Real Case Study: Why Socialization is So Important?

We hoped we have expressed why socialization is so important to human beings, although weeks ago we already published two great posts about What is Socialization and Important Socialization Studies. In fact, if there was no socialization at all, life could be dull. In this post we want to share with you a real case study about the importance of socialization.

Real Life Case Study About Socialization

In year 1938, there had a real but unfortunate case study which can clearly show you why socialization is so important. Anna, a poor girl, was born by a mentally-impaired woman who was living with her father. Anna was moved countless of places and was then returned home because of financial reasons. She was later forced into an attic and was provided nothing except enough milk to live on until five years old. She was provided no love, no hugs, no attention, no smiles, or nothing else but coldness.

Social workers eventually saved Anna and, a sociologist named Kingsley Davis came to visit her immediately after he heard of her tragedy case. At the time he arrived Kingsley Davis reported that Anna was fully unresponsive and did not speak or laugh. With some guidance and study, Anna could learn how to speak (only a little), walk and could even care about herself. Unfortunately, she was unable to live long and died at a very young age of 10. It was a real case study indicating how insufficient socialization could harm human both mentally and physically.

The term socialization, by definition, refers to a process humans can learn their culture and adapt to their surroundings. Unlike animals with biologically-programmed behavior, humans can learn and adopt to changes over time. Interacting with other people and social experience can really helps forming an individual's pattern such as personality, emotion, behavior or mental thought. Animals mostly tend to behave in a similar way. For example, a cat in Asia usually behave the same as another cat in America. The same logic, however, can never be applied to human beings. Many experts now believe that personality does not come to humans automatically. We build up our own personality through interaction with others and surroundings but, as what Anna's case study suggested, one's personality cannot be formed without socialization. From Anna's real case study, it is very clear that human beings depend on other people to become mature not only mentally but also physically. Just about one century ago, people still believed that humans were born with basic instincts that could form their behavior and personality without external factors.

This real case study of Anna can truly reveal why socialization is so important to human beings. Insufficient socialization can, in this case study, even adversely affect the length of Anna's life. Hope all of you can truly learn from this case study and can lead your children to spend more time in interacting with different group of people. By doing this, all your children should be then able to develop their own personality in a more healthy way, and thus can happily enjoy their real life.