Socialization and Infant Development
Through socialization, individuals learn what the society expects of them and acquire unique character by which they are identified in their community. It occurs through all the stages of life and is affected by everything that surrounds an individual. Ann is a teenager raised by parents who did not offer her the typical childhood of every child, which involves playing with toys. She is brought up with the family values, which require that she work for what she desires. Ann acquires these family values and uses them in her interactions. Ann believes in the family norms she was taught in the primary socialization process, and these values make up her personality.
Ann does not use a cell phone because she believes she is different from the rest and distracts her from being creative. Instead, she uses the flip phone, which is outdated because she believes that having something of lesser value helps one’s brain adapt to create and invent something to solve his/her problems. Moreover, Ann acknowledges the cell phone as a disruptive technology that alters the way people work. She has learned her parents’ lesson of availing minimal resources to prevent distraction and enable innovation.
In the childhood stage of her life course, the primary socialization main agents are her parents. They raise her by not giving her the usual lifestyle other kids have. She is given a glue gun to create her own toys. Then later, she is given electronic components and transistors to play with as toys. The result of this kind of upbringing is that she learns to have to create her own stuff in order to be entertained, and she becomes an inventor.
She views parents who offer their kids toys and other things as those who are barring their potential. She believes it is better if you give kids lesser privileges and resources because they will learn to utilize the minimal resources to create something for them and society. The real self will hence be equal to the ideal self that the child wishes to become. Due to her different upbringing that involves giving the child few resources and due to the success it led to, by her becoming an inventor, she feels parents who give kids a lot of stuff are hindering their creativity and their progress in the future.
Ann’s opinion does not make a great appeal. Kids have different potentials, and exposing them to the same kind of treatment will hinder others’ progress. Many children are talented differently, and the sort of upbringing being suggested allows for the suppression of some talents. These talents and gifts could have been recognized if the child was given many different resources to test out. There will be no artist, fashion designers, boxers, or models if this upbringing is provided to every child.
The norms Ann learn from the primary socialization process conflict with the secondary process. She does not fit in with her peers in school since she is brought up with a different style from the rest. Additionally, Ann defines her personality as a “differentist” to mean she is not like the rest. It is evident that the identity she acquires to use in her teenage life course is similar to the family norms that she was taught in her childhood. Hence, the base of her identity is her parents’ lessons during her childhood.