**6. Content and features of socialization**

Skills, knowledge, behaviors, and cultural values are passed down to future generations both formally and informally [49]. Formal or direct instruction and education, such as in schools, colleges, and religious institutions, is used to formalize transmission. Informal socialization, on the other hand, is carried out through folkways, customs, and cultural values, among other things [17]. The more agreeable the socializing agencies are, the more safely and quickly socialization occurs. According to studies, when there is a disagreement between the ideas, models, and abilities passed down by a child's peer group or between home and school, the individual's socialization is slowed and uncertain [6, 41]. Socialization inculcates basic discipline and self-controlling mechanisms. An individual learns to control his impulses and projects a disciplined behavior to gain social approval or for the sake of a future goal. Socialization helps to control human behavior [50]. This control through the process of socialization is exercised to maintain social order. Societies depend heavily upon effective socialization to internalize social norms and values as individual's guides and motives to action [50]. It does not cease or stop when a child becomes an adult, internalization of culture is continued over generations. Through this internalization, society perpetuates itself. Its members transmit cultural values to the next generation, and thus, society continues to exist [6]. Socialization has been depicted as a social learning process that is very important to the emergence of social selves as well as to the survival and development of individual societal relations and their cultural context [51]. More specifically, the contents of socialization include a shared system of meanings and symbols. These shared systems include a set of values, beliefs and practices, and shared forms of communication [52].

### **6.1 Values and beliefs**

Values are a cultural standard for discerning desirable states in a society like what is true, good, just, or beautiful [43]. Values are firmly ingrained in a culture's ideas and are essential for transmitting and teaching them. People's beliefs are their core tenets, attitudes, and convictions. Individuals in a society hold different opinions, but they all have common ideals. To show the distinction between value and beliefs, North Americans believe that anyone who works hard enough will be successful and affluent. The value that riches is good and desirable lies under this idea. Values assist in the shaping of a culture by indicating what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and what should be pursued or avoided [39]. Values often suggest how people should behave, but they do not accurately reflect how people do behave [43]. Classical sociologist like Harriet Martineau made a basic distinction between what people say they believe and what they do, which are often at odds [53]. Values depict an ideal culture; they are the ideals that society wishes to embrace and live up to. However, ideal culture differs from real culture, which is based on what happens and exists in society. There would be no traffic accidents, murders, poverty, or racial strife in an ideal culture [44]. However, in real life, police officers, legislators, educators, and social workers work tirelessly to avoid or correct such mishaps, crimes, and injustices [54].

The cultural standards used for the transmission of culture form one to the next generations and separate the potential consequence. For example, the number of unplanned pregnancies among teens reveals that not only is the ideal hard to live up to, but that the value alone is not enough to spare teenagers from the potential consequences of having sex. There are also several methods in which societies attempt to put values into practice. These could be in the form of prizes, sanctions, or penalties. People are frequently rewarded for adhering to society's conventions and upholding its principles. A youngster who assists an old woman in boarding a bus, for example, may be greeted with a grin and a thank you. A quarterly incentive may be given to a business management who improves profit margins [55].

People sanction particular behaviors by granting their support, approval, or permission, or by formally disapproving and refusing to support them [44]. Sanctions are a type of social control that encourages people to follow social norms. People may follow rules in the hopes of receiving beneficial consequences. Good grades, for example, may result in praise from parents and teachers [22]. People are punished when they act against a society's values. Other passengers may scowl or even reprimand a boy who pushes an older woman aside to board the bus first [44]. Breaking norms and rejecting values can lead to cultural sanctions such as earning a negative label or to legal sanctions. Values are not static, and vary across time, culture, and between groups as people evaluate, debate, and change collective societal beliefs. For example, cultures differ in their values about what kinds of physical closeness are appropriate in public [56].

#### **6.2 Norms**

Norms are the other content of socialization that might be transferred from one to the next generation. Often times, norms are described as how people are expected to behave in certain situations. Sociologists refer to norms as the visible and invisible rules of conduct that shape societies. A norm is a generally accepted manner of doing things, as opposed to values and beliefs, which specify desirable conditions and convictions about how things are. Norms explain how to act in accordance with what society has determined to be good, right, and significant, and most people of society adhere to them since breaking those results in some form of punishment. Norms are defined as the rules that govern behavior in general [28].

Norms can be categorized as formal and informal [18]. Formal norms are written regulations that have been established. They are behaviors that have been worked out and agreed upon to suit and serve the majority of people. Employee manuals, college entrance exam requirements, and no running in swimming pools are all

*Socialization Experiences among Undergraduate Students in Higher Learning Institutions (HLI) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99007*

formal rules [17]. Of the numerous forms of norms, formal norms are the most detailed and precisely expressed, as well as the most rigidly enforced. Even formal norms, however, are enforced to varied degrees, as cultural values reflect [17, 57]. There are many formal standards, but there is also a vast list of informal norms, or casual behaviors, that are commonly accepted. Observation, imitation, and general socialization are all ways that people learn informal norms. Some informal norms are taught directly, while others are learned by observation, such as the repercussions of others breaking a rule. Children learn quickly that picking your nose is subject to ridicule when they see someone shamed for it by other children. Although informal norms define personal interactions, they extend into other systems as well. Informal norms dictate appropriate behaviors without the need for written rules [17].

## *6.2.1 Mores, folkways, and taboos*

Mores, folkways, and taboos are all subcategories of norms. Mores are the social standards that express a group's moral values and principles. They are founded on social expectations. Violations can result in significant repercussions. The most powerful mores are protected by law or other formal rules. Murder, for example, is deemed immoral and punished by law. More often than not, social mores are judged and guarded by public opinion or an unwritten rule. People who break social norms are considered dishonorable [17]. They can even be avoided by some groups. For example, the mores of the school system require that a student's writing be in the student's own words or else the student should use special stylistic forms such as quotation marks and a system of citation for crediting the words to other writers. If they did not, it is considered plagiarism or cheating. Violations of this rule have serious ramifications, including expulsion and exclusion. Folkways, unlike mores, are norms that have no moral grounds or grounds. They are based on a person's social preferences. Folkways guide proper behavior in everyday cultural practices and expressions. When welcoming another individual, folkways advise whether to shake hands or kiss the cheek. Folkways are not serious enough to be termed mores, but they are serious enough to end a relationship before it really gets started. Folkways may be minor etiquette, but they are far from insignificant. Taboos are activities that are strictly prohibited by sincerely held sacred beliefs [58].

They are the most powerful and deeply rooted conventions. Their misdeeds and misconducts elicit revulsion or disgust, as well as harsh retribution. The word taboo originally meant sanctified, inviolable, forbidden, unclean, or cursed. The restriction had a clear supernatural context; the deed had offended the ancestors and elicited their wrath [1]. In everyday life, many mores, folkways, and taboos are taken for granted. To get through daily routines smoothly, people must behave without thinking; we cannot stop and examine every movement. Individual efforts can be continuously coordinated and concerted thanks to the many degrees of norm. These several levels of norm assist people in navigating their daily lives within a specific culture, and their study is essential for comprehending cultural differences [59].

#### *6.2.2 Symbols and language*

Humans are constantly trying to make sense of their surroundings. Symbols are tangible marks that stand in for or symbolize something else, such as gestures, signs, objects, signals, and phrases. Symbols can help us understand the underlying experiences, statuses, states, and ideas that they represent. They communicate recognizable meanings that are universally understood [44]. You cannot say anything that is, anything you say that has any meaning at all is universal. The world is filled

with symbols. Some symbols are highly functional; for instance, stop signs provide useful instruction. As physical objects, they belong to material culture, but because they function as symbols, they also convey nonmaterial cultural meanings. Some symbols are only valuable in what they represent. Many objects have both material and nonmaterial symbolic value. Therefore, symbols will be socialized content [60].
