Page 33 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

Primary socialisation is necessary Secondary socialisation is also necessary
because human infants require the because, for Parsons (1951), one of its
assistance of other members of society to main purposes (or functions) is to:
develop as both human beings (the "Liberate the individual from a
walking, talking, bit) and as members of a dependence upon the primary attachments
culture (the learning roles, norms and and relationships formed within the family
values bit). group". In other words, in modern
societies the majority of people we meet
are strangers and it would be impossible
to relate to them in the same way we relate
to people we love or know well. This
means we need to learn:

Instrumental relationships - how to deal with people in terms of what they can do for
us and what we can do for them in particular situations (the opposite of the affective
relationships we find in primary groups).

Berger and Luckmann (1967), for example, suggest that while primary socialisation
involves “emotionally charged identification” with people like our parents, secondary
socialisation is characterised by “formality and anonymity” - you don’t, for example,
treat a total stranger who stops you in the street to ask directions as your closest friend
in all the world…

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