Humans are born unaware of social patterns of behavior but short after their birth the process of socialization starts and transforms them into “cultural and socially adept animals” (O’Neil, 2011). Socialization plays a major role in human life. Unfortunately, history knows many examples of feral children who were isolated from society during first years of their lives and after were not able to communicate, nor to live comfortably in society. For instance, the story of Danielle Crockett, who was the victim of a severe neglect on the part of her biological mother and who never saw the sun at her seven years old and never contacted with other people, evidences a paramount importance of socialization, since being a completely healthy child, Danielle was not able to speak, eat normally or play like all other kids of her age (DeGregory, 2008). So why is socialization so important to humans and what are its mechanisms?
First of all, it should be noted that socialization lies on three key factors: affects, behavior and cognition which include, in their turn, mood and emotions, social exchange and social altruism, schemes and attitudes respectively. All these factors work together to ensure the proper socialization of individual in the society (Stangor, 2012).
Cognition refers to our thoughts and helps us to form schemes, or some factual information on objects around us, and attitudes, or interpretation of our knowledge about these objects. As a result of cognitive process, we may form our likes and dislikes, make appropriate decisions and choice. We all have the same knowledge about things which are around us but our attitude toward them is different since we all interpret information differently. For example, sometimes people may not understand each other or get confused because of prejudice when a man interprets a woman’s smile as a romantic attitude whereas she means only friendship (Stangor, 2012).
Another key factor for human socialization is affects which include moods and emotions. Mood is a kind of emotional background which is relatively stable in contrast with emotions which represent a reaction to something unusual and extraordinary. Emotions may be positive and negative. One of the most negative and destroying emotions is aggression which is capable to break the harmony of individual with society. In contrast, positive emotions contribute not only to a successful social interaction but also make people happier and healthier. For instance, love and attraction are powerful feelings which support individuals and help them to cope with difficulties, illnesses and stresses of everyday life (Stangor, 2012).
Finally, the third factor is behavior and it relates to social exchange when people help each other exchanging their holdings and knowledge and social altruism when people help someone in need. Such behavior is considered as a social one. It is obvious that social behavior is not conceivable out of a social group which has a major effect on individual’s socialization. Social groups where people work together for achievement of some common goals may be very effective if group members share the same interests and individuals in the group are all equally praised for their work. An individual being a part of a social group and achieving goals with others may feel self-confidence and approval which support him in his life. In addition, groups give birth to leadership and conformity. The latter is very important for proper interaction of an individual with his group since it helps him or her to be accepted by the group members ensuring the common interdependence within the group (Stangor, 2012).
However, we should not mix up conformity and obedience. The latter suppresses individual’s personality and does not let him or her to properly interact with society, opposes him or her to the group and disharmonizes individual’s socialization therein.
Understanding of human socialization is one of the objectives of social psychology which is very important for workplace environments where people are always interacting with each other. Social psychology helps to determine mechanisms of this interaction and provide groups’ leaders with appropriate solutions on how to manage their teams.
References
DeGregory, L. (2008). The girl in the window. Retrieved from: http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/the-girl-in-the-window/750838
O’Neil, D. (2011). Socialization. Retrieved from: http://anthro.palomar.edu/social/soc_1.htm
Stangor, Ch. (2012). Social psychology principles. Retrieved from: http://lardbucket.org.
