Religion, human beings’ relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence.
I also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. In many traditions, this relation and these concerns are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitude toward gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms of religion, they expressed in terms of one’s relationship or attitude toward the broader human community or the natural world (Britannica.com).Believers and worshippers participate in and are often enjoined to perform devotional or contemplative practices such as prayer, meditation, or particular rituals.
Worship, moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are among the constituent elements of the religious life (Devry University).Religious socialization may be broadly described as a process that encompasses the varying dynamics of religious group membership and the patterns of commitment which such membership can engender (Roberts 1984:133–148). It is a process potentially life-long in scope, and until quite recently it was a process thought virtually inevitable in churches and traditional religious groups, as the latter could assume both ongoing commitments in an unchanged society and the gradual incorporation of individuals into the religious group, whether from birth onward (as was the case of Roman Catholics and many mainline Protestants) or from the point of a conversion experience with its strong emotional power (the case of many sects and evangelical traditions).
However, as churches and other social groups have been touched by increased levels of social and institutional change (Roof and McKinney 1987), and as cults and newer religious groups have become prominent in American society (Chalfont, Beckley and Palmer 1987:191–220), commitment patterns have become tenuous, and religious socialization has become a subject of specific and—on the part of churches—self-conscious concern (see the discussions by Westerhoff 1974; Groome 1980; Marthaler 1980; Phillibert and O’Connor 1982; Princeton Research Center 1986).We begin the process of socialization within the context of our family. The family has primary importance in shaping a child’s attitudes and behavior because it provides the context in which the first and most long-lasting intimate social relationships are formed. In addition to representing the child’s entire social world, the family also determines the child’s initial social status and identity in terms of race, religion, social class, and gender (Loretta F.
Kasper, Ph. D). While the family offers the child intimate social relationships, the school offers more objective social relationships. School is a social institution, and as such, has direct responsibility for instilling in, or teaching, the individual the information, skills, and values that society considers important for social life. In school, children learn the skills of interpersonal interaction (Sociology Central. May 16, 2009).
They learn to share, to take turns, and to compromise with their peers. The peer group exerts a most powerful social influence on the child. The peer group is composed of status equals; that is, all children within a given peer group are the same age and come from the same social status (Sociology Central. May 16, 2009).
A child must earn his/her social position within the peer group; this position does not come naturally, as it does in the family. Interaction with a peer group loosens the child’s bonds to the family; it provides both an alternative model for behavior and new social norms and values. To become fully socialized, children must learn how to deal with the conflicting views and values of all of the people who are important in their lives. These people are called “significant others.” The mass media includes television, newspapers, magazines; in fact, all means of communication which are directed toward a vast audience in society. The mass media, especially television, have considerable influence on the process of socialization. Children spend a great deal of their time watching television, and the violent content of many television programs is believed to be a contributing factor in aggressive behavior.Culture Socialization helps to shape and define our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and it provides us with a model for our behavior.
As children become socialized, they learn how to fit into and to function as productive members of human society. Socialization teaches us the cultural values and norms that provide the guidelines for our everyday life. Culture may be defined as the beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects shared by a particular group of people. Culture is a way of life that a number of people have in common.
Our culture is reflected in what we wear to work, when and what we eat, and how we spend our leisure time. Culture provides the framework within which our lives become meaningful, based on standards of success, beauty, and goodness. Some cultures value competition, while others emphasize cooperation.
Our culture affects virtually every aspect of our lives. Culture is not innate; human beings create culture. Culture consists of a set of principles and traditions transmitted from generation to generation, yet because human beings have created it, culture is flexible and subject to change. Human culture is linked to the biological evolution of human beings.
The creation of culture became possible only after the brain size of our early ancestors increased, enabling humans to construct their natural environment for themselves. Because human beings are creative by nature, they have developed diverse, or different, ways of life. Cultural diversity is the result of geographical location, religious beliefs, and lifestyles. Culture is based on symbols, attaching significance to objects and patterns of behavior. Language is the most important expression of cultural symbolism. Sharing beliefs, thoughts, and feelings with others is the basis of culture, and language makes this possible. Language is also the most important means of cultural transmission. Children learn moral values and social conventions through a process of socialization, much of which involves parenting.
The process is bidirectional and involves a complex interplay between evolutionary predispositions and genetic and socio-cultural factors. Children’s perception of, or assignment of meaning to, parenting interventions is central. Socialization occurs in different domains marked by different aspects of the parent-child relationship and different underlying mechanisms. Each domain requires different parenting actions that must be matched to the domain in which the child is operating and that result in different outcomes for the child. The domains include protection, mutual reciprocity, control, guided learning, and group participation, and are assumed to be operative in all cultures. The review concludes that children need to experience their parents as supportive and understanding, that they need structure, and that they need to feel they have some degree of control over their own actions (Grusec, Joan E. 2011: 243-269) In the contextualization of the study, I have found out these three factors that affects on the socialization of the students.
Religion could be a great factor in socialization in different ways. Either socialization can affect towards religion, or religion affects towards socialization. Family orientation, cultural beliefs, and religious beliefs did also the same. These three factors could affect religion and socialization.
