Explain the meaning of socialisation and distinguish its different forms

What this dot point is asking

The TASC course opens Module 1 by asking you to define socialisation precisely and then to distinguish its different forms. This is more demanding than it sounds: the course names primary, secondary and tertiary socialisation, and also resocialisation, desocialisation and anticipatory socialisation. You need to explain each clearly, give an Australian example, and show that socialisation is a lifelong process rather than something that finishes in childhood.

The meaning of socialisation

Socialisation is the process by which individuals learn the norms, values, language, roles and skills of their culture so they can function as members of society. Emile Durkheim argued that society exists inside us through this process: without it there would be no shared moral order. Because culture is learned and not inherited biologically, socialisation is how each society reproduces itself in every new generation. It is continuous, beginning at birth and continuing until death, which is why the course distinguishes several forms tied to different life stages.

Primary socialisation

Primary socialisation occurs in early childhood and takes place overwhelmingly within the family. Here the child learns language, basic norms, emotional control and the foundations of identity. Talcott Parsons described the family as a factory producing human personalities, because it lays down the deepest layer of culture before the child encounters any other institution. Australian examples include learning to use cutlery, to say please and thank you, and to recognise the difference between right and wrong.

Secondary socialisation

Secondary socialisation continues throughout life through institutions beyond the family. At school children learn to follow rules, defer to authority and cooperate with strangers. Peer groups reward conformity to group norms, the media shape expectations about gender and consumption, and workplaces teach occupational norms. These secondary agents sometimes conflict with the family, which is one reason adolescence can be a period of tension as different sources of socialisation compete.

Tertiary socialisation

Tertiary socialisation refers to learning that occurs in later adulthood, often through new media, community organisations or institutions encountered well beyond the workplace. An Australian example is an older person learning the norms of online communication, digital banking or social media after retirement. It shows that socialisation never stops: society keeps presenting new norms that individuals must absorb to participate fully.

Resocialisation and desocialisation

Resocialisation is the process of unlearning previous norms and learning new ones, usually when a person moves into a very different social setting. Erving Goffman studied total institutions such as prisons and the military, where recruits undergo desocialisation, the deliberate stripping away of a former identity through uniforms, haircuts and loss of personal possessions, before being resocialised into the institution's culture. An Australian example is a recruit entering the Australian Defence Force, who is broken down and rebuilt into a soldier with new values and routines.

Anticipatory socialisation

Anticipatory socialisation is the rehearsing of a role before you actually occupy it. A medical student adopting the manner of a doctor, or a Year 12 student practising the habits of university study, is engaging in anticipatory socialisation. Robert Merton highlighted how people adopt the values of a group they hope to join, which smooths the eventual transition into that role.

When you reach the theories of socialisation and the study of identity, these forms become the raw material: each perspective explains the same processes differently, and identity is built up through them over the entire life course.