Page 28 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 3

social control
Socialisation represents a process through
which a society tries to bring order, stability
and predictability to people's behaviour. If a
child is socialised into "a right way to do
something", such as eating with a knife and
fork, there must also be a "wrong" or
deviant way (such as eating with their
fingers) to be discouraged.
Socialisation, in this respect, is a form of
social control that Pfohl (1998)
characterises thus: "Imagine deviance as
noise - a cacophony of subversions
disrupting the harmony of a given social
order. Social control is the opposite. It
labours to transform the noisy challenge of
difference into the music of conformity".
Social control relates to the idea human
behaviour involves a life-long process of
rule-learning, underpinned by sanctions -
the things we do to make people conform.
� Positive sanctions (rewards) are the
pleasant things we do to make people
behave in routine, predictable, ways; these
range from smiling, through praise and
encouragement to gifts.
� Negative sanctions (punishments) are the
reverse and these range from not talking to
people if they annoy us, putting people in
prison or even the ultimate negative
sanction, perhaps, killing them.
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