(1) The family is only one of the variety of agencies of socialization. By socialization we mean the process by which cultural, social and moral values and beliefs are transmitted from one generation to the next. In other words, through the socialization process we learn the basic facts necessary for the performance of variety of social roles in the society in which we grow up.
(2) The socialization function of the family is a generalized one, and is aimed at preparing us for membership of the kinship group and the community. The way in which the process operates will depend largely upon the views taken by the parents of what their children ought to be like when they are grown up. This, in turn, will depend on the environment of the home and the community in which it is established. For example, an agricultural village family is likely to be living in a very different setting from a professional family in the city.
(3) In the rural community emphasis will be placed upon values such as group solidarity and the belief in the natural superiority of the male. The family will transmit these values to the children in order to prepare them for their future roles as adults. Thus the child will grow up placing greater value upon the family as a unit than upon himself as an individual more emphasis upon a segregation of the roles of husband and wife than upon equality, and so on.
(4) In the case of the city family educated to professional standards, the process is likely to take a different form. The child is more likely to be taught the values necessary for success in a world dominated by individual achievement. He will be taught that hard work is necessary to bring about academic success, which is the forerunner to occupational success. To make the best of occupational success he will be taught the value of having an educated wite who can share in this, either by working at her own trained profession to contribute to the material status of his marriage, or by entertaining his friends and colleagues and maintaining his home to a level of high social standing.
(5) But the family cannot hope to socialize the child in every aspect of life and this is where the other agencies come in. Of these, school is perhaps the most important. The family is concerned with socializing its members into the group while the school is concerned with socializing its pupils into the wider society. School is very closely linked with our participation in the economic system, in other words, there is a very close link between school and the occupation we take up in adult life.
(6) The peer group also operates as an agency of socialization. In the peer group we associate with others who are approximately of our own age and social status. Peer group associations can be particularly influential at college and university level and are often carried through to adult working life. This means that the peer group takes over in influence where the family and school leave off.
(7) No matter how strong the family influence it cannot hope to provide all the necessary material for socialization into an occupational citizenship because it will not have all the technical and social knowledge necessary to cope with all situations in life. This is very obvious in areas where rapid change is a characteristic feature of life, as in the developing world where technological and industrial advances have shifted populations from their traditional communities, and the strict moral and religious values of the family or tribe are no longer accepted as the natural norms.
(8) For these reasons, and many others, there are those who say that the day of the family as it has been traditionally known is now over; that the institution of the family as the only natural" basic unit of society is in the process of breaking up because of rapidly changing economic conditions as well as the reluctance of the younger generation to accept the strict religious and social ality of the past. But the family itself has undergone considerable changes over the years and there is no doubt that it will have to face more changes in the future. Thus, although the family may not continue to exist in precisely the form the traditionalists would like, there is no reason to think that it will become obsolete.
II. In this section, there are ten incomplete statements or questions, followed by four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and write the corresponding letter on your Answer Sheet. (20 points, 2 points for each)
 
 

The peer group, as a socialization agency exerts particular pressure on ______.