Topic 2.2. Socialization of personality
1. Concept, structure and two sides of socialization
2. Stages and factors of socialization
3. Differences in socialization between adults and children
Socialization- this is the process of “an individual’s entry into the social environment”, “his assimilation of social influences”, “his introduction to a system of social connections”. The process of socialization is the totality of all social processes through which an individual acquires a certain system of norms and values that allow him to function as a member of society.
Two sides of socialization– firstly, socialization is a two-way process, which includes, on the one hand, the individual’s assimilation of social experience by entering the social environment, systems of social connections; secondly, it is the process of active reproduction by an individual of a system of social connections due to his active activity and active inclusion in the social environment. The first side of the socialization process - the assimilation of social experience - is a characteristic of how the environment affects a person; its second side characterizes the moment of human influence on the environment through activity.
Socialization in its content is the process of personality formation, which begins from the first minutes of a person’s life. In the structure of socialization, there are three areas in which the formation of personality takes place: activity , communication , self-awareness . A common characteristic of all these three spheres is the process of expansion and multiplication of the individual’s social connections with the outside world. Throughout the entire process of socialization, the individual deals with the expansion of the “catalog” of activities, i.e. mastering more and more new types of activities.
Communication is considered in the context of socialization also from the perspective of its expansion and deepening. The expansion of communication can be understood as the multiplication of a person’s contacts with other people, the specificity of these contacts at each age level. As for deepening communication, this is, first of all, a transition from monologue to dialogical communication, decentration, i.e. the ability to focus on a partner, more accurately perceive him.
The third sphere of socialization is development self-awareness personality. In the most general terms, we can say that the process of socialization means the formation in a person of the image of his Self (which develops throughout his life under the influence of numerous social phenomena). There are several different approaches to the structure of the self. The most common scheme includes three components in the “I”: cognitive (knowledge of oneself), emotional (evaluation of oneself), behavioral (attitude towards oneself). Self-awareness cannot be presented as a simple list of characteristics, but as a person’s understanding of himself as a certain integrity, in determining his own identity. Self-awareness is a controlled process, determined by the constant acquisition of social experience in conditions of expanding the range of activity and communication.
The structure of the socialization process and its age stages.
1. The concept of socialization in social psychology. Two sides of the socialization process: the formation of personality in the process of assimilation of social experience and the reproduction of the social system.
3. Stages (stages) of personality socialization. Various approaches to determining the main stages of socialization. E. Erickson's concept.
4. Factors and agents (institutions) of socialization.
5. Resocialization.
The concept of socialization.
Socialization- the process and result of human social development. Socialization can be considered from the point of view of the individual’s assimilation and reproduction of social experience in the process of life (G. M. Andreeva). The essence of the socialization process is that a person gradually assimilates social experience and uses it to adapt to society. The process of socialization is the totality of all social processes through which an individual acquires a certain system of norms and values that allow him to function as a member of society (Bronfenbrenner, 1976). Socialization refers to those phenomena through which a person learns to live and interact effectively with other people. It is directly related to social control, since it includes the assimilation of knowledge, norms, and values of a society that has all types of sanctions of a formal and informal nature. Purposeful, socially controlled processes of influence on the individual are implemented primarily in education and training. Spontaneous influence is carried out through the media, real life situations, etc.
The term “socialization” does not have an unambiguous definition among various representatives of psychological science. In Russian psychology, two more terms are used, synonyms for the word “socialization”: “personal development” and “upbringing”.
Socialization is a two-way process, which includes, on the one hand, the individual’s assimilation of social experience by entering the social environment, a system of social connections; on the other hand, the process of active reproduction by an individual of a system of social connections due to his active activity, active inclusion in the social environment. It is these two aspects of the socialization process that many authors of social psychology pay attention to, developing this problem as a full-fledged problem of socio-psychological knowledge. A person not only assimilates social experience, but also transforms it into his own values, attitudes, and orientations.
Socialization is a process of personality development that begins from the first minutes of a person’s life. Socialization is most intense in childhood and adolescence, but personality development continues in middle and old age. Dr. Orville G. Brim Jr. (1966) was one of the first to suggest that socialization occurs throughout life. He argued that the following differences exist between the socialization of children and adults.
The socialization of adults is expressed mainly in changes in their external behavior, while children's socialization corrects basic value orientations. Adults can evaluate norms; children are only able to assimilate them. Adult socialization often involves understanding that there are many “shades of gray” between black and white. Adult socialization is aimed at helping a person master certain skills; The socialization of children mainly shapes the motivation of their behavior. N and based on socialization, adults become soldiers or members of committees, while children are taught to follow the rules, be attentive and polite.
Socialization involves the expansion and multiplication of social connections between an individual and the world in three main areas – activity, communication and self-awareness. The common characteristic of these three spheres is that they help to expand and multiply the individual’s social connections with the outside world.
Activity. Throughout the entire process of socialization, the individual deals with the development of more and more new types of activities. .
In this case, three important processes occur:
1. This is an orientation in the system of connections present in each type of activity and between its various types. It is carried out through personal meanings, i.e. means identifying particularly significant aspects of activity for each individual, and not just understanding them, but also mastering them.
2. Centering on a certain type of activity, focusing attention on it and subordinating all other activities to it.
3. This is the individual’s mastering new roles in the course of implementing activities and understanding their significance.
Communication-Increasing a person’s contacts with other people, the specifics of these contacts at each age level. Expanding the circle of friends can be understood as: the child’s gradual exit from the family into the wider society, the beginning of communication with friends, acquaintances, and the ability for intimate communication (depth of communication), establishing a psychological connection with a partner. + the ability to retire, to be alone with oneself.
Self-awareness – The development of a person’s self-awareness means the formation in a person of an image of his Self. This is a controlled process that. It does not arise in a person immediately, but develops throughout his life under the influence of numerous social influences. It is important to decide what is included in the “I-image” and what its structure is. There are several different types. approaches. One of them belongs to Merlin. He identifies 4 components in the structure of self-awareness:
Awareness of one's own identity (difference between oneself and the rest of the world);
awareness of oneself as an active principle, a subject of activity;
Awareness of one’s own mental properties, psychological characteristics;
social and moral self-esteem, which. form. based on the accumulation of experience in communication and activity.
Self-awareness is one of the deepest, most intimate characteristics of the human personality; its development is unthinkable outside of activity: only in it is a certain “correction” of the idea of oneself constantly carried out in comparison with the idea that develops in the eyes of others.
Mechanisms of socialization:
Human socialization occurs through socialization mechanisms- ways of conscious or unconscious assimilation and reproduction of social experience. One of the first to highlight the mechanism of unity imitation, imitation, identification. The essence lies in a person’s desire to reproduce the perceived behavior of other people.
The mechanisms are:
Identification is the identification of an individual with individuals or a group, which allows them to assimilate various norms, attitudes, and forms of behavior characteristic of them.
Imitation is the conscious or unconscious perception by an individual of the behavior patterns and experiences of other people. A person often, without realizing it, acquires most of his social experience and behavior patterns by imitating those around him.
Suggestions are the process of an individual’s unconscious perception of the internal experience, thoughts, feelings and psychological states of those people with whom he interacts.
Gender-role identification (gender identification) or gender-role typing. Its essence lies in the subject’s assimilation of psychological traits and behavioral characteristics characteristic of people of a certain gender. In the process of primary socialization, the individual acquires normative ideas about psychological and behavioral properties characteristic of men and women.
Mechanism social assessment of desired behavior carried out in the process of social control ( S. Parsons). It works based on what has been learned 3. Freudian principle pleasure-suffering - feelings that a person experiences in connection with rewards (positive sanctions) and punishments (negative sanctions) coming from other people. People perceive each other differently and seek to influence others in different ways. These are the effects of the social evaluation mechanism: social facilitation (or facilitation) and social inhibition.
Social facilitation involves the stimulating influence of some people on the behavior of others.
Social inhibition (the psychological effect of the opposite effect) manifests itself in the negative, inhibitory influence of one person on another.
The most common mechanism of socialization is conformity. The concept of conformity is associated with the term “social conformism”, i.e. uncritical acceptance and adherence to prevailing standards, authorities and ideology in society. Through group pressure and the spread of stereotypes of mass consciousness, a type of depersonalized average person, devoid of identity and originality, is formed. The measure of conformity development may vary. Eat external conformity, which manifests itself only in external agreement, but at the same time the individual remains unconvinced. At internal the individual actually changes his point of view and transforms his internal attitudes depending on the opinions of others.
Negativism- this is conformism on the contrary, the desire to act at all costs contrary to the position of the majority and to assert one’s point of view at any cost.
Other phenomena considered as mechanisms of socialization have also been identified: suggestion, group expectations, role learning, etc.
The mechanism of projection is the attribution of one’s own traits to other people,
Mechanism Initiation - This problem has been studied by social anthropology and denotes social recognition of something that is already dying out or remaining in the past and in its place comes a new status of the individual, as a step of entry into society. (E.g. Graduation party, farewell to the army, wedding).
The social development of a person occurs throughout life and in different social groups. Family, kindergarten, school class, student group, work collective, company of peers - all this social groups that make up the individual’s immediate environment and act as carriers of various norms and values. Such groups that define the system of external regulation of an individual’s behavior are called institutions of socialization. The most influential institutions of socialization are family, school, and production group.
Stages (stages) of personality socialization. Various approaches to determining the main stages of socialization. E. Erickson's concept.
There are two approaches to the question of the stages of socialization:
- Psychological (related to the sign of “age”). The stages of this approach are:
- Socialization in childhood; primary (adaptation stage) - from birth to 10-11 years. At this stage, the child does not critically assimilate social media. experience, adapts to life, imitates adults.
- Socialization in adolescence; 12-16/17 years old
· Socialization in youth - Individualization - from 17 to 22 years. At this age, the desire to distinguish oneself from others dominates. A stable personality trait and a critical attitude towards social norms of behavior are developed.
- Socialization in youth (up to 35); integration is characterized by the desire to find one’s place in society.
- Socialization in middle age (35-55);
- Socialization in adulthood (over 55).
The purpose of this distinction is to show that at each age stage, a person learns certain, specific norms of behavior, roles and values. Each period has its own relative autonomy.
2. Sociological approach. This approach has been widely developed in domestic social psychology. He considers the concept of “socialization” as the assimilation of social experience, primarily in the course of work. Therefore, the basis for classification is the attitude to work activity. There are three main stages: pre-labor, labor and post-labor.
The pre-labor stage of socialization covers the entire period of a person’s life before starting work. This stage is divided into two independent periods:
a) early socialization, covering the time from the birth of a child to his entry into school - the period of early childhood (0-7 years);
b) the stage of learning, which includes the entire period of adolescence in the broad sense of the term (7-17 years). This stage includes the entire time of schooling. Studying at a university/technical school is found. on the border between the pre-labor and labor stages.
The labor stage of socialization covers the period of a person’s maturity, the entire period of a person’s working activity.
Post-labor stage - old age
The concept of socialization. The term “socialization,” despite its widespread use, does not have an unambiguous interpretation among various representatives of psychological science (Kohn, 1988, p. 133). In the system of domestic psychology, two more terms are used, which are sometimes proposed to be considered as synonyms for the word “socialization”: “personal development” and “upbringing”. Moreover, sometimes a rather critical attitude is expressed towards the concept of socialization in general, which is associated not only with word usage, but also with the essence of the matter. Without giving yet an exact definition of the concept of socialization, we will say that the intuitively guessed content of this concept is that it is the process of “an individual’s entry into the social environment”, “his assimilation of social influences”, “his introduction to the system of social connections”, etc. . The process of socialization is the totality of all social processes through which an individual acquires a certain system of norms and values that allow him to function as a member of society (Bronfenbrenner, 1976).
One of the objections that is usually built on the basis of this understanding is as follows. If there is no personality outside the system of social connections, if it is initially socially determined, then what is the point of talking about its entry into the system of social connections. Will this not repeat one of the old mistakes in psychology, when it was argued that a newborn human being is not yet a human being and he has to go through the path of “hominization”? Does the concept of socialization coincide with the process of hominization? As you know, L.S. Vygotsky strongly protested against the depiction of the child as a creature who still needs to be hominized. He insisted that a child, having been born, is already defined as an element of a certain culture, certain social connections. If socialization is identified with hominization, then there is every reason to have an extremely negative attitude towards “socialization”.
The possibility of accurately distinguishing the concept of socialization from other concepts widely used in Russian psychological and pedagogical literature (“personal development” and “upbringing”) also raises doubts. This objection is very significant and deserves to be discussed separately. The idea of personality development is one of the key ideas of Russian psychology. Moreover, the recognition of the individual as a subject of social activity gives special significance to the idea of personality development: the child, as he develops, becomes such a subject, i.e. the process of his development is unthinkable without his social development, and therefore, without his assimilation of a system of social connections, relationships, without inclusion in them. In terms of scope, the concepts of “personal development” and “socialization” in this case seem to coincide, and the emphasis on the activity of the individual seems to be much more clearly represented precisely in the idea of development, rather than socialization: here it is somehow muted, since the focus is on - social environment and the direction of its impact on the individual is emphasized.
At the same time, if we understand the process of personality development in its active interaction with the social environment, then each of the elements of this interaction has the right to be considered without fear that preferential attention to one of the sides of the interaction must necessarily result in its absolutization, underestimation of the other component. A truly scientific consideration of the issue of socialization in no way removes the problem of personality development, but, on the contrary, presupposes that the personality is understood as an emerging active social subject.
The question of the relationship between the concepts of “socialization” and “upbringing” is somewhat more complicated. As you know, the term “education” is used in our literature in two meanings - in the narrow and broad sense of the word. In the narrow sense of the word, the term “upbringing” means the process of purposeful influence on a person on the part of the subject of the educational process with the aim of transferring and instilling in him a certain system of ideas, concepts, norms, etc. The emphasis here is on the purposefulness and systematic nature of the influence process. The subject of influence is understood as a special institution, a person appointed to achieve the stated goal. In the broadest sense of the word, “education” is understood as the influence on a person of the entire system of social relations with the aim of assimilating social experience, etc. In this case, the subject of the educational process can be the whole society, and, as is often said in everyday speech, “the whole life.” If we use the term “upbringing” in the narrow sense of the word, then socialization differs in its meaning from the process described by the term “upbringing.” If this concept is used in the broad sense of the word, then the difference is eliminated.
Having made this clarification, we can define the essence of socialization as follows: socialization is a two-way process that includes, on the one hand, the individual’s assimilation of social experience by entering a social environment, a system of social connections; on the other hand (often insufficiently emphasized in research), the process of active reproduction by an individual of a system of social connections due to his active activity, active inclusion in the social environment. It is these two aspects of the socialization process that many authors pay attention to, taking the idea of socialization into the mainstream of social psychology, developing this problem as a full-fledged problem of socio-psychological knowledge. The question is posed in such a way that a person not only assimilates social experience, but also transforms it into his own values, attitudes, and orientations. This moment of transformation of social experience does not simply capture its passive acceptance, but presupposes the individual’s activity in applying such transformed experience, i.e. in a certain return, when its result is not just an addition to already existing social experience, but its reproduction, i.e. promoting it to a new level. Understanding the interaction of a person with society includes understanding as a subject of development not only a person, but also society, and explains the existing continuity in such development. With this interpretation of the concept of socialization, an understanding of a person is achieved at the same time as an object and a subject of social relations.
The first side of the socialization process - the assimilation of social experience - is a characteristic of how the environment affects a person; its second side characterizes the moment of human influence on the environment through activity. The activity of the individual’s position is assumed here because any impact on the system of social connections and relationships requires making a certain decision and, therefore, includes processes of transformation, mobilization of the subject, and construction of a certain strategy of activity. Thus, the process of socialization in this understanding in no way opposes the process of personality development, but simply allows us to identify different points of view on the problem. If for developmental psychology the most interesting view of this problem is “from the perspective of the individual,” then for social psychology it is “from the perspective of the interaction of the individual and the environment.”
Contents of the socialization process. If we proceed from the thesis accepted in general psychology that one is not born a person, one becomes a person, then it is clear that socialization in its content is the process of personality formation, which begins from the first minutes of a person’s life. There are three areas in which this formation of personality is primarily carried out: activity, communication, self-awareness. Each of these areas must be considered separately. A common characteristic of all these three spheres is the process of expansion and multiplication of the individual’s social connections with the outside world.
As for activity, throughout the entire process of socialization the individual deals with the expansion of the “catalog” of activities (Leontiev, 1975, p. 188), i.e. mastering more and more new types of activities. At the same time, three more extremely important processes occur. Firstly, it is an orientation in the system of connections present in each type of activity and between its various types. It is carried out through personal meanings, i.e. means identifying particularly significant aspects of activity for each individual, and not just understanding them, but also mastering them. One could call the product of such orientation a personal choice of activity. As a consequence of this, the second process arises - centering around the main, chosen one, focusing attention on it and subordinating all other activities to it. Finally, the third process is the individual’s mastery of new roles during the implementation of activities and comprehension of their significance. If we briefly express the essence of these transformations in the system of activity of a developing individual, then we can say that we are faced with a process of expanding the capabilities of the individual precisely as a subject of activity. This general theoretical framework allows us to approach the experimental study of the problem. Experimental studies, as a rule, are of a borderline nature between social and developmental psychology; in them, for different age groups, the question of what is the mechanism of orientation of the individual in the system of activities is studied, what motivates the choice that serves as the basis for centering the activity. Particularly important in such studies is the consideration of goal formation processes. Unfortunately, this problem, traditionally assigned to general psychology, has not yet found any special development in its socio-psychological aspects, although the orientation of the individual not only in the system of connections given to him directly, but also in the system of personal meanings, apparently, cannot be described outside the context of those social “units” in which human activity is organized, i.e. social groups. This is discussed here so far only in the order of posing the problem, including it in the general logic of the socio-psychological approach to socialization.
The second area - communication - is considered in the context of socialization also from the perspective of its expansion and deepening, which goes without saying, since communication is inextricably linked with activity. The expansion of communication can be understood as the multiplication of a person’s contacts with other people, the specificity of these contacts at each age level. As for deepening communication, this is, first of all, a transition from monologue to dialogical communication, decentration, i.e. the ability to focus on a partner, more accurately perceive him. The task of experimental research is to show, firstly, how and under what circumstances the multiplication of communication connections is carried out and, secondly, what a person receives from this process. Research of this type bears the features of interdisciplinary research, since it is equally significant for both developmental and social psychology. From this point of view, some stages of ontogenesis have been studied in particular detail: preschool and adolescence. As for some other stages of human life, the small amount of research in this area is explained by the controversial nature of another problem of socialization - the problem of its stages.
Finally, the third area of socialization is the development of individual self-awareness. In the most general terms, we can say that the process of socialization means the formation in a person of the image of his Self (Kon, 1978, p. 9). Numerous experimental studies, including longitudinal ones, have established that the self-image does not arise in a person immediately, but develops throughout his life under the influence of numerous social influences. From the point of view of social psychology, it is especially interesting to find out how a person’s inclusion in various social groups determines this process. Does the fact that the number of groups can vary greatly, and therefore the number of communication connections, also vary? Or does such a variable as the number of groups not matter at all, and the main factor is the quality of the groups (in terms of the content of their activities, the level of their development)? How does the level of development of his self-awareness affect a person’s behavior and his activities (including in groups) - these are the questions that should be answered when studying the process of socialization.
Unfortunately, it is in this area of analysis that there are especially many contradictory positions. This is due to the presence of those numerous and varied understandings of personality that have already been discussed. First of all, the very definition of “I-image” depends on the concept of personality that is accepted by the author. The whole question, in the words of A.N. Leontyev, rests on what will be called the components of the “I-image”.
There are several different approaches to the structure of the self. The most common scheme includes three components in the “I”: cognitive (knowledge of oneself), emotional (evaluation of oneself), behavioral (attitude towards oneself). There are other approaches to what the structure of a person’s self-awareness is (Stolin, 1984). The most important fact that is emphasized when studying self-awareness is that it cannot be presented as a simple list of characteristics, but as a person’s understanding of himself as a certain integrity, in determining his own identity. Only within this integrity can we talk about the presence of some of its structural elements. Another property of self-awareness is that its development during socialization is a controlled process, determined by the constant acquisition of social experience in conditions of expanding the range of activity and communication. Although self-awareness is one of the deepest, most intimate characteristics of the human personality, its development is unthinkable outside of activity: only in it is a certain “correction” of the idea of oneself constantly carried out in comparison with the idea that develops in the eyes of others. “Self-consciousness, not based on real activity, excluding it as “external,” inevitably reaches a dead end, becomes an “empty” concept” (Kon, 1967, p. 78).
That is why the process of socialization can only be understood as a unity of changes in all three designated areas. They, taken as a whole, create for the individual an “expanding reality” in which he acts, learns and communicates, thereby mastering not only the immediate microenvironment, but also the entire system of social relations. Along with this mastery, the individual brings into it his experience, his creative approach; therefore, there is no other form of mastering reality other than its active transformation. This general fundamental position means the need to identify the specific “alloy” that arises at each stage of socialization between two sides of this process: the assimilation of social experience and its reproduction. This problem can be solved only by defining the stages of the socialization process, as well as the institutions within which this process is carried out.
Stages of the socialization process. The question of the stages of the socialization process has its own history in the system of psychological knowledge (Kon, 1979). Since the issues of socialization were considered in most detail in the Freudian system, the tradition in determining the stages of socialization developed precisely in this scheme. As is known, from the point of view of psychoanalysis, the period of early childhood is of particular importance for the development of personality. This also led to a fairly strict establishment of the stages of socialization: in the system of psychoanalysis, socialization is considered as a process that coincides chronologically with the period of early childhood. On the other hand, for quite some time now, in unorthodox psychoanalytic works, the time frame of the socialization process has been somewhat expanded: experimental works carried out in the same theoretical vein have appeared, exploring socialization during adolescence and even youth. Other, non-Freudian-oriented schools of social psychology today place special emphasis on the study of socialization specifically during adolescence. Thus, the “extension” of socialization to the periods of childhood, adolescence and youth can be considered generally accepted.
However, there is lively debate regarding other stages. It concerns the fundamental question of whether the same assimilation of social experience that constitutes a significant part of the content of socialization occurs in adulthood. In recent years, this question has increasingly been answered in the affirmative. Therefore, it is natural that not only the periods of childhood and adolescence are called stages of socialization. Thus, in domestic social psychology, emphasis is placed on the fact that socialization involves the assimilation of social experience, primarily in the course of work. Therefore, the basis for classifying stages is the attitude towards work activity. If we accept this principle, then we can distinguish three main stages: pre-labor, labor and post-labor (Andreenkova, 1970; Gilinsky, 1971).
The pre-labor stage of socialization covers the entire period of a person’s life before starting work. In turn, this stage is divided into two more or less independent periods: a) early socialization, covering the time from the birth of the child to his entry into school, i.e. that period which in developmental psychology is called the period of early childhood; b) the stage of learning, which includes the entire period of adolescence in the broad sense of the term. This stage, of course, includes the entire time of schooling. There are different points of view regarding the period of study at a university or technical school. If the criterion for identifying stages is the attitude to work activity, then a university, technical school and other forms of education cannot be classified as the next stage. On the other hand, the specificity of training in educational institutions of this kind is quite significant compared to secondary school, in particular in the light of the increasingly consistent implementation of the principle of combining learning with work, and therefore these periods in a person’s life are difficult to consider according to the same scheme as time at school. One way or another, in the literature the issue receives dual coverage, although with any solution the problem itself is very important both theoretically and practically: students are one of the important social groups of society, and the problems of socialization of this group are extremely relevant.
The labor stage of socialization covers the period of human maturity, although the demographic boundaries of “mature” age are conditional; fixing such a stage is not difficult - this is the entire period of a person’s working activity. Contrary to the idea that socialization ends with the completion of education, most researchers put forward the idea of continuing socialization during working life. Moreover, the emphasis on the fact that the individual not only assimilates social experience, but also reproduces it, gives special significance to this stage. Recognition of the labor stage of socialization logically follows from the recognition of the leading importance of labor activity for the development of personality. It is difficult to agree that labor, as a condition for the development of a person’s essential forces, stops the process of assimilating social experience; It is even more difficult to accept the thesis that the reproduction of social experience stops at the stage of labor activity. Of course, youth is the most important time in the development of personality, but work in adulthood cannot be discounted when identifying the factors of this process.
The practical side of the issue under discussion is difficult to overestimate: the inclusion of the labor stage in the orbit of socialization problems is of particular importance in modern conditions in connection with the idea of lifelong education, including adult education. With this solution to the issue, new opportunities arise for building interdisciplinary research, for example, in collaboration with pedagogy, with that section of it that deals with the problems of labor education. In recent years, research on acmeology and the science of adulthood has been updated.
The post-work stage of socialization is an even more complex issue. A certain justification, of course, can be the fact that this problem is even newer than the problem of socialization at the labor stage. Its formulation is caused by the objective requirements of society for social psychology, which are generated by the very course of social development. Problems of old age are becoming relevant for a number of sciences in modern societies. Increasing life expectancy - on the one hand, certain social policies of states - on the other (meaning the pension system) lead to the fact that old age begins to occupy a significant place in the population structure. First of all, its specific gravity increases. The labor potential of those individuals who make up such a social group as pensioners is largely preserved. It is no coincidence that disciplines such as gerontology and geriatrics are now experiencing a period of rapid development.
In social psychology, this problem is present as a problem of the post-work stage of socialization. The main positions in the discussion are polar opposites: one of them believes that the very concept of socialization is simply meaningless when applied to that period of a person’s life when all his social functions are curtailed. From this point of view, this period cannot be described at all in terms of “assimilation of social experience” or even in terms of its reproduction. An extreme expression of this point of view is the idea of "desocialization" that follows the completion of the socialization process. Another position, on the contrary, actively insists on a completely new approach to understanding the psychological essence of old age. This position is supported by quite numerous experimental studies of the continuing social activity of older people; in particular, old age is considered as an age that makes a significant contribution to the reproduction of social experience. The question is only raised about the change in the type of activity of the individual during this period.
An indirect recognition that socialization continues into old age is E. Erikson’s concept of the existence of eight human ages (infancy, early childhood, play age, school age, adolescence and youth, youth, middle age, maturity). Only the last of the ages - “maturity” (the period after 65 years) can, according to Erikson, be designated by the motto “wisdom”, which corresponds to the final formation of identity (Berne, 1976. P. 53; 71-77). If we accept this position, then we must admit that the post-labor stage of socialization does exist.
Although the issue has not received a clear solution, in practice various forms of using the activity of older people are being sought. This also suggests that the issue at least has the right to be discussed. The idea of lifelong education, which includes adult education, put forward in recent years in pedagogy, indirectly fits into the discussion about whether or not it is advisable to include the post-labor stage in the periodization of the socialization process.
Identifying the stages of socialization from the point of view of attitudes towards work is of great importance. For the development of personality, it is not indifferent through which social groups it enters the social environment, both from the point of view of the content of their activities and from the point of view of the level of their development. This raises a number of questions. Is it significant for the type of socialization, for its result, that the individual was predominantly included in groups of a high level of development or not? Does the type of conflict that he or she encounters matter to a person? What impact can have on a person functioning in immature groups with a high level of purely interpersonal conflicts? What forms of her social activity are stimulated by long-term stay in groups with strongly expressed activity-mediated interpersonal relationships, with rich experience in building a cooperative type of interaction in conditions of joint activity and, conversely, with low indicators on these parameters? So far, this set of problems does not have a sufficient number of experimental studies, as well as theoretical development, which does not detract from its importance.
Institutions of socialization. At all stages of socialization, the influence of society on the individual is carried out either directly or through a group, but the set of means of influence itself can be reduced, following J. Piaget, to the following: these are norms, values and signs. In other words, we can say that society and the group convey to the developing personality a certain system of norms and values through signs. Those specific groups in which the individual is attached to systems of norms and values and which act as original transmitters of social experience are called institutions of socialization. Identification of their role in the process of socialization is based on a general sociological analysis of the role of social institutions in society.
At the pre-labor stage of socialization, such institutions are: in the period of early childhood - the family and preschool children's institutions, which play an increasingly important role in modern societies. The family has traditionally been viewed as the most important institution of socialization in a number of concepts. It is in the family that children acquire their first interaction skills, master their first social roles (including gender roles, the formation of masculinity and femininity traits), and comprehend their first norms and values. The type of parental behavior (authoritarian or liberal) influences the formation of the child’s “self-image” (Bernet, 1986). The role of the family as an institution of socialization naturally depends on the type of society, its traditions and cultural norms. Despite the fact that the modern family cannot claim the role that it played in traditional societies (an increase in the number of divorces, few children, the weakening of the traditional position of the father, women’s employment), its role in the process of socialization still remains very significant (Kon, 1989. P. 26).
As for preschool children's institutions, their analysis has not yet received citizenship rights in social psychology. The “justification” for this is the statement that social psychology deals with groups where a developed personality functions and therefore the entire area of groups associated specifically with the formation of personality simply falls out of the analysis. The legality of such a decision is a matter of debate, but it should be noted that proposals either to include a section of developmental social psychology in social psychology, or to create such an independent field of research, can be found more and more often. Ya.L. Kolominsky, for example, uses the concept of “developmental social psychology” and actively defends the right to the existence of such a field of psychological science (Kolominsky, 1972). One way or another, preschool institutions are still the object of research only in developmental psychology, while specific socio-psychological aspects do not receive full coverage. The practical need for a socio-psychological analysis of those systems of relationships that develop in preschool institutions is absolutely obvious. Unfortunately, there are no longitudinal studies that would show the dependence of personality formation on what type of social institutions was included in the socialization process in early childhood.
In the second period of the early stage of socialization, the main institution is the school. Along with developmental and educational psychology, social psychology naturally shows great interest in this object of study. The school provides the student with a systematic education, which itself is the most important element of socialization, but in addition, the school is obliged to prepare a person for life in society and in a broader sense. Compared to the family, the school is more dependent on society and the state, although this dependence is different in totalitarian and democratic societies. But one way or another, the school sets the primary ideas for a person as a citizen and, therefore, promotes (or hinders!) his entry into civil life. The school expands the child’s opportunities for communication: here, in addition to communication with adults, a stable specific environment of communication with peers arises, which in itself acts as the most important institution of socialization. The appeal of this environment is that it is independent of, and sometimes contrary to, adult control. The extent and degree of importance of peer groups in the socialization process varies in different types of societies (Bronfenbrenner, 1976).
For a social psychologist, the emphasis in research on the problems of older ages, on that period of a schoolchild’s life that is associated with adolescence, is especially important. From the point of view of socialization, this is an extremely important period in the formation of personality, the period of “role moratorium”, because it is associated with the constant implementation of choice (in the broadest sense of the word): profession, marriage partner, value system, etc. (Cohn 1967, p. 166). If in theoretical terms the activity of a person can be defined in a variety of ways, then in experimental research it is often studied through the analysis of decision-making methods. From this point of view, adolescence is a good natural laboratory for a social psychologist: this is the period of the most intensive making of vital decisions. At the same time, it is of fundamental importance to study the extent to which such an institution of socialization as a school provides, facilitates or teaches making such decisions.
Depending on whether the period of higher education is included in the second stage of socialization, the issue of such a social institution as a university must be resolved. So far there are no studies of higher educational institutions in this context, although the problem of students itself occupies an increasingly significant place in the system of various social sciences.
As for the institutions of socialization at the labor stage, the most important of them is the work collective. In social psychology, the vast majority of research has been carried out specifically on the material of work collectives, although it must be admitted that identifying their role specifically as institutions of socialization is still not enough. Of course, it is possible to interpret any study of the work collective in this regard: in a certain sense, indeed, any analysis, for example, of leadership style or group decision-making, characterizes some aspects of the work collective as an institution of socialization. However, not all aspects of the problem are covered: we can say, for example, about such a turn of this problem as the reasons for the separation of the individual from the work collective, his withdrawal into groups of an antisocial nature, when the institution of socialization is replaced by a peculiar institution of “desocialization” in the form of criminal groups, groups of drunks, etc. The idea of a reference group is filled with new content if it is considered in the context of institutions of socialization, their strengths and weaknesses, their ability to fulfill the role of transmitting socially positive experience.
Just as controversial as the very question of the existence of a post-labor stage of socialization is the question of its institutions. One can, of course, on the basis of everyday observations, name various public organizations, the members of which are mainly pensioners, as such institutions, but this is not a development of the problem. If the recognition of the concept of socialization is natural for older ages, then the question of the institutions of this stage needs to be explored.
Naturally, each of the institutions of socialization named here has a number of other functions; its activities cannot be reduced only to the function of transmitting social experience. Consideration of these institutions in the context of socialization means only a kind of “extraction” from the totality of the social tasks they perform.
When analyzing large groups, it became clear that the psychology of such groups captures the socially typical, which is represented to varying degrees in the psychology of the individuals who make up the group. The measure presented™ in individual psychology of the social-typical must be explained. The process of socialization allows one to approach the search for such an explanation. It is not indifferent to the individual in what large group the socialization process is carried out. Thus, when determining the stages of socialization, it is necessary to take into account the socio-economic differences between town and village, historical and cultural differences between countries, etc. The institution of socialization itself, exercising its influence on the individual, seems to collide with a system of influence that is set by a large social group, in particular, through traditions, customs, habits, and lifestyle. The specific result of socialization depends on what the resultant will be, which will be formed from systems of such influences (Mudrik, 1994). Thus, the problem of socialization in the further development of research should appear as a kind of connecting link in the study of the relative role of small and large groups in the development of personality.
Socialization concept implies the process of a person’s assimilation of rules of behavior, social norms , moral values, abilities, skills, knowledge and psychological attitudes that give him the opportunity to interact normally with other people. If in animals all relationships are determined by biological motives, then in humans, as a biosocial being, the process of developing social skills is important. People are constantly born and die, and the process of renewal of society is ongoing. New members of society initially do not know either the norms or rules of behavior in it. This is where it begins socialization process.
Factors of socialization.
Socialization factors- these are the mechanisms through which the process of socialization occurs. The main factors identified by social educator A.V. Mudrikom, three:
- Macro factors - global mechanisms influencing social development personalities(planet, space, state, country, society, government).
- Mesofactors are conditions that influence socialization, mainly on a territorial or ethnic basis (place and type of settlement, region, town, city, people, ethnicity).
- Microfactors are factors that have a direct impact on a person’s socialization (family, peers, school, place of study and work).
Each factor has an active element, thanks to which socialization occurs. For example, in a family there are parents, brothers, sisters, in school there are teachers and classmates. These elements are called agents of socialization.
Types and stages of socialization.
Types of socialization, as a rule, are classified by time period, which is why they are called stages of socialization.
- Primary socialization. Period from birth to formation of an adult. This stage is very important for child socialization. He usually receives his first knowledge about society from his parents.
- Secondary socialization(or resocialization). The process of replacing previously established methods of behavior with new ones characteristic of an adult. The secondary stage often means breaking old patterns and learning new ones. Remember how at university they told you: “Forget everything you learned in school”? The secondary stage lasts a person’s entire life.
Other types of socialization:
- Group socialization. Socialization within a specific social group. That is, in which environment the child spends more time (parents, teachers or friends), he learns the rules and norms of that environment first.
- Gender socialization. Socialization by gender. Boys learn how boys should behave, and girls learn how to be girls.
- Organizational socialization. The process of socialization during labor activity(how to behave with colleagues, bosses, subordinates, how you feel about work, is it okay to be late for work, etc.).
- Early socialization. A type of socialization that is a kind of rehearsal for future activities, which is too early to begin (girls playing mother-daughter).
The main institutions of socialization are.