Aristotle states that man is by nature a political animal, meaning that humans, by socialization, develop into themselves through living in a society governed by laws and customs while interacting with people within. Socialization is a process where individuals acquire knowledge, language, social skills and values through integrating with society. Mind is a tabula rasa, according to Locke. Hence, it is impossible for one to be born knowledgeable, mature or independent. Socialization continues across the life span, and individuals gain insights and experiences through interacting with different social institutions and issues, which explicitly influence their growth and development, as well as their perception of life. Every individual also has to enact different roles, such as a student, a sibling, or a Christian, and so they develop appropriate attitudes and behaviours to satisfy the roles. Sex-typed characteristics, for instance, are attributed to identification processes rather than biology. It is a normative, rather than empirical, fact that blue symbolizes males, while pink symbolizes females. Before having the ability to critically observe the sex-appropriateness of responses displayed by adults, many infants have
already been influenced by active parental training on acquiring sex-appropriate behaviours. For example, children are always given baby dolls and stuffed toys by their parents if they are girls, toy cars and toy bricks if they are boys. Later in life, under the influence of social perceptions, males are tainted to be brave and strong, while females are tainted to be emotional and obedient. It is evident that individuals acquire the complex repertories of social behaviours through observation of response patterns demonstrated by different socialization agents, such as family and school (Bandura,1969). For example, a student learns not to cheat after witnessing his classmate being punished for copying others work. According to Banduras social learning theory, children develop their behaviour through modelling processes, where they emulate their models (eg. parents and teachers) practices under different conditions to achieve similar outcomes. Sears et al. (1965) state that modelling is essential for identificatory processes, where adult-like behaviours and sex-role personalities are inferred through parent-child interactions and behavioural observations. Hence, nurture is more important in constructing individuals lives.