What is socialization? According to Sociology The Essentials 6th Edition "Socialization is the process through which people learn the expectations of society" (Andersen, and Taylor 74). Varies other sources included the development of one's personality as part of socialization. We can see by this next video of a feral child raised by dogs that socialization is a crucial part for both human as well as personality. In this case Oksana was raised by dogs for the first 6 years of her life therefor she took on characteristics of a dog. She was loved and nurtured by dogs, her family members were dogs, she was even treated like a dog by her own parents meaning she was socialized to act and think like a dog. Raised by Dogs
A further division of socialization is illustrated by University of California Santa Barbra which consists of both a natural socialization and a planned socialization. Natural socialization takes place when we're very young and exploring the physical and social world around us. For Genie this took place in near complete isolation in a dark, empty room. Oksana was left to fend for herself at the age of three and was able to experience more of the natural socialization; she was outside and had more than blank walls for stimulus. The other division is planned socialization which occurs when other people take action designed to teach or train them from infancy on. In Genie's case she was beaten when she made noise; when she was discovered she barely made a peep and it took great time and effort to get her to do so. Oksana was trained by dogs which would explain the way she drank and ate with her mouth and tongue rather than using her hands and only walked on all fours. It was as if she didn't have opposable thumbs and had to use her mouth to do many activities.("What is Socialization?")
These two examples also bring up the interesting debate of nature vs. nurture. Both girls, one raised by dogs and the other raised in complete isolation, displayed animal-like qualities when found which may show that without 'proper' socialization naturally we are just animals. It is easily understood that both are important but in this case Genie wasn't shown any affection (nurture) until she was discovered at the age of 13 whereas Oksana, discovered at the age of 8 was shown love, not by humans but by dogs. Of course, neither one of them have led a 'normal' life since their discovery but Oksana was more easily able to learn language and socialized into the human world. This can lead us to the conclusion that because Oksana was nurtured, although, not by humans she had better development in general, not just as a human and her brain more easily made connections to the outside world.
These two cases demonstrate the importance of socialization in early life to develop identity, personality,and one's role in the world.
To read more on Oksana and other children raised by dogs visit: Raised by Dogs
To read more on Genie visit: Genie: The Wild Child
Citation
Andersen, Margaret, and Howard Taylor. Sociology The Essentials. 6th. 1. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Johnson, Will; Scholar's Edition. Genie:The Wild Child:Susan Wiley, daughter of Clark Wiley and Dorothy Irene Oglesby [Internet]. Version 45. Knol. 2011 Jan 4. Available from: http://knol.google.com/k/will-johnson/genie-the-wild-child/4hmquk6fx4gu/2.
"Santa Barbra Sociology." What is Socialization?. N.p., 09/2003. Web. 6 Apr 2011. <http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/baldwin/classes/soc142/scznDEF.html>.
Stewart, Will. "Raised by Dogs." Sunday Times12/15/2003, Web.
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