Many people have an interest in psychology—humans are very complex creatures, who wouldn't want to learn about their behavior?—but its slightly less popular cousin, sociology, is just as intriguing. Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. It's essentially psychology, but on a larger scale.

One basic sociological principle is the concept of socialization, which can be defined as "the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society," but this definition does not fully encompass the significance of socialization. It affects everything about your identity, including the languages you use, the way you interact with others, the foods you eat, clothes you wear, how you do your makeup, style your hair, the opinions you have, beliefs you hold, your personality, and your perceptions of yourself and of the world around you. In other terms, socialization may be defined as the process of a society's indoctrination of its citizens to its ideals and beliefs.

While the ideals and means of socialization vary greatly from country to country, the concept of socialization is an international constant. Gender roles are one of the most omnipresent facets of socialization, to name one example. In the mid-1900s, anthropologist Margaret Mead conducted a series of studies on gender roles across different countries and cultures. She found that the gender roles that countries like the United States so idealize are altered in most countries, or even completely reversed in others.

Individuals are first socialized almost immediately after birth, a statement backed by studies of not only infant behavior, but of the behavior of those interacting with the baby. Family members and acquaintances nearly always treat infant girls and boys differently based on the sex of the respective children, even when the two kids look and behave identically. These studies are examples of the United States' ubiquitous gender roles and stereotypes, which affect practically all U.S. citizens in one form or another.

Socialization is a powerful tool that can be used to instill characteristics like compassion, productivity, or thoughtfulness in people, but it can also be used to teach people to develop bad habits, neglect their health, or mistreat and hurt others. Marketing is an example of socialization that both rely entirely on current societal standards and behaviors, while simultaneously changing those aspects of a society. The way in which a company markets its products is meant to influence you to choose their product over that of another company. The United States' competitive capitalist market can drive producers to resort to occasionally extreme measures to convince you that you need their product—even when you don't. In socio-economic terms, marketing both rely on current socio-cultural ideals, and affects them, for better or for worse.

This sociological concept of cyclical influence (known as reciprocal determinism) applies equally to the United States' system of politics. Politicians must advertise themselves as the best candidate in order to gain the most votes while simultaneously convincing potential voters that their opponent is the wrong choice. To accomplish this, they must portray issues, choices, and people as objectively "good" or "bad," indicating their support or opposition, and implying that their voters should share the same subjective opinions. In this sense, politics and politicians both inherently appeal to the current socio-cultural norms (in order to gain power) and change future socio-political and cultural development by influencing people and laws: thus, our system of politics is also a central component of the socialization of the masses.

While it is difficult to unlearn socialized ideals and behaviors (different parts of the brain exist to store learned memories, and socialization effectively alters neurological development), it is relatively easy to recognize facets of yourself—your personality, morals, thought processes, likes and dislikes—that have been influenced by socialization. Understanding the specific ways in which your society has taught you to be, through media like books, movies, T.V. shows, or through marketing and politics, allows you to critically evaluate the positive and negative behaviors and thought processes you have acquired, and how to change them.