agents of socialisation

· The agencies of socialisation are the social institutions that help transmit norms and values to us as individuals.

· There are six agencies of socialisation one primary agent –the family and five secondary agencies.

· The family is known as the primary agency of socialisation because it is the first and most important agent of socialisation. Our parents teach us respect for our elders by using sanctions if their children do not obey them

· As children grow up, secondary agencies of socialisation come into play such as peer group, education, mass media, religion, workplace. For example, schools teach us through their rules, routines and regulations e.g. lessons start at 9am.

We are socialised in four main ways: Think R.I.S.E

1. Role Models – parents, peers, teachers, celebrities can act as aspirational or ideal people to their children which they look up to and wish to imitate.

2. Imitation – children learn social skills by copying their parents, peers, teachers and aiming to be like them which involve the process of identification.

3. Sanctions – rewards and punishments are used - informal means of social control.

4. Expectations – parents, teachers, peers may have expectations of their child’s or pupil’s or friend’s behaviour which will linked to their culture or subculture – which they will encourage – using sanctions to ensure they are followed.

We are socialised into the norms and values of society which influence our behaviour, make up the roles we play and ensure social control.

Primary Agency of Socialisation

i) The Family

· It is estimated that we learn half of everything we know in the first five years of our life, therefore family is highly significant in the socialisation process.

· Patterns of child rearing and discipline, values and expectations, norms and roles will clearly vary across society.

· However, children are not just like sponges, soaking up parental attitudes, values and guidelines to behaviour without challenge or resistance because they experience a variety of secondary socialising agencies too.

Gender Role Socialisation

· Children acquire their sense of identity from their family, in particular, the way they learn their gender roles.

· There is clear evidence that children are aware of gender-roles by the age of two. A child’s early experiences are almost all contained within the family, and it is here that the direction of personality development is set.

Secondary Agencies of Socialisation

Secondary agencies of socialisation include education, our peer groups, religion, workplace and the mass media.

Education

· We learn to work in groups, tolerate and respect other people's opinions if different to our own, the value of working hard and 'getting on', and where society's norms and values are reinforced creating what Functionalists refer to as a 'consensus'.

· Norms and values are passed on in two ways: through a formal and informal curriculum. For example, through the formal curriculum, direct lessons pass on heritage and meaning – such as Citizenship teaching pupils about Britishness.

· The formal or 'hidden curriculum' passes on things that are not part of the academic curriculum. Whilst some see this as positive: learning to 'fit in' and accept authority figures, conflict sociologists see it as learning your place of subordination and accepting failure.

Peer Group

· Typically made up of people of a similar status with whom you mix and identify with such as friends or workmates.

· Such a group tends to shape norms and values (especially in adolescents) as people feel they are expected to conform to the expectations of the group.

· Thus, youth rebellion is often seen as reflecting peer pressure to adopt oppositional values (could form a subculture).

Mass Media

· The mass media is viewed by many as a powerful institution that manipulates its audience and is the most significant socialisation agency

· Many people use the mass media to make sense of the world around them.

· The media offers a window to the world and provides much of the information required to make sense of events that have a bearing on everyday lives.

Religion

· Religion socialises society’s members into certain values with a sacred quality.

· These values become moral codes into which everyone is socialised at a young age e.g. the Ten Commandments.

· Such codes regulate our social behaviour and influence both formal & informal social control.

Workplace

· Our experience of work teaches us not only skills and work discipline, but also the informal rules that underpin work, i.e. the tricks of the trade.

· In more formal work-based organizations we may be influenced to behave in particular ways, e.g. the interests of the group are the priority.

· Those in professional occupations are given a clear understanding of how they should behave by rules set out by the workplace, e.g. teachers and doctors.

Social Control

Social control is a broad term used by sociologists to refer to the social processes by which the behaviour of individuals or groups is regulated. Social control is a mechanism for ensuring conformity to norms in society and for dealing with deviance usually through some form of sanction when people break those norms.

Social control is maintained in two important ways:

1. Formal social control through force such as rule enforcement. For example, arrests, punishments and physical constraint such as imprisoning deviants, criminals and dissidents.

2. Informal social control involves controlling people through ideas. The main mechanism of enforcing social control informally is through the process of socialisation whereby individuals internalise norms and values and experience sanctions if they break them. For example, the family, education, peers, media, workplace and religion.