Socialization, best described by the Oxford dictionary as the lifelong social experience by which individuals develop human potential and learn the patterns of their culture. Unlike, other living species whose behavior is biological human beings rely on social experience to learn their culture in order to survive. Social experiences can also set the foundation for personality referring to thinking, feeling, and acting. Social experience is important for all individuals because society goes far beyond one being's life span. The lifelong process of socialization transmits culture from one generation unto another (Elkin and Handel, 1996) as one will see when going through such topics as human development: nature vs. nurture and the elements of personality.
Since, Charles Darwin's ideas of evolution have been around many have applied those thoughts to human behavior throughout time. For example, some believe that our economic system brings fourth " competitiveness" and that some people are born criminals, and that women are more emotional than men (Wilken Lanoil, 1996). Human nature is applied to personality as to say that one my be born with such a trait, however, it is actually a trait that evolves trough learning patterns and cultural experiences. Beginning in the twentieth century an explanation of human behavior was going to come about due to John B. Watson and his theory on behaviorism which said that behaviors are not biological, but in fact are learned. Watson argued that no human beings are any less evolved than another. He also claimed that any human can be structured through a cultural environment. He said:" Give me a dozen healthy infants and my own specified world to bring them up in, and I will guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist that I might select doctor, lawyer and yes even beggar-man and regardless of his talents, penchant, abilities, and race of his ancestors.
