Some people's behavior is normal even though most of their mannerisms are learned. When a child comes into the world, he slowly transforms into a social being and learns social ways of acting and feeling in society. Existence in society becomes unrealizable without this path. This process of molding and forming an infant's individuality is known as socialization. In general, socialization is a social training by which each society establishes its own ways and means of giving social training to newborns and adult members so that they can develop their own identity. Furthermore, the socialization process is active throughout life. But it is socialization which makes the child a useful member of society and gives him social maturity. An identity is constructed through four major agents of socialization, family, school, peers and the media. The oldest and most influential temporal agent of socialization is the family. He grabs hold of the newborn after birth, when the child is most helpless and needy, and does not let go for the rest of his life. They participate in a key element of their child's early sexual socialization. Additionally, parents help their children internalize culture and develop a social identity. They also assign social status to young members of their family. It can also go in the opposite direction; the child will usually socialize their family members by getting them used to their routines and create signals corresponding to their needs, i.e. winning and throwing tantrums as a toddler and blackmail and guilt as a teenager-adult. The building of this relationship goes from cradle to grave. The child learns respect for his parents in authority. A family's environment influences a child's growth. From both parents it is...... middle of paper ...... access to the child. Later in childhood, the power of the family as an agent of socialization weakened considerably. During adolescence, this power is further weakened by peer group influences and the dominance of media in the adolescent subculture. Overall, there has been a historical trend whereby the power of the family as an agent of socialization is gradually eroded by the media, peer subculture, and school. Works Cited Lopata, HZ (2001). A Brief History of the Harriet Martineau Sociological Society - The Introduction to Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives, p.10-11. Retrieved from http://www.sociological-origins.com/files/HMSS_2007_PROGRAM_BOOKLET.PDFDiniejko, A. (March 2010). The Victorian Web: Harriet Martineau: a radical liberal social commentator. Retrieved from http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/martineau/diniejko.html