1 Foundations of Socialization and Identity

Learning culture and forming identity

Socialization is the lifelong process through which people learn a society’s culture—including its norms, values, beliefs, skills, and expectations—and learn how to participate in social life. It happens through interactions with other people and institutions. Being around others is not enough by itself: socialization refers to the learning that takes place through those interactions.

Identity is a person’s understanding of who they are and how they relate to others. It includes personal qualities and social positions, such as family roles, age, gender, social class, ethnicity, and occupation. Identity develops through interaction and can change as people enter new groups and life situations. In sociology, the self is a person’s distinct sense of identity developed through social experience.

Socialization passes culture between generations. People learn material culture, including objects and how to use them, as well as nonmaterial culture, such as language, customs, values, and rules. For example, children learn how to use a book or phone and when and how it is appropriate to use one.

Three perspectives on socialization

Sociologists use different perspectives to explain how socialization works and whose interests it serves.

• Structural functionalism emphasizes social stability. Learning shared norms and roles helps people coordinate behavior and allows institutions to continue over time. Schools, for example, teach academic skills as well as expectations such as taking turns, following schedules, and completing assignments.

• Conflict theory emphasizes how socialization can reproduce inequality. People may learn different expectations and have different opportunities according to social class, race, or gender. Unequal access to educational resources can shape the skills and expectations young people acquire, influencing later opportunities.

• Symbolic interactionism focuses on everyday interaction and the meanings people create through symbols, language, and shared behavior. It helps explain how people develop a sense of self by interpreting others’ responses and learning social expectations.

How interaction shapes the self

Two influential interactionist ideas describe how the self develops. Charles Horton Cooley’s looking-glass self proposes that people form understandings of themselves partly by imagining how others see and evaluate them.

George Herbert Mead argued that people develop a self by learning to take the perspective of others. In his account, children move from imitation, to pretending to take the role of a particular person, to understanding how several roles fit together in a shared activity. Over time, they learn the generalized other—the broader expectations of the society around them.

Agents and influences

An agent of socialization is a person, group, or institution that teaches cultural knowledge and expectations. Agents can have overlapping or different influences:

• Family and caregivers often introduce language, habits, values, and early expectations.

• Peers teach group norms and provide opportunities to develop relationships and independence.

• Schools teach formal knowledge and informal expectations, such as cooperation and punctuality.

• Media and digital environments convey images, information, and ideas about behavior and identity.

• Workplaces, religious organizations, and other institutions teach role-specific rules and shared practices.

No single agent determines identity. People encounter multiple influences, interpret them, and may accept, adapt, or resist what they learn.

Socialization across the life course

Socialization begins early but continues beyond childhood as people take on new roles and enter new settings. Starting school, joining a workplace, becoming a caregiver, or retiring can require learning new expectations and revising parts of one’s identity.

Anticipatory socialization means preparing for a role a person expects to take on. For instance, someone about to start a job might learn workplace customs in advance. Resocialization involves learning new norms and roles that replace or substantially change earlier patterns. It can occur during major transitions, such as entering a highly structured institution or adjusting to civilian life after military service. Because established habits and identities may need to change, resocialization can be challenging.

A person who begins university after growing up in a community where most learning took place informally may need to learn academic routines, how to communicate with instructors, and how to build new peer relationships. These experiences can affect how the person sees themself—as a student, a member of a new community, or a future professional. This illustrates how agents, interaction, and changing roles work together over time.