Socialization is the process by which individuals learn the norms, values, and behaviors necessary to participate as members of society. It involves both formal and informal learning through various socialization factors and mechanisms. Micro-social factors like family, school, and friends directly influence socialization, while macro-social factors like culture and society shape socialization through micro-level influences. Key mechanisms of socialization include imitation, suggestion, sympathy, and competition, through which individuals internalize social norms and develop unique selves and identities that allow them to function within their social groups.

1. Socialization factors and
mechanisms
Lecture 4

2. Plan
• Macro, micro factors.
• Socialization factors and mechanisms.
• The impact of environment in socialization

3. Socialisation
• Broadly, socialisation is
learning to participate in
social roles. It refers to
the way the people learn
the habits, attitudes, self-
conception, group norms
and universes of
discourse that enable
them to interact with
other people in their
society, and enact
different social roles.
• Definitions:

4. Definition
• John Gillin and Giilin
(1950) wrote: “By the
term socialisation, we
mean the process by
which individual develops
into a functioning
member of the group
according to its
standards, conforming to
its modes, observing its
traditions and adjusting
himself to the social
situations.”

5. Ideas about socialisation
• According to Horton and Hunt (1968), “socialisation is the
process whereby one internalises the norms of his groups
so that a distinct ‘self emerges, unique to this individual.”
Alex Inkeles (1965) defined it as, “socialisation is the
process of learning one’s culture while growing out of
infant and childhood dependency, leads to internalisation
of society’s values and goals”.
• According to Anthony Giddens (1977), “socialisation is the
process whereby the helpless infant gradually becomes
self-aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of
the culture into which she or he is born”. In brief, socia-
lisation is a process by which norms and other behavioural
regulators are transformed into personality elements.

6. the process of socialisation
• 1. It is a process of learning (formal and
informal both);
• 2. It is a process of personality formation and
the development of self.
• 3. It is a process of internalisation of social
norms (expectations), values, moral codes and
ideals of society.

7. Micro‐social and macro‐social
• Micro‐social and macro‐social factors are
different.
• Micro‐social factors refer to the influence of
social institutions such as family, school,
university and proximal social surrounding (e.g.,
childhood friends).
• Macro‐social factors refer to those societal,
cultural and historical contexts in which
individuals live (i.e., the contemporary zeitgeist).
Macro‐social factors often operate through
micro‐social factors.

8. Mechanism of Socialisation:
There are numerous sub-processes of
the process of socialisation or social
learning.

9. The principal ones are the following:
1. Imitation:
• Imitation is copying by an individual of the
actions of another. This may be conscious or
unconscious, spontaneous or deliberate,
perceptual or ideational. It is the main factor
in the process of socialisation which works
from birth to death. As children grow, they
take recourse to imitation. Through imitation,
he learns to speak mama, papa, apa etc.

10. 2. Suggestion:
• Suggestion is a process outside the learner. It is a
process of communicating information which has no
logical or self-evident basis. A person may ‘take a
suggestion’ not only from the conscious and deliberate
persuasion of another but also without the other
person knowing it.
• It plays a key role in the socialisation of the individual.
By it persons are made, unmade and remade. Through
suggestion, an educational system moulds the minds of
children in the desired direction. Propaganda and
advertisements are based on these fundamental
psychological principles of suggestion.

11. 3. Sympathy:
• It simply means to feel with another
individual. It binds us more closely with our
fellow men. Through the sympathetic reaction
we enter into a fuller understanding of the
feelings and motives of others, for instance,
the sight of an ailing person or a disabled
person may cause a person to weep or to
perform some altruistic act of charity.

12. 4. Competition:
• Competition is a stimulative process in which
two or more individuals compete with one
another in achieving knowledge. It is
particularly important in social learning of
children.

13. Thank you for your attention!