Question

Please identify 3 main agents of your socialization as a human being. (Found in chapter and powerpoints)   Explain in what ways they have influenced your social development. Give 3 specific examples (one example for each agent you list) Also, answer this question: Who's social development do you think YOU have influenced, and how? (8 points)

Answer 1

Socialization is the process by which we internalize the norms and ideologies that are present in our culture or society. It refers to the ability to adapt to our surroundings such as by meeting people, and socializing with them. The 3 main agents of socialization includes family, school and media. Social development is a process by which an individual learns to interact with his or her social world.

Family:

My family has provided me with values and principles that I follow when I am with people or when I do something. My parents always tell me to be truthful whenever I speak to others, to show kindness to people who are younger to me and be respectful to those who are elder to me. So, when I am in a social place with people around me, for example, if I am sitting on a bus and I see an old lady standing, I would get up and let her sit, which is a way of showing kindness. Even if I go to a shop to get something, I make sure that I greet the shop keeper with a good morning and be nice with them and smile and thank them for their service. Because of the values I have learnt form my family, I value all the people whom I meet or interact with.

School:

With my learning from school, I have became a person of confidence and positivity which I was not before. When I was young, I had difficulty in talking with new people, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. But my teachers always tell me to believe in myself and be confident in whatever I do and to practice to be social by communicating with all the students in the class. My school friends also supported me, and as I talked with them I slowly overcame my fear and started to became more social. For example, Once we were taken to an old age home from our school, but I felt very anxious to talk to the people there because they were all new to me. But then my teacher asked me to go in groups with my friends and interact with the old people there it was easy for me. This helped me to develop my confidence in talking with strange people.

Media:

Media is a powerful tool in influencing the social behaviors of people. It helps in social learning by which people observe the behaviors of other people and then imitate those behaviors. For example, I was once given an assignment of doing a seminar as a part of my course. I had prepared my power point presentations but I did not know how to communicate with the audience, how to be interactive with them and how to deal with them when they have any doubts. This made me feel anxious, so I decided to look in to youtube videos that showed how to conduct seminars and how to interact with audience. I carefully observed the way the model in the video was giving the lecture, the way she was engaged with the participants, how she was handling them when they posted questions. This helped me to get an idea about how to deal with the participants and I had also successful done my presentation.

I believe that I might have influenced the social development of my nephew and niece as they observe me when I do so. For example, when I tell them to get something from the shop, they tell me that they feel shy and uncomfortable in talking to the shop attender because they don't know how to talk to them or how to ask them what they needed. So, I took them along with me and showed them how to greet them, how to ask for what they need, and how to interact it them. After which, they have learned to do it by themselves.