**4. Socialization as a communicative process**

designation. So, one does not need any special evidence to assert that without mastering the means of language, such rational structuring of reality remains inaccessible for the child.

Further, the child's mastery of the norms and rules of social behavior structures the social world for him/her, resulting in understanding what the patterns of tabooed and socially approved behavior are. Finally, the gradual actualization of these abilities creates conditions for the development of the child's self-consciousness, the appearance in his/her mind of a reflective position that allows one to apprehend one's own being among other objects of reality. Such reflection is realized from the point of those meanings that are transmitted to the child by the surrounding society culture through the active agents partaking in socialization. Thus, the child becomes proficient in the basic cognitive products of his/her society, which express the basic content of culture, and becomes able to reproduce them in his/her social behavior.

Another example of the process of socialization as the mastery of rationality is the socialization of a new employee in any formal organization—an enterprise, an institution, or a company. In order to acquire the ability to act effectively in the organization, to fulfill their duties, the new employee must become fluent in the system of symbols that is used for communication in the organization and to structure it. The organization may consist of departments, brigades, shifts, and other parts, which are called by the appropriate names. Not having learned the symbols of the organization and the language of the correspondent communication, the employee will not be able to integrate into the organization's social processes. This statement is particularly relevant for specific organizations in highly specialized industries where spe-

Next, the new employee is tasked with mastering the normative and value regulators in the organization. This task covers internalizing of the basic rules of social behavior and the values of corporate culture. The systemic effect of the new employee learning about these conditions of the organization's existence and development is the formation of a special reflexive position allowing him/her to regard himself/herself as the employee of this very organization. The employee separates himself/herself as a company employee from himself/herself as a private person or as a family member and is aware of the differences in these statuses. Under the condition that the new employees acquire these aspects of rationality, their socialization in

Actualization of the individual's ability to rational (i.e., discrete, normative, symbolic, and reflective) reproduction of reality is a necessary factor for mastering the societal culture. This is obvious, given that the culture of human society, understood as the total set of the supra-biologic programs of social behavior, is based on these human abilities. In case when the process of socialization does not solve the problem of actualization of the individual's given abilities, the individual does not acquire the skills necessary to live in human society, the contents of culture

Summing it up, acquiring rationality in the course of socialization is a communicative process that can happen exclusively in human society. Outside society, there is no position capable of communication [36]. Rationality is an attribute of social reality that cannot exist beyond its limits. In this sense, rationality is "a totemic symbol of a person's special position

become inaccessible to the individual, who remains predominantly a biological being.

cial symbolic systems are used.

10 Socialization - A Multidimensional Perspective

the organization is successful.

A necessary condition for mastering rationality in the socialization process are social and group interactions and, more broadly, a person's ability to communicate [40]. Social communication is a key factor in actualizing the individual's ability to reflect reality discretely and comprehend the world as a structure. The methods of the reality discrete reflection such as a word, a number, symbols of artificial language systems, are social conventions (agreements) that have been formed during communication. At the heart of these conventions, there are common patterns of activity that most individuals realize in their behavior.

Such properties of rationality as normativity and the reality symbolic reflection also have a social and conventional nature and are the result of group communication. Social norms and symbolic systems (both natural and artificial) are a product of communication in social systems and do not exist outside of them.

Meanwhile, social-group interactions are a necessary condition for reflexivity as a rationality characteristic. Let us consider this process in more detail. It is of fundamental importance for mastering rationality in the course of socialization.

To actualize the reflecting ability in the process of socialization, the individual must acquire the cognitive position, as if located outside of oneself. Thus, the subject is capable of reflection only when he/she is outside the reflected area. This is a position on which the individuals can analyze their own social being using their language and thinking. Such cognitive reflection becomes possible in the course of the group social interactions. Group interactions generate the effect of the "self-duplication," i.e., the formation of meta-position with respect to the individual's social activity (the effect of "the observation of the observer" [41]).

This effect of the "self-duplication" becomes possible in the course of socialization by introducing a metasubject in the structure of group communication. This metasubject is at a higher reflective level and reflects on the activity of the first subject. In this case, every social actor acts as a metasubject in relation to other actors. The reciprocal reflection of the plethora of social actors in meta-positions in relation to each other creates a reflective space in which the individual subject acquires the ability to understand their own bases of activity through reflection in the products of the social group's reflective activity. As Mureiko writes, the organized normalized interaction of social groups provides the opportunity for the individual to identify oneself as a subject and the subject's self-control [42].

This understanding of the reflexive process has theoretical surmises in sociology and the psychology of behavior. Theorists of symbolic interactionism interpret social interactions as a system of mutual reflection and use for its description another terminology. Mead remarks about the formation of the self (distinguishing human societies from animals), as, in fact, the product of the mutual reflection of social actors carried out through meaningful symbols. In the process of such reflection, one takes the role of the other, which means the process of successively developing stages—games and competitions. As a result, there appears a reflexive set of group conventions that determine the structure of the individual's self [43].

Similarly, the self is conceived in the theory of the "looking-glass self" by Cooley: the determining meaning for the formation of the social actor's self is the existence of group assessments and opinions that make the reflective scope of its self-identity [44].

Vygotsky, pointing to the reflexive nature of consciousness, affirms the equality of the mechanisms of self-cognition and the knowledge of others. The individual is aware of oneself insofar as he/she is aware of others, because he/she is aware of himself/herself. Consciousness cannot be directed to itself because it cannot become an irritant to a new reflex. "I am aware of myself only insofar as I am Other to myself, that is I can perceive my own reflexes as new stimuli again and again" [45]. The opportunity to "become Other for oneself" is realized in group interaction—in the cognitive reflection of the actor's behavior in the group members' minds. Thus, consciousness is "a kind of social contact with oneself," a necessary condition of which is social contacts with other actors.

In general, the reflection at the social group level has a mutually directed character and functions as a self-reproducing and self-developing system. In the course of this process, social norms, group values, behavior patterns, language, traditions, and other components that make up the culture of society are formed and consolidated by linguistic means. The cognitive shape of these conventions (their expression by linguistic means) is a manifestation of rationality. This allows us to define the reflexive process in a social group as the cognitive self-reversal nature of social practice.

Taking into account the existing criticism of Maslow's needs conception with its mechanistic and incomplete nature, we will give another illustration of the developmental levels of the system of the individual's value orientations. Let us avail Kohlberg's concept of moral development. The researcher marked out the levels of person's moral development based on this person's attitude to life as a value [47]. He is known to distinguish three levels of the personality moral development: pre-conventional (hedonic), conventional, and post-conventional, in fact, representing three hierarchical levels of the minimum universum of the individual's value system. They correspond to the seven evolutionary levels of moral development. In addition, Kohlberg identified a zero level, in its content corresponding to the pre-conventional (materialenergy) level. At the pre-conventional level of moral development, the main determinants of human behavior are individual organic needs. The conventional (functional-organizational) level refers to role conformism, where the key indicators in the choice of behavior are values based on social needs. The post-conventional (informational) level is characterized by the individual's self-sufficiency as regards the moral autonomy (the level of spiritual orientations).

Need for self-actualization

Socialization from the Point of View of Postnonclassical (Universum) Sociological Theory…

(harmony, order, beauty)

(to know, to understand, to explore)

(to feel protected, to get rid of fear)

Physiological needs (hunger, thirst, libido, etc.)

Esthetic needs

Cognitive needs

Social orientations Need for respect

Organic orientations Security needs

(realization of the individual's goals and abilities)

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74130

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(achievement of success, approval, recognition, authority) Needs for belonging and love (belonging to the community, being close to people, being recognized and accepted)

**Two elements Three levels Seven layers (levels)**

Spiritual orientations

Irrational and rational levels of

**Table 1.** The system of human value orientations.

value orientations

In the course of socialization, two basic parts of value orientations are formed, these are ratio-

The rational (reflexive) level of the individual's value orientations is expressed in the individual's conscious choice of the reality objects in the social environment as values. These are "superficial," socially conditioned value preferences at the verbal level of the respondent's consciousness. These preferences, as a rule, express the individual's conscious (rationalized) representations about utility. These representations reflect current social norms operating in the individual's environment and are regulated by the individual's desire to join various

social associations through which a person is connected with the society.

nal and irrational levels.

Thus, communication in a social group is the basic condition for mastering rationality in the socialization process.
