Secondary Agents In Sociology

There are two agents of sociology, primary and secondary. Agents are extremely helpful when studying sociology or just people in general. A basic definition of primary groups would be: “made up of people who have regular contact, enduring relationships, and a significant emotional attachment to each other” ( 176). For example, family is a primary agent. Primary agents are considered the most important, while secondary groups are “made up of people who interact in a relatively impersonal way, usually to carry out some specific task.” ( 176). Examples of secondary agents are “learning institutions, the church, mass media, peer groups and the workplace” ( web ) . Although one agent may be more important …show more content…
Secondary agents focus on the people not in your family, but in your everyday workplace, school, or friend groups. In the episode the school provided a secondary agent. School “helps a child in improving social skills that helps the individual in integrating well with the society around him” (Agent 1). The boy and girl in the episode who were introduced to the outside world experienced major culture shock, because they were never able to experience it before, while the other children had been socialized through the secondary agent of the school. Secondary agents may not always be as important as the primary agents, but some are still up on the scale. The parents never exposed the homeschooled children in the episode to secondary agents. The public school children did not even know that the homeschooled kids lived right next door because they were so …show more content…
Firstly, the difference in importance of the two agents speaks for themselves. Primary agents are a must know while being raised and growing up. For example, primary agents are the backbone of how to succeed in life. It is important that everyone must know the basics. Secondary agents help but are not necessarily required to be taught by someone verbally or lecture style. One could pick up these agents by watching others in their everyday lives. A big difference is that primary agents are what is expected and is morally right in the world. Unlike secondary, because it is not taught by parents who want the best for you. Sometimes, but not all, some secondary agents may try to get you to believe or do what they think is right, unlike primary. Secondary does not always see your best interest in what is happening. An example from the show is all of the public school 's children cussing. Many would think that they would never speak that way in front of their parents. It could have been that one kid who was allowed to cuss at home started doing it at school, and the other boys picked it up because they thought it made them seem older and cooler. With these major differences, the similarities are about the same. With exceptions, most of the time both primary and secondary agents are taught out of hope that it will improve the person receiving the information. Both