- Define and explain Agents of Socialisation in your own words
- Use key terms such as Agent of socialisation accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
Nobody is born knowing how to queue, share or say please: we learn it all. Socialisation is the lifelong process by which we learn our culture's norms, values and roles, turning biological infants into members of society. In this chapter you will meet the agents that teach us, compare the first lessons of childhood with later ones, and discover Mead's famous account of how the self itself is a social product.
This lesson focuses on Agents of Socialisation: meet the family, school, peers, media and religion as our social teachers.
Meet the family, school, peers, media and religion as our social teachers.
Key ideas
Secondary socialisation never stops
From the first day of school, new agents take over part of the teaching: teachers and the hidden curriculum of rules and routines, peer groups with their fierce codes of cool, and the media with its flood of images and stories. Peer groups become especially powerful in the teenage years, sometimes pulling young people away from family values. Workplaces, partners and religions continue the process deep into adult life.
Primary socialisation starts at home
In the early years the family teaches the essentials: language, table manners, right from wrong, and what it means to be a boy or a girl in that culture. Because these lessons come first and carry powerful emotions, they sink deepest and are hardest to undo. Sociologists regard the family as the most important agent of socialisation, though families differ greatly in what they teach.
Key term — Agent of socialisation: Any person, group or institution that teaches us norms and values, including family, school, peers, media and religion.
Name four agents of socialisation.
Any four of: family, school, peer group, media, religion, workplace.
Answer: Any four of: family, school, peer group, media, religion, workplace.
- Thinking socialisation finishes at eighteen Socialisation is lifelong: new jobs, partnerships, parenthood and retirement all require learning new roles.
- Assuming the media has no real effect The media is a major secondary agent, shaping ideas about beauty, success and normality, especially for young people.
Practice
Primary socialisation is the first, intense learning of basic norms and values in the family; secondary socialisation is later learning from school, peers, media and others.
The peer group, and this is secondary socialisation, which can challenge primary lessons from the family.
It shows socialisation continues throughout life: adults learn new roles and norms whenever they enter new cultures or situations.
Any valid example, e.g. learning punctuality, obedience to authority, competition, or gendered expectations through routines and teacher behaviour.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "Agent of socialisation"?
Explain Mead's distinction between the I and the me.
- Agents of Socialisation: meet the family, school, peers, media and religion as our social teachers.
- Secondary socialisation never stops: From the first day of school, new agents take over part of the teaching: teachers and the hidden curriculum of rules and routines, peer groups with their fierce codes of cool, and the media with its flood of images and stories.
- Secondary socialisation: Later socialisation by agencies such as school, peer groups, the media and the workplace, which build on and sometimes challenge primary lessons.
- Watch out for: thinking socialisation finishes at eighteen