Factors of socialization: meso, macro and micro factors

Macrofactors of socialization

Macro factors of socialization influence the socialization of all humanity or very large groups of people living in certain countries.

Macro factors include:

Universe, or Space.
Planet Earth.
The entire human community.
A country is a territory that has borders, distinguished from other territories by natural conditions and geographical location.
Society is a set of social relations that have developed between people in a country, including in its structure the family, the state, age, social, professional and other groups.
The state is a part of the political system of society that has power functions.
Natural environment or geographical factor.

In the modern world, there are many problems that affect the living conditions of the individual and have an indirect or direct impact on the socialization of the individual:

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Environmental problems – environmental pollution.
Demographic problems - growth or decline in the population of individual countries.
Economic problems - economic crises, increasing gaps in the level of economic development of individual countries and continents.
Military-political problems - the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the increase in the number of regional conflicts, political instability.

The socialization of an individual is influenced by the characteristics of the sex-role structure of society, predetermining ideas about the status of gender, sex-role expectations, and self-determination.

The state acts as:

factor of socially controlled socialization: participation in the creation of educational and educational institutions (kindergartens, schools, colleges, institutes, institutions for children with poor health, etc.);
factor regarding directed socialization: determination of the mandatory minimum education, length of service in the army, age of marriage, etc.);
factor of spontaneous socialization: ideology, politics, social and economic practices characteristic of a given state form certain conditions for the life of its citizens.

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Factors of socialization and personality formation

Socialization, as already noted, is carried out in various situations that arise as a result of the interaction of many circumstances. It is the cumulative influence of these circumstances on a person that requires him to behave and be active. Factors of socialization are those circumstances under which conditions are created for the processes of socialization to take place. As there are many circumstances and options for their combination, there are also many factors (conditions) of socialization. One could even argue that they are not all known yet, and those that we know are not fully understood.

In domestic and Western science there are various classifications of socialization factors. However, we consider the one proposed by A.V. Mudrik to be the most logical and productive for pedagogy. He identified the main factors of socialization, combining them into three groups :

macro factors (space, planet, world, country, society, state) that influence the socialization of all inhabitants of the planet or very large groups of people living in certain countries;
mesofactors (meso - average, intermediate) - conditions for the socialization of large groups of people identified on the basis of nationality (ethnicity as a factor of socialization); by the place and type of settlement in which they live (region, village, city, town); by belonging to the audience of certain mass communication networks (radio, television, cinema, etc.);
microfactors, these include those that have a direct impact on specific people: family, peer groups, microsociety, organizations in which social education is carried out - educational, professional, public, etc.

Microfactors, as sociologists note, influence human development through the so-called agents of socialization, i.e., persons in direct interaction with whom his life takes place. At different age stages, the composition of agents is specific. Thus, in relation to children and adolescents, these are parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, peers, neighbors, and teachers. In adolescence or young adulthood, the number of agents also includes a spouse, colleagues at work, study and military service. In adulthood, one’s own children are added, and in old age, members of their families are added. I. S. Kon quite rightly asserts that there is no hierarchy of agents of socialization in terms of the degree of their influence and significance, which would not depend on the social system, the kinship system and family structure.

Socialization is carried out using a wide range of means specific to a particular society, social stratum, and age of a person. These include methods of feeding and caring for the baby; methods of reward and punishment in the family, in peer groups, in educational and professional groups; various types and types of relationships in the main spheres of human life (communication, play, cognition, subject-practical and spiritual-practical activities, sports).

Research shows that the better organized social groups are, the greater the opportunities to have a socializing influence on an individual. However, social groups are unequal in their ability to influence a person at various stages of his ontogenetic development. Thus, in early and preschool age, the family has the greatest influence. In adolescence and adolescence, the influence of peer groups increases and is most effective; in adulthood, the class, work or professional collective, and individuals take first place in importance. There are socialization factors whose value remains throughout a person’s life. This is a nation, mentality, ethnicity.

In recent years, scientists have been attaching increasing importance to macrofactors of socialization, including natural and geographical conditions, since it has been established that they influence the formation of personality in both direct and indirect ways. Knowledge of the macrofactors of socialization allows us to understand the specifics of the manifestation of the general laws of development of the individual as a representative of Homo sapiens (the human race), and to be convinced of the power of upbringing. Today it becomes clear that without taking into account the influence of macrofactors of socialization, it is impossible to develop a scientifically based even regional program for the socialization and education of the younger generation, not to mention the state and interstate.

Paying tribute to the role of the socializing influence of macrofactors, large and small groups, it is necessary to take into account that the greatest influence on the individual is exerted by another person, who is our referent and authoritative.

If for a long time, when considering socialization processes, factors were only named, and at best their influence on a person was modeled, now it is more often said that socialization factors are a developmental environment that is not something spontaneous and random. It must be designed, well organized and even built. The main requirement for a developmental environment is to create an atmosphere in which humane relations, trust, safety, and the opportunity for personal growth will prevail. It should contain opportunities for self-realization of freedom of creativity, aesthetic and moral development, receiving pleasure from joint actions and communication, from life in general.

Socialization factors are also environmental factors in personality formation. However, unlike socialization, the factors of personality formation are supplemented by a biological factor. In foreign pedagogy, in a number of cases, it is given a primary role. Thus, according to some scientists, the environment, training and upbringing are only conditions for self-development, the manifestation of naturally determined mental characteristics. In support of their conclusions, they refer to data from a comparative study of the development of twins.

Indeed, the influence of the biological factor on the formation of personality cannot be ignored simply because a person is a living organism, whose life is subject to both the general laws of biology and the special laws of anatomy and physiology. But it is not personality traits that are inherited, but certain inclinations. Inclinations are a natural disposition to a particular activity. There are two types of inclinations: universal (the structure of the brain, central nervous system, receptors); individual differences in natural data (features of the type of nervous system, analyzers, etc.).

Domestic pedagogy does not deny the influence of the biological factor on the formation of personality, but also does not assign it a decisive role, as behaviorists do. Whether inclinations will develop and become abilities depends on social conditions, training and upbringing, i.e. the influence of heredity is always mediated by training, upbringing and social conditions. This thesis is also true with regard to the individual differences that underlie individual abilities.

Thus, natural characteristics are important prerequisites, factors, but not driving forces in the formation of personality. The brain as a biological formation is a prerequisite for the emergence of consciousness, but consciousness is a product of human social existence. The more complex an education is in its mental structure, the less it depends on natural characteristics.

Natural features determine different ways and methods of formation of mental properties. They can influence the level and height of a person’s achievements in any area. Moreover, their impact on the individual is not direct, but indirect. No congenital feature is neutral, since it is socialized and imbued with personal attitudes (for example, dwarfism, lameness, etc.). The role of natural factors varies at different age stages: the younger the age, the more natural characteristics affect the formation of personality.

At the same time, the role of social factors in personality formation cannot be overestimated. Aristotle also wrote that “the soul is an unwritten book of nature; experience writes its writings on its pages.” D. Locke believed that a person is born with a pure soul, like a board covered with wax. Education writes on this board whatever it pleases (tabula rasa). The French philosopher C. A. Helvetius taught that all people from birth have the same potential for mental and moral development, and differences in mental characteristics are explained exclusively by different environmental influences and different educational influences.

The social environment is understood in this case metaphysically, as something unchangeable, fatally predetermining the fate of a person, and a person is considered as a passive object of environmental influence.

The revaluation of the role of the environment, the assertion that human development is determined by the environment (Helvetius, Diderot, Owen), led to the conclusion: in order to change a person, it is necessary to change the environment. But the environment is, first of all, people, so it turns out to be a vicious circle. To change the environment, you need to change people. However, a person is not a passive product of his environment; he also influences it. By changing the environment, a person thereby changes himself. Change and development are carried out in activity.

Recognition of the activity of the individual as the leading factor in its formation raises the question of purposeful activity, self-development of the individual, i.e., continuous work on oneself, on one’s own spiritual growth. Self-development provides the opportunity to consistently complicate the tasks and content of education, implement age-specific and individual approaches, form the creative individuality of the student and at the same time carry out collective education and stimulate self-government of the individual with his further development.

A person develops to the extent that he “appropriates human reality”, to the extent that he masters the accumulated experience. This position is of great importance for pedagogy. The formative influences of the environment, training and upbringing, and natural inclinations become factors in the development of the individual only through his active activity.

“A person,” writes G. S. Batishchev, “cannot be ‘made’, ‘produced’, ‘fashioned’ as a thing, as a product, as a passive result of external influence - but one can only determine his inclusion in activity, cause his own activity and exclusively through the mechanism of his own activity—joint with other people—he is formed into what this (social, essentially collective) activity (labor) makes him…”

The nature of the development of each individual, the breadth and depth of this development under the same conditions of training and upbringing depend mainly on her own efforts, on the energy and efficiency that she displays in various types of activities, of course, with appropriate adjustments for natural inclinations. This is precisely what in many cases explains the differences in the development of individual people, including schoolchildren, who live and are brought up in the same environmental conditions and experience approximately the same educational influences.

Domestic pedagogy is based on the recognition that free and harmonious development of the individual is possible in conditions of collective activity. One cannot but agree that, under certain conditions, the collective neutralizes the individual. However, on the other hand, individuality can be developed and find its manifestation only in a team. The organization of various forms of collective activity (educational and cognitive, labor, artistic and aesthetic, etc.) contributes to the manifestation of the creative potential of the individual. The role of the collective in the formation of the ideological and moral orientation of the individual and his social civic position is irreplaceable. In a team, in conditions of empathy and awareness of the personal involvement of interacting people, emotional development occurs. The team with its public opinion, traditions, and customs is indispensable as a factor in the formation of generalized positive experience, as well as socially significant skills and habits of social behavior.

Mesofactors of socialization

Mesofactors of socialization are certain conditions for the socialization of groups of people united:

national sign;
type and location of settlement (town, village, city, region);
belonging to the audience of one or another mass communication medium (computers, television, radio, cinema, etc.).

Ethnic characteristics that influence the method of socialization are divided into:

vital, or vital (health, nutrition, methods of physical development);
mental or spiritual.

Features of socialization, determined by the type and place of socialization:

Significant social control over individual behavior, openness in communication in towns and villages.
A wide choice of value systems, communication groups, lifestyle, significant opportunities for self-realization in the city.
Main functions of mass media:
Socio-psychological function: the need for connections with other people, satisfaction in receiving information that supports his ideas, values, views.
Dissemination of knowledge in the field of science and culture.
Social management and regulation, maintaining public relations.

Socialization concept

The definition of socialization is the process of a person’s entry into society. First, he becomes familiar with the norms and rules of behavior, traditions and customs, values and morals of the social structure. Inclusion in a team allows the subject to become useful and necessary, develop relationships with others, create new connections and gain experience.

Personal socialization is a process that is considered very difficult and long. Many specialists in the field of psychology have been studying this concept for years and strive to help clients who have a hard time accepting their growing up or a new team. A person’s whole life consists of constant adaptation to new conditions, while it is important to have time to self-actualize and remain active.

Individual, individuality, PERSONALITY

Certain problems may arise during the process. They are divided into three groups:

socio-psychological;
cultural;
socio-cultural.

The first group is associated with the formation of self-awareness and self-development. These stages are very important for the individual, but often a person neglects the problems that arise and drives them deeper into consciousness. Cultural issues may vary from region to region. They are associated with traditions and customs, gender division. The third group is associated with the introduction of a person to a particular culture. It concerns the worldview, moral and spiritual values, and is of a moral, semantic and cognitive nature.

According to Wikipedia, socialization is divided into two types: primary and secondary. The first consists of relatives, close friends, acquaintances, teachers and colleagues. The second includes the media, public organizations, government, and the church. Primary socialization occurs in the first 15-20 years of life, when a person attends educational institutions and is just learning to communicate with other people. Upon contact with formal groups and organizations, a secondary type occurs.

Characteristics of stages

The period of socialization consists of three phases: in the first, norms and values, conditions for compliance with society are briefly mastered; during the second, the person strives to self-actualize, learns to influence other members of society; the introduction of a person into a social group, where he will reveal his character and abilities, occurs on the third. With proper formation, the transition from one phase to another occurs gradually, subject to all conditions.

There are three stages of socialization in a team:

pre-labor;
labor;
post-work.

The first stage lasts about 20-25 years. During this time, a person graduates from kindergarten, school, receives a higher education and tries to find his first stable job and future spouse. During this period, approximately 70% of the personality is formed, this happens naturally until the age of seven. During adolescence, not only the internal worldview changes, but also the child’s physiology. A person has more and more duties and responsibilities.

The most dangerous age is considered to be 16 years old, since at this time school, where studies lasted 9-11 years, is replaced by institute. Accordingly, the life schedule and the team will be different. A teenager not only changes his social circle and place of residence, internal changes occur, and a different system of principles and norms is established.

Topic 2. Socialization

The first job appears at the age of 18-25, work experience, friendships and love relationships appear. If new information is perceived incorrectly, a person may withdraw into himself and withdraw from society. In later years, all previously acquired knowledge and experience are only strengthened and passed on to the younger generation.

The socialization process must occur correctly, taking into account all conditions and smooth transitions. Parents and teachers need to pay attention to the psychological state of children and adolescents, because it is up to the age of 18 that the individual actively develops and a suitable team is selected.

Socialization