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After reading this article you will learn about the effect of dependence and internalization of values on a child.
Effect of Dependence:
It has been seen how the parents are in a position to control their young children and see that they behave in a culturally desirable manner. Parents have abundant resources for rewarding and punishing the child. The main problem in socialization process is how these restrictions imposed from outside by the parents lead to inhibitions from within the child; how self-control and self-regulation take the place of a mere responsiveness to external rewards and punishments.
With development the individual applies internal standards to regulate and evaluate his own behaviour. His actions, instead of being control- Jed and directed by others, are now controlled and directed by himself. The problem of socialization is to study how this transformation of external control into internal control takes place; in other words, how internalization of the standards and values takes place.
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According to the learning theory neutral objects and events acquire value when they are paired with objects and events already valued. Neutral stimuli associated with such primary reinforcing stimuli such as food acquire reinforcing properties of their own. The parents use this principle to control the child’s behaviour and to expand the number of positive and negative values to which he will respond.
When some values become internalized in the socialization process, the actions are no longer linked with the primary biological drives. The internalized values persist as motives on their own strength. Allport (1937) introduced the term “functional autonomy” to explain how a person who accepts the job of a sailor in order to get his livelihood ends up by loving the sea.
Thus, the secondary motives do not have to be sustained by the primary motives; they attain their own potency; motives, once acquired, become autonomous. Similarly, McClelland (1951) has shown how a person keeps on trying in spite of failure and how some persons value achievement for its own sake. He showed how some conditions in childhood may be favourable to the development of such persistent behaviour tendencies.
Effect of Internalization of Values:
Internalization of values results in a stable personality which can function without the necessary support of either primary or secondary reinforces. Through such internalization the values sanctioned by culture become part of the personality. The individual learns to desire those things that are consistent with his role in society and therefore support the maintenance of these cultural values.
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Impulse Control:
Socialization also involves the control and diversion of those behaviour tendencies that threaten group maintenance and solidarity, like unrestrained aggression, promiscuous sexuality, inordinate greed, corruption, deceit, etc., Conformity to cultural values require not only following the approved ways but also the avoidance of the disapproved ways.
In all societies there is general cultural indulgence of impulsive behaviour in infancy; there is little concern over the infant’s aggressive tendencies, his expressions of sensuality and his urinary and bowel incontinence. Gradually, depending on cultural and family traditions, indulgence is replaced by active attempts by the parents, the socializing agents, to control those primitive urges; they are punished so that they do not recur. Punishment is a typical case of conditioning process. Formerly neutral parental frowns now acquire the force of painful stimuli. There is, as a result, the conditioned avoidance response to them.
Delay of Gratification:
One of the chief tasks of the socialization process is to make the child give up, what Freud identified as the “pleasure principle,” the immediate gratification of impulses. The child has to accept some delay in gratification. If this change does not occur, the child would remain a victim of momentary urges to impulsive behaviour.
Freud said that with development the child should move from the immediate demands of the “pleasure principle” to a recognition of the demands of the “reality principle.” He said that this transition is brought about by the emergence of an integrative ego which mediates between the demands of the id (the impulse life) and the demands of the super-ego (the representative of social reality that is internalised).
In a series of studies Mischel (1961) found that eight year old Negro children were content with a small immediate gratification rather than wait for a larger delayed gratification in contrast to Indian children of the same age in Trinidad. This confirmed the anthropological observation that Trinidad Negroes are impulsive and is satisfied with little gratifications which they can get immediately.
Mischel also found that juvenile delinquents were more likely than elementary school children to choose the immediate smaller rewards. He also showed that “need for achievement” as measured by a projective test was correlated with preference for larger delayed reward.
These studies show how training to delay gratification is an important aspect of socialization process. This depends on the development of trust in the parents. When the parent promises a reward after delay and fulfills the promise later on, the child will trust the parent and accept delay in gratification.