http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/baldwin/classes/soc142/scznDEF.html
What is the socialization process?
Socialization is the process by which children and adults
learn from others. We begin learning from others during the early days
of life; and most people continue their social learning all through
life (unless some mental or physical disability slows or stops the
learning process). Sometimes the learning is fun, as when we learn a
new sport, art or musical technique from a friend we like. At other
times, social learning is painful, as when we learn not to drive too
fast by receiving a large fine for speeding.
Natural socialization occurs when infants and youngsters
explore, play and discover the social world around them. Planned
socialization occurs when other people take actions designed to teach
or train others -- from infancy on. Natural socialization is easily
seen when looking at the young of almost any mammalian species (and
some birds). Planned socialization is mostly a human phenomenon; and
all through history, people have been making plans for teaching or
training others. Both natural and planned socialization can have good
and bad features: It is wise to learn the best features of both
natural and planned socialization and weave them into our lives.
Positive socialization is the type of social learning that is
based on pleasurable and exciting experiences. We tend to like the
people who fill our social learning processes with positive
motivation, loving care, and rewarding opportunities. Negative
socialization occurs when others use punishment, harsh criticisms or
anger to try to "teach us a lesson;" and often we come to dislike both
negative socialization and the people who impose it on us.
There are all types of mixes of positive and negative
socialization; and the more positive social learning experiences we
have, the happier we tend to be -- especially if we learn useful
information that helps us cope well with the challenges of life. A
high ratio of negative to positive socialization can make a person
unhappy, defeated or pessimistic about life. One of the goals of Soc
142 is to show people how to increase the ratio of positive to
negative in the socialization they receive from others -- and that
they give to others. [Some people will defend negative socialization,
since painful training can prepare people to be ready to fight and die
in battle, put themselves at great risk in order to save others,
endure torture and hardship. This is true; but many people receive far
more negative socialization than they need, and hopefully fewer and
fewer people will need to be trained for battle, torture and
hardship.]
Soc 142 shows that positive socialization, coupled with
valuable information about life and the skills needed to live well,
can be a powerful tool for promoting human development. We all have an
enormous human potential, and we all could develop a large portion of
it if we had the encouragement that comes from positive socialization
and the wisdom that comes from valuable information about living.
Information about both natural and planned socialization can be
especially useful.
Our prior socialization helps explain a gigantic chunk of
who we are at present -- what we think and feel, where we plan to go
in life. But we are not limited by the things given to us by our prior
social learning experiences; we can take all our remaining days and
steer our future social learning in directions that we value. The more
that we know about the socialization process, the more effective we
can be in directing our future learning in the ways that will help us
most.
Because we were not able to select our parents, we were not
able to control much of the first 10 or 20 years of our socialization.
However, most people learn to influence their own socialization as
they gain experience in life. It takes special skills to steer and
direct our own socialization, and many of us pick up some of those
skills naturally as we go through life. Having a course on
socialization can help us understand which skills are most effective
in guiding our socialization toward the goals we most value.
It is important to know that we all come into life with a
variety of psychology systems that foster self-actualization and favor
the development of our human potential. These are the biosocial
mechanisms that underlie natural socialization. We can see and study
natural socialization by examining the socialization of primates and
other mammals. Once we under the natural biosocial processes, we can
try to build strategies of self-actualization that are compatible with
the natural biosocial mechanisms we are born with to make
self-development as easy and rewarding as possible.
Soc 142 shows how the natural self-actualization systems
operate in everyday life so we can create as many good social
experiences as possible. The study of behavior principles in everyday
life is crucial to this, and that is why John and Janice Baldwin wrote
a book with that name. If we understand the ways to create positive
socialization experiences, we can take our human potential and develop
the happy and creative sides of that potential. If we had too much
negative socialization in the past and have learned to be too sad or
inhibited, knowledge about positive socialization can help minimize
some of the pain and allow us to build toward a more positive and
creative future.
The goal of Soc 142 is to help you learn how to be most
effective in directing your own socialization and self-actualization
processes toward the goals that you value most. Special attention will
be paid to exploration, play, creativity, wisdom, and positive
reinforcement -- five centrally important aspects of positive
socialization.
--
Maya S.
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