Stages of Development

Students of socialization talk of four major stages. They are: (i) the Oral stage; (ii) the Anal stage; (iii) the Oedipal stage; and (iv) Adolescence. In the first three, the key socializing agent is the family. As we have seen in our treatment of the family, in a nuclear family every member has two roles, namely Fa ther-Husband, Mother-Wife, Son-Brother and Daughter-Sister. These relationships involve two generations. In the case of stem families, three generations are involved with the inclusion of the grandparents. The roles associated with these statuses may vary from society to society—for example, they are different in matriarchal and patriarchal societies; also, polyandrous and polygynous families differ from monogamous families. But in all of them, the basic status categories remain the same.

1. The oral stage: This is the first stage, when the newborn confronts the first crisis of separation from the mother’s womb and is left to itself to breathe, feel hunger, and make efforts to feed itself. Its only response when faced with discomfort is to cry. It is this cry that brings it relief. It is the mother who does this, and thus the child becomes orally dependent on her, or on any other person who acts as a mother. The mother becomes the primary identification, although the child does not know whether she is a different person or a part of itself—the two roles are merged. However, in the process bodily contact with the mother provides it with what psychologists call ‘erotic’ pleasure. This attachment appears to be crucial. Experiments conducted amongst chimpanzees give credence to this formulation. In a control-experimental study, a chimpanzee baby was breast-fed by the mother, and in another case the mother was replaced by a milk bottle shaped like a breast. While both babies survived because of the feed, the one fed by the mother grew up to be more sensitive and ‘social’; the other did not experience the warmth of the mother’s body and was thus somewhat reserved and reclusive.The famous psychologist Piaget observed the growth of his own three children to work out the process of human cognition—he focused not on the content of knowledge, but on how they made sense of the world. He listed six stages of cognitive development. It is only after crossing these stages that a child is in a position to recognize external objects. These are:
   • Stage One (also known as the Sensorimotor stage): This is the stage at which the person begins to experience the world only through his senses. Reflexes such as ‘sucking’ produce some sensations in the child, but it is not in a position to differentiate these from his act of sucking.
   • Stage Two: Some motor habits—body movements—develop certain perceptions, but they are not consistent. When a child looks at an object from a particular angle, he might sometimes see an image and sometimes not. These are incipient perceptions.
   • Stage Three: Around the fourth or fifth month, the child begins to grasp the objects he sees, and also uses his other senses to verify, such as touch, smell, hearing and sight. Some sort of coordination of these various sensory experiences begins to occur. He is alerted to a movement by noise, but is unable to move his sight from the place of origin—the site where he locates an object. The object may fall with a thud, and yet the child’s eye will not move with the object, it will continue to stare at the original site. Similarly, a child used to sucking milk from a bottle will start sucking it from a wrong end if he is handed the bottle at the wrong end, because he has been unable to ‘construct’ the bottle.
   • Stage Four: When the child is nearly nine months old, he enters the fourth stage. At this time, he ‘learns to search for an object that he has seen an adult put under a cloth; he will remove the cloth. But he is not yet able to take account of a sequence of changes of position: if he twice discovers a toy parrot under cloth A and then before his eyes it is placed under cloth B, he will continue to look it under cloth A’ (Johnson, 1960: 113).
   • Stage Five: When a child is nearly a year old, he haltingly develops the skills to take note of the sequence of change.
   • Stage Six (The Preoperational Stage): This is the stage when he transits from the oral to the anal stage. Around the 15th month, or a little later, the child is able to construct objects, that is, ‘internalize’ them. This stage prepares him for two further stages, which Piaget called the Concrete Operational Stage and the Formal Operational Stage. Touching and recognizing the grandmother at Stage Four It should be stated here that even in the early stage of infancy, there exists reciprocity in parent-child relations. While the child begins to adapt to the mother’s treatment, the mother also adapts to the changes occurring in the child.
2. The anal stage: This is the second stage, which begins when the child completes its first year and continues till the third year. It is called the anal stage because the child is trained to control his sphincter. The child is trained to control and release his bodily emissions at appointed times. This is a new demand on the child, which helps it understand that the mother is a different person and that there are two roles—that of the child and that of the mother. The mother also serves as a ‘go-between’, with the child on one side and the rest of the family on the other. The child at this stage becomes the recipient of not only care, but also of love, which it reciprocates. Withholding faeces or discharging them at wrong intervals may be a sign of aggression (or defiance) on the part of the child, which may incur the mother’s wrath as a form of ‘punishment’. The child thus becomes involved in basic interactions with the mother, and begins to understand the language of love and aggression, of reward and punishment. In the subsystem (the mother) is the instrumental leader relative to the child, for she is still chiefly responsible for meeting his specific needs. The child’s contribution to the system is mainly expressive: he helps to integrate the system by cooperating and giving love; he is still too young and dependent to contribute very much to task accomplishment (Johnson, 1960: 125). The training involves being somewhat strict and harsh, but the mother as socializing agent has to do so in the wider interest of the social system and also of the child, for a poorly socialized child would be a social misfit. At the same time, the mother also serves as protector, warding off excessive pressure from the social system. Over-protection can make the child pampered and overly dependent; similarly, a child sans protection may become a rebel, and find it difficult to adjust. The success of socialization lies in avoiding both extremes.It is at this stage that the child begins to acquire some skills in language. Although the child is exposed to sounds right from his birth, he becomes familiar with only a few of them—the rhythm of rattling toys, percussion and pounding—but not so much with words, and less so with grammar. In the first stage the child picks up some words. As the child grows, language becomes the principal vehicle of socialization. It serves as the primary tool for the transmission of socio-cultural messages. Language learning thus constitutes an essential process for induction into society, and becomes the solid basis for early parent-child interactions. Current theories of language development posit that children actively construct language from everyday interactions (Tomasello, 2003). Children do not learn language as discrete units, such as words or abstract grammatical rules; instead, they experience language in the form of meaning units that designate a basic pattern of experience—someone volitionally transferring something to someone else, someone causing someone to move or change state, and so on (see Srivastava et al., 2009). In a study on language learning carried out on 2 year-old children in Delhi, Smita Srivastava identified two major factors in their acquisition of such meaning units.
   1. The language they hear in interactions with their care-givers. Children draw upon dominant patterns of form-function pairings in their input to construct their own unique meaning units, gradually building up to a full blown adult grammar. For example, Smita Srivastava found that initially 2-year-old Hindi-speaking children tend to use a transitive construction (agent-object-verb) such as aap tower ban-aa do—‘you make the tower’—only with an animate agent and an inanimate object, and to cause a change in someone’s action. On the other hand, an adult uses such a construction in a variety of other contexts.
   2. The particular characteristics of the language they are acquiring. Hindi has different forms of the same verb, such as ban (to make), to denote whether one is talking about an agent’s action (transitive: Ma Chai Banaa Do—Ma make tea) or a change of state in an object (intransitive: Chai Ban Gayii—Tea is made). Srivastava found that hearing different forms of the same verb in different communicative contexts helps these Hindi-speaking two and three-year-olds to understand the difference between the two contexts, which is somewhat difficult for their English-speaking counterparts. In English, the verb ‘make’ has the same form in both transitive (‘ma made tea’) and intransitive (‘the tea is made’), making it difficult for young children to catch on to the difference in the meanings conveyed by both in the two different contexts. Conversations within the family, as well as in the broader language of the community, are thus powerful sources of cultural, psychological and linguistic information for the growing child (Srivastava, 2009).
3. The Oedipal stage: This stage is said to begin around age four, particularly in the West. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud talked of two complexes, the Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex. Oedipus Complex refers to the jealousy a boy is believed to have towards his father on account of his claim over his mother. Among girls, the reverse is the case: the girl gets attracted towards her father and thus becomes jealous of her mother, who is seen to be in love with the girl’s father. It is not certain whether the attraction is sexual or erotic in a child of four, who hardly understands the sexual implications of anatomical differences. While the child distinguishes between the father and the mother, he/she perhaps has no clear idea that one is a male and the other female. The attachment to the mother is greater because of the initial body contact and prolonged period of care. Moreover, in patriarchal societies mothers usually are soft and reward-giving, while the father’s image is that of a no-nonsense disciplinarian. The child also becomes possessive and refuses to share its mother’s love with other siblings, because that disturbs its ‘exclusive’ relationship. But as the child grows, reaching the age of six, the mother begins to gradually withdraw from exclusive care, and other members of the family—the father, siblings or cousins, and even servants—replace her and become part of the network of socializing agents for the child. This is the time when gender-related behaviour is taught—the dresses of boys are different from that of girls, and the toys too are different. Emphasis is laid on anatomical differences, and the child is encouraged to join the company of people of its own gender—girls with their sisters, aunts, and other female relatives, and boys with their brothers, uncles, and other male relatives. It is their company that encourages the child to emulate gender-related behaviour. Special interest in the opposite sex is not inborn; nor is interest in opposite sex the cause of identification with one’s own sex. On the contrary, identification with one’s own sex is the cause of one’s interest in the opposite sex. Failure to make the correct identification is a cause of homosexuality (Johnson, 1960: 128). 
4. Adolescence: This is the stage that begins with puberty, when the child increasingly becomes independent, emerging from parental control. The appearance of facial hair is a sign of incipient manhood; similarly, the growth of breasts and menarche herald the arrival of womanhood in girls. Boys begin to imitate their fathers, and girls their mothers. It is the mother who assists the daughter when menarche occurs. The mother becomes the first tutor in sex education for the girl; not so for the boy. In matters of sex, it is generally the peer group that helps a boy through trial and error, the curiosity at times leading to homosexual adventures. In most non-literate societies, the knowledge and practice of sex is properly imparted by elders. For example, in West Africa, a newly circumcised youth is required, [T]o have sexual relations with a woman who has passed the menopause, ‘to take off the burn of the knife’. By her experience she aids him in the technique of sexual performance and helps him overcome any traumatic shock that may have resulted from the operation (Herskovits, 1969: 186).

In some tribal societies, there are youth dormitories—like the Ghotul among the Gonds of central India (see Elwin, 1947)—where the young meet at night and exchange information related to sex. Gond Ghotuls are common dormitories for boys and girls. ‘The premarital experimentation … plays a definite role in inculcating skill and finesse in sex behaviour____The attitude toward instruction in sex is generally marked by consciousness of a serious duty on the part of older people, rarely by lasciviousness’ (ibid.: 186–87). There are other tribes that have separate dormitories for boys and girls. Besides serving as centres for sex education, these institutions also train the young in music, dance and martial arts. The young function as watchmen for the village. In modern societies, this is the age when young people wish to be with their peers. Discotheques are in some ways the functional equivalent of tribal dormitories. The key point is that adolescence is the age when the process of socialization is removed from the family. Adolescence is the final step before the entry into adulthood. This is also the time when boy-girl interactions are governed by the incest taboo on the one hand, with some freedom being granted for premarital rendezvous on the other. Engagement, betrothal and marriage ceremonies are also associated with this stage.

Piaget’s last two stages, namely the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage, are related to this age group. The Concrete Operational stage is reached between ages seven and 11, when individuals begin to focus on the how and why of an event, and are able to use more symbols for an event. The last stage—the formal operational stage—is reached around age 12, when individuals begin to think critically and in abstract terms.

Agents and Content of Socialization

Agents

This brief excursion into the stages of socialization helps us to identify the key agents and content of socialization. The agents are:

1. The Mother—Real or Surrogate. The first person with whom the child comes in contact and remains attached to for the longest time is the mother. It is she who brings the child into the world and it is her task to provide care and ensure its welfare. Through her, the child learns to distinguish between himself and the other party, and to have the first lesson in social relationship. She also becomes the first language teacher—that is why we talk of a mother tongue. Through her, the child is linked to the family, the neighbourhood, the community and the wider society. She gives the first lessons in social behaviour in terms of dos and don‘ts—the prescriptions and proscriptions; and she is the one who introduces the concepts of gratification and deprivation—of rewards and punishments—which control the ‘id’ of the child and transforms him into an ‘ego’, the balanced personality, through the accumulation of cultural norms and practices. We may also note that it is not only the mother who is an agent of socialization; a woman is socialized into the role of a ‘mother’ and a male into the role of a ‘father’ through the child, who plays the role of son or daughter. If the parents have the mechanisms of reward and punishment, the child also has [A]t his disposal two powerful means of controlling his caretakers—the cry and the smile …. No wonder the young child believes in the magical power of the human voice and gesture, for his own cry summons powerful beings to his side and his smile establishes this participation in social life (Danziger, 1971: 61). Both parents and child make dual demands—positive and negative. Positive demands are to encourage the child to commit himself to a desirable activity, and the negative demand is to keep the child from undesirable activities.
2. The Father and the Siblings. In a nuclear family, these come next to the mother. Of course, they can also play the role of a surrogate mother. Their gradual participation in their interaction with the newborn enlarges the child’s sphere of social interaction, and expands his cognitive horizons. The mother-child interaction is now extended to other members of the family. The same set of positive and negative demands are made by both parties. It is through interactions with them that the child learns of a differentiated status structure and the attendant roles and responsibilities.
3. The Peer Group. As the child becomes mobile and gains independence—being away from the protection of the parents—his time is spent more with children of his age group. In the earlier years, this group consists of both sexes, but as the child grows older, these tend to be sex-based. Even the games become different for boys and girls. This is also the period when grandparents, if they are around, share a common social field with grandchildren and become tutors in the culture of the society through the narration of mythological stories and stories reviving their past.
4. The School: Teachers and Fellow Students. In modern societies, schools become ‘second families’ as they take on the responsibility of educating the young. While the entire process of education is not socialization, the school provides a good ground for this transformation. The child learns to accommodate the differing demands of members of his role set—the teachers, students of higher classes (seniors) and classmates. Lessons in group life, in several cultural norms—dressing patterns, morning prayers, respect for elders, punctuality, obedience, and several other things are learnt at school besides the curriculum, which prepares them for their adult role. The schools and textbooks are also primary sources of political socialization. Even an abstract subject like Arithmetic can be the source of political socialization. Scholars have hinted at this by pointing to the sums related to weight measures or currencies. For example, during the British period, Arithmetic books carried sums related to addition and subtraction of British currency—Pound, Shilling and Pence—and the pound was symbolically written as £. At that time, a Shilling was worth 12 pence, and 20 Shillings equalled a Pound, and 21 shillings was called a Pound Sterling. The British weights were likewise called Pound (but the symbol was lb) and Ounce (oz)—16 ounces equals one pound, and Gram. In India, the money measure was rupee, divided into Rupee, Anna and Paisa (12 paisa=1 Anna, 16 Anna=1 Rupee), and the weight measures were Mound, Seer and Chhatak (16 Chhatak=1 Seer, 40 Seer =1 Mound). It must also be said that in different princely states, the measures used the same nomenclature, but their values were different. The silver rupee coin of Mewar state was more valuable than the Rupee in British-ruled states. The British measures of weight were called ‘Bangali’—presumably because they were introduced by the East India Company. The Mewar Seer was equal to the weight of 108 Mewari 1-Rupee coins, whereas the Bangali Seer was equal to 80 1-Rupee coins. Thus, vicariously, the school child was socialized into the country’s system of currency and measures of weight. Upon independence, a political decision was taken to go decimal, and that changed our currency to Rupees and Paise, measures of weight into Kilograms, and measures of distance from yard, feet and inches to the metric system. While the Americans still measure liquid in gallons, we have moved to litres. Apart from this, history books, books on geography and literature contain subject matter that not only educates students in abstract theory, but socializes them in the culture of the country.
5. The Mass Media. At one point in time, the mass media was limited to the print media, and thus its exposure was limited to the literate population. However, the radio, television and the Cinema (the DVD revolution has turned many houses into small cinema theatres) have made literacy almost redundant. Through audiovisual aids, the impersonal communications meant for a large audience reach all age groups, and increasingly all sections of society—both urban and rural. They have become surrogate schools and sources of encyclopaedic knowledge. Not only do they influence dressing patterns or mannerisms, they also influence attitudes and behaviour. The Mahabharat TV serial, for example, became so popular that people would avoid committing themselves to any other task during that time slot. Even the prime minister was asked to delay his arrival to ensure that the crowd would be there to welcome him in a state capital. The language used in the serial was Sanskritized, and children picked up several phrases and terms of address for their kin. Literacy as a precondition to learning is challenged by the mass media. For the educated, literacy is no longer limited to the knowledge of the three R’s (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic); computeracy is now an added skill that is needed in all professions. A literate has also to be a computerate. The mass media are also criticized for encouraging violence and alienating people; there is, however, insufficient evidence to either support or refute these hypotheses. It calls for cross-cultural research in mass communications.