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Social Control
- Social control is the term given to the regulation of people’s behaviour for social purposes.
- It may be to benefit society as a whole by modifying the individual’s behaviour so they become a productive member of society or fit in better however it does have social and moral issues.
- Psychological techniques and practices are used in many ways to regulate our behaviour and to a certain degree control and manipulate it examples are conditioning techniques and drugs.
- By the systematic use of conditioning our responses to particular stimuli can be controlled.
- The behaviourist approach developed conditioning techniques through operant conditioning (behavioural modification) an example of which token economy and classical conditioning (behavioural therapy) an example of which is aversion therapy.
Aversion Therapy
Aversion Therapy has been used with alcoholics and homosexuals.
| Pro Aversion Therapy
| Con Aversion Therapy
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| Moral Implications (Pros)
| Moral Implications (Cons)
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- Improves the quality of life for the individual.
- Can be a successful form of treatment.
- Can help the individual reintegrate back into society and gives the person self worth.
- The person has volunteered
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- Could generalise the therapy for example could generalise the sickness they would have with alcohol to all other drinks.
- May suffer some kind of trauma.
- May not be effective in the long term.
- Only deals with symptoms not causes (might revert to alcohol in the long run as the initial problem mite not b solved).
- Can take away someone’s human rights.
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| Social Implications (Pros)
| Social Implications (Cons)
|
- Could generalise the therapy for example could generalise the sickness they would have with alcohol to all other drinks.
- May suffer some kind of trauma.
- May not be effective in the long term.
- Only deals with symptoms not causes (might revert to alcohol in the long run as the initial problem mite not b solved).
- Can take away someone’s human rights.
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- Can be abused by society to get rid of unwanted behaviours that are socially undesirable for some but are not a problem or ‘wrong’ such as homosexuality.
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Token Economy
Token Economy has been used to make the behaviour of the mentally ill more acceptable. It has also been used in prisons to control the behaviour of inmates.
| Pro Token Economy
| Con Token Economy
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| Moral Implications (Pros)
| Moral Implications (Cons)
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- Can improve quality of like for individuals involved.
- Can give a sense of achievement; they’ve done something themselves.
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- Deals with symptoms not cause.
- Can be abused by those who have control of the tokens eg. deciding which behaviours are rewarded.
- Human rights issues; why should things be taken away that you have a right to.
- Increases rivalry and competition within institutions – people may begin to fight for tokens.
- Embarrassing for those who don’t receive many tokens.
- Only effective in an institutional setting so will revert back.
- Black marks or failure to gain tokens may result in labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
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| Social Implications (Pros)
| Social Implications (Cons)
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- Can control unwanted behaviours e.g. aggression in prisons.
- Can benefit society by socialisation encouraging behaviour that starts in schools.
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- Doesn’t generalise outside of the institutional setting and so wouldn’t really benefit society outside of the institutional setting as the desirable behaviour may stop when tokens stop.
- Other factors may influence behaviour outside of the institutionalised setting.
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Drug Therapy
| Pro Drug Therapy
| Con Drug Therapy
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| Moral Implications (Pros)
| Moral Implications (Cons)
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- Could be a quick easy way to solve the problem.
- Can improve quality of life for some individuals.
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- Side effects can be stressful and possibly painful.
- Drugs will treat the symptoms of the problem not the cause meaning it may occur.
- Could become dependant upon the drug.
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| Social Implications (Pros)
| Social Implications (Cons)
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- An effective way of controlling unwanted behaviour in society.
- Cheaper than many forms of therapy – cheaper for society.
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Comments
- Written by biwwy_wove
- Suitable for Psychology A-level
- For PYA4 or PYA5
