3 Socialization

Socialization, aka enculturation, is the method by which social values are internalized and learned. This process explains how an individual becomes a member of a culture and vice versa. The key concepts of socialization include the following:

• The socialization process is continuous throughout life (from birth to death). Throughout life, a person learns, accepts, and possibly dismisses cultural norms, values, and symbols.
• Socialization (enculturation) is formal (direct) and informal (indirect). There are times and places that are intentionally designed in life to learn culture, such as school (the education process), which is considered formal or direct. Mortuary school is an example of the formal socialization process of a funeral director/embalmer. An informal or indirect example of socialization for a funeral director/embalmer is on-the-job training such as an internship or onboarding. Many things learned working at a funeral home are not learned in school. An example of this includes different types of embalming methods.
• Socialization is not perfect. Learning about culture and becoming a part of it is incomplete and imperfect.