Social Control

Question 1

What is it

Answer 1

Refers to the regulation of the behaviour of individual for thee sake of society. The individuals might be the target of social control because they need to conform to social rules and norms. By conforming they can be more productive for society.

Question 2

Social psych arguments

Answer 2

• using psychology, obedience can be obtained such as using uniforms and authority figures
• prejudice, such as the idea from sherif et al’s study that cooperating towards joint goals can help to reduce prejudice, can control people so that a society is more peaceful, which can be seen as manipulative

Question 3

Cognitive psych arguments

Answer 3

• the study of memory is removed from using psychology to control social situations, as it is about information processing in the brain, so perhaps not involved with how people behave in society
• however memory studies have been used to inform social issues. One such issue is the use of eye witness testimony in courtroom situations
• in cognitive psych it is less about trying to control someone and more about trying to free them

Question 4

Learning theories arguments

Answer 4

• there are 5 therapies explained and there are issues around social control, such as how in flooding the therapist has control over the client
• token economy can give control to the person gaining the tokens at least to some extent
• in CBT the client has a fair amount of power as they decide what actions to take and how far to stick with anxiety