Forms of Socialisation - TCE Sociology (Tasmania) - Level 3
“Explain the meaning of socialisation and distinguish its different forms”
Socialisation is the lifelong process through which people learn and internalise the culture of their society. Primary socialisation happens in early childhood through the family; secondary socialisation continues through school, peers, media and work; tertiary socialisation is learning in later adulthood. Resocialisation means unlearning old norms and learning new ones, desocialisation means stripping away a former identity, and anticipatory socialisation means rehearsing a role before you occupy it.
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.
Internalisation is the process of taking external social rules and making them part of your own thinking, so that you follow norms without being forced. Once a norm is internalised it feels natural and personal, which is why socialisation is so powerful. It is the mechanism that turns society's expectations into individual conscience.
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.
Primary is early childhood and the family; secondary is wider institutions across most of life; tertiary is later adulthood. Resocialisation, desocialisation and anticipatory socialisation are not life stages but processes that can occur at any point when someone changes their social position or prepares to.
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.
A common task asks you to explain and distinguish the forms. Work through it in steps.
Step 1: Define socialisation
Open with a precise definition: the lifelong process of learning and internalising the norms, values and roles of a culture.
Step 2: Set out the life-stage forms
Distinguish primary (childhood, family), secondary (wider institutions across life) and tertiary (later adulthood), giving an example of each.
Step 3: Set out the process forms
Distinguish resocialisation, desocialisation and anticipatory socialisation, attaching Goffman to total institutions and Merton to anticipatory socialisation.
Step 4: Explain why the distinctions matter
Conclude that the forms prove socialisation is lifelong and active, not something that finishes in childhood.
A common error is to write as though socialisation ends once we grow up. The whole point of distinguishing secondary, tertiary, resocialisation and anticipatory forms is that learning culture is lifelong. Strong answers stress that adults are constantly socialised into new roles, from new jobs to retirement.
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.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of TASC exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
Practice5 marksDistinguish between resocialisation and anticipatory socialisation, giving one example of each.Show worked answer →
A 5 mark short-answer response needs both processes defined and one correct example each.
Resocialisation. The process of unlearning previous norms and learning new ones when a person moves into a very different social setting. Example: a recruit entering the Australian Defence Force is broken down and rebuilt with new values and routines (Goffman's total institutions).
Anticipatory socialisation. The rehearsing of a role before you actually occupy it. Example: a Year 12 student practising the habits of university study, or a medical student adopting the manner of a doctor (Merton).
Markers reward both processes defined and an example matched to the correct process. A common loss of marks is swapping the examples or confusing resocialisation with secondary socialisation.
Practice14 marksExplain the meaning of socialisation and discuss why sociologists distinguish its different forms.Show worked answer →
A 14 mark extended response needs the meaning of socialisation plus an account of the forms and why the distinctions matter.
Meaning. Socialisation is the lifelong process by which individuals learn the norms, values, language, roles and skills of their culture. Durkheim argued society exists inside us through this process; it is how each society reproduces itself.
The forms tied to life stages. Primary (early childhood, family; Parsons's personality factory), secondary (school, peers, media, work across most of life), and tertiary (later adulthood, for example an older person learning digital norms).
The process forms. Resocialisation (unlearning and relearning, Goffman's total institutions), desocialisation (stripping away a former identity through uniforms and loss of possessions) and anticipatory socialisation (rehearsing a future role, Merton).
Why distinguish them. The distinctions show socialisation is lifelong, not finished in childhood, and capture different mechanisms (life stage versus role change). A strong answer concludes that the forms together prove socialisation is continuous and active. Markers reward the meaning, the named forms with examples, and a reason the distinctions matter.