SocSci 04: SOCIETY AND CULTURE WITH FAMILY PLANNING AND GENDER

STUDY

Module 5

DEVIATION, SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND CONTROL

LESSON 1

Meaning and Nature of Deviance

 Referred to any violation of social norms and expectations. It’s a breach of social
disorder.
 Something that is conferred upon by others to individuals who commit the act of
deviation.
 Refers to those human acts that are socially defined by the group or society by deviant.
Consequences of Deviant

 It reaches people of what is acceptable social behavior.

 It strengthens group norms and values.
 It is a sign and source of social change.

Negative Effects of Deviance

 It harms group stability.

 It induces distrust and ill-will.
 It drains human and economic resources.
 It weakens people’s faith in and conformity to social norms,

LESSON 2

Theoretical Explanation of Deviance

1. The Structural-Functional View

 People deviated from given social norms because of the rapid social change.
 Norms of society become unclear and no longer applicable to current conditions.

2. Emile Durkheim
 One of the proponent of this perspective, called this situation “ anomic “ or a breakdown
of societal norms.
 He asserted that there is nothing abnormal about deviance, since it is an integral part of
society.

3. Robert Merton’s Strain Theory

 People deviate to societal norms because of the inability to reach cultural goals through
legitimate means of attaining them.

Deviant Behavior and Mode of Adaptation to the Use of Means and Goal Attainment
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 1. Innovation- Individual resort to illegitimate means to achieve culturally approved goals
such as economic success, material possessions and social status.
2. Ritualism- Individuals give up or abandon the goals, but follow or conforms in strict
fashion the set of legitimate means that are socially defined as necessary for goal
attainment.
3. Retreatism- Individual abandons the goal and the means to attain such goal.
4. Rebelion- Individual abandons both the goal and means and creates new goal and means.

 Symbolic Inter-action Theory - Deviance is learned through interaction with others and
involves the development of deviant concept.

Three Forms of Deviance in Symbolic Inter-action Theory

1. Differential Association Theory - All human behavior, including deviance is learned

through association with others, especially primary groups.
2. Self-esteem Theory - People choose deviance or conformity depending on which will do
the most to enhance their self-esteem.
3. Control Theory- This theory by Hirschi, deviance arises from particular social
arrangement, specially the inability of society to control adequately activities of its
members.

Four types of social controls as a function of conformity by Hirschi

1. Attachment
2. Commitment
3. Involvement
4. Belief

Four Forms of Deviance in Symbolic Inter-action Theory

 Conflict Theory- Social paradigm links deviance to social inequality. Conflict Perspective
are the ideas of dominance and power.

LESSON 3

Forms of Deviant Behavior and Social Problems

Social Problems

 A situation affecting a significant number of people that is believed by them and/or by a

significant number of others in the society to be a source of difficulty or unhappiness.

Forms of Deviant Behavior

 Drug Abuse- Relates to the subjective effect on the individual when he takes the drugs.

Classification of Drugs:

1. Sedatives
2. Stimulants
3. Hallucinogens or Psychedelics
4. Narcotics

Causes of Drug Abuse

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 1. Socio-cultural Deprivation
2. Faulty model and Learning
3. Lawlessness and alienation
4. Pathogenic Family Pattern
5. Peer Group Association

Common Signs of Drug Abuse

 Changes in behavioral patterns

 Changes in appearance.
 Changes in mood.

Alternative Solutions

1. Strengthen family relationship.

2. Nationwide campaign on the ill-effects of missed drugs.
3. Strengthen the guidance programs of the school.
4. Introduction onto the curriculum, particularly in the secondary level the subjects on drug
abuse prevention.

 Crime - A violation of any one of the specific norms that we call laws. For any violation
of law a result in application of certain sanctions or punishment.

Serious Offenses are classified as;

1. Crime against person.

2. Crime against property.
3. Crime against Chastity.
4. Crime against morale and orders.

Causes of Crime

 Lack of Parental guidance.

 Lack of cooperation between the community and police authority.
 Laxity on the part of law enforces to implement the laws.
 Breakdown of some Filipino values.
 Association with undesirable elements of society.
 Proliferation of undesirable and obscene literature
 Violence in movies and television.

Alternative Solutions

1. Strengthen family relationship.

2. Coordination between police, authorities and community.
3. Strong relationship between church and the family.
4. Weeding of the misfits and scalawags in our law enforcement agencies.
5. Complete ban on smut magazines and other undesirable reading materials.
6. Restrictions of violent films and sex movies.

 Prostitutions - Said to be the oldest profession in the world. According to Sanchez and
Agpaoa, prostitution is a type of sexual deviation.

Types of Prostitution

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  Female Prostitution
 Male Prostitution
 Child Prostitution

Causes of Prostitution

1. Poverty
2. Acculturation
3. Tourism

LESSON 4

 Social Control - Ways in making its members conform and behave according to its norms
and standards.

Types of Social Control

1. Informal Social Control

2. Formal Social Control

COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR & SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Collective behavior–Activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned, often

controversial, and sometimes dangerous

Examples: Mobs, riots, panic, mass hysteria, and social movements

Studying Collective Behavior

1. Collective behavior is diverse - A wide range of human action

2. Collective behavior is variable - Why do some rumors catch on, but others don’t?
3. Much collective behavior is transitory - Disasters, rumors, and fads come and go quickly.

Collectivity

Localized collectivity–People physically close to one another

Dispersed collectivity (or mass behavior)–People who influence one another despite being
spread over a large area

How Collectives Differ from Social Groups

Collectives are based on limited social interaction.

Interaction in mobs is limited and temporary.

Collectives have no clear social boundaries.

Little sense of unity compared to social groups whose members often share a common identity

Collectives generate weak and unconventional norms.

Mobs often destroy and act spontaneously.

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Crowds

Blummer identified 4 types, we add a 5th:

A casual crowd: people on a beach

A conventional crowd: a college classroom

An expressive crowd: a church service

An acting crowd: people fleeing from a fire

A protest crowd: a college student sit-in

Mobs and Riots

Mob–A highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal

A lynch mob

Riot–A social eruption that is highly emotional, violent, and undirected

Sports riots, race riots, riots related to social injustice

Explaining Crowd Behavior

Le Bon’s contagion theory

Crowds exert hypnotic influence over their members. People surrender to a “collective mind” as
its members rid themselves of inhibitions and act out, and the crowd assumes a life of its own.

Critical review

Crowd actions result from the intentions and decisions of specific individuals.

Not necessarily irrational

Explaining Crowd Behavior

Convergence theory: The crowd doesn’t generate the action, but rather the members themselves
stimulate the action of the crowd.

Example: Neighborhood groups concerned about crime and want to do something about it

Critical evaluation

Some people do things in a crowd that they would not have the courage to do alone.

Crowds can intensify a sentiment simply by creating a critical mass of like-minded people.

Explaining Crowd Behavior

Turner & Killian’s emergent-norm theory

People in crowds have mixed interests.

In less stable crowds (expressive, acting, and protest), norms might be vague or changing.

Critical evaluation

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Crowd behavior reflects the desires of participants, but is also guided by norms that emerge as
the situation unfolds.

Mass Behavior

Rumor and Gossip

Rumor–Unconfirmed information people spread informally, often by word of mouth

Thrives in a climate of ambiguity

Is unstable

Is difficult to stop

Gossip–Rumor about people’s personal affairs

Rumors spread widely, but gossip is more localized.

A means of social control

Too much gossip is discouraged.

Public Opinion & Propaganda

Public opinion–Widespread attitudes about controversial issues

Some people have no opinion at all.

Even on some important issues, a majority of people have no clear opinion.

Propaganda–Information presented with the intention of shaping public opinion

Thin line between information and propaganda

Not all propaganda is false.

Fashions and Fads

Fashion–A social pattern favored by a large number of people

Traditional style gives way to changing fashion in industrial societies.

Veblen: Conspicuous consumption–people buying expensive products to show off their wealth

Fads–An unconventional social pattern that people embrace briefly but enthusiastically

Sometimes called crazes

Panic & Mass Hysteria

Panic–A form of collective behavior in which people in one place react to a threat or other
stimulus with irrational, frantic, and often self-destructive behavior

Mass hysteria–A form of dispersed collective behavior by which people respond to a real or
imagined event often with irrational and even frantic fear

Disasters

Natural disaster

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Flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc.

Technological disaster

Oil spills, industrial accidents

Intentional disaster

War, terrorist attacks, genocide

Erikson’s Research

Three conclusions about the consequences of disasters:

Disasters are social events.

Social damage is more serious when an event involves a toxic substance.

Social damage is most serious when the disaster is caused by others.

Types of Social Movements

Social movement–An organized activity that encourages or discourages social change

Alternative: Least threatening, limited change for a limited number of members

Example: Planned parenthood

Redemptive: Selective focus, radical change

Example: Some religious organizations

Types of Social Movements

Reformative: Limited social change, targets everyone

Example: Equal rights amendment movement

Revolutionary: The most extreme, seeks basic transformation of society

Example: Ultra-conservative political movements

Figure 23.1
Four Types of Social Movements
There are four types of social movements, reflecting who is changed and how great the change
is.
Source: Based on Aberle (1966)

Claims Making

For a social movement to form, some issue has to be defined as a problem that demands public
attention.

Usually, claims making begins with a small number of people.

Example: AIDS

Explaining Social Movements

Deprivation theory: Social movements seeking change arise among people who feel deprived
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Relative deprivation–A perceived disadvantage arising from some specific comparison

Critical evaluation

Theory suffers from circular reasoning

Focuses exclusively on the cause, telling us little about movements themselves

Explaining Social Movements

Kornhauser’s mass-society theory: Social movements attract socially isolated people who feel
personally insignificant.

Movements are personal as well as political, giving people with weak social ties a sense of
purpose and belonging.

Critical evaluation

No clear standard for measuring the extent to which we live in a “mass society”

Explaining social movements in terms of people hungry to belong ignores the social-justice
issues that movements address

Explaining Social Movements

Smelser’s Structural-Strain Theory

1. Structural conduciveness

2. Structural strain

3. Growth and spread of an explanation

4. Precipitating factors

5. Mobilization for action

6. Lack of social control

National Map 23.1

Virtual March: Political Mobilization across the United States

Explaining Social Movements

Resource-mobilization theory: No social movement is likely to succeed or even get off the
ground without substantial resources

Critical evaluation

Powerless can promote change if they are organized and have committed members

Overstates the extent to which powerful people are willing to challenge the status quo

Explaining Social Movements

Culture theory: The recognition that social movements depend not only on material resources
and the structure of political power but also on cultural symbols.

Critical evaluation

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Does not address how and when powerful cultural symbols turn people from supporting the
system toward protest

Explaining Social Movements

Political-economy theory: Social movements arise within capitalist societies because the
capitalist economic system fails to meet the needs of the majority of people.

Critical review

Doesn’t explain the recent rise of social movements concerned with non-economic issues such as
obesity, animal rights, or the state of the natural environment

Explaining Social Movements

New social movements theory: Recent social movements in the postindustrial societies of North
America and Western Europe have a new focus.

Most of today’s movements are international.

Tends to focus on cultural change and improving social and physical surroundings

Draws support from middle and upper classes

Critical evaluation

Tends to exaggerate differences between past and present social movements

Gender and Social Movements

Gender figures prominently in the operation of social movements.

In keeping with traditional ideas about gender in the US, more men than women tend to take part
in the public life—including spearheading social movements.

“Freedom Summer” in 1964

Stages of Social Movements

Stage one: Emergence

Perception that something is wrong

Stage two: Coalescence

Defining itself and “going public”

Stage three: Bureaucratization

Organizing rationally to get job done

Stage four: Decline

Success

Organization failures

Leaders “sell out”

Crushed by repression
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Figure 23.2
Stages in the Lives of Social Movements
Social movements typically go through four stages. The last is decline, which may occur for any
of five reasons.

Social Movements:
Looking Ahead

Summing Up
Theories of Social Movements

Controversy and Debate

Political Involvement of Students Entering College in 2006: A Survey
First-year college students are mostly younger people who express limited interest in politics.

Prepared by:

Rosanna Marie C. Javier

BSED IV - English

Prepared to:

Rubelyn Esperon, PhD.

Instructress

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