Psychological mechanisms and periodization of legal socialization process

The article deals with the problems of social and legal identity formation, the development of its legal awareness and legal self-determination, which is the essence of the process, denoted in legal psychology as legal socialization of an individual, which is related to traditional life cycles of age and personality changes. The content and features of the key periods of legal norms learning and of entering into legal culture are described. We identify the main social-psychological acquisition of each stage and their implications: the impact on individual choices of different ways of legal behavior. Along with issues of periodization, we describe the most important psychological patterns that underlie legal socialization, play the role of universal psychological mechanisms and allow a person to handle legal information, to acquire legal knowledge, to construct an image of social world and acceptable relationships. Understanding of these patterns is of great practical importance for optimal ways of legal education and training.