The concept of socialization.
From the first days of his existence, a person is surrounded by other people.
From the very beginning of life he is involved in social interaction. In the process of relationships with people, a person acquires a certain social experience, which, being subjectively acquired, becomes an integral part of his personality. Personal socialization is a two-way process of an individual assimilating the social experience of the society to which he belongs, on the one hand, and the active reproduction and expansion of systems of social connections and relationships in which he develops, on the other.
A person not only perceives social experience and masters it, but also actively transforms it into his own values, attitudes, positions, orientations, into his own vision of social relations. At the same time, the individual is subjectively involved in various social connections, in the performance of various role functions, thereby transforming the social world around him and himself.
Social experience is made up of many components, among which two main ones stand out:
a) norms, rules, values, relationships, etc. social environment;
b) labor culture of production and other activities.
In this case, the formation and development of personality as a process of an individual mastering social experience and increasing it in its development can be represented by two conditional stages.
The first consists in the formation and consolidation of the basic social and psychological values of a person: labor, moral, aesthetic, political, legal, environmental, family and everyday life, etc. This is the stage of general socialization of the individual.
In addition, the process of a person mastering a particular profession or specialty is also carried out. This is the stage of professional socialization of the individual. Both stages are interconnected and complement each other.
Socialization is not the antithesis of individualization. The process of socialization does not lead to the leveling of a person’s personality or individuality. Rather, on the contrary, in the process of socialization a person acquires his individuality, but most often in a complex and contradictory way.
The assimilation of social experience is always subjective. The same social situations are perceived and experienced differently by different individuals. And therefore they leave a different mark on the psyche, soul, and personality of different people. Consequently, the social experience that different people gain from objectively identical social situations can be significantly different. Thus, the assimilation of social experience, which underlies the process of socialization, also becomes a source of individualization of the individual, who not only subjectively assimilates this experience, but also actively processes it.
The individual acts as an active subject of socialization. Moreover, perhaps even the process of social adaptation of the individual should be considered as actively developing, and not just as actively adaptive. The socialization process does not end when a person reaches adulthood. Personality socialization, figuratively speaking, about type refers to processes “with an indefinite end,” albeit with a specific goal. And this process continues continuously throughout human ontogenesis. It follows from this that socialization not only never ends, but is never complete.
Socialization of the individual is carried out in the process of adaptation to the environment and to social relations.
There are two types of adaptation: biophysiological and psychological. Biophysiological adaptation of the individual is the adaptation of the body to stable and changing environmental conditions (temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, lighting, and other external physical conditions and influences), as well as to changes in itself.
A characteristic feature of human biological adaptation is that he can use a variety of aids that are products of his activity (for example, warm clothes, shelter, etc.). A person also exhibits the ability for voluntary mental regulation of certain biological processes and states, which expands his adaptive capabilities.
Psychological adaptation is the process of bringing the inner world of an individual closer to the social and socio-psychological requirements of the environment, the conditions and content of people’s social life in the interests of fulfilling the corresponding social role functions. This is the harmonization of internal and external conditions of life and activity of the individual and the environment, the active development by man of the natural and social environment in all the diversity of their manifestations.
Since the two broadest spheres of human life are usually distinguished, there are social and environmental components in his psychological adaptation.
Social adaptation is the process of an individual entering into social-role connections and relationships, mastering social norms, rules, values, social experience, social relationships and actions.
Social adaptation of the individual is carried out in two areas:
- the socio-psychological sphere of the individual’s life - the system of socio-psychological connections and relationships of the individual that arise when he performs various socio-psychological roles, therefore, the socio-psychological adaptation of the individual is distinguished;
- the sphere of professional, educational, cognitive and other activity connections and relationships of the individual, so we also need to talk about the professional and activity adaptation of the individual.
In this regard, it is customary to distinguish between primary and secondary socialization. It is believed that primary socialization is associated with the formation of a generalized image of reality. The nature of secondary socialization is determined by the division of labor and the corresponding social distribution of knowledge. In other words, secondary socialization represents the acquisition of role-specific knowledge when roles are directly or indirectly related to the division of labor.
There is also a slightly different view, in which socialization is considered as a process occurring in two directions - the formation of a person as an individual and the formation of a person as a subject of activity. The final effect of this socialization as a person and as a subject of activity is the formation of individuality.
Socio-psychological adaptation of a person is the process of acquiring a certain status, mastering certain socio-psychological role functions. Status (in social psychology) is the position of an individual in the system of interpersonal relations, determining his rights, responsibilities and privileges.
In the process of socio-psychological adaptation, the individual strives to achieve harmony between the internal and external conditions of life and activity. As such adaptation occurs, the adaptability of the individual increases. With full adaptation, the adequacy of a person’s mental activity to the given environmental conditions and its activity in certain circumstances is achieved.
Personality adaptability can be:
- internal, manifested in the form of restructuring of its functional structures and personality systems with a certain transformation of the environment of its life and activity. In this case, both external forms of behavior and the activity of the individual change and come into conformity with the expectations of the environment, with demands coming from outside. A complete, generalized adaptation of the personality occurs;
- external (behavioural, adaptive), when the personality does not internally restructure itself and retains its independence. As a result, the so-called instrumental adaptation of the personality takes place;
- mixed, in which the personality is partially rebuilt and internally adjusted to the environment, its values, norms, while at the same time partially adapting instrumentally, behaviorally preserving both his “I” and his independence.
Socio-psychological adaptation is of two types:
1) progressive, which is characterized by the achievement of all functions and goals of complete adaptation and during the implementation of which unity is achieved, on the one hand, of the interests, goals of the individual, and groups of society as a whole, on the other;
2) regressive, which appears as a formal adaptation that does not meet the interests of society, the development of a given social group and the individual himself.
Some psychologists designate regressive adaptation as conformal, based on the individual’s formal acceptance of social norms and requirements. In such a situation, a person deprives himself of the opportunity to self-realize, show his creative abilities, and experience self-esteem.
Only progressive adaptation can contribute to the true socialization of the individual, while long-term adherence to a conformist strategy leads to the formation of the individual’s tendency to systematic errors of behavior (violations of norms, expectations, patterns of behavior) and to the creation of ever new problematic situations, to which he has no ability to adapt. adaptive abilities, nor ready-made mechanisms and their complexes.
Socialization and psychological adaptation are close, interdependent, interdependent processes, but not identical. Socialization of personality is the process of formation and development of personality through its mastery of social experience. Psychological adaptation is one of the leading and determining mechanisms of personality socialization.
However, not every adaptation process leads to the socialization of the individual, for example, his conformist behavior. At the same time, complete internal psychological adaptation of an individual may turn out to be identical to the process of its socialization.
Another mechanism for the socialization of the individual is education - a controlled and purposeful process of socialization, during which socially approved norms and rules of behavior, moral and ethical values, and relationships existing in society are fixed in the mind of the individual.
Stages of socialization formation
As we noted earlier, socialization is a complex process that has several stages. Having gone through all of them, an individual can consider himself a full-fledged and comprehensively developed person who has sufficient experience and knowledge in various areas of his life. It’s another matter when an individual does not have the opportunity to acquire socialization skills: he does not have enough contacts or is completely isolated from society, which does not allow him to develop. On the contrary, such isolation can lead to personality degradation and fading.
Factors of personality socialization.
In the most general form, the factors of personal socialization can be presented in the form of two large groups: the first includes social factors that reflect the socio-cultural aspect of socialization and touches on the problems of its group, historical, cultural and ethnic specificity, the second includes individual personal factors, largely to the extent determined by the uniqueness of the individual’s life path.
Social factors usually include macro-, meso- and microfactors, reflecting socio-political, economic, historical, national, etc. features of personality development, including quality of life, environmental conditions, the occurrence of extreme and other social circumstances.
Macro factors are social and natural determinants of socialization and personal development, conditioned by its living as part of large social communities.
— Country, state (in the common sense, synonyms) are concepts adopted to distinguish people living within certain territorial and administrative boundaries and united among themselves due to historical, socio-economic, political and psychological reasons. The specifics of the development of a country or state determine the most important features of the socialization of the population, especially young people.
— Culture is a system of spiritual forms of supporting the life activity and socialization of people. It covers all aspects of human life - biological (food, sleep, rest, sexual intercourse, natural functions, needs for something), production (creation of means of material life support - tools, food, clothing, housing), spiritual (language, speech activity, worldview, aesthetic activity, etc.), social (communication, social relations).
Mesofactors are determinants of the socialization of an individual, conditioned by his living in communities of average size.
— Ethnicity (nation) is a historically established stable collection of people in a certain territory, possessing a single language, common relatively stable characteristics of culture and psyche, as well as a common self-awareness (awareness of its unity and difference from all other similar entities), recorded in its self-name. Belonging to a particular nation and its traditions largely determines the specifics of a person’s socialization.
— Regional conditions are conditions characteristic of the socialization of people living in one or another part of the country, state, which has its own distinctive characteristics (a single socio-economic system, a common historical past, cultural and social identity).
- Type of settlement - village, town, city, region, for certain reasons, giving originality to the socialization of the people living in them.
— Mass media are technical means (print, radio, cinema, television), with the help of which information (knowledge, spiritual values, moral and legal norms, etc.) is disseminated to quantitatively large audiences.
Microfactors are determinants of individual socialization related to the upbringing and training of people in small groups (family, work collective, religious organization or educational institution).
Of particular importance in the socialization of the individual is the historical development of the state, community, and groups of people to which he belongs. Each period and stage of development of human society places certain demands on the individual. A person of that era could only fully gain and realize himself within the framework of a collective.
Similar features of socialization in the Middle Ages in Rus' were noted by other researchers. And only with the development of capitalism began the destruction of the integrated person into a social group, class, and the predominance of the individual-personal level of aspirations.
It was also noted that during stable periods of social development, people with a predominant orientation towards group values turned out to be more socially adapted to the surrounding reality, while at turning points of crisis in history different personality types became more active:
- on the one hand, those in whom both universal and individual-personal claims predominate at the same time;
— and on the other hand, people fleeing social storms with the help of habitual stereotypes of orientation towards group norms inherent in a stable stage of social development.
In conditions of a social crisis, the dominance of the last of these types of personalities leads to a search for “external” enemies, a preference for “one’s own” (national, professional, age, territorial, etc.) group.
Individual-personal factors of personality socialization are no less significant. From the point of view of psychology, socialization cannot be considered as a simple, mechanical reflection by a person of directly experienced or observed social experience. The assimilation of this experience is subjective. The same social situations are perceived differently and experienced differently by different individuals. Therefore, different individuals can derive different social experiences from objectively identical social situations.
Much depends on the conditions under which specific individuals develop and undergo socialization. In stable periods of social development, according to a study by an American scientist, children under seven years of age are mostly at a pre-conventional level of moral development. Their behavior is determined mainly by the desire to avoid punishment or receive encouragement, i.e., according to all data, they are dominated by an immature individual level of aspirations.
By the age of 13 and before finishing school, the majority of children have a predominant group level of identity, when the reality of an action is assessed depending on the point of view of the child’s reference group. Apparently, this level of identity remains dominant during stable periods of social development, since only 10% of children over 16 years of age achieve a post-conventional level of moral development, which corresponds to the simultaneous expression of individual-personal and universal characteristics of personality orientation (Sukhov A.N., 1995) .
The process of socialization proceeds differently at different stages of ontogenesis in conditions of social crisis. A social crisis is characterized, as a rule, by a disruption of the normal life and activities of society, a weakening of its previous system of values, a state of anomie, i.e. alienation of people from each other.
Three age groups find themselves in a fundamentally different situation:
1) children up to adolescence inclusive;
2) boys and young adults;
3) middle-aged and elderly people. In addition, individual, most developed people do not accept imposed views, but form their own system of values, different from the accepted one.
This does not mean that the vast majority of middle-aged and older people are absolutely immune to fundamental social changes.
However, their socialization takes place:
1) either through experiencing a deep personal crisis;
2) either quite easily, if during stable periods of social development such a person was among social outsiders (or did not fully realize his potential), and in crisis conditions his abilities were in demand.
Stages of socialization, its institutions and mechanisms.
Socialization is a continuous process that lasts throughout life. It breaks down into stages, each of which “specializes” in solving certain problems, without which the subsequent stage may not occur, may be distorted or inhibited. In domestic science, when determining the stages (phases) of socialization, they proceed from the fact that it occurs more productively in work activity. Depending on the attitude towards work activity, the following stages are distinguished:
pre-labor stage , which includes the entire period of a person’s life before starting work. This stage, in turn, is divided into two more or less independent periods: early socialization, covering the time from the birth of the child to his entry into school; youth socialization, including education at school, technical school, university, etc.;
The labor stage covers the period of human maturity. However, the demographic boundaries of this stage are difficult to determine, since it includes the entire period of a person’s working activity;
post-labor stage , which occurs in old age due to the cessation of labor activity.
Society and 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.
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, and comprehend their first norms and values. The type of parental behavior (authoritarian or liberal) influences the formation of the child’s “self-image”. The role of the family as an institution of socialization naturally depends on the type of society, its traditions and cultural norms.
In the second period of the early stage of socialization, the main institution is the school. It 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. 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.
As for the institutions of socialization at the labor stage, the most important of them is the work collective. The work collective is considered as a social (public) result of the spiritual unity of people based on their common labor outlook, attitude, worldview and worldview. The work collective acts as a universal basis in the process of self-determination of the individual, who, in the process of his own involvement in labor collectivist sociality, decides the main question for himself - about the meaning of his own life. A socially correct and cost-effective solution to this issue is possible only in conditions of labor collectivism.
At the post-labor stage of socialization, the main institutions are various public organizations, the members of which are mainly pensioners. This is the interaction of people connected by common interests, communication, cultural events. The purpose of the association is to help pensioners resolve their life problems, for example, paying for housing, receiving disability benefits, and providing home care for those who are unable to help themselves.
At each stage of personality development, the role of various social institutions is different. In this process, first of all, macro-level , i.e. higher level: state, political parties, public organizations, media, education system. micro-level , such as family, work collective, sports organizations, etc., also play a great role in socialization
At all stages and levels, the process of personality formation is affected by similar mechanisms (methods) of influence and influence on human psychology. The main ones are two ways of influence.
1. Identification mechanism , i.e. awareness, determination by a person of his connection, his belonging to a certain social group: gender, age, professional, ethnic, religious. This mechanism functions under the influence of a set of social influences, impulses coming from the social environment and ensuring identity, sameness of psyche and behavior of people belonging to the same social group.
3. The mechanism of self-knowledge is temperament, character, abilities, volitional qualities, emotions; motivation. These components, integrating into the mental structure of the individual, express individuality and determine the course of thoughts and behavior characteristic of a given person in various situations. Interrelated components of personality exist on the basis of the individual physical characteristics of the organism.
