Indoctrination is the process of inculcating a person with ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or professional methodologies. Broadly speaking, indoctrination can refer to a general process of socialization. In common discourse, the term often has a pejorative valence to refer to forms of brainwashing or for disagreeable forms of socialization.

In sociology, socialization is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained".