SOME COMPARATIVE ASPECTS OF SOCIALIZATION IN

Past research on socialization has primarily focussed on which kind of influences induce which kind of personality development. This assumption of unidirectional influence has guided psychoanalytic theories as well as behaviorism. Numerous studies of child rearing and patterns of reinforcement, for example, Lewinian studies on leadership styles, have not been entirely unsuccessful in developing a comprehensive theory of socialization and personality development. However, recent interaction-oriented approaches have broadened the perspective by regarding socialization as a process of mutual interactions between parents and children and the social and physical environment (cf. Bee, 1981). Here, the subjective interpretation of the self and the environment by all persons involved in the process of socialization becomes an important vehicle for explaining so-called "effects " of socialization. This perspective has broadened the scope of socialization research considerably. However, this approach still fails to explain human developmen