Role of Socialization in Personality Development of an Individual:

(i) It is a common belief that most of the personality traits are acquired by the child during the age of 3 to 8 years. It is the most crucial period in the life of an individual as the foundations for character and personality are laid down during this period. It has already been discussed that the child internalizes the affection and love, emotions and sentiments and the various roles played during his growth by the mother, father and siblings.

(ii) A role is a set of socially expected behaviour and for every role, there is a corresponding status and set of rights and duties. The "experience" role centered round affection and "instrumental" role organised around discipline and the provision of livelihood or earner of bread are internalized by the child in his role performance.

(iii) In the course of games, the boy plays the role of the head of the family having a job which takes him to work in the morning and returns home in the evening as his father does. Similarly, a girl performs the role of her mother.

(iv) The number and nature of roles with which the growing child becomes familiar increases further when he plays with his siblings and other family members and goes to the school. His role is identified by his nature and the extent of his participation in the family and the school including peer groups, teachers, headmasters, community members, villagers, and so on. He comes across various practices and occupations of the family and of others in the village and community.

(v) Due to his association with the occupation of his father, he learns about the different stages of that particular occupation. He acquires different skills and basic ideologies and principles related to that occupation. He assists his father and aims to become an effective and efficient worker. In this way, he becomes a responsible member of the family, community, society and nation while performing different roles expected of him at different levels and situations.

(vi) Childhood socialization plays a prime role. If a child socializes, he will be able to identify different roles expected of him and will also be instrumental in performing the expected roles.

(vii) In the process of role taking, the person develops a concept of individual and personal identity, ego and self learns to introspect. He establishes his own identity and image, position and status as a member of the family, community and society.

(viii) It is evident from above that socialization provides learning opportunities to young children which helps them to identify their cultural and social roles and ways to perform these roles. The role performance by a growing child reflects the human behaviour in conformity to and in consonance with the approved norms of the group and society.