
directions by encouraging specific beliefs and attitudes as well as selectively providing experiences.
This very likely accounts for much of the difference between the common personality types in one
society in comparison to another.

— TYPES OF SOCIALIZATION

TYPES OF SOCIALIZATION

There are multiple types of socialization, but Ian Robertson has discussed only four in his book of
sociology, which include the following:

1. Primary Socialization
Primary socialization is the process by which an individual learns the basic values, norms,
and behaviors that are expected of them by their society. It usually takes place during
childhood and is mainly achieved through the family and education system. Primary
socialization occurs between the child and those people in their life with whom they have a
close, personal, and intimate face-to-face relationship. For most people, the first primary
relationships they form are with their parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family
members.

2. Anticipatory Socialization
Anticipatory socialization is the process, facilitated by social interactions, in which non-
group-members learn to take on the values and standards of groups that they aspire to join,
so as to ease their entry into the group and help them interact competently once they have
been accepted by it.

3. Developmental Socialization
Developmental socialization focuses on the achievement of primary socialization. It mostly
occurs during adulthood where an individual encounters new situations and roles such as
marriage, job, husband, employee, etc.

4. Re-Socialization
Re-socialization is a process in which a person is taught new norms, values, and practices
that foster their transition from one social role to another. Re-socialization can involve both
minor and major forms of change and can be both voluntary or involuntary. The process
ranges from simply adjusting to a new job or work environment, to moving to another
country.
— METHODS OF SOCIALIZATION

METHODS OF SOCIALIZATION

1. Cultural Conditioning
Cultural conditioning is a process through which we absorb and interpret the influences,
norms, and messaging from our environment and translate them into what we believe to be
acceptable behaviors. It is mostly done during childhood where learning by reason is rare but
learning by condition is frequent. During childhood, instinct is more important than reason,
which is why siblings can grow up in the same household and share many of the same
experiences, yet enter the world as adults with completely different perspectives.

2. Personal - Social Learning

In personal-social conditioning, an individual not only learns by reason but also by
experience while living in groups of people around him, which helps him to structure his
personality. It is mostly done during adulthood when an individual interacts with people
from different cultures.

— SOURCES OF SOCIALIZATION

SOURCES OF SOCIALIZATION

1. Family
Family is the first agent of socialization where parents, siblings, and grandparents teach a
child about the cultural values and basic things of life.

2. Peers or Age-mates
A peer group consists of people who are similar in age and social status and who share
interests. Peer group socialization begins in the earliest years, such as when kids on a
playground teach younger children the norms about taking turns, the rules of a game, or
how to shoot a basket. As children grow into teenagers, this process continues. Peer groups
are important to an individual in a new way, as they begin to develop an identity separate
from their parents and exert independence.

3. Social Institution
The family, market, mosque, church, schools, university are all social institutions from where
an individual learns about his cultural norms, values, beliefs, and sentiments through formal
or informal education.

4. Literature and Mass Media of Communication

Literature and Mass Media distributes impersonal information to a wide audience, via
television, novels, newspapers, radio, and the Internet. Media contributes to socialization by
inundating us with messages about norms and expectations.

5. The Community
The community is the largest agency of socialization as a large number of agencies are
available in a community which educates an individual informally. This helps an individual to
learn the basic norms and values of the society.
—FUNCTIONS OF SOCIALIZATION

• Contributes to develop personality

• Helps practice discipline

• Helps fulfill different roles

• Establishes knowledge and skills ability

• Contributes to stabilizing social order

• Creates good aspirations in societies

The main function of socialization is in personality development. It means that socialization stands
for the development of the human brain, body, attitude, behavior, and so forth. However, the
functions of socialization can be described as follows:

o -Through the process of socialization, the group transmits its values, customs, and
beliefs from one generation to another.

o It is a means of social control by which members are encouraged to conform to the

ways of the group by internalizing the group’s norms and values.

o It enables the individual to grow and develop into a socially functioning person.

o It prepares him to fit in the group and to perform social roles.

o It is through socialization that group norms, values, and practices are learned by
members that help to maintain the social system.

o It is the socialization process that transmits culture from generation to generation.

Socialization plays a unique role in the personality development of the individual. The child has no
self. The self emerges through the process of socialization. The self, which is the core of personality,
develops out of the child’s interaction with others. In the socialization process, the individual learns
the culture as well as skills, ranging from language to manual dexterity, which will enable him to
become a participating member of human society.

Socialization inculcates basic disciplines, ranging from toilet habits and sexual behavior. Society
imparts the basic goals, aspirations, and values to which the child is expected to direct his behavior
for the rest of his life.

Socialization helps individuals to acquire appropriate social roles that they are expected to play. Like
males, females, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, parents, children, student teachers, and so on,
accepted social roles must be learned if the individual is to play a functional and predictable part in
social interaction and in this way, socialization transforms a human being into a social being.
—SELF AS THE PRODUCT OF SOCIALIZATION IN GROUPS

SELF IS THE PRODUCT OF SOCIALIZATION IN GROUPS

Neighborhood members, family members, and close relatives can form groups through interaction.
This group plays an important role in the creation of the "self". Those within the group that reflect
"self" are members of his affinity group. The self is the core of the personality and develops during
group life in society. The self produces feelings of love and hate that are the basis of social bonding
and conflict.

—SOCIALIZATION AND PERSONALITY

Personality is the product of the process of socialization. Because habits are developed through
socialization and it is a central part of personality. Personality traits develop in the individual through
participation in social life. Different beliefs and practices are found in many different societies such
as:

• Wearing cultural dresses

• Learning specific language

• Offering to Allah

• In Hindus, never going to eat meat of cow

• In Hindu culture they pray to sun and non-living objects

• In Pakistan, common practices involve reciting the Quran and offering prayers.

Personality is an individual’s unique pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Personality is

influenced by two important factors. One is biological heritability, i.e., inherited traits, and the other
is environmental. Environment constitutes an individual’s geographical, cultural and social
environment. Socialization is an important aspect of personality development. Socialization is the
process of molding and shaping an individual’s personality.

—SOCIALIZATION AND CULTURE

Culture differs from society to society. Culture is the way of living. It is the social heritage from
ancestors. It is the organization of human past experiences.

Humans are born without any culture. When a child is born, the process of socialization takes place
so that the child has a culture based on what the parents and the environment will teach the child.
So what exactly is socialization? Socialization is the process of getting to know another’s culture and
learning to live with it. When we talk about culture, we refer to the totality of moral standards,
values, language, attitudes and other aspects that make up a society. We all have roles to fulfill in our
society, and socializing helps us acquire the knowledge and skills to fulfill those social roles.
—PERSONALITY

Personality distinguishes a person from others by describing unique thought patterns, feelings, and
behaviors. As a product of both biology and the environment, it remains fairly stable throughout life.

Personality development is about developing your abilities, cultivating your talents, improving new
skill sets, overcoming your weaknesses and turning them into strengths.

Importance Of Personality Development

1. Enables one to discover qualities

2. It empowers to make right decisions

3. Helps in communicating precisely, convincingly, and clearly

4. Helps to understand the leader qualities.

—FOUNDATIONS

1. Biological Structure of Body

What percentage of our personality is innate and biological, and what percentage is
influenced by the environment and culture in which we grew up? Psychologists who
advocate the biological approach believe that genetic predispositions as well as physiological
processes can be used to explain differences in our personalities.

2. Organs
If the organs of the body are normal, they will create a normal personality.

3. Nervous System and Glands

The nervous system receives a stimulus and responds to it. For example, impulses are also
received from internal organs such as the stomach and the individual responds to these
stimuli through his or her behavior. While glands influence human behavior, these glands
include pituitary, adrenal, and thymus.

—HOW HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT EFFECTS OUR PERSONALITY

People are different, either physically or psychologically. Even twins are no exception. They differ in
some respects. Especially when looking at people from a psychological point of view, these
differences are pretty obvious. In many cases, even children are different from their parents. They
will have similarities with certain grandparents instead of their own parents.

What makes these differences exist? The answers to these questions can be traced back to two
factors: environment and heredity. Here the word environment is limited to the environment in the
womb and at birth, as well as the personal surroundings. Similarly, like heredity, environment also
plays a very important role in determining an individual’s behavior and personality development.
—PERSONALITY AND CULTURE

People who live in groups learn to focus the needs of the group before their own needs. They link
their identities to their roles and functions within a larger group. These “groups” include families,
workgroups, or entire countries.

Human personality is framed in cultural environment.

1. Culture:
It teaches us how to behave in certain behaviors, which is basically what we actually received
from our ancestors as a social legacy.

2. Social groups:
An individual comes into contact with other individuals and creates a social group from
which he learns the norms of the group.

BASIC PERSONALITY TYPES

Role of culture is producing basic personality types towards maladjustments. Emotional attitudes
that make a man unhappy or happy, unusual or normal in his life. Personality is considered normal or
abnormal based on cultural norms. Personality itself is a variable, and culture can change as well. In
this way, individuals in the society add something immaterial or material to the culture with their
unique experiences.

—CONCLUSION

The purpose of this document is to examine how different components of personality are formed
through socialization. It is a fact that biological and cognitive factors can influence personality
formation, but socialization plays the most important role in the development of an individual’s
personality from childhood to adulthood. Individuals try to develop their personalities in accordance
with their cultural ideals and expectations.