Individuals and societies in which they live benefit from socialization. Thus, socialization matters because it enables sustaining communities and cultures; it is also a significant aspect of personal growth (Rothschild, 2021). Essentially, Rothschild (2021) states that socialization teaches the expectations and standards of our society and the manners and customs of various cultures. Moreover, anticipatory socialization refers to the process through which people prepare for future life responsibilities. Young children, for instance, pretend to be doctors or attorneys and wear costumes (Rothschild, 2021). I pretended to be an astronaut when I was a child. Moreover, adults participate in anticipatory socialization as well. Examples are a couple who cohabitates before the wedding or soon-to-be parents who study baby care literature and prepare their house for the upcoming arrival.
Old behaviors that were useful in a prior position are eliminated throughout the resocialization process since they are no longer helpful. For instance, my friend was sent to a boarding school, and he had to go through resocialization. Essentially, when people transfer to a senior care facility or serve time in prison, they should resocialize. Rothschild (2021) informs that a two-part technique is used to resocialize many people into institutions. To begin, people joining an institution must abandon their previous identities through a degradation ceremony. During a degradation ceremony, new members are divested of their previous identities and given new ones. An example from my life was when my grandmother attended a senior care facility; she had to leave her family home and forget numerous possessions.
Notably, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are opposite concepts. Rothschild (2021) states that ethnocentrism is the practice of assessing and analyzing another culture based on how it relates to one’s own cultural standards. Cultural relativism is the practice of evaluating a culture by its own norms and traditions. Cazzamatta (2020) examines the German press for evidence of ethnocentrism in the news. German participation was detected in one-quarter of the events in terms of coverage of Argentina in the German media. Additionally, examining the Brazilian image in the German press yielded comparable results and revealed a German role. The subject could be addressed differently to be more in line with cultural relativism if the media would involve Argentinian and Brazilian participation. Significantly, I felt cultural shock when I visited India; it was positive and negative. Hence, I was positively surprised by the richness of culture and negatively impacted by the differences in customs.
References
Cazzamatta, R. (2020). Reporting Latin America in Germany: Indicators of ethnocentrism expressed in news values. Comunicación y Sociedad, 17. Web.
Rothschild, T. (2021). Rothschild’s introduction to sociology. Pressbooks. Web.