Chapter 5 Assignment: Agents of Socialization

Give a specific example of how you have been socialized by each of the 5 major agents of socialization.

Family: Your family is the fundamental base for your education on how you should act, what rules to follow and how to interact. A big example of how you are socialized by family is gender roles. This is where you learn about the behaviors and attitudes expected of girls and boys. For example girls are given dolls and tea sets to play with while boys are given trucks and encouraged to play outside.

School: School is a place for kids to learn the roles of gender, race and ethnicity. It is also a place to learn interaction with others other than your family. It is one of the first places where children are forced to communicate with other children and adults who are their teachers. Although they got the base of their communication skills at home this is where they see how other children were taught to interact; which in turn may help some social skills that they did not learn at home.

Peer Group: A peer group is where children first become aware of how their social status will affect their standing with their peers. This is also where kids look to for acceptance and learn to be independent of their families. These relationships don’t just exist because they are related to one another; they exist because they have interests in common.

Mass Media: Mass media is what we look to for fashion