The Five Agents of Socialization

In the unit four section in sociology, one discusses the five agents of socialization. The five agents of socialization are Family, Education, Government/ Politics/Economics, religion, and sports. These are classified as agents of socialization because these are the main places where socialization takes place. Each of the five agents plays a major role in how a person may act in society.

The first of the five agents would be family; this is an agent because it is the first social group and environment the one is introduced to. One is born into a family and they are the only people you interact with so you learn how to socialize from them. For example, if one grows up in a home where there is constant yelling and aggression; one assumes/learns that when confronted with a problem one simply yells and or hit the object of aggression. The idea of a family most people have is actually referred to as a nuclear family. Nuclear families consist of one or more parent and a child or children. Some families have different ways are operating. There are some families that are patriarchy which means that the eldest man has authority over the house hold. There are some families that are matriarchy which means that the eldest woman has authority over the house hold. There are also some families that are equalitarian which means that the eldest man and women have authority over the house hold; which is more commonly practiced in the western hemisphere. There are three different perspectives in which you can look at family with conflict theorist's perspective, functionalist theorists' perspective, and symbolic internationalist's perspective. The functionalists believe in socioemotion of acceptance which is a provision of acceptance and support. They feel that the family socializes the youth, give emotional and physical support, regulates reproduction and also regulates sexual activities.

The second agent of socialization is education; school is the second place where you begin to learn the rules of society. Schools transmit culture by instilling in students the basic values and norms of society. The educational system creates a common identity for students by having them all exposed to the same informational materials. Schools promote personal growth and development of its students by exposing them to a wide variety of information that they would otherwise never be introduced to. Though school is strictly for education it is one of the main social institutions for youth. However, the socialization of the youth is simply a latent function. This means that the socialization of youth is simply an unintended and unrecognized result. All these statements prior to this could be considered part of the functionalist's perspective. Conflict theorists believe that the educational system is not a meritocracy though it tries to portray itself as one. America's educational system cannot truly be considered a meritocracy due to the fact that there are too many barriers such as race, gender, and ethnicity. For example it is statistically proven that minorities have lower SAT scores then white students. SAT scores are the basis of what school one will gain acceptance in and the school one goes to sets up how successful they can be in their everyday life. Usually the fact that high SAT scores can equal rewards would make America a meritocracy; however, people use their social standing and their social influence to create an uneven playing field. For the symbolic interactionism theorists; they believe that education has a hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum is the non- academic agenda that teaches things such as discipline, cooperativeness, order, and conformity. There is also a sense of patriotism in the hidden curriculum; for example, students begin to have a sense of civic duty because most history books generally present a view of history that shows favors the country in which it was published. One issue that the symbolic interactionism theorists have found with the education system is that sometimes even the best of teachers can unconsciously show a form of sexism. American teachers seem to treat female students unfairly; they give girls unjustified "special" treatment based on assumptions and stereotype of what appropriate behavior should be; hence the phrase "that's not lady like".

Government is an important way of learning socialization because of the fact that they create laws around theirs society's norms values and mores. There are two main types of government and they are capitalism and socialization. Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of property and the pursuit of profit. Capitalism is thought to benefit society because a combination of the private ownership of property and the pursuit of profit brings advantages to society. The government role in a capitalist society is to simply go with the hands off approach.