Under the process of personality socialization , psychologists understand the assimilation and comprehension by a person of social experience, generally accepted morality, rules of behavior, cultural and everyday traditions. At the same time, each individual reassesses his values, accepting or rejecting certain proposed or imposed norms of society. It is in the process of this choice that the process of formation and self-education of the person takes place.
A person seeks his “place in the sun” from birth, going through the primary process of social adaptation, first in his own family, then in a child care institution and school.
The initial stage is characterized by an uncritical attitude of the individual to generally accepted standards. It is more common for a child and teenager to imitate the team, to adapt. And if a kindergarten kid accepts a model of his family’s behavior, the elementary school student is already more focused on the team. He seeks not to differ from his peers in appearance. The standard for him is his friends, classmates. From them, the child adopts demeanor, clothing style, and even hobbies and interests.
By the age of seven, the child begins to realize that parents are not the only role models. And by the age of nine, children even acquire a critical view of things. Moms and dads cease to be their unquestioned authority. However, respect for the experience of an adult in a child is still maintained, so it is very important that during this period a good teacher or trainer is next to him.
Various external factors influence the child’s mind. These are the media (radio, television, Internet), parents and teachers. But the socialization of adolescents is unthinkable without their communication with peers. Moreover, girlfriends and friends, at a certain stage in a child’s life, begin to play a role even greater than mom and dad. But this does not mean that parents should zealously protect the teenager from such communication, rudely intervene in his personal life.
Such adult behavior prevents the development of the child’s self-awareness, the formation of responsibility for their own behavior and actions in it.
Socialization of a person is a search for his place in society; for a student, classmates, parents, and teachers play the role of such a society. It is in the process of interacting with them that the child hones the most important communication skills, the adoption of established norms of behavior, traditions. At this stage, it is difficult to do without conflicts, but the search for effective solutions to overcome them has a significant impact on the formation of the individual as a whole.
In the future, the socialization of the individual goes through the stage of individualization, which is characterized by a person’s desire to become different from the rest, stand out from the crowd. During this period, a boy or girl already has some life experience, on the basis of which they critically overestimate the moral standards adopted in society. According to psychologists, it is precisely between the ages of 18 and 25 that the development of stable personality traits and the formation of a worldview take place.
The socialization of a person proceeds successfully if in the process a person interacts productively with society, while maintaining his own uniqueness.
The stage of individualization goes into the stage of integration, in which the individual seeks to take his place in society, which either accepts or rejects it. In the latter case, two behaviors are possible: the individual retains his dissimilarity by entering into conflict with society, or, on the contrary, tries to adapt by resorting to conciliationism and conformism.
We can say that the socialization of personality is a process that lasts a lifetime. A person not only gains new experience, but also enriches it in the process of labor and social activity. In the event that the personal qualities and creative potential of an individual representative are fully demanded by society, we can say that the socialization of the person is successful.