Personality and his socialization

A principle asserting that development of personality is a lifelong ascending process based on consolidating of the interiorized before, is indisputable. But personal qualities moulded before aren’t stable or unshakable for ever. When a person learns new roles, values or habits instead of those badly learnt before or obsolete, re-socialization occurs. It embraces a lot of activities – from less

ons arranged to change the child’s reading skills to vocational retraining of workers.

Development of any person is determined by a number of factors:

· family – in any civilization, it is the main area of primary socialization of personality as it is characterized by a set of social norms, sanctions and patterns of behaviour which regulate interactions and relations among spouses, parents and children, other relatives. As a rule, a child learns those patterns of behaviour typical for its parents;

· relations of equality – including into “groups of equal”(friends, peers of same age) also has a great impact on the process of personal development. Interrelations among peers are more democratic as compared to those among parents and children. In such groups, individuals enter into various contacts with each other creating informal groups; they often keep these relations all their life;

· education – its importance is determined by the fact that the society ensures development of education and upbringing of the growing generations in accordance with the values, ideals, standards of behaviour typical for a given society. Education is a process and result of learning systematic knowledge, skills, and at the same time a necessary condition of preparing a person for labour activities;

· mass media (radio, press, TV, movie) are a most powerful factor of influence on human consciousness and behaviour that means that they influence on the socialization process;

· labour – the working process is an organizational framework within which an individual turns to a member of the labour collective. While turning to a worker, he learns not only professional roles but also gets to know what is to be an executive and subordinate, leader or outsider etc.;

· culture is a specific kind of activity aimed at creating spiritual and material wealth, so its result comes to be a system of ideals, values, norms and patterns of behaviour embodied in the social development of a person and his spiritual world;

· incomes play an important symbolic role. High incomes mean well-being, high professional qualification and good business aptitudes of personality;

· organizations such as youth associations, church, sport clubs also participate in the development of a person.

Thus, the development of a person is determined by a number of socio-economic factors, social factors being dominant.

At the same time the development of a person can’t avoid crises. An American psychologist and psychiatrist Erik H. Erikson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_151902-1994), who is also known for coining the phrase “identity crisis”, developed his theory on the social development of human beings with respect to the psychological analysis of S. Freud. E. Erikson described eight developmental stages of the Ego through which a human should pass from infancy to late adulthood. In each stage a person confronts new challenges which are hopefully mastered. Each stage builds on a successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages which are not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future. It should be noted that E. Erikson was the first to identify eight stages of development, later his students added two more to further refine adolescence and adulthood.

Thus, to E. Erikson, at each stage a human encounters the following crises:

· infancy (birth-18 months): trust versus mistrust;

· younger years (18 months-3 years): autonomy versus shame and doubt;

· early childhood (3-6 years): initiative versus guilt;

· middle childhood (6-12 years): industry versus inferiority;

· early adolescence (12-18 years): group identity versus alienation;

· later adolescence (18-22 years): Ego-identity versus identity confusion;

· early adulthood (22-34 years): intimacy versus isolation;

· middle adulthood (34-60 years): generativity versus stagnation;

· later adulthood (60-75 years): Ego-integrity versus despair;

· old age (75 years-death): immortality versus extinction.

According to E. Erikson, the Ego, around which the individual integrates a sense of identity, develops in the process of socialization. He, too, thinks the society plays an important role in moulding personality. He emphasized that socialization is a lifelong process which goes through cycles from infancy to adolescence to various states of young, middle, and elderly adulthood.

BASIC CONCEPTS

Agencies (agents) of socialization – structured groups or contexts within which significant processes of socialization occur.

Basis type (of personality) – a set of typical personality’s qualities which are dominant in the society and most fully meets the demands of a given society.

Deliberate socialization – a socialization process when there is a deliberate and purposeful intent to convey values, attitudes, knowledge, skills etc.

Extrovert – a person who tends to focus on the outer world and external events.

Frustrated personality – personality characterized by low self-assessment and depressive state.

Hedonistic materialist – a person who is oriented to satisfy his needs as consumer.

Homo consumer – a modern consumer, or personality moulded by mass society (by R. Dahrendorf).

Homo faber – a “working man”in the traditional society, or personality allotted with an important public function (by R. Dahrendorf).

Homo soveticus – a person depending on the state (by R. Dahrendorf).

Homo universalis – a person with the aptitude to perform various activities (by R. Dahrendorf).

Human being – a particular representative of mankind.

Idealist – a person who is critical towards traditional norms and firmly determined to self-development.

Individual – a particular representative of mankind.

Individuality – a set of qualities or characteristics distinguishing one person from another at the biological, psychological, social and other levels.

Introvert – a person who tends to focus on his inner world of ideas and experiences.

Man – a most common, generic concept for a representative of mankind.

One-dimensional man – a person who perceives informational stereotypes and moulds simplified schemes of seeing phenomena as black-and-white (by H. Marcuse).

Person – a particular representative of mankind.

Personality – a concept introduced to focus on the individual’s social nature.

Primary socialization – a socialization process which occurs in infancy and childhood and is the most intense period of cultural learning.

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