The Value of a Science of Socialization
Socialization consists of the social learning we have when we interact with others. Many people think that socialization is especially important for infants and children, somehow ceasing after childhood. But social psychologists now realize that socialization continues all across the life span, as long as people continue to learn from social experiences. Some people have the greatest number of social learning experiences in childhood, but others continue to have important socialization experiences all through life. Modern, information intensive life-styles tend to encourage life-long learning and life-long socialization, as we continue to meet people and learn from them at every age of life.People have had socialization experiences since the dawn of time. In fact all other primates and mammals experience socialization whenever the young interact with their parents, siblings or other group members and have social learning experiences from those social interactions. Even young birds have some socialization learning experiences, though these are typically not as extensive or important as is the case in mammals -- and especially primates.
For millions of years, humans have not had much accurate information for guiding the socialization of children or adults. Most children received rather haphazard socializations, based more on the quirks of their parents than the needs of the children. Gradually, cultures began to collect tips and folklore for raising the young -- and guiding the social development of adults. But this folklore was not always the best of the fullest development of the young or adults. For example, the maxim, "Children are to be seen, not heard," was once considered valid; yet today we see that it was used as a technique to silence children, and not to help them actualize as much of their human potential as possible. The folklore that "Old dogs do not learn new tricks" can lead adults to think, incorrectly, that learning is not expected or appropriate with increasing age. Much of the commonly held folklore about socialization is incorrect.RECENT BREAKTHROUGHS
During the past 100 years, psychologists, sociologists and other researchers have developed a growing science of socialization and social development. Today we have a great deal of useful information that can help people learn how easy it can be to guide socialization wisely. Social Learning Theory is turning out to be especially useful in helping us understand socialization and the best ways to guide it during childhood and all the rest of life.
We now know that the human potential is enormous, containing the possibilities for doing both creative and prosocial behavior -- and evil, destructive behavior. Much of the early psychological research on childhood development focused on the things that lead people to do antisocial behavior. Now we are learning how to help people develop the prosocial and creative aspects of their human potential -- helping people learn to do things that make the world a better place for them and others.
Unfortunately, some of the early psychological theories of socialization were based on "medical models" that emphasized psychoses, neuroses, and mental problems. Only recently has the science of socialization begun to examine happy people with the goal of finding out what social learning experiences make them happy, fulfilled and exuberant about life. Nevertheless, a recent analysis of articles published in psychological journals found that there were:
46,380 articles about depression
36,851 articles about anxiety
5,099 articles about anger
2,389 articles about happiness
405 articles about joyWhy has there been so little interest in happiness, joy and psycho-social fulfillment? Fortunately, the social psychologists who are studying social learning theory and wellness psychology are trying to fill the void. They are focusing on creativity, prosocial behavior and self-actualization, discovering the countless ways that people can develop their own unique human potentials in the ways that they find most rewarding and positive.
KNOWLEDGE ABOUT POSITIVE SOCIALIZATION
The more knowledge that people can amass about the art of living well, the more likely that the next generations can have clear guidelines for directing their own socializations in more positive manners. Two hundred years ago, people had very little knowledge about positive human development. People did not think in terms of the "human potential" and the best ways of actualize (or develop) it. But increasing numbers of people today are eager to learn how to attain lives that are full of mental, physical and emotional satisfaction -- oriented to lifelong learning and years of exciting future development.
The main text book for the socialization course, Behavior Principles in Everyday Life (BPEL), is designed to explain all aspects of human learning in natural settings. Technically, the socialization process consists of the social learning experiences of life; but the text book covers both social learning and nonsocial learning, since our nonsocial experiences can have a big impact on our happiness and plans for the future. As you read the text book, you will see that it places a strong emphasis on the value of positive learning experiences. In fact, Chapter 14 of BPEL is devoted to the goal of averting as many forms of negative control as possible and replacing them with more positive and rewarding experiences. In addition, the rest of the book provides hundreds of examples of positive ways to learn many different types of activities.
The goals Soc 142 and BPEL are to help as many people as possible build toward positive socializations based on accurate information needed to learn how to live lives full of mental, physical and emotional satisfaction. If you see any ways to help improve the course, please e-mail baldwin@sscf.ucsb.edu or talk with John after class or during his office hours.
July '01BACK TO HOME