Good Essay About Socialization Factors That Influence The Way I Think About Politics

Although people find themselves in the boundaries of the political system, they tend to have distinct political ideologies. While some people are insensitive to the political system, some are indifferent. This is because people develop different ideas concerning the politics through a process known as the political socialization. This process occurs from childhood throughout a person's life. Subsequently, different socialization factors such as level of education, gender religious and education peers, family, ethnicity, income, other factors influences how people think about the politics. In my case, several social factors such as family, peers, religion, and education level have played a significant role in shaping my thinking about politics.
Since my childhood, the family had been my first and the most enduring socialization factor that influences my political opinions. Even at the tender age, I have been aligning myself with the Democratic Party even though I never understood the complexities of the political affiliation. I grew up as Republican because my parents and most members of the extended family identifies themselves as Republicans. My parents political beliefs based on the attitudes and behaviors have successfully helped me to acquire similar political beliefs. However, as I grew up, some factors such as peers and education level have crisscrossed the family influence on some of the political issues, but we still embrace the general political opinions.
Education level and peers have played a significant role in shaping my political views and opinions. During my high school and college classes, I have learned about our government, history, and social studies that have helped me to understand the political environment in our country. The relevant course teaches about the cultural goals of our political system that include equality, freedom, and liberty. As the education level proceeds, I learned significant political events, and I am consistently encouraged to form my own opinions regarding the political system. In addition, participating in the college and high school elections has shaped my thinking concerning the political process. The interaction with college students and the adults has also influenced my political opinions.
Interacting with the religious peers has also influenced me in the political attitudes. People that we share the similar religious affiliation have great influence on my life not only spiritually, but also politics. For example, my religious peers are Catholics, and hence influencing me to hold the political attitudes of the Catholics such as opposing abortion and capital punishment. However, the Catholic peers appear to be more liberal on certain issues such as taxes and the minimum wages compared to social issues.
All the socialization factors elucidated above play a major role in shaping my political opinion. However, family and the education are the main factors that helped me to develop certain political opinions. For instance, my parents have been greatly involved in the politics, and hence providing the channel to hold the same political views as them. For instance, despite the pressure from the religious views concerning the liberal beliefs on taxes and the minimum wages, I still uphold to the Republican views. In addition, education has greatly influenced my thinking about the politics. I have interacted with various people with different views that have helped me to conduct a comparative analysis of the political views. As a result, this has helped me to develop rational opinions of my political view accompanied by facts derived from the school syllabus.