Socialization is a gradual process of learning. The new born child is not a taught all the things about social life at once. It proceeds from simplicity to complexity. Socialization consists of four stages from infancy to adulthood. They are - (1) the oral stage, (2) the anal stage, (3) the oedipal stage, and (4) adolescence.
(i) The First Stage - The Oral Stage: This stage begins with the birth of the child and continues up to the completion of one year. For everything the child cries a great deal. By means of crying the child establishes its oral dependency. The child here develops some definite expectations about the feeding time. The child also learns to give signals for his felt needs. In this stage the child is involved in himself and his mother.
(ii) The Second Stage - The Anal Stage: The second stage normally begins soon after the first year and is completed during the third year "toilet training" is the main focus of new concern. The child is taught to do some tasks such as toileting, keeping clothes clean etc. The child in this stage internalizes two separate roles his own role and that of his mother. The child receives 'care' and also 'love' from the mother and learns to give love in return. The child is enabled to distinguish between correct and incorrect actions. The correct actions are rewarded and the incorrect action is not rewarded but punished. In this second stage the socializing agent, that is, the mother plays the dual role. She participates in the interaction system with the child in a limited context and she also participates in the larger system that is the family.
(iii) The Third Stage - The Oedipal Stage: This stage mostly starts from the fourth year of the child and extends up to puberty (the age of 12 or 13 years). It is in this stage the child become the member of the family as a whole. It is here the child has to identify himself with the social role ascribed to him on the basis of his sex. According to Freud, the body develops the 'Oedipus complex" the feeling of jealousy towards father and love towards mother. In the same way, the girl develops the 'Electra Complex'-the feeling of jealousy towards the mother and love towards the father. In this stage sufficient social pressures are brought on the child to identify with the right sex. Boys begin with rewarded, for behaving like boys and girls are rewarded for acting like girls.
(iv) The Fourth Stage - The Stage of Adolescence: The fourth stage starts with the period of adolescence. Due to the physiological and the psychological changes that take place within the individual this stage assumes importance. During this stage the boys and girls try to become free from parental control. At the same time they cannot completely escape from their dependence on their parents. Hence they may experience a kind of strain or conflict in themselves.
