“Social Development”

Definition
Social development is a process by which a child learns to interact with others around
them.

Socialization
Socialization is a life-long process by which individuals develop attitudes, values, beliefs,
knowledge awareness of social expectation and appropriate role behavior.

Socialization Process
Socialization refers to the process of helping children become the adult members of the
society to which they belong. It is a learning process by which conventional patterns of behavior
are acquired.

Agents of socialization
Children learn from certain individuals and not from others. They can learn from family
members, peers, teachers and bosses, etc. The mother serves as a major agent through which the
infant and the young child learns. Mother can offer rewards, incentives or punishments. She can
facilitate or inhibit certain activity and she can influence behavior by direct or indirect means.
In infancy, father is the major source of learning. Other individuals in the immediate
family such as siblings also serve as socialization agents. In early childhood, neighborhood
children, pre-school mates become the agent of socialization. In late childhood peers become
very important.

Parenting Style During Childhood

The process by which parents and others teach the skills and social values to children,
needed to function in the society are called the socializing styles. These styles are actually the
parenting styles.
Diana Baumrind found three distant patterns that describes the socialization styles i.e.
 1. Authoritarian parents; were strict, punitive and unsympathetic. They valued obedience
from their children and tried to shape their children’s behavior to meet a set standard.
2. Permissive parents; gave their children complete freedom.
3. Authoritative parents; reasoned with their children, encouraging give and take. They
encouraged independence but maintained their limits also.
Baumrind found that these three socialization styles were consistently related to
children’s social and emotional development. He noted that:
 The children with Authoritarian parents were unfriendly, distrustful and withdrawn.
 The children of permissive parents were immature, dependent and unhappy.
 The children with authoritative parents were friendly, co-operative, self-reliant and
socially responsible.

Strategies of Socialization

 Reward and punishment

Reward pattern commonly produce or reinforced behavior patterns. The effects of
punishments are not easily interpreted. Punishments maybe useful in certain situations. It can
effectively control behavior, especially when appropriately combined with a system of rewards.
 Modelling
From early childhood, individuals observe the actions of those around them and copy
whole behavior patterns. They have remarkable talent of capturing parents’ actions, words and
mannerism.
Following characteristics of modeling are supported by research (Bandura 1969):
a) Power; it is the ability to control the desirable resources and to extent influence others.
Bandura and Ross studied that the child imitate the powerful adults and not the
powerless.
b) Nurturance; it means affectionate care and attention. Children tend to imitate the warm,
rewarding and affectionate models rather than cold, punitive and distant ones.
c) Perceived similarity; it means perceived similarity with the model. Boys tend to model
other boys or men, muscular and athletic children tend to imitate athletes, quite children
tend to imitate reserved models, etc.
  Identification
Identification means the gradual process by which individual adopts as their own the
characteristics, attitudes, values or beliefs of others. Most frequent identification will be with the
parents or other real models but it may also occur with an idea or fantasized model.
In both identification and modeling the two major goals are power and love.
 Self-discovery
Self-discovery becomes important in life, when an individual think about what he/she has
learnt through teaching or observing models or through identifying with others.
 Self-concept and socialization
Socialization processes are helping to develop the individual’s self-concept. The self -
concept is influencing socialization.
The attributes and characteristics which individuals follow and initiate the models,
becomes very significant part of forming the self-image.
The self-concept maybe self-rewarding and self-punishment. Self-image can also be self-
perpetuating or self-fulfilling.

Stages of Social Development

 Social Development in Infancy

The most obvious thing about the behavior of the new-born infant is his complete
helplessness. The infant is entirely dependent on the mother or the caretaker. Since he is unable
to cope with his needs, mother ministers to him. The average infant is in continuous contact with
his mother. Infant pay more attention to speech, turning towards a voice and even imitating some
speech sounds.
 Social Development in Childhood
Social development in childhood is as follows:
a) Early Childhood
 During this stage, children play, smile and laugh more. They become better able to follow
the rules in games and to act together in groups. They learn the rules that govern social
interactions and society. They also learn to control their emotional expression to conform to
social norms. At the age of 3 or 4, they can name typical facial expression of happiness, sadness,
anger and fear.
b) Middle childhood
During this stage, child’s social environment expands tremendously. It includes
crystallization of the child’s see role identification, learning how to interact with peers,
development of various academic skills and strengthening of the super ego.
c) Late childhood
During this stage, child learns to be more interested in their peer relationships. This stage
is also referred as ‘gang age’ because it is characterized by interest in peer activities, an
increasingly strong desire to be an accepted member of a gang.
 Social Development in Adolescence
Social development in adolescence in as follows:
a. Early Adolescence
During early adolescence, family has become less central as individual want to spend
more time with peers especially boys. Peer support and acceptance become a strong need in
adolescence.
b. Middle Adolescence
During middle adolescence, peers become even more increasingly important source of
social contact and emotional support. At the same time, an increase in the activity may become
associated with fear of rejection.
c. Late Adolescence
During late adolescence, individual try to achieve some degree of psychological
independence from their parents. They have greater interest in privacy.
 Social Development in Adulthood
Social development in the adulthood is as follows:
a. Early Adulthood
During early adulthood, individual becomes interested in intimate relations to select a life
partner is a milestone of social life. This milestone occurs during the early adulthood.
 b. Middle Adulthood
During middle adulthood, people may experience midlife transition between early and
middle adulthood. They re-appraise and modify their lives and relationships. Usually the middle
years of adulthood are often a time of satisfaction and happiness.
c. Late Adulthood
During late adulthood, most people think of themselves as middle-aged but not old. They
are active and influential socially and may be politically.

Erickson’s Theory of Psychological Development

Erick Erickson is a psychoanalyst who developed the most comprehensive theory of

social development. According to Erickson the developmental changes occurring throughout our
lives can be viewed as a series of eight stages of psychological development. These stages are as
follows:
 Stage I-Trust v/s Mistrust (0 - 1.5 years)
An infant need to develop a basic sense of trust in the environment through the
interaction with the care givers. If his physical requirements and psychological needs for
attachment are consistently met and their interaction with the world is generally positive, he will
achieve sense of safety and trust. But a child whose basic needs are not met, who experiences
inconsistent handling, lack of physical closeness and warmth may develop a sense of mistrust,
insecurity and anxiety.
 Stage II-Autonomy v/s Shame and Doubt (1.5 – 3 years)
In this stage, toddlers develop independence and autonomy, if exploration and freedom
are encouraged. But if they are overly restricted and protected, they experience shame, self-doubt
and unhappiness.
 Stage III-Initiative v/s Guilt (3 – 6 years)
In this stage, the major conflict is between a child’s desires to initiate activities
independently. But unwanted and unexpected consequences of such activities develop guilt.
When a child adequately revolves the crisis then confidence on oneself develops, otherwise
feelings lack of self-worth occurs.
 Stage IV-Industry v/s Inferiority (6-12 years)
 In this stage, successful psychological development is characterized by increasing
competency across all tasks. Otherwise feeling of failure and inadequacy occurs. Adequacy in
basic social and intellectual skills develop when crisis is resolved, otherwise child will face lack
of self-confidence.
 Stage V-Identity v/s Role Confusion (adolescence)
In this stage, people try to determine what is unique and special themselves. They try to
discover who they are, what their skills are and what kind of roles are best suited to them.
Awareness about the uniqueness of their self is developed. If individual remain confused in his
role identity then he become unable to identify the appropriate social life.
 Stage VI-Intimacy v/s Isolation (early adulthood)
In this stage, there is a focus on developing close relationships with others. Difficulties
during this stage results in the feeling of loneliness and a fear of relationships with others.
Successful resolution of the crisis is the possibility of intimate relationship on physical,
intellectual and emotional level.
 Stage VII-Generativity v/s Stagnation (middle adulthood)
Generativity refers to a person’s contribution to his/her family, community, work and
society as a whole. In this stage, people become concerned with producing something that will
outlast them, usually through parenthood or job achievements. Erickson called this concern, the
crisis of generativity because people are focused on producing or generating something. If people
do not resolve this crisis, they stagnate.
 Stage VIII-Ego Integrity v/s Despair (late adulthood)
It is the last stage of psychosocial development which comprises of the late adulthood
and continues till death. Success in resolving this crisis is signified by a sense of
accomplishment. While difficulties result in regret over what might have been achieved, but was
not.