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No laws needed: a look from a parent is informal social control coming from the people around us
Remember, informal social control is not written down in laws. It comes from the people and groups around us, which we call agencies. Most of us follow rules every day because of these agencies, not because a police officer is watching. This lesson looks at the six agencies and the sanctions they use.
Key terms:
The family is where control begins. Parents use praise and rewards to encourage good behaviour, and disapproval to discourage bad behaviour. It is very effective in childhood because children depend on their parents and want their love. It becomes weaker as young people grow up and spend more time elsewhere.
Schools control behaviour with rules, rewards and punishments. They are effective because pupils spend many years there and the rules are clear. Some pupils reject the rules and truant or misbehave, so control is not complete.
Peers control each other through approval and rejection. Teenagers often care more about their friends' opinions than about adults' rules, so this can be the most powerful agency for young people. Its effect can be good or bad, because a peer group may encourage rule-breaking too.
The media shows what is seen as normal and admired. Stories of people who are praised or shamed send messages to millions. Its control is indirect and people can choose to ignore it, so it is less effective than agencies that people meet face to face.
Religion gives believers moral rules and says what happens to those who obey or break them. It is very effective for people with strong faith. In societies where fewer people follow a religion, its control is weaker.
Employers set expectations about behaviour, dress and timekeeping. Workers conform because they need their wages. It is effective while the job matters to the worker, but it only covers working hours.
Being left out stings - ostracism is a powerful negative sanction used by peer groups
Each agency uses sanctions to bring about conformity. Some are positive, which reward good behaviour, and some are negative, which punish bad behaviour. You met these as terms in the lesson on social control and sanctions, so here we look at real examples.
The group stops speaking to or including a person who breaks its rules. It is a strong negative sanction because humans need to belong. A teenager who is dropped from a friendship group may quickly change their behaviour.
Parents may give praise, pocket money or a treat for good behaviour. These are positive sanctions. A child who is rewarded for helping at home is likely to repeat it.
Likes and comments are positive sanctions from peers online. People often post what they know will be liked. Being ignored or mocked online is a negative sanction.
A believer may be praised by the community, or may believe they will be rewarded after death. Rule-breakers may be criticised or fear punishment. These can shape behaviour even when nobody is watching.
Schools may take away privileges, give extra work, or keep a pupil in at break. Praise, prizes and house points are the positive side. Punishments work best when they are seen as fair.
An employer can sack a worker who breaks the rules. It is a serious negative sanction because the worker loses their income. The positive version is a bonus or promotion.
Informal control has real strengths. It starts in early childhood, so many norms become habits. It works everywhere, even where no police or cameras are present. It is flexible, because each agency can respond to the person in front of it straight away.
It also has limits. Different agencies can pull in different directions: a peer group may reward risky behaviour while parents punish it. Informal control has no written rules, so it can be unfair or unclear, and a group may ostracise someone just for being different. Some people do not care about the opinion of the agency, so the sanction has little power. The most effective control usually comes when several agencies send the same message.
Example from different societies: in some small close-knit communities, where everyone knows each other, the fear of gossip and shame can keep behaviour in line very strongly. In large cities, people may feel anonymous, so informal control by neighbours is weaker.
Do not describe police arrest or a court sentence as informal control, because those are formal. Do not just name a sanction: say whether it is positive or negative and how it makes people conform. For effectiveness, give both a strength and a limit, and always name the agency.
(a) Define the term ostracism. [2 marks]
(b) Give two examples of agencies of informal social control. [2 marks]
(c) Explain three sanctions that informal agencies use to achieve social conformity. [6 marks]
(a) Deliberately leaving someone out of a group (1) so that they are ignored or shut out. (1)
(b) Any two from: family, education, peer group, media, religion, workplace. (1) (1)
(c) Parental rewards: parents give praise or a treat for good behaviour, so the child repeats it to gain approval. (2) Social media likes: peers give likes for posts they approve of, so people copy the behaviour that gets a positive response. (2) Dismissal from a job: an employer sacks a worker who breaks the rules, so workers keep to the rules to protect their income. (2)
In part (c) name the sanction, say who uses it, then explain why it makes people conform. Each of the three explanations carries two marks.