Political socialization describes the process in which individuals acquire orientation patterns for socially-related issues. Since socialization refers to the entire conscious and unconscious acquisition of knowledge and skills, attitudes and values (internalization), the term is extremely complex and has to be understood in connection with political culture and education.
While political socialization in the narrower sense asks how the patterns of orientation are obtained and developed, the contents and results of the process can also be viewed in a broader sense. This results in overlaps with opinion research.
