The note attempts to systematize some of the multiple definitions, meanings and approaches to socialization. The dominant matrix of socialization is the interplay of biogenic needs of the child and the cultural modes of meeting them. The concept of stages in terms of time and growth is central to the concept of socialization. Cultures are integrated systems and at each stage of growth a culture provides certain continuities at the process level and discontinuities at the form level. The culture selects and reinforces that behaviour which the individual, in order to be a member of the society, needs to internalise.