Soical Control 20 Mark Flashcards
A01 at beginning
- the extent to which members of society can be controlled
- psychologists have been criticised for controlling behaviour within their research studies and theories
- so psychological theories can be applied to control members in a society
However the untilitatianism approach would suggest that controlling a few hazardous members of society could provide a safe enviroment for the greater good
Social psychology for and against paragraphs
In social psychology, milgrams baseline study and variations can be used to create situations that lead to the highest obedicance. In milgrams variation of the ordinary man, the obedicance fell to 20%, from the baseline study where 65% obeyed up to 450v with a stern looking authoritative researcher. This can be applied to increase obedience in society to create a society that blindly obeys and exhibits blind destructive obedicance despite it causing moral strain, like in milgrams experiment where the pp displayed discomfort with shocking the pp, even leading to one pp having a seizure, by using a legitimate authority of government or police force to cause agentic shift into the agentic state.
However there are limitations to the extent of milgrams applicaitons. In milgrams baseline study, 35% of the pp did not obey to 450V and took responsibility for their own actions. This knowladge about obedicance highlights that there could be induvidual differences in personality that lead to a resistance to obeying, therefore, the knowladge from milgrams research can only be applied to an extent as it fails to explain why 35% of the pp had autonomy and didnt obey the authoritative researcher, as some induviduals are more resistant than others
Cognitive paragraphs
In cognitive psychology, knowledge from reconstructive and schema theory can be applied to control opinions and views within a society. A schema is a set of world views or opinions based off of past experiences and exposure. Allport and postman found that when showing pp a photo of a white smart their, their schema reconstructed the memory to see a scruffy black man. This knowladge that views can be controlled can be used to control a society by only exposing people to specific views and opinions and has lead to controlling the people who are able to give eye witness testimony’s and evidence can be controlled in court by using emotive phrases that contort the recollection of a memory
Learning paragraphs
In learning psychology, finings about classical conditioning form Watson and Rayners study can be used to control society through conversion and aversion therapies. By using stimulus response pairing principles of classical conditioning, patients are shown disturbing images and smells when being forced to watch pornographic homosexual material to condition a negative response to homosexuality, which can be used to control negative opinions of homosexuality and minimising it within a society.
However, Watson and rayner have limitations to application to control in a whole society. The study used a limited sample of one 18month old male baby to desmonstrate how phobias can be conditioned. Therefore, its hard to apply the knowlage gained about control of fears from the results of this study to a whole society and the extent which it can be used in social control is very limited
Biological paragraphs
In biological psychology, the knowladge of the findings from raine et als study on 41 violent murderers pleading not guilty for reasons of insanity can be applied to controling a society. Raine used PET scans and found that there was a predisposition to violent behaviour in brain activity. The murderers had lower activity in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex of the brain. The knowladge of predisposition to violence can control members of society to have mandatory brain scanning and to put inventions in place, such as institutionaliaton, to control the movement of those at risk of violent behaviour and to decrease crime and violence within a society.
However, a limit with Raine et als findings is that Raine explained that many different parts of the brain have an effect on aggression, e.g the interaction of the brain and enviroment to trigger violence. Therefore, there is too large of a group within society that could ‘qualify’ for being potentially dangerous and decreases the extent to which interventions can be put in place as there are so many contributing factors and isolating a single brain region for violent behaviour is hard to determine levels of risk.
Clinical paragraphs
In clinical psychology, drugs treatments can be used to control behaviour, and before this, the implications of societal norms and behaviour thta its deviant from it can be controlled. This can be controlled by labelling behaviours and those who dont if inside the lines of the norms are classified as abnormal and diagnosed. In the 4’ds of diagnosis, deviance refers to the extent at which behaviour strays away from the accepted behaviour of a community, this accepted behaviour can be controlled so that members in the community have to conform with the expected behaviour to prevent deviation. Therefore, setting out expected societal norms controls what people deem as normal and controls their behaviour within society.
However, social control is hard to be applied after the administration of clinical drugs, a study found that only 50% of those administered with antipsychotics for sz actually take them. So the use of drugs to control peoples bahviour is limited to a certain point, where, unless institutionalised and carefully monitored, the patient has free will to not take the drugs and there behaviour has not been controlled.
