What is Re-Socialization

 An Introduction

Re-socialization is the process of altering one's behavior pattern and instilling new social values and behavioural patterns in the process. A person is constantly acquiring new roles.

Throughout one's life, as a member of various social groups or institutions. For example, a child first becomes a member of its family and learns to act as a son or daughter, or as a grandson or grand-daughter if the family is extended. If the child's father has a sister, the child also learns to assume the role of a nephew or niece. Later on, when one begins to play in the neighborhood, one makes friends and adheres to the group's rules. For instance, if a child repeatedly disrupts the game, fights, or cheats, others will boycott that child until he or she ceases to cause disruption.

Later in life, a child enters school and begins to learn how to play the role of a student. Later in life, she obtains employment and either joins an organization or establishes her own enterprise or business. Whatever work one undertakes, one must adhere to the occupational group's work ethics and standards. As a result, one is constantly acquiring new roles.

However, in some cases, an individual must not only learn a new role but also unlearn a portion of the norms and behavior patterns associated with a previous role in order to be effective in the new role. The role of an Indian girl before and after marriage is an excellent example of unlearning an old role and acquiring a new one. While there may be variations in emphasis, as well as in the norms and behaviour patterns expected of girls in various parts of India, we can safely generalise about a daughter's behaviour before and after marriage.

Resocialization of the Marital Relationship

When a daughter becomes engaged to marry, a process of new or re-socialisation begins. She may be instructed on how to conduct herself in the presence of her in-laws.

Before her marriage, a daughter in a Punjabi Hindu family does not cover her head or touch her elders' feet. She may be trained to cover her head and also to touch the feet of elders following her engagement, as she will be required to do so shortly after the marriage. Though it should be noted that this may no longer be practised among upper and middle class families, particularly among the educated in metropolitan cities.

After marriage, she begins the process of re-socialization. She has already received numerous instructions on how to abandon the carefree behaviour of her maiden days in her in-laws' home, how to show deference to nearly every elder in her husband's family, and how to avoid appearing independent.

A newly married woman gradually unlearns her previous behaviour.

Initially, she may conceal or suppress it, and one may observe her behaving strangely when she visits her parents. For instance, she may laugh freely in her parent's home, which may be deemed inappropriate in her in-laws' home.

A widowed woman is another example of re-socialisation. This is especially true in certain parts of India, where a widow's behaviour must change dramatically following the death of her husband. The external marks of a married woman are removed from her body, which means she must wear a specific dress or saree of a specific colour, all her jewellery must be removed, and the kumkum and vermilion marks on her forehead and parting between her hair must also be ceremoniously removed through certain rituals performed in these families. Her head has been shaved. Additionally, she is required to live in a different section of the house. Additionally, the types of tasks she is expected to perform within the family change abruptly. She is considered unlucky and is therefore prohibited from participating in marriage rituals and other religious ceremonies.

Attitude Modification

Re-socialisation is the process by which individuals change or are forced to change their attitudes, values, behaviour, and self-concepts throughout their lives as they take on new roles and experiences. While the long-term change may be profound, the incremental changes may or may not be gradual. For instance, the new role may be a continuation of the previous one or of previous roles, or it may be a complete replacement. Again, it may require only minor adjustments or a complete overhaul of behaviour patterns.

Additionally, it may affect a portion or the entirety of an individual's personality or self. It may also imply a break with previous values and norms, or it may simply be a projection of previous values and norms.

Thus, gradual and partial changes in adulthood are referred to as continuous socialisation.

Re-socialisation is a term that refers to more fundamental, rapid, and radical changes. It entails abandoning one way of life in favour of another. It is not only dissimilar to the former, but also occasionally incompatible with it. The most frequently cited examples are brainwashing, indoctrination, and rehabilitation of criminals. The objective is to fundamentally alter the individual and to bring about a break with the past.

Another example would be individuals who have spent their entire lives in Bombay, Kolkata, or Delhi and are asked to live among tribals in a remote Madhya Pradesh village, or vice versa. If you live in a city, you may also be familiar with villagers attempting to adapt to city life by altering their perceptions of what is proper and improper, as well as their behaviour. Similarly, if you live in a village, you may have witnessed the difficulties encountered by city dwellers, such as school teachers, medical doctors, nurses, and midwives, as well as their adaptation to village life.

Socialization That Is Both Extensive and Intense

Certain job and life roles necessitate extensive and intensive socialisation. This socialisation resembles re-socialization, as in the role of a Christian priest, nun, or Granthi in a Gurdwara, or the role of a combatant only. Cadets are gradually removed from the society of which they are a part and then assigned tasks requiring them to develop new personal and social identities; they are also instilled with a sense of national identity and solidarity among themselves through the institutional training they receive.

Similarly, we've discussed an Indian girl after marriage and a window.

Resocialization of an adult is challenging. In general, it is necessary to recreate the conditions of childhood socialisation in an intense and extreme manner, even more so when this is accomplished through a very deliberate process, as is the case with resocialization of a cadet, a criminal, or a widow. Resocialisation can be coerced (as in brainwashing or indoctrination) or voluntary (as in the case of an anthropologist living among a tribe).

If the process of re-socialisation conflicts with the initial socialisation and the individual is unable to meet the demands of the new role, conflict may arise in the individual's life. This is especially true when it comes to divergent value systems. For instance, a person from a conservative family background in India may have a difficult time adjusting to a cultural environment in which his or her own social taboos, sexual taboos, and so forth do not exist. In such an environment, an individual may experience culture shock and may end up as a mental patient.