ABSTRACT
Socialisation always takes place in a social context. Socio-economic living conditions shape the value orientation and religious attitudes of people during the entire life course. Supporting contexts, institutions and settings can be designated as 'socialisation agents' or also as 'socialisation contexts'. The most prominent contexts are the family and the educational systems. While mothers and fathers serve as 'amateur educators' in the socialisation agent family, professional educators devoted to pedagogy work in the education system. Families are the socialisation agents because they shape the basic structure of a personality and support it in developing patterns for processing the internal and external reality. The gainful employment of parents for example, as well as the joint use of mass media in families have direct and indirect effects on and set the social context for socialisation. Beginning in childhood, social, cultural and economic living conditions are reflected in a family which impact personality development, as in a microcosm.
