Issues of Social Control Flashcards
What is social control?
Refers to the extent to whcih we can regulate people’s behaviour for social purposes i.e a method of enforcing conformity and compliance to established norms
What issues do techniques of social control raise?
Issues over freedom and choice
How is drug treatment a form of social control?
Drugs make everyone conform through medication to stop “abnormal” behaviours.
What are the benefits of exerting social control through drug treatment?
- Improves patient’s quality of life
- Can prevent someone beign a danger to themselves or society
- Can help them be well enought to undertake other treatments
- Affordable
What are the issues with exerting social control through drug treatment?
- May prescribe without listing side effects
- Lack of free will, people may be against drugs
- Consequences of relapse
- Should use CBT first
- Addiction
How is CBT a form of social control?
- Changes the way people think to how the clinician thinks they should think
- Alters the way an individual views the world, their future and themselves
How is it beneficial to exert social control through CBT?
- No side effects like drugs. No distress
- Client can decide what they wish to focus on so they don’t have to cover topics that are too distressing
- Most effective treatment for moderate and severe depression
What implications around the power of the therapist surround drugs?
- Those administering the drug have the power
- Society can take power if a court has ordered
- People can stop taking the treatment so have power
- Multiagency so more ethical
How does social psychology exert social control?
- Momentum of Compliance - shows how you can manipulate people to obey
- Agency theory - people will obey if they don’t think they are responsible
- RCT - Can reduce prejudice with superordinate goals
- SIT - can create obedience through number, immediacy and strength
How does cognitive psychology exert social control?
- EWT - can make it more reliable
- Reconstructive memory - can tell people they have remembered incorrectly
- Loftus and Palmer - can use leading questions to influence memory
How does learning psychology exert social control?
- Systematic dessensitisation/flooding
- Prosocial role models - mediating aggression
- Aversion therapy for alcoholism
- Operant Conditioning to reinforce certain behaviours. Reward cards
- Token economy - prison/school
- Classical conditioning - advertising
How does biological psychology exert social control?
- Alter functioning of brain through chemicals
- Drugs
How does child psychology exert social control?
- Daycare - Li suggests HQ is better
- Bowlby tried to discourage people from putting their child in daycare
- Ainsworth suggests that parents should be sensitive and responsive to their child
What are the drawbacks of exercising social control through a token economy?
- Rights are infringed, others decide what behaviours are desirable
- If a reward is a basic need rights are infringed
- Difficult to apply in real life where there is no TEP so may be no long term benefits
- Staff may misues power
- Usually in an institution where individuals can’t really withdraw
What are the benefits of exercising social control through a token economy?
- Helps an institution run more smoothly
- Can be run with minimum training, easy to implement
- Works when it is consistent
- Rewards are better when tailored