Socialisation, Identity and Agents of Socialisation
Socialisation: How Society Gets Into People
Socialisation is the mechanism through which society reproduces itself in the next generation. Through socialisation, individuals learn what behaviours are expected of them, what counts as right and wrong, and how to perform the social roles assigned to them. Without socialisation, the shared understandings that allow society to function would collapse. Sociologists argue that it is not biology but society — through the socialisation process — that makes us who we are.
Nature Versus Nurture
One of the oldest questions about human behaviour is whether we are shaped more by our biological inheritance (nature) or by our social environment and upbringing (nurture). Some psychologists and biologists argue that key aspects of personality and behaviour are genetically determined. Sociologists, by contrast, emphasise the power of the social environment: the norms, values and opportunities available to individuals depend far more on the society and social group they are born into than on their biology. Most sociologists acknowledge that biology sets some limits — a newborn cannot speak — but argue that the content of what that child learns to say, believe and value is overwhelmingly a product of socialisation.
Cases of feral children — children raised in severe isolation from normal human contact — provide powerful evidence that socialisation is essential to normal human development. One well-documented case is that of Genie, discovered in California in 1970 at the age of thirteen after spending most of her childhood confined in isolation with minimal human contact. Genie had not been taught to speak, walk normally, or interact socially. Despite years of subsequent support and education, she never fully acquired language or typical social skills. Sociologists use such cases carefully: they do not prove that humans are ‘blank slates’, but they do demonstrate that the capacity for language, social interaction and the acquisition of cultural norms requires an active social environment in early life. Without socialisation, human biological potential remains largely unrealised.
Primary and Secondary Socialisation
Primary socialisation happens in the family in early childhood. It is here that children first learn language, basic rules of behaviour, emotional responses and a sense of who they are. Parsons, writing from a functionalist perspective, argued that the family is the irreplaceable site of primary socialisation because it transmits the core values of society to each new generation and provides the stable emotional environment children need to develop healthy personalities. From a feminist perspective, Oakley noted that primary socialisation within the family is also where gendered identities are first established — children learn, very early, what is expected of them as boys or girls.
Secondary socialisation occurs through agencies outside the family — schools, peer groups, workplaces and the mass media. Each of these agencies reinforces or sometimes challenges the values first taught in the home. Secondary socialisation does not stop in adolescence; adults continue to be socialised throughout their lives through their workplaces, religious communities, friendship networks and media consumption.
The four main agents of socialisation are: family, education, peer group and mass media. Each transmits norms and values in different ways and at different life stages.
The Four Agents of Socialisation
The family is the primary agent of socialisation. Children learn language, basic manners, religious or cultural practices, and their earliest understanding of gender roles through observation of and interaction with family members. A child growing up in a family where gender roles are strongly divided will learn different expectations about men’s and women’s behaviour than a child growing up in a family where roles are more equal.
Education is the main secondary agent of socialisation for most children. Schools transmit shared cultural knowledge (through the formal curriculum) and also the values of punctuality, discipline and deference to authority (through what sociologists call the hidden curriculum). Bowles and Gintis argued that education socialises children into acceptance of a hierarchical workplace; teachers model authority and students learn to follow instructions without question.
Peer groups become increasingly important during adolescence. The influence of friends and social networks can reinforce norms learned at home or provide alternative value systems that challenge parental expectations. Willis’s 1977 study Learning to Labour showed how working-class ‘lads’ developed a counter-school culture through peer-group interaction, adopting values of manual toughness and resistance to academic authority in deliberate contrast to the values promoted by teachers.
The mass media — television, social media, film, music, advertising — reaches individuals across all life stages and saturates everyday experience. The media presents images of ‘normal’ body types, relationship forms, gender roles and social aspirations that shape how individuals understand themselves and others. Feminists have highlighted how media representations often reinforce traditional and patriarchal gender norms, presenting a narrow range of what it means to be a woman or a man.
Identity: Who Am I?
Sociologists identify several key dimensions of identity. Gender identity refers to a person’s understanding of themselves in relation to gender, shaped through socialisation from birth. Class identity emerges from a person’s social position and material circumstances; people in different class positions often develop distinct values, expectations and cultural tastes. Ethnic identity is formed through shared cultural heritage, language, religion and history, and can be a source of community and belonging as well as of discrimination and inequality.
Identity is not fixed at birth; it is negotiated, contested and reshaped throughout life. Sociologists note that modern societies offer individuals a wider range of possible identities than in the past — in terms of family form, gender expression, occupational roles and cultural affiliations. At the same time, structural factors such as class, gender and ethnicity continue to shape the identities available to different groups.
Socialisation and social control are closely linked. Formal social control is exercised through official institutions — the police, courts, schools, government — which use written rules and legal sanctions to encourage conformity. Informal social control operates through everyday social interaction — family disapproval, peer-group pressure, community gossip, social ostracism. For most people, informal social control is far more powerful in everyday life than formal control. The desire to belong, to be respected and to avoid shame are powerful motivators of conformity with social norms.
Primary socialisation (in the family) establishes the basic norms, values and identity of the child. Secondary socialisation (through school, peers and media) reinforces and sometimes challenges these. Parsons argued the family is irreplaceable for primary socialisation; Oakley highlighted how even primary socialisation reproduces gender inequality through gendered toys, language and expectations.