Mechanisms of socialization: imprinting, existential pressure, imitation, reflection

What are socialization mechanisms?

Human socialization begins at birth and continues throughout life. To better understand the issue, it is necessary to carefully study the essence of this phenomenon. It is also necessary to define the main mechanisms that take part in this process.

Socialization is the process of a person acquiring certain values, norms and knowledge that help him function in society as a full member.

Its actions are aimed at:

• social adaptation of the individual (adjustment) so that he can feel like “everyone”;
• individualization (isolation) of a person so that she can have and follow her own opinion;
• adaptation (adaptation) for searching and determining a place in life.

In the process of active activity, a person assimilates social experience and turns it into his own achievements, then reproduces it for the development of subsequent generations. The whole process takes place through interaction with peculiar “helpers”, which are called socialization mechanisms.

Pedagogy

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Modern Russia is in a state of formation of a new social system. The social norms of modern Russian society for the current period do not represent a natural adaptive norm of development for the younger generation due to the crisis in such areas of life support as education, healthcare, communications, transport, due to interethnic conflicts, decline in spirituality, morality, changes in value orientations, and the gap between citizens and official power, the growth of various forms of social deviations.

The spiritual life of children, adolescents, young people, due to insufficient formation and pronounced lability of such socially significant parameters as orientation, interests, moral and moral value system, as well as the worldview in general, is subject to violent influence from such factors as asocial living conditions, marginalization and criminalization, education crisis, dehumanization, deintellectualization. Unfortunately, aggressiveness has become a common pronounced feature of Russian society. Children and adolescents, due to their inexperience, immaturity, and suggestiveness, are not protected from manifestations of evil, violence, cruelty, lack of culture, rudeness, and ignorance.

Negative trends in social development are affecting ever larger sections of adolescents and young people, lowering the age limit, expressing themselves in various forms of destructive behavior and causing a “crisis of socialization.” The increase in bitterness against the backdrop of social lack of demand and hopelessness in the minds of the overwhelming majority of young people, while cultivating elitism and permissiveness in the minds of a small but observable minority, with the “marketization” of morality, aggravates the already quite acute social conflict, prolonging and deepening it.

A significant “contribution” to the popularization and dissemination of precisely these, by no means the best, manifestations among young people has been made in the last decade by the media.

On the one hand, the media promote public awareness and free discussion on the “acute problems” of crime, suicide, drug addiction, corruption and organized crime, adolescent delinquency, prostitution, etc. On the other hand, the media often abuse the demonstration and relish of violence, unqualifiedly present factual materials, cultivate aggression, superior physical strength, glorification of criminals, permissiveness and impunity, disrespect for national, state, cultural and human values.

The purpose of the work is to determine the direction and degree of influence of the media on the socialization of adolescents.

Object of study: the process of socialization.

Subject of research: social behavior of adolescents.

Hypothesis: It is assumed that the media play a significant, but not the main role in the socialization of adolescents.

In accordance with the purpose and hypothesis, the following tasks are set for the study:

1. Characterize the age and individual characteristics of adolescents.

2. Consider socialization as a socio-pedagogical phenomenon.

3. Identify the nature and degree of influence of the media on teenage children.

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Approaches to socialization mechanisms in sociology

Mechanisms of psychological defense of the individual

The mechanisms of socialization have been studied for many years in various socio-psychological directions:

• phenomenological;
• humanistic;
• cognitive;
• behavioral;
• dispositional.

In traditional psychology, sociology and pedagogy, all these areas do not intersect, but research into approaches to studying the mechanisms of socialization are interconnected.

L.S. Vygotsky believed that the foundations of socialization are the development of intelligence and language acquisition. J. Piaget promoted the idea that in order to adapt a person to the environment, it is necessary to develop thinking abilities. But these skills alone were not enough to integrate a person into a single society.

L.S. Vygotsky

Important! To become part of a group, it was necessary to imitate its norms, customs, and stereotypes.

G. Tarda was the first to come to this idea. Thanks to him, the role of imitation became ingrained in the understanding of socialization. Later, the French sociologist identified 2 more mechanisms, which include:

1. Device. The struggle between people and their ideas leads to gradual adaptation and compromise.
2. Opposition. Internal conflict of a person with his negative attitudes, stereotypes and norms. The result of the opposition is the presentation of the individual with a new model of behavior.

C. Cooley believed that the main mechanisms of socialization of any individual depend on a small group in which individuals are connected by an informal union. At the same time, in society there is not only imitation, but also feedback - approval.

Stages of personality socialization

Personality orientation - what is it in psychology, its types

Personal socialization develops in three main phases:

1. First, a person masters social values ​​and norms. As a result of this process, the individual learns to fit into the society in which he finds himself.
2. A person strives for his own personalization, development of abilities, and also tries to influence the people around him.
3. At the final phase, each individual is integrated into a certain social circle, in which their own capabilities and properties are revealed.

Personal socialization process

A successful outcome is possible only if each phase proceeds sequentially. The process itself includes 2 main stages of personality socialization. They can be divided into several parts depending on the age of the person.

Stages of personality socialization

As can be seen from the table, it is at a young age that the active development of personal socialization occurs.

Socio-psychological mechanisms of socialization

Types of human memory in psychology, classification of main types

Modern sociologists have come to the conclusion that the process of personal socialization occurs through 5 main mechanisms.

Traditional

The action of the traditional mechanism of personality socialization is aimed at the unconscious assimilation by a person of social stereotypes, opinions and norms of behavior that come from the immediate environment:

• friends;
• acquaintances;
• families.

Gaining new perspectives occurs through a lack of critical thinking and also through imprinting. As an example of the effectiveness of this mechanism, we can consider the following situation: a person knows perfectly well what “needs” to do to solve existing problems, but his method contradicts the views of the family. Therefore, the traditional “hook” will slow down the process.

Condemnation of an individual by a group

Institutional

The implementation of the institutional mechanism of socialization is carried out with the help of various organizations. Auxiliary institutions can be of two types:

1. Specialized. They are created to implement socialization functions. This type can include any educational organizations: schools, lyceums, institutes, colleges, academies, cultural and educational companies.
2. Non-specialized. Along with their main activities, they perform socialization functions. For example, this is the army.

Thanks to the institutional mechanism, the individual acquires useful social experience of communication, and is also included in the life of society and its culture.

Stylized

Its action is carried out only within a specific subculture. When leaving it, the influence of the stylized mechanism will also change.

Additional Information. A subculture is a set of values, rules of behavior and norms that are characteristic of a certain group of people.

It is the totality of views that determines the lifestyle and thinking of this category of people.

Interpersonal

The functioning of the interpersonal mechanism of socialization is carried out during the interaction of the individual with people significant to him. Important personalities for a person can be:

• relatives: parents, brother, sister;
• friends and acquaintances;
• Colleagues.

Despite the fact that significant people may be members of a certain group, their effect on an individual can go against the norms and rules of the subculture.

The interpersonal mechanism can be viewed as a process of identification in which an individual internalizes the behavioral and psychological aspects inherent to his biological sex.

reflective

The action of the reflexive mechanism of socialization occurs through individual experiences and internal dialogue in which the individual tries to evaluate the values ​​and behavior of society.

Internal dialogue

Important! Only after careful understanding and analysis of the information received does a person decide to follow or refute the principles that have developed in the family, work team or other group of people.

Thanks to this mechanism, personality formation and change occurs. After all, only by realizing the surrounding reality can a person act to find himself and his place in life.

Mechanisms of socialization: conscious and unconscious

In the process of growing up, the individual is subject to formative influence from society, which makes adaptation in the team possible.
Family, school and work affect a person in different ways, using different mechanisms of socialization. With their help, it is introduced into the framework of generally accepted standards and sets the tone for further development. Socialization and what it is
The study of socialization as a phenomenon began in the 19th century. As a result of revolutions, wars and social upheavals, interest in the process of personality formation has increased among scientists. They rightly believed that if we study the milestones in the formation of an adult as a separate unit of society and trace what influences him at each stage, then it will be possible to correct him and even correct his shortcomings. The meaning of the concept of “socialization” can be explained by drawing an analogy with the concepts of education and personal development. But it should be remembered that this definition is a general scientific one and cannot be strictly limited to just one discipline.

Mechanisms of socialization

Society influences the individual through a whole set of levers. Socialization mechanisms can be roughly divided into conscious and unconscious. Although it is not possible to draw a fairly clear boundary between them. First of all, due to the fact that conscious control is developed in everyone’s own way. And the correlation between voluntary uptake and intentional influence is not always measurable. Unconscious mechanisms of personality socialization begin to work at a very early age, even before the child enters preschool. Although once they join the team, their strength undoubtedly increases. Such mechanisms include mental contagion, suggestion, imitation and imprinting. I would like to say something about the latter separately. It was studied by the famous zoologist Konrad Lorenz. He discovered in the course of a famous experiment with ducklings that warm-blooded animals and birds instantly imprint in their memory those creatures that they see immediately after birth and subsequently become attached to them.

Existential pressure and reflection

Some socialization mechanisms may become partially conscious in adulthood. This is existential pressure and reflection. Speech culture is a powerful factor influencing the formation of self-awareness and personality orientation. Mastering a language in the process of communicating with loved ones, as well as mastering other norms of behavior, is called existential pressure. Reflection can be defined as a continuous internal dialogue with oneself or with imaginary persons, during which norms and rules borrowed from various social institutions are reviewed and evaluated. This mechanism is like a living stream, changing as reality changes in which the individual is directly involved. Thus, it allows for cultural exchange with the social environment, trying on any norms, critically thinking about them and, if necessary, discarding them.

Other factors influencing personality

We examined the socio-psychological mechanisms of socialization. But there are also social and pedagogical ones. Such as spontaneous assimilation of the standards of one’s environment, an institutional mechanism (based on identification with the standards offered by mass culture), as well as stylized and interpersonal mechanisms.

Psychological mechanisms of socialization

Issues related to socialization were actively studied by N. Smelser, J. Clausen, E. Erikson, Z. Freud, L.S. Vygotsky and other great psychologists. Summarizing all available data, we can identify 5 universal psychological mechanisms that must be taken into account when educating an individual.

Imprinting

The word “imprinting” comes from the word imprint, which means “to leave a mark”, “to record”. Imprinting is a person's fixation on things that are important to him. This happens at the subconscious and receptor levels.

Important! Imprinting is characteristic mainly of infancy. It is possible that some sensations or images will be captured at later stages of life.

Imprinting does not take much time. A few seconds are enough for fixation. For example, a mother immediately gets used to her newborn baby and begins to feel connected and close to him. This phenomenon is also characterized by irreversibility. All created images and sensations are preserved for the rest of your life.

Imitation

Imitation, as a psychological mechanism of socialization, is the little-conscious or unconscious adherence of an individual or an entire group of people to a specific model or standard by borrowing and reproducing the behavior or character traits of other individuals.

Additional Information. G. Tarde developed a theoretical concept of this phenomenon. It lies in the fact that imitation is necessary for the existence and development of society. Thanks to this mechanism, group values ​​and norms emerge.

Son's imitation of father

Identification

Identification from the Latin language Identificare is translated as “to establish a match”, “to identify”. It combines all the social and psychological attitudes that a person has. Thanks to this mechanism, the individual begins to unconsciously identify himself with other people or images.

Identification can be of 2 types:

1. Adequate. In which a person feels comfort while actually belonging to any group or image. For example, “I am a mother”, “I am a psychologist”, “I am a student”.
2. Inadequate. With this identification, the individual faces a serious conflict during self-determination. For example, “I am embarrassed by my parents,” “I am dissatisfied with my social status,” “I do not like my social role.”

Identification is inextricably linked with the individual’s assimilation of stereotypes, views and norms of the social environment in which he lives. It is according to the “patterns” of other people that a person forms his own “I”.

Reflection

Reflection is a kind of internal dialogue, thanks to which a person begins to become aware of his individual characteristics, their manifestation in the outside world, as well as the reaction of other people to this.

Important! Thanks to this mechanism, a person can adjust his image to become more or less attractive.

No matter how well a person understands himself, his own image will still be distorted. Only other individuals can serve as a “mirror” through which a person will look at his “I” most adequately.

Existential pressure

Speech culture is a powerful driving force that has a significant impact on the orientation and self-awareness of an individual. In the process of communicating with loved ones, a person masters the language and also learns norms of behavior.

Important! This phenomenon is called existential pressure.

It is activated simultaneously with reflection. Thanks to these two mechanisms, cultural and behavioral exchanges take place in the group.

Mom teaches child to speak

Socialization mechanisms play an important role in the life of every person. They cannot be attributed to the “outskirts” of personality development. Thanks to them, a person develops and learns about the world around him.

Mechanisms of socialization: imprinting, existential pressure, imitation, reflection

There are different approaches to considering the “mechanisms” of socialization. Thus, the French social psychologist Gabriel Tarde considered imitation to be the main one. American scientist Yuri Bronfenbrener considers the mechanism of socialization to be progressive mutual accommodation (adaptability) between an active, growing human being and the changing conditions in which it lives.

V.S. Mukhina considers identification and separation of the individual as mechanisms of socialization, and A.V. Petrovsky – a natural change in the phases of adaptation, individualization and integration in the process of personality development.

Summarizing the available data from the point of view of pedagogy, we can identify several universal mechanisms of socialization that must be taken into account and partially used in the process of educating a person at various age stages. Psychological and socio-psychological mechanisms include the following:

Imprinting (imprinting – imprinting) is a person’s fixation at the receptor and subconscious levels of the features of vital objects affecting him. Imprinting occurs primarily during infancy. However, even at later age stages it is possible to capture some images, sensations, etc.

Thus, a traumatic experience received in childhood (up to 6 years) - humiliation, cruel treatment, etc., leaving its mark on the emotional sphere of the individual, can have a “delayed effect”, giving rise to cruel or aggressive behavior, emotional coldness, etc.

Imitation is the voluntary and involuntary following of any examples and patterns of behavior that a person encounters in interaction with people around him (primarily with significant persons), as well as patterns offered by the media.

Existential pressure (existence) is the influence of a person’s living conditions, which determines his mastery of his native language (in early childhood) and non-native languages ​​at other age stages (in a situation of change in the linguistic environment), as well as the unconscious assimilation of norms of social behavior that are immutable in his society and necessary to survive in it.

Identification (identification) is an emotional-cognitive process of a person’s assimilation of norms, attitudes, values, and behavior patterns as one’s own in interaction with significant persons and reference groups.

Reflection is an internal dialogue in which a person considers, evaluates, accepts or rejects certain values ​​inherent in various institutions of society, family, peer society, significant persons, etc. Reflection can be an internal dialogue of several types: between different human selves, with real or fictitious persons, etc.

Interesting

With the help of reflection, a person can be formed and changed as a result of his awareness and experience of the reality in which he lives, his place in this reality and himself. At the same time, there are also social and pedagogical mechanisms.

The above-mentioned psychological mechanisms of socialization operate in line with socio-pedagogical mechanisms, which include the following. The traditional mechanism of socialization (spontaneous) is the assimilation by a person of norms, standards of behavior, views, stereotypes that are characteristic of his family and immediate environment (neighbors, friends).

Social mores (traditions, customs, habits, stereotypes of mass behavior, etc.), widespread in specific regions, settlements, ethno-confessional and social strata, regulating the behavior of specific people, include prosocial, asocial, and antisocial (foul language, drunkenness , theft, etc.) elements.

Their assimilation occurs, as a rule, at an unconscious level through imprinting, uncritical perception of prevailing stereotypes (i.e. imprinting, existential pressure, imitation, identification).

Interesting

The effectiveness of the traditional mechanism is manifested when a person knows “how to”, “what is necessary”, but this knowledge of his contradicts the traditions of his immediate environment. In this case, the French thinker of the 17th century turns out to be right. Michel Montaigne, who wrote: “We can repeat our own as much as we like, but custom and generally accepted everyday rules drag us along with them.”

In addition, the effectiveness of the traditional mechanism is manifested in the fact that certain elements of social experience, learned, for example, in childhood, but subsequently unclaimed or blocked due to changed living conditions (for example, moving from a village to a big city), can “emerge.” » in human behavior during the next change in life conditions or at subsequent age stages.

The institutional mechanism of socialization, as follows from the name itself, functions in the process of interaction of a person with the institutions of society and various organizations, both specially created for his socialization, and implementing socializing functions along the way, in parallel with their main functions (production, social, religious, club and other structures, as well as mass media).

In the process of interaction of a person with various institutions and organizations, there is an increasing accumulation of relevant knowledge and experience of socially approved behavior, as well as experience of imitation of socially approved behavior and conflict or conflict-free avoidance of fulfilling social norms.

It must be borne in mind that such media of mass communication as a social institution (print, radio, cinema, television) influence the socialization of a person not only through the broadcast of certain information, but also through the presentation of certain patterns of behavior of characters in books, films, and television programs.

The effectiveness of this influence, as subtly noted back in the 18th century. reformer of Western European ballet, French choreographer J.J. Nover, is defined as follows: “... since the passions experienced by heroes are distinguished by greater strength and certainty than the passions of ordinary people, it is easier to imitate them.”

People, in accordance with their age and individual characteristics, tend to identify themselves with certain heroes, while perceiving their characteristic patterns of behavior, lifestyle, etc. Thus, all the previously mentioned psychological mechanisms of socialization operate within the framework of the institutional mechanism.

The stylized mechanism of socialization manifests itself within a certain subculture. Subculture in general terms is understood as a complex of moral, psychological and behavioral traits typical of people of a certain age or a certain professional or cultural layer, which as a whole creates a certain style of life and thinking of a particular age, professional, social, ethno-confessional group.

But a subculture influences a person’s socialization to the extent that the group members who bear it (peers, colleagues, etc.) are referent (significant) for him. That is, in line with the stylized mechanism, imitation and identification operate primarily.

The interpersonal mechanism of socialization functions in the process of interaction of a person with persons significant to him. It is based on the psychological mechanism of identification. Significant persons can be parents (at any age), any respected adult, a peer friend of the same or opposite sex, etc.

Naturally, significant persons can be members of certain organizations and groups with which a person interacts, and if they are peers, then they can also be carriers of an age subculture. But there are often cases when communication with significant persons in groups and organizations has an impact on a person that is not identical to that which the group or organization itself has on him. Therefore, it is advisable to distinguish the interpersonal mechanism of socialization as specific.

Human socialization occurs through all the mechanisms mentioned above. However, in different gender, age and socio-cultural groups, in specific people, the relationship between the roles of socialization mechanisms is different, and sometimes significant.

Thus, in the conditions of a village, small town, town, as well as in poorly educated families in big cities, the traditional mechanism can play a significant role. In a large city, institutional and stylized mechanisms are especially evident. For people of a clearly introverted type (i.e., turned inward, highly anxious, self-critical), the reflexive mechanism can become the most important.

Certain mechanisms play different roles in various areas of socialization. So, if we are talking about the sphere of leisure, about following fashion, then the leading one is often a stylized mechanism, and the lifestyle is often formed with the help of both traditional and stylized mechanisms.