Socialization

Socialization

As we grow, mature and age, we develop different aspects of our personality and social abilities. These aspects can be our attitude, how we react in social or work environments, as well as how we handle the task of obedience. What helps develop our identity and how does it affect our attitude and social behaviors?

There are many components to a person’s attitudes: affects; which are our emotions, behaviors; which are our actions, and cognition; which is how we think. These factors contribute to the way we think, feel and react to things and people. An example of these components in agreement would be; Adrian hates mushrooms, he thinks they make him sick to his stomach, therefore he does not eat them. Adrian hating mushrooms is the affective component, thinking they make him sick is the cognitive, so he does not eat them is the behavior component. Although, if Adrian’s friend invited him to dinner and his mother was making a pasta dish that contained mushrooms, Adrian may eat them even though he thinks they may make him sick. This is known as a conflict, and is considered to be out the social norms and are not consistent with the components of attitude.

Our social interactions do not only rely on our attitudes, but also our prejudice, aggression and factors of attractions. It has been said, the way we interact with each other can disclose our aggressions, attractions, assumptions as well as our prejudice. Prejudice, like attitudes, contains three elements: behavior; how we act in a group, cognitive; what we believe about the group, and affective or emotional; our likes or dislikes toward a group. These elements can be almost impossible to change. Prejudice can be shown toward or against just about anything, person, group, food, the list can go on and on. This social interaction is the way people characterize and judge, mostly in negative manner. Prejudice also leads to discrimination.

Aggression is a little stronger then prejudice, you can have a prejudice toward someone or something and keep it to yourself. However, aggression is a means to cause harm, either by words or actions. The two most common types of aggression are Hostile and Instrumental