Socialisation and health perception - Essay Example

?Socialization Introduction Viewed from a broader perspective, socialization refers to thoughts and behaviors of an individual as responses from one’s personal domain. It deals with activities of an individual within a social group. Thus the concept of socialization involves conditioning and development of rules, roles, standards and values not only in terms of society but from individual’s own perspective also. A wide variety of aspects influence socializing. Some of these are unemployment, family income, size of family, natural and social surroundings, understanding and level of attachment within a family as well as attachment of each individual person with society as a whole, etc. Attachment, interactions, behavior, etc can be categorized as outcomes of socialization. This paper also focuses on poverty as a major factor influencing socialization and conditioning of an individual (Grusec and Hastings 2008, p. 1). This paper attempts to trace the attributes of socialization, its processes, with respect to different life-stages, agencies and theories associated with it. Attachment, as a biological behavior, is focused upon and its relation with adult decision making process and health perception is traced. Relevant theories and models are also discussed, and subsequently related to behavior and human interaction. In the final section, principles of poverty with respect to ageing society and health care provision are also discussed in details. TASK I I Socialization: concept and understanding Identification of socialization processes and key life stages: Socialization is referred as a process though which an individual learns to identify his uniqueness and his relation and attitude towards other fellow beings within a society. That is, socialization is a procedure by which an individual mutually influences other fellow persons and vice versa. Some of the innate qualities further develop during this process. Other qualities, values and characteristics are developed by society. Over times, different people have tried to define socialization. For them, the key factors that shape up an individual as a social being are- loyalty, tolerance, patience, integrity, cooperation, mercy, pity, brotherhood, honesty, friendship and preference for peace, truce and harmony (Health and Physical Education n.d., p. 71). Socialization or development of social values involves several stages or habits in life. It has been observed that habits related to diet, physical activities, alcohol and smoking habits the ones which has most influence over social behavior of individuals. Choices, another key factor depends on structure and demographic aspects of a family in relation to comparative strengths within a family and level of interaction. Socialization, especially family socialization is highly influential when it comes to health awareness and subsequent responsibilities. Responsibilities for health and norms of individual welfare are mostly inculcated at childhood by schools and families (Friedman 2011, p. 505). Evaluation: theories of socialization: From time to time, several theories have been propounded. Some of these theories are- Vygotsky’s theory of Social Development: This theory about socialization was developed during Russian Revolution and is equally valid and effective in present times. According to Vygotsky, higher mental process of a child is directly proportional to its interaction with social environment, provided the mediating agents, namely organized learning activities or individuals, are present. Mediation involves reciprocal teaching process. Thus, formal education was more stressed upon (Kozulin 2003, p. 15-17). However, in this theory, Vygotsky has laid equal emphasis on Zone of Proximal development (ZDP). In his opinion cognitive functions of a child are linked with ZPD, which is the basis of all dynamic assessments. This concept holds the view that ‘space’ or independence provided to a child helps in developing his psychological functions, more pertinently in contact of shared activities or competent members. Thus, this theory of socialization focuses on resultant activities or consciousness (Kozulin 2003, p. 100). Cognitive-Developmental Stage theory of Piaget: This socialization theory holds social interaction and experience of individual as the chief aspects which promote an individual to next levels during the process of socialization. Cognitive structure, it is assumed that, directs intellectual functioning of a child, and in turn controls the process of construction and reconstruction throughout development-period of a child. It is noteworthy that each stage in this development functions as interdependent variables, and maintains continuity (Rosenberg and Turner 1991, p. 138-139). Constructivist Theory of Bruner on learning: The constructivist theory emphasizes on learning of individuals by means of direct and indirect interaction. Interesting, challenging environment created during activities of children, especially while playing, makes them learn about social rules, friendship and roles as individuals. In this theory, Burner highlighted the use of repetition. This would help in consolidation of specific learning objectives during developmental period of children. Development of each stage thus, depends on ‘spiral curriculum’, that is repetition of roles and activities (Tucker 2010, p. 6). Kohlberg’s Theory on socialization: Kohlberg has proposed six stages of moral development, which is an extension of Piaget’s theory of socialization. This theory attempts to track psychological development of children within a definite time span. Kohlberg has claimed that this theory would direct towards impartial self assessment by lessening level of importance usually associated with oneself. This would generate effective responses to ethical situations (Panza and Potthast 2010, p. 211- 213). These six stages are adjusted in a model comprising of three levels. The first level consists of two stages- obedience and punishment orientation and naively egoist orientation. Second level comprises of identity- approval orientation and authority and orientation of maintenance of social order. In the final level, contractual or legalistic orientation and individual principles of morality and conscience orientation are considered (Kohlberg’s Moral Stages, n.d.). Individuals, groups, agencies involved with socialization process: Socialization is characterized with active involvement of both primary as well as secondary agencies. Families, immediate family, friends, peer groups, acquaintances and opinion leaders or well-wishers are the primary ones. Among these, family occupies the most important position. Family forms the unit or basis of individual’s self concept. Peer groups develop individual’s concept of social status, position and attitude within similar age-group. Mass media, formal and informal education, environment at work, and religion are categorized under secondary agencies which influence socialization. Groups and individuals share a reciprocal relationship among themselves (Grusec and Hastings 2008, p. 23-24). II Evaluation of attachment theories: health perception Key theories, models and concepts of attachment: The attachment theory primarily deals with perceived support. The concept of attachment theory is derived from the ideas of Bowlby. Later on, the Attachment theory came into being by blending the ideas of Bowlby with principles of Schaffer and Emerson. The principles of this theory state that attachments developed in infants are innate and adaptive in nature. The bond formed between a mother and an infant is based upon certain aspects like safety base, dependency for food, warmth and shelter. This bonding acts as the basis of all other attachments formed in later phrases of infant’s life, and has a permanent impression in the individual’s nature of socialization. Thus, Bowlby has encouraged caring and loving behavior during this developmental phrase of infants (Damon, Lerner and Eisenberg 2006, p. 369). The relationship between childhood attachment and adult decision making process: In adults, certain factors like past experiences, social role, social status, age and individual biasness, commitments, concept or belief in personal strengths and cognitive biasness, influence their decision- making process. Whether the decisions are reversible or not depends on that particular individual’s attributes. Attachment is primarily a biological process which starts during individual’s very childhood only. Thus, attachment formed at childhood is greatly influenced by these traits as children learn from their surroundings as a part of socialization. While some attachments are secure and organized, others are insecure, avoidant, resistant, disorganized and often disoriented. It all depends on how that adult presents himself or herself. After a certain age, when the child develops some personal preferences, negative types of attachments become more prominent. Thus, though decision making process of adults does not depend on personality of children, their welfare certainly depends on the level of attachment formed by adult’s decision making process (Thompson, Bradbury and Gale 2012, p. 65). Different stages of attachment: relation to behavior and health perception: According to Bowlby, attachment develops at numerous levels within a child. These stages are ‘pre-attachment’, a period of two months after an infant is born, ‘attachment-in-the-making’, the infancy period between, two- six/seven months, ‘specific attachments’, a period from seventh month till the infant is two years old, ‘multiple attachments’, the time from eight month onwards, and finally the ‘goal centered partnership’ which starts from second year. During the first step of attachment, infants display little ability of discrimination, i.e. they could not distinguish appearance of one person from another and thus, behave in a friendly way with everybody. During this period they also learn to respond to social stimuli. During the second stage of attachment, they learn to distinguish physical appearances and facial expressions. During this time, their preferences for familiar and unfamiliar persons develop, though their personal level of comfort remains same with everybody. In the next level of attachment, they fully recognize all distinctive qualities of one particular individual and hence develop very strong level of attachment with that particular person, generally the one who spends maximum time with the infant. Infants start becoming mobile and prefer to be with that special person only. In ‘multiple attachments’ stage, infants develop attachments with its surroundings and other people as well, though level of attachment varies from person to person. However, the level of attachment with ‘special’ person remains constant. From two years onwards, infants learn to calculate or forecast action- behavior of other people, and responds accordingly, thereby forming a two- way partnership (Colin 1996, p. 67- 75). III Relationship between attachment framework and behavior through life stages Analysis of attachment models related to behavior through different life stages: The working relationship model takes into account past experiences of individuals and shape their present level of attachment accordingly. The experiences from the past also influence processing and analysis of information in present times. This model of behavior functions outside the realm of individual’s conscious awareness, and hence makes reassessment of decisions and attachment level a lot more difficult. Attachment and behavior of individuals towards peer relationships is manipulated by attributions and fellow feelings shared. These aspects are also used to measure value of friendship. Thus, peer representations largely act as ‘mediators’ when it comes to attachment attitude and behavior. Another attachment model that is related to behavior is found in the attachment shared by a child and its mother. While attachment with mother worked like attachment level in peer relationships, attachment with father influenced child’s subjective attachment to peer competence. Thus, according to this model, behavior of a child is determined by the level of attachment it shares with its parents (Kerns, Contreras and Neal- Barnett 2000, p. 4). Influence of behavior on health perceptions: Different models of health behavior identify social race, age, and most importantly socio- economic class as the principal aspects which direct health behaviors in individuals. Cost and complexity account for other structural aspects that influence health behaviors. Behavioral attitude of individuals largely rests on their biophysical approach. Negative feelings or memories hamper nurturing procedure. Not only these, but psychological elements too affect behavioral health, thus perception of heath largely depends on the socioeconomic and cultural surroundings of an individual. Lifestyle, diet, physical exercise, alcohol and drugs intake and smoking behaviors are some of the behavioral aspects that affects one’s health. Having a healthy lifestyle is preferred above everything else. Positive attachments with social surroundings contribute in development and regulation of health perceptions as well as healthy behaviors. This view has also been supported by health-belief model where the level of belief depends on attachments before compliance. The protection motivation model deals with health behaviors arousing from motivational factors that originate from level of attachment shared by individual (Pitts and Phillips 1998, p. 7-11). Human interaction: relation to care giving: Human interaction entirely depends on the nature and kind of attachment the individuals share among themselves. The activity of care giving is founded on mutual understanding shared by human beings. Human interaction excites a sense of fellow being, which in turn invokes a duty to give care. Care-giving arises not only from one’s inner persona, but also as a result of external stimuli which appears in form of sounds, verse, body movements, visions, touch and perception of form. The act of care giving is a conscious one and is thus, either realized or learned by the individual (Watson 1999, p. 68). Moreover, the fact that human beings are interdependent in nature makes care- giving an essential part of the interpersonal relationships they share with each other. Furthermore, care giving influences social functionalism by inculcating behavioral attributes like cooperation, honesty, commitment, exchange of information, division of labor, and many others. This implies that interaction systems produce a conditioning effect for socializing an individual (Taylor, Renpenning and McLaughlin -Renpenning 2011, p. 106). TASK II IV Principles of poverty and an ageing society: health and care provision Evaluation of historical evidence related to poverty: Poverty has been identified as a social issue long ago. Though in past hundred years proportion of poor has increased all over the world, it existed before that also. Some social features or characteristics are associated with poverty. These are- one-parent families, mostly a female as the guardian, large families, unemployment, place of residence- mostly rural areas, lack of proper education, large number of children and older adults in a family. It has also been found that often by belonging to a particular race; some people continue to be poor for centuries (Zastrow 2009, p. 122-123). With the advent of 14th century, nature of poverty changed due to contemporary social changes. Socioeconomic condition of England was seriously troubled by the great plague. This led to introduction of ‘Poor Law Act’ in 1388 with an objective to control labor mobility. Later on this law was amended by the Tudor kings who, in 1536 introduced the provision of identifying only invalids as poor, and differentiating them from criminals and able-bodied people. They also instructed the local parishes to collect money and spend them for maintaining them. It marked introduction of ‘supporting the poor’ as a part of social activity. Later on, in the 16th century, ‘the Elizabethan Poor Law Act’ which came into force on 1576, provided work to those poor who were not that old or were willing to work. It also included provisions for maintenance of orphans and dependent children (Carney 2006, p. 22). Impact of aging society on service provision: Morbidity and mortality data related to ageing and illness is has been a matter of prime concern in past few decades. In has been observed that in present times, more and more people are opining for joint families over nuclear families. It has allowed parents to remain busy with their busy schedules and the duty of raising and care- giving is passed on to grandparents. This is a positive change since the old and the invalid are finding a new social role to play (Borland 2009). The Community Care Act of 1990 and NHS focused on providing cheaper alternatives as a remedy for expensive institutional care. The chief objective of this social act was to establish a rational system so as to coordinate social- care activities that had long been poorly coordinated (Blakemore and Griggs 2007, p. 228). Health and social care strategies: relevance to service provision to accommodate poverty and ageing H&SC reforms of 20th century played active part in controlling spread of infectious diseases. Also, there was a lot of improvement in public health infrastructure to improve the conditions of poor and aged people. However, all round development of healthcare services was not achieved till then because it was divided between public and private sectors (Walsh, Stephens and Moore 2000, p. 162). Some other health and reformation act undertaken were Old Age Pension Act of 1907, National Insurance Act of 1911, and 1945 Family Allowance Act. Top of Form Bottom of Form Conclusion Socialization is an inseparable part of society. It is more of a duty or responsibility that every individual has to follow. Different life stages of socialization determine an individual’s traits or characteristics. It is by dint of these features that attribute of one individual differs from the other. Socialization pattern depends on certain variables such as diet, physical activities, drugs, alcohol, smoking, lifestyle, sleeping patterns etc. These shape up an individual as a social person within a social group by adjusting levels of tolerance, patience, brotherhood, friendship, honesty, integrity, and love for peace and harmony. In this respect, socialization theories of Vygotsky, Piaget, Burner and Kolhberg are discussed. All these theories stress on individual’s learning process as the basic of socialization and insist that children must be guided properly during their growth period. At the same time, they must be allowed enough freedom so that they could learn social behavior and their respective roles within society. The theories also claim that, it would not only make a child confident about its own self but would also help in development of his psychological functions. Part of socialization is interpersonal interaction, which is, in turn closely related to attachment. Level of attachment varies in person to person, for different persons or situations. This has been explained with help of attachment theory and relevant models for attachment. The procedure of attachment begins right at one’s infancy and hence, development of personal traits of a child is hugely influenced by decision making process of adults. That is, personality of child tends to bear the shadow of the person to whom it is mostly attached. Attachment as well as behavior also helps in influencing health perceptions. Behavior is related to attachment level. Both of them, in turn, influence ‘care-giving’. The final section deals with poverty as a social issue and the impact of an aging society on society. At present, society is becoming increasingly conscious about invalids and aged people, and has thus adopted several health and social care strategies for introduction and promotion of aiding schemes. References 1. Blakemore, K and Griggs, E 2007, Social Policy: An Introduction, McGraw-Hill International, US 2. Borland, S 2009, ‘Nuclear family is 'on the way out', Government advisor warns’, Dailymail, 30 November, viewed 21 May 2013, Read More