Introduction to Sociology

Table of Contents
Social Control. Introduction Formal social Control. Definition in aspect oh Horton & Hunt.. Explanation. Mechanism of social control.. Promotion .. Gossip and rumors. Reputation and reviewing.. Conclusion. References. 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 6

Introduction to Sociology

SOCIAL CONTROL:-

Introduction:"The world would be a hopeless muddle if we were allowed to do whatever we pleased and have all the freedom we wanted There is much substance in the statement, for no society, not even simple society, can operate unless behaviour of people can be predicated most of time. Imagine, for example, a situation in which police withdraw its role of protection, criminals are allowed to do what they want. Motorists are set free to wonder on the road and workers are allowed to work at their choice. What will exist? Nothing but anarchy, disorder and no social system at all. Social control includes all the ways society control the individual. It causes the member of society to behave in the expected manner. Society's culture, structure and institutions are the ways through which social control is exerted. While the laws government and education have also taken an active role is establishing social control in modern compiles societies.

Formal Social Control:Control here is based around the idea of formal, legal, norms (or laws) of behaviour. That is, rules of behaviour that are written down and, in societies such as our own, that apply equally to everyone (not all societies apply formal rules equally). Where laws are involved, it is usual to find a group of people, normally employed by the government, whose job it is to enforce the law. In our society, for example, the main agency of formal social control is the police and the judiciary (courts), although the armed forces can, on occasions, be used to perform this role. Not all formal norms are laws, however. When you are accepted into an organisation (such as a school or college for example), you agree to abide by the formal rules governing behaviour in this institution. In this example, if you do not attend classes then you will be punished in some way. In general terms, formal rules and social controls exist to tell everyone within a society or social group what is and is not acceptable in terms of behaviour. Such formal controls usually exist where a group is very large and its members are not in day-to-day contact with each other.

Introduction to Sociology It is said that there are three types of control: 1. 2. Direct: by which punishment is threatened or applied for wrongful behaviour, and compliance is rewarded by parents, family, and authority figures. Indirect: by which a youth refrains from delinquency because his or her delinquent act might cause pain and disappointment to parents and others with whom he or she has close relationships. Internal: by which a person's conscience or sense of guilt prevents him or her from engaging in delinquent acts.

3.

Definition in aspect of Horton & Hunt:"Social control is the combination of means and process whereby group or society secures its member's conformity to its expectations"

Explanation:Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliances to the rules of society. Social control is present in all societies, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent the establishment of chaos or anomie. Informal social control denominates customs, traditions, norms and other social values inherited by the individual. It is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through custom, norms, and mores using informal sanctions such as criticism, disapproval, guilt and shaming. In extreme cases this may even include social discrimination and exclusion. This implied social control usually has more control over individual minds because they become ingrained in their personality. Traditional society uses mostly informal social control embedded in its customary culture relying on the socialization of its members to establish social order. More rigidly-structured societies may place increased reliance on formal mechanisms. Formal social control is expressed through law as statutes, rules, and regulations against deviant behavior. It is conducted by government and organizations using law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. In democratic societies the goals and mechanisms of formal social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives and thus enjoy a measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance. According to the propaganda model theory, the leaders of modern corporate dominated societies employ indoctrination as a means of social control. Several intellectual figures such as Noam Chomsky have argued on the existence of systematic bias in modern medias. The marketing, advertising, and public relations industries have 3

Introduction to Sociology thus been said to utilize mass communications to aid the interests of certain business elites. Powerful economic and religious lobbyists have often used school systems and centralised electronic communications to influence public opinion. Democracy is restricted as the majority is not given the information necessary to make rational decisions about ethical, social, environmental, or economic issues. In order to maintain control and regulate their subjects, authoritarian organizations and governments promulgate rules and issue decrees. However, due to a lack of popular support for enforcement, these entities may rely more on force and other severe sanctions such as censorship, expulsion and limits on political freedom. Some totalitarian governments, such as the late Soviet Union or current North Korea, rely on the mechanisms of the police state. Sociologists consider informal means of social control vital in maintaining public order, but also recognize the necessity of formal means as societies become more complex and for responding to emergencies. The study of social control falls within the academic disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology.

Mechanism of Social Control:Here we sketch on some possible mechanisms for social control that are inspired by establishing opinions about the other group members. These are either local to each individual, distributed or trusted to a third part.

Promotion:When a new agent is introduced to the market it has no reputation and therefore it is highly unlikely that anyone will use it. The agent can promote itself by giving a ``money back guarantee'' and leaving the money to a third, trusted part. Therefore the agent needs some initial capital as insurance for its client, but gradually, as the reputation builds up, this will be less and less necessary. The value will be in the reputation, and loss of this reputation will be at least to the cost of the interest of lending the money to build up the reputation (not counting the cost of the profitable deals that could be made using that reputation).

Gossips and rumors:If an agent discovered a good cooperating partner it could inform the other agents about it, and likewise if it had been cheated. The agents gossip about each other. This quickly ruins the local market for a malicious agent.

Introduction to Sociology However, in ecologic systems, the ones who are to gain the most from this information is by large probability the competitors to the gossiping agent, and therefore an agent might be better of by lying. This is the paradox of altruistic communication, which usually ends up in no communication at all. The question about how the gossip spreads in the global society is also unclear. If the agents have low or none incentive to move around, actors who move faster that its rumour can find new clients.

Reputation and reviewing

If we introduce actors who are concerned with the maintenance of reputation of others they can charge others for giving them advice on whom to choose for a particular task. These reputation agents can use the money to buy services from the vending agents. This idea is very similar to that of restaurant critics, and for them, as well as for agents, it is very important that they act incognito. If they weren't incognito they might get a special treatment and they would be unable to give a correct judgment. It has been suggested that for ideal critics reviews the buyer has a large incentive to be anonymous (otherwise he/she can't trust reviews as a means to find good deals), and the (non-malicious) seller has every reason to prove his identity to the buyers. Otherwise he/she won't get the credit he/she deserves. Reputation is in many cases a subjective measure, as was exemplified above with the example about music. By permitting different reputation scales to co-exist and compete, it will be possible to use the reputation mechanism as a tool for finding and categorising information. Variations of this idea are today tried for filtering Usenet news. Possibly reputation can be used in self-improving systems where the reputation corresponds to how well a service is performed. Actors who's services perform badly compared to others' will gradually be replaced by the services of actors with better reputation.

Conclusion:By formal social control the society can perform its social role very efficiently. Everybody has the safety that if there should be something wrong with him/her then he/she will be justified. By applying the social control, the society move towards the idealistic. The application of rules is highly obligated and also follow them. The crimes are removed from society and everybody got the justification. The people know that what are their duties and how they have to follow them.

Introduction to Sociology

References:-

http://www.sociology.org.uk/p2s5an3.htm http://www.cssforum.com.pk/central-superior-services-examination/topicsnotes/sociology/8647-social-control-its-machanisms.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_social_control