Political Socialization

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By definition, Political Socialization is the study of “the developmental process by which children of all ages and adolescents acquire political attitudes, behaviors and cognition.” In much simpler words, Political Socialization is information fed to a person throughout their entire life from peers, relatives, playgrounds, home, school, or other places which is how one forms opinions, views, and values. From this information, one can shapes his or her own political values based on what they have been taught to believe in or what they believe in. Indeed, there are many factors that play a part when and how these values are formed. Some can be because of historical events and others can be based on gender, religion or race. But the most influential ways Political Socialization occurs is through family(home), school, leaders’ influences, media representation of political issues and the most current one America is having, social movements. For example, home is the most influential place political socialization can arise. From an early age, our parents install in us their key values, systems, and beliefs either in a conscious or unconscious way which we adopt until we develop a mind of our own. Other characteristics also play a …show more content…

While parents focus more on a specific view on certain subjects, school is where one is allowed to have a more overall look at what is and isn’t accepted by society. Things that fall into this category includes peer opinions, education related activity, civics class, school clubs, learning about the American dream and how gender and race play a factor in today’s society. Through school, we learn the basic foundations of our political beliefs and the differences. We are exposed to going to school with people from different diverse demographics with different opinions and conflicting views which gradually sharpens our views as we grow

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