ABSTRACT
Contemporary research on socialization in the family is taking place in the context of radically changed assumptions about the process and products of internalization. Internalization is the process by which values assumed to be initially external to an individual become incorporated into the individual’s thoughts and actions (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994). Prior to the 1980s, research on internalization was guided by a unidirectional and deterministic conception of socialization (Maccoby, 1992). In the traditional view of socialization, internalization was conceived as a process of intergenerational transmission by which children’s acquisition and acceptance of values was accomplished through the direct action and practices of socializing agents. The products of internalization were considered in terms of two interconnected problems: the transmission of cultural content such as standards, values, knowledge, attitudes, motives, roles, and practices from the older generation to the younger generation and the fostering of behavioral conformity to the demands and expectations of family and societal authorities (Dubin & Dubin, 1963). An implicit goal of socialization theory was to understand the continuity of values from parents to children and, more generally, the process by which society and culture become reproduced in each succeeding generation (Corsaro, 1997; Valsiner, 1988).
