Describethe main agents of socialisation.
The mainagents of socialisation are as follows:
(i) Parents
The socialisation of a child starts with the help of parents and other members of the family. Parents introduce the child to the society and provide the building blocks of socialisation.
Parents approve and discourage certain types of behaviour among children.
Parenting styles are based upon strategies that can be authoritative, authoritarian and democratic or permissive. They exert varying degrees of acceptance and control upon their children.
The parenting style is also influenced by conditions of life like poverty, illness etc. Grandparents and network of social relationships also socialise children through parental influences.
This agency has a direct and significant effect upon the child’s behaviour and personality.
(ii) School
Schools provide children with an organised set up for interaction with teachers and peers.
Children in schools learn various cognitive skills, social skills, self-control, self-initiative, responsibility, and creativity and also internalise the norms set by the society.
Schooling therefore, can transform a child’s personality since children learn to become self-reliant.
(iii) Peer group
Development of self-identity is greatly facilitated by the peer group.
Children not only learn to assert their own point of view, but also accept and adapt to those of others.
They also acquire qualities like sharing, trust, mutual understanding, role acceptance and fulfilment.
The interaction is direct, therefore the socialisation is smooth.
(iv) Mass Media
Children learn about many things through television, newspaper, books and cinema. Adolescents and young adults often derive their models from them.
Children learn to form their own opinions and ideas with interaction to mass media.
However, this agency may also promote anti-social aspects that have to be avoided by the individuals.