Six Agents Of Socialization

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Six Agents of Socialization “Socialization agents are people, or sources, or structures that pass on social expectations” (Andersen & Taylor, 2011, p.78). These six agents are family, media, peers, religion, sports and schools. Each individual agent affects a person in its own individual way making us who we are and will become in the future. One of the first places we learn socialization if from our family starting with our parents. Family is our first real influence on learning what the “expectations of society” (Andersen & Taylor, 2011, p.78) are and how we approach them. How a parent treats a child can be a great learning tool as to how to treat others. A child learns how to do all the basic things of life by their parents. So how a family lives in society is where our socialization begins. The media plays a large part in many people’s lives and how they perceive things such as images of people, how they talk, violence and sexual activity. Depending on the type of media, such as TV, internet or books, we often can feel that we need to portray ourselves in a different manner based on what we have viewed. Such as how a young girl may view herself based on a picture she sees in a magazine or on the internet. Our peers are another source of socialization. Often what children see a friend or sibling doing can dictate how they do things. Such as how my 13 year old daughter does things based on what my 18 year old daughter does. The 13 year old is growing up at a much faster rate than the 18 year old did because her influences are different. Their peers are often a source of how I see them socializing. “But mom, my friends have a cell phones” was a phrase I heard on a daily basis for quite some time. They needed to have what their peers had to feel importance. Religion is a form of socialization for many people. People find religion to be comforting

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