Socialization & identity (Week 4) Social control

Question 1

Agencies of Informal Social control

Answer 1

Agencies of socialisation like family, peer groups, education, media and religion act as agencies of informal social control.

Question 2

Formal social control

Answer 2

There are specialised agencies of formal social control such as the police and legal system.

Question 3

Sanctions

Answer 3

Agencies apply pressure to control the way people act through the use of **positive and negative sanctions. **

Question 4

Formal Control

Answer 4

• Formal control - involves written laws that apply equally to everyone.
• Also include non-legal rules that apply to everyone playing a particular role in an organisation eg. a school.
• Sanctions are enforced by agencies of social control (police or legal system)
• Breaking rules can result in formal negative sanctions. eg. fine/prison

Question 5

Informal control

Answer 5

• Informal controls reward or punish acceptable/unacceptable behaviour in everyday settings such as the family.
• These controls do not involve normal written rules.
• Operate through informal enforcement mechanisms eg. dissaproving looks, sarcasm

Question 6

Why we conform

Answer 6

• Wanting to belong to a group is a strong form of pressure
• Being ostracised or excluded from a social group is a very strong negative sanction and a reason to conform to the groups acceptable behaviour.
• In order to to live and survive as a member of society, it’s necessary to get on with others and so individuals conform out of self-interest.

Question 7

Conformity

Social Exchange

Answer 7

**Social exchange: **the view that people give to others (either materially, through status or approval) because this creates a relationship with joint obligations, so that the giver is likely to receive in return.
* When individuals are choosing a course of action, they weigh up the consequences and choose the action that benefits themselves.
* They are likely to conform to social expectations and to follow the socially approved norms and values.

Question 8

Ideology

Answer 8

Ideology helps to shape and control us in society.
Ideologies are sets of beliefs whose purpose is to explain something. For example:
* The meaning of life (scientific & religious ideologies)
* Nature of family organisation (familial ideologies)
* Superiority/inferiority of social groups (sexist or racist ideologies)
* How society should be organised (political ideologies)

Question 9

Marxist perspective on ideologies

Answer 9

• Marxists argue that ideologies have a controlling and manipulative element.
  eg. a capitalist-controlled media directly attempts to influence its audience by presenting a version of reality favourable to the ruling class.
• The ruling class control the state institutions to impose the dominant ideology.

Question 10

Key sociologist

Althusser (1971)

Answer 10

• Althusser referred to these institutions as ideological state apparatuses
• They include the education system, the family, media and religion.
• He believed that these apparatuses turned individuals into subjects by getting them to internalise ideology and see it as natural and obvious.
  For instance, naturally accepting that some people should have more than others.

Question 11

Adorno & Horkheimer 1944

Answer 11

• Argued that ruling class ideology is passed on through a culture industry that creates forms of popular culture. eg. films, newspapers, magazines
• These are then consumed passively by people
• The ruling class controls the culture industry > means of mental production > how people see and think about the social world.

Question 12

Working class - False class consciousness

Answer 12

• The working class absorb this ideology as they are uneducated in critical thinking
• It prevents them from realising what’s really going on; a ‘false class consciousness’
• They are told that the system they live is fair and honest. They believe it.
• Their own low position, is due to their own failure or lack of ability.
• If the working class becomes able to see their real situation and protest, the ruling class call on what Althusser calls the repressive state apparatus – the police, armed forces etc – who can control the working class by force.

Question 13

Social construction of reality

Answer 13

• Ideologies are important in the social construction of reality.
• They play a structural role in any society
• They represent complete systems of belief
• Ideologies are mental maps tell us- cultural history - cultural development

Question 14

Power

Answer 14

Dugan (2002): defines power actively, it involves ‘the capacity to bring about change.’
Lukes (1990): defines power to ‘do nothing’ by making others believe nothing has to change.
* Power could be the ability to make others do what you want, even against their will.
Power involves:
* The ability to make decisions eg. teachers
* Preventing others making decisions
* Removing decision-making from the agenda – the ability to ‘do nothing’ because others are convinced that no decision has to be made.

Question 15

Weber (1922)

Answer 15

Weber distinguishes between two types of power:
1. **Force **(coercive power) people are forced to obey under threat or punishment.
2. Authority (consensual power) people obey because they believe it is right to do.
Authority can be further broken down:
Charismatic power - people obey because they trust the person in command
Traditional power - based on how things have always been done.
Rational/legal power - people expect to be obeyed because of their position in authority gives them the right to demand control.

Question 16

Foucault and the concept of power

Answer 16

• Foucault (1983) argued that power in modern societies is very different to power in the past because it is opaque or ‘difficult to see’.
• People aren’t aware of the power that individuals or governments have over them.
• This has happened because the way people think about and experience power in their everyday life has changed.
• In the past, social control was mainly based on coercive power. eg. kings or queens orders to prisons.
• Today, power is more subtle. eg. surveillance or gathering information through devices.

Question 17

Foucault further argument

Answer 17

Foucault argues that knowledge about the social world and the language used to express such knowledge are both aspects of belief systems that control behaviour by influencing how people think about the world.
eg. we believe in ideas like ‘male’ and ‘female’, this controls how we behave as males and females and towards males and females.
* Reality is socially constructed, the construction process itself involves a complex relationship between beliefs, ideologies, power on one side and everyday ideas about roles, values and norms on the other.

Question 18

Deviance

Answer 18

People who violate norms that are expected of them in their culture. eg. tattoos, piercings, gendered behaviour.

Question 19

Crime

Answer 19

is a formal act that is written down and has a punishment that goes with it. eg. slavery laws, abortion, same sex relationships

Question 20

Crime & Deviance

Answer 20

Both are social constructs, meaning they are created by a society and vary from time to time and place to place.

Question 21

Social Control - Berger (1966)

Answer 21

Berger identifies some of the common methods of social control:
Physical violence – the police/military back up society’s rules with the threat of physical force or imprisonment. Violence is a last resort but the threat of it usually makes people conform.
Economic pressure – people may conform because it is in their economic interests to do so. eg. Workers who misbehave may be sacked.
Social acceptance – the desire to be accepted by others keeps us in line. We fear ridicule, gossip and being excluded.
**Socialisation **– this is the main method of social control. We internalise cultural expectations and they become part of our code of values. This reduces the likelihood that we will wish to break the rules.