👶 Primary socialisation
A toddler learns to speak, to eat in the way their family does, to say please and thank you and to know right from wrong. This happens before school and it forms the base for everything else.
Learning Our Identity » Primary and Secondary Socialisation: The Key Agencies
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 2.1.3
- The difference between primary and secondary socialisation
- The six key agencies of socialisation and what each one teaches
- How effective each agency is in the socialisation process
- How the influence of agencies changes across a person's life
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Unlock This CourseTwo stages of socialisation
You know that socialisation is the lifelong process of learning the way of life of our society (Nature or Nurture? How Identity Is Socially Constructed). But we do not learn everything at once, and we do not learn it all from the same people. Sociologists split socialisation into two stages.
Key terms:
- Primary socialisation: the first stage of socialisation, in early childhood, when we learn the basic language, norms and values of our society.
- Secondary socialisation: the later stage, from later childhood and throughout adult life, when we learn the norms and values that suit particular places and groups, such as school or work.
- Agency of socialisation: a group or institution that teaches people the norms and values of their society.
🎓 Secondary socialisation
A teenager learns how to behave in a lesson, how to talk to friends and, later, how to act in a job interview. Each setting has its own norms to learn.
Family: the main agency of primary socialisation
The family is the main agency of primary socialisation - our first language, manners and ideas of right and wrong
For most people, the family is the first agency they meet. Parents, carers, brothers, sisters and grandparents teach us our first language, our basic manners and our first ideas about right and wrong. They also pass on the customs and beliefs of the household, such as how festivals are celebrated.
How effective is it? The family is often seen as the most powerful agency because it comes first and because the bonds are close and emotional. A child has no other source of learning at the start. But families differ a lot, and some children are cared for by people other than their parents. As children grow, other agencies take over more of the teaching, so the family's influence can weaken.
Education
School is usually the first large, formal agency a child joins. It teaches knowledge and skills, but it also teaches norms such as being on time, following rules and respecting teachers. It teaches values such as achievement and fair competition.
How effective is it? In many societies education is compulsory and lasts for many years, so it reaches almost everyone for a long time. Pupils spend a large part of the week there. But the influence is limited to the school day, and some pupils reject the school's rules and values, so school is not always effective.
Peer group
Key term:
- Peer group: a group of people of a similar age and similar status, such as friends or classmates.
Peers teach us how to get on with people who are equals, unlike parents and teachers who are in charge. They teach us fashions, slang, music tastes and what is seen as "cool". Because we want to belong, the group can put pressure on us to fit in.
How effective is it? The peer group is very powerful in the teenage years, when young people care a great deal about friends and belonging. Its influence can be stronger than the family's on things like clothes and free time activities. But friendships change quickly, and peer groups often have less influence on the deeper values taught in the family.
Media
The mass media are forms of communication that reach very large audiences, such as television, newspapers, films, music and the internet, including social media. They show us how people live, what is seen as attractive or successful, and which behaviour is praised or criticised.
How effective is it? The media reaches huge numbers of people and many of us spend hours with it each day, so it can be very influential. But people do not just copy what they see. Audiences think about what they watch and may disagree with it, and it is hard to measure how much one media message changes anyone's behaviour. Its effect depends on who is watching and what else is teaching them.
Religion
Religious organisations teach beliefs about right and wrong, about how to live and about what matters in life. They also pass on customs, such as prayer, fasting and festivals. This often happens through families and religious communities together.
How effective is it? For people who are active believers, religion can be a very strong influence on daily life, from what they eat to how they dress. In some societies religion shapes the whole culture. In others, many people have little contact with religion, so its influence on them is weak. Its effectiveness varies between societies and between individuals.
Workplace
At work, adults go through secondary socialisation - learning their job's norms like how to dress and speak to customers
The workplace is an agency of secondary socialisation for adults. Workers learn the norms of their job, such as how to dress, how to speak to colleagues and customers, and how to meet deadlines. They also learn values such as teamwork, reliability and loyalty to an employer.
How effective is it? It is very effective in shaping behaviour at work, because people need their job and want to keep it. But its influence is mostly limited to work time and work behaviour, and not everyone has a paid job.
How influence changes across life
The importance of each agency changes as we get older.
- Early childhood: the family has the most influence.
- Childhood and teenage years: education and the peer group grow in importance, and the media becomes a bigger part of daily life.
- Adult life: the workplace takes over some of the influence, and people choose more freely whether religion or other groups matter to them.
No single agency works alone. The agencies often agree with each other, but sometimes they teach different things. For example, a peer group may value something the family does not.
Common mistakes
Saying that socialisation only happens in childhood. It is lifelong, and secondary socialisation carries on into adult life. Another mistake is to say that only the family socialises us. All six agencies matter, and in exam answers you should say how effective each one is, not just list them.
Exam-style question
(a) Define the term primary socialisation. [2 marks]
(b) Explain three ways in which the peer group may influence a teenager's behaviour. [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) Primary socialisation is the first stage of socialisation (1) in early childhood, when we learn the basic language, norms and values of our society (1).
(b) First, peers can influence what a teenager wears and listens to, because they want to be accepted by their friends and fit in (1 + 1). Second, peers can put pressure on a teenager to behave in a certain way, such as using the same slang or joining the same activities, because they fear being left out (1 + 1). Third, peers teach how to get on with equals, such as sharing and cooperating, which parents and teachers do not teach in the same way (1 + 1).
Exam tip
For an "explain" question, make each point, then add "because" and a reason. Three points with a reason each is worth more than a long list with no reasons.