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This article throws light upon the top five mechanisms involved in the process of socialization. The mechanisms are: 1. Role-Play 2. Imitation 3. Identification 4. Internalisation 5. Empathy & Sympathy.
Mechanism # 1. Role-Play:
The reader as a child, must have undoubtedly imagined at some time that he was a doctor, sometimes a teacher, sometimes a bus conductor, sometimes a policeman and sometimes a father. While imagining himself to be one or the other of the above, he must have also acted as he perceived them, or saw them behave.
This process of imagining and visualizing oneself as someone else and acting like that person is generally described as ‘role-play’. Cine actors play the role of different characters. Psychologists have emphasised that such role-play is of crucial importance in the process of socialisation. While playing such roles, the individual is able to get a ‘feel’ of others and suitably modifies his responses.
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It gives him the vicarious experiences of others. As the individual grows, his capacity for playing roles increases both in variety and complexity. The increasing ability contributes very much to the process of socialisation. In fact, in many training programmes designed to improve the ability to understand other interpersonal relations, role-play is used as a technique. In fact, role-play as a mechanism is employed in many training programmes.
Mechanism # 2. Imitation:
Imitation is another mechanism which has been employed in explaining social learning. Even early instinct psychologists like Gabriel Trade employed the concept of imitation to explain the acquisition of social behaviour. According to Trade, every human being has a basic instinctive tendency to imitate, and he explains the acquisition of social behaviour as a result of the operation of this instinctive tendency. But, later psychologists while discarding the concept of instinct of imitation have however found it profitable, to use the concept of imitation to the development of human behaviour.
According to them, imitation is a mechanism and not an instinct. The reader may recall that while discussing social behaviour among animals, it was pointed out that even animals have the capacity for imitating or mimicking the behaviour of other animals. It was mentioned that in many species, such imitative behaviour of an elder member of the species or those just proximate was found to prevail. Many psychologists have emphasised the role of imitation in the process of socialisation.
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The reader may wonder about the difference between imitation and role- playing. Imitation is a more mechanical process of responding to a stimulus by repeating it. If ‘A’ bangs the table, ‘B’ also bangs the table. The interaction closes there. It is imitation. But role-pay goes much beyond. Role-play is not a simple, stimulus-response process.
Here, the individual in the absence of a stimulus creates a situation in his imagination and acts like another character. Role-play involves abstraction and elaboration while imitation does not. For example role-play is not found among animals or very young children.
Mechanism # 3. Identification:
A third mechanism which helps in the process of socialisation is the mechanism of identification. In fact, identification is the mechanism which brings about the difference between imitation and role-play. The process of identification implies that for the time being the individual imagines that he is somebody else and not himself.
Psychoanalytic theory has assigned a very prominent role to the mechanism of identification and elaborated on its role in both normal and abnormal social development. Psychoanalytic formulations are very emphatic that without the operation of the mechanism of identification, normal social development is not possible.
But if such identification goes beyond certain limits then the result will be abnormal behaviour. In role-play, such identification is temporary, but if a child permanently identifies himself with a particular character, it can have adverse effects. Though the concept of identification was originally formulated and developed by Sigmund Freud, subsequently some of the social learning theorists like Sears and Bandura have employed the concept of ‘identification’ in studying and analyzing and evaluating the process of socialisation or social learning’s.
Mechanism # 4. Internalisation:
Another important mechanism which plays a crucial role in the process of socialisation is ‘internalisation’. Internalisation is a process by which what we observe, experience or learn is retained, and made a part of one’s own behavioural system or psychological system. Thus, most of our values are just not learnt but internalised.
If they are not internalised, then they will have no influence on our behaviour. Much of our behaviour is governed by certain values. This is possible because of the mechanism of internalisation. Internalisation gives relative permanence to what we perceive and learn, and helps in arriving at an integrated psychological or behavioural system.
Most of us internalise certain values like not criticising elders, not offending others etc. We may well imagine the nature of social life if the capacity for internalisation is not there. Internalisation gives stability, continuity and consistency to social behaviour and even spontaneity.
Mechanism # 5. Empathy & Sympathy:
Empathy is the process by which we are able to feel exactly like another person. For example, while watching a boxing game, we find some people suddenly standing up and repeating the moves of a particular boxer. Similarly, while watching an athletic event like high jump, some people start jumping themselves. This is clearly seen in role-play.
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This process also plays a role in the process of socialisation. Sympathy is another mechanism which helps in the process of socialisation. Altruism and helping behaviour involve the operation of sympathy. The difference between empathy and sympathy is that while empathizing we lose our identity temporarily and behave like the other character with whom we are empathizing.
When sympathy comes into operation, the identity is not lost. In empathy there is total substitution of identity while in sympathy it is only an extension of feelings. For example, while watching a movie we often shed tears if somebody is shown to be suffering excessively. In sympathy we feel for another person, while in empathy we feel like another person.
On the other hand, in football when a player jumps up after scoring a goal, some spectators also jump up. This is empathy. Thus, it can be seen that the process of socialisation is made possible because of the operation of a number of psychological processes and mechanisms. The processes of perception, learning and motivation are basic while mechanisms like imitation, internalisation, identification, sympathy and empathy are secondary and come into operation later.