Social Control

Question 1

Social Control

Answer 1

The regulation of other people’s behaviour for social purposes.

Question 2

Social Control and Psychology

Answer 2

Prediction of the behaviour allows us to control the behaviour if it is deemed harmful or undesirable.

Question 3

Example of Social Control in Psychology

Answer 3

In Learning Psychology where they condition someone to behaviour in a certain way in which they are being socially controlled.

Question 4

Negative Social Control

Answer 4

The regulation of other people’s behaviour for social purposes through punishment or ridicule.

Question 5

Positive Social Control

Answer 5

The regulation of other people’s behaviour for social purposes through reward or approval.

Question 6

Types of Social Control

Answer 6

1. )Legitimate power
2. )Reward power
3. )Expert power
4. )Referent power
5. )Coercive power
6. )Informational power

Question 7

Legitimate Power

Answer 7

The belief that a person has the right to make demands and expect others’ compliance as a form of social control.

Question 8

Reward Power

Answer 8

The person has the ability to reward another person for their compliance as a form of social control.

Question 9

Expert Power

Answer 9

The person has a high level of skills and knowledge gaining more trust from people as a form of social control.

Question 10

Referent Power

Answer 10

The person’s perceived attractiveness and respect as a form of social control.

Question 11

Coercive Power

Answer 11

The belief that a person can punish others for non-compliance as a form of social control.

Question 12

Informational Power

Answer 12

A person’s ability to control the information that they disclose to others to accomplish something as a form of social control.

Question 13

Evaluation Issues in regaruds to Social Control

Answer 13

1. ) Effectiveness of using social control to better someone
2. ) Choice of the person being controlled and whether or not they should have one
3. ) Control or cure when using social control
4. ) Power and the abuse of it

Question 14

Social Psychology: Sherif

Answer 14

• In Stage 2 friendship levels of the Rattlers were 7% and 6% for the Eagles compared to Stage 3 of 36% for the Rattlers and 23% for the Eagles
• Superordinate goals reduce hostility by working together to achieve a common goal. People overestimate the abilities of their own groups and underestimate the abilities of out-groups
• Teachers may use legitimate power to demand students to conform to the jigsaw classroom technique in which they all complete a piece of work that will combine with the whole class’s
• Coaches may use legitimate and referent power to hold charity football events to raise money for a charity the teams share in common

Question 15

Social Psychology: Jigsaw Technique

Answer 15

+It reduces hostility classmates may feel towards each other therefore reducing bullying and its negative effects
-Teachers have coercive power to punish a student if they do not provide their part of the ‘jigsaw’ that may be compromised of different elements of the same essay to aid the whole group

Question 16

Social Psychology/Clinical Psychology: Assertive Community Therapy

Answer 16

• Gomory: Found that some on the programme were offered little choice in decisions and found it patronising - legitimate power
• Bond: concluded from 25 studies that ACT was effective at preventing rehospitalisation
• ACT is insufficient on its own for SZ so needs to be paired with drug therapy of antipsychotics to alleviate positive and negative symptoms of SZ therefore meaning patients experience side effects of weight gain and depression
• The programme doesn’t cure SZ or alleviate symptoms only provides as a control/aid to helping the individual back into society
• Mental health patients with severe circumstances may have no choice in what the practitioners help them in however most how choice about the activities they need help with and can ultimately say no to a practitioner’s aid

Question 17

Cognitive Psychology: Baddeley

Answer 17

• Found STM encodes acoustically and LTM semantically
• Used by Students/Others who have to remember large amounts of info. Make semantic links
• Used by teachers to encourage revision techniques. For example, avoiding revising semantically similar information/ subjects at one time to avoid inaccuracies.
• Positive Social Control as this behaviour is rewarding through high grades
• Lab experiment – not generalisable, high internal validity, low ecological validity, reliable, ethical

Question 18

Cognitive Psychology/Criminal Psychology: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Answer 18

• Practioner does exert control though tasks and challenged, not as sig as psychodynamic.
• The therapist works with and alongside the patient. The patient has more control when compared to other therapies
• Understanding of memory in court situations. Willing participation in CBT by client
• Manipulation of memories (false memory syndrome) Loftus was able to get pps to remember seeing Bugs Bunny in Disneyland.

Question 19

Cognitive Psychology/Criminal Psychology: EWT

Answer 19

• Where witnesses describe what they saw during the accident or crime whereby they may need to attend court however the account may not be as accurate.
• Measure stress, consider Post event information, avoid leading Qs and consider weapons at the time
• PEI can be manipulated by legal teams to effect witnesses and jury members through pushing a certain viewpoint across
• Informational power
• Flashbulb is an alternative

Question 20

Biological Psychology: Raine

Answer 20

• Brains were different between NGRIs and controls
• Found Amygdala of NGRIs had lower activity in left (0.94) compared to 0.97 and greater activity in the right (0.88) compared to 0.83.
• Amygdala plays a role in the recognition of social significant stimuli and so abnormalities could be relevant to a theory of violence based reduced autonomic arousal and lack of fear in offenders
• Seems to suggest that some people are driven to kill by their brain structure and that their violence is out of their control. “screen” people to check they don’t have “a murderer’s brain.” Raine and his colleagues not drawing these conclusions themselves, but once a study like this is known its conclusions may be misinterpreted. Used to control.
• PET is a reliable brain imaging technique that has been used since the 1970s. Produces objective and replicable results and it can be tested and re-tested to check its reliability.

Question 21

Biological Psychology/Criminal Psychology: Hormone Therapy

Answer 21

• Adjusts hormone levels to change behaviour
• TLM is used to reduce sexual drives through the reduction of the male sex hormone reduces recidivism in sexual offenders. CPA/MPA
• MPA: Female hormone breaks down the production of testosterone in the pituitary gland/Intramuscular injection of 300-400mg every 7-10 days/Side affects of osteoporosis and depression
• Hormone treatment can be a form of social control as it doesn’t change the offender’s behaviour, it simply deals with the symptoms. Therefore this may not be in the best interest of the offender
• Maletzky: Found that anti-androgens compared to no treatment led to lower rates of sexual recidivism in response to sexual stimuli that previously led to arousal. Therefore demonstrating that hormone treatment is effective in reducing recidivism in sexual offenders
• Almost 70% of homosexual paedophiles received MPA, compared to 46% of men with heterosexual paedophilia. Abused. But short term.

Question 22

Biological/Clinical Psychology: Drug Treatments

Answer 22

• Szh treated with dopamine antagonistic antipsychotics/taken in various forms
• Work by binding to the D2 receptors to sedate the patient to reduce the intensity and frequency of their symptoms to allow for functioning. Due to excess D being correlated with schizophrenia, they reduce the amount of activity in parts of the brain that rely on dopamine to eliminate positive symptoms such as hallucinations. Chlorpromazine.
• 2nd: Bind D and S temporarily binding with them and disappearing to allow the normal activity to combat positive and negative symptoms with little side effects.
• High social control as Antipsychotics has been called ‘chemical straitjackets’ due to their control over the patient’s behaviours. Therefore patients may be less likely to take medication and compromise their rights if someone forces them to. Under section forced. But usually, their decision and may forget and need another treatment in cognition to actually get better as this deals with symptoms only
• Schooler: 75% reduction in symptoms. Also, low cost and development to tackle pos and neg symptoms.

Question 23

Learning Psychology: Watson and Rayner

Answer 23

• Found: 1st trial when the metal bar was hit Albert displayed distress by jumping violently/2nd trial Albert was suspicious of the rat/3rd Albert leaned away from the rat/Rabbit was placed next to him Albert cried/7 weeks later Albert cried in response to a white fury coat. Fear had generalised
• Concluded: Demonstrates that it is artificially possible to induce emotional responses by CC. Phobias can be learned from the environment.
• Control behaviour. SD, Flooding and Aversion Therapy.

Question 24

Learning Psychology: Phobia Therapy

Answer 24

-Effectiveness: Willing and able to relax. Shouldn’t be couldn’t to other objects. Rapport needed to be effective as it requires trust. Risk of only being beneficial short term.
-Requires very little equipment.
-Control or Cure: Both. McGrath: Supports. 75% of those with specific phobias showed significant improvements following treatment. Showing the effectiveness of the treatment. Also rejects as found social phobias have relapse rates of 50% in 6 months. Treatment may not be as effective for more complex phobias
-AT is used in prisons so may be forced to get help and removes the chance of saying no. Usually or choice but may be pressured
+AV has helped many overcome bad habits (drugs and cigs) but is a generally unpleasant experience. Open to abuse electrotherapy was once used to control homosexuality. SD has more of choice as they aid the construction of the hierarchy. They are working together.
-CC therapists decide what desirable behaviour is. In a position of power. Control the stimulus and how it is presented. Can withdraw at any time (W&R).
=Ultimatley reduce phobias and improve quality of life. It is undesirable behaviour. Reductionist as only looks at environmental factors.

Question 25

Learning Psychology/Clinical Psychology: Token Economies

Answer 25

• TEP is all about managing behaviour using operant conditioning principles and tokens are given as rewards for desirable behaviour. Closed institutions with controlled environments, such as in hospitals.
• The staff and patient establish primary reinforcers and when secondary reinforcers should be awarded for target behaviours (Eating a meal).
• Shaping is used with tokens being easy to gain at first but getting increasingly harder as they progress in order to become more subtle to mirror the outside world, such as sitting at a table to eat the food being reinforced at the start changing to eating the whole meal
• Limited effectiveness in the real world. Comply to complete the program and not to get better
• Hard to implement and they need to be something they want.
• Staff need to be trained and monitored which is costly
• Maybe forced. Under a section in a controlled unit. But ultimately benefits them. Can’t consent. Needs to be agreement.
• Staff run and implement. Can withhold tokens at any time. Can’t withdraw. Only short term effects.
• Stunkard: Successfully used positive reinforcement with ANs to encourage them to eat normally. Therefore showing that positive reinforcements are effective at treating restrictive anorexia

Question 26

Clinical Psychology: Rosenhan

Answer 26

-Found: All pseudopatients were admitted. Discharged as schizophrenia in remission. 19 days average/ Normal behaviours were often seen as aspects of their illness/35 real patients reported them/bad conditions/Real patients would flush medication down the toilet
-Found: 4% of psychiatrists stop and talk to patients/10% of nurses make eye contact when asked questions by patients/71% of P and 88% of N walk on with their head averted when asked questions by patients
-Conclusion: All pseudopatients were admitted based on one symptom. Type one (s-h)/Type Two (h-s)/Once diagnosed, it is hard to get rid of the label associated with the mental illness and so became depersonalised/Once tagged as abnormal, all behaviours were interpreted according to their institutional label
=Started the move away from dependency on the “chemical straitjacket” of drugs to treat mental health. Today, the study is a compulsory part of training in psychiatric medicine and nursing. Reforming the DSM. DSM-III (1980) defined mental illnesses much more carefully, with clear guidelines for including or excluding people from each classification.
=Allardyce (2007): Some symptoms of Sz are common amongst general the population and so he questioned the construct of the criteria used to diagnose a mental disorder.