What is Political Socialization? It is public opinion, attitudes and beliefs. Where do they come from? It is developed throughout your lifetime. Definition: Political Socialization is a process in which you learn attitudes and beliefs of government and officials.
There are various stages of Political Socialization: Pre-school (ages 2-4), Early Childhood (ages 5-8), Late Childhood (9-11) and Adolescence (12-17). Pre-school kids develop certain basic attitudes, beliefs and a sense of nationalism and identity. Kids in this stage can recognize the U.S. Flag. They can also recognize higher authority such an adult in charge or police officers. In the Early Childhood stage kids can recognize the personalization of government such as holidays; Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Barbara Jordan. By age 8 kids can recognize what party they are, Republican or Democrat, by simply asking their parents. In the Late Childhood stage kids can understand the separation of powers; Attitudes go from concrete to abstract. They also know about checks and balances, the presidency instead of the president. The last stage of Early Political Socialization is Adolescence (ages 12-17). In this stage kids begin to be exposed by more steams of information, spending more time away from family, and cause more increasing information. They tend to question what they were taught and start to have they own views. .
I personally remember going through these stages as a child. I remember my parents having a kind of political influence over me when I was around 15 our local elections for mayor were going on and asked my mom who she was going to vote for? She said the Republican of course and that is when politics started to intrigue me. I found out what party I was when I heard my grandmother talking about "Those damn Democrats" that is when I took the time to sit at talk to her about politics. She then told me that she was a member of the Republican Party because we want to keep our money and not have it spent on someone who is too lazy to provide for their self.