Issues of Social Control Flashcards
(32 cards)
What is social control?
Refers to the extent to whcih we can regulate people’s behaviour for social purposes i.e a method of enforcing conformity and compliance to established norms
What issues do techniques of social control raise?
Issues over freedom and choice
How is drug treatment a form of social control?
Drugs make everyone conform through medication to stop “abnormal” behaviours.
What are the benefits of exerting social control through drug treatment?
- Improves patient’s quality of life
- Can prevent someone beign a danger to themselves or society
- Can help them be well enought to undertake other treatments
- Affordable
What are the issues with exerting social control through drug treatment?
- May prescribe without listing side effects
- Lack of free will, people may be against drugs
- Consequences of relapse
- Should use CBT first
- Addiction
How is CBT a form of social control?
- Changes the way people think to how the clinician thinks they should think
- Alters the way an individual views the world, their future and themselves
How is it beneficial to exert social control through CBT?
- No side effects like drugs. No distress
- Client can decide what they wish to focus on so they don’t have to cover topics that are too distressing
- Most effective treatment for moderate and severe depression
What implications around the power of the therapist surround drugs?
- Those administering the drug have the power
- Society can take power if a court has ordered
- People can stop taking the treatment so have power
- Multiagency so more ethical
How does social psychology exert social control?
- Momentum of Compliance - shows how you can manipulate people to obey
- Agency theory - people will obey if they don’t think they are responsible
- RCT - Can reduce prejudice with superordinate goals
- SIT - can create obedience through number, immediacy and strength
How does cognitive psychology exert social control?
- EWT - can make it more reliable
- Reconstructive memory - can tell people they have remembered incorrectly
- Loftus and Palmer - can use leading questions to influence memory
How does learning psychology exert social control?
- Systematic dessensitisation/flooding
- Prosocial role models - mediating aggression
- Aversion therapy for alcoholism
- Operant Conditioning to reinforce certain behaviours. Reward cards
- Token economy - prison/school
- Classical conditioning - advertising
How does biological psychology exert social control?
- Alter functioning of brain through chemicals
- Drugs
How does child psychology exert social control?
- Daycare - Li suggests HQ is better
- Bowlby tried to discourage people from putting their child in daycare
- Ainsworth suggests that parents should be sensitive and responsive to their child
What are the drawbacks of exercising social control through a token economy?
- Rights are infringed, others decide what behaviours are desirable
- If a reward is a basic need rights are infringed
- Difficult to apply in real life where there is no TEP so may be no long term benefits
- Staff may misues power
- Usually in an institution where individuals can’t really withdraw
What are the benefits of exercising social control through a token economy?
- Helps an institution run more smoothly
- Can be run with minimum training, easy to implement
- Works when it is consistent
- Rewards are better when tailored
What are the benefits of using classical conditioning as a method of social control?
- In SD, client is in charge of the process so ethical
- Usually a good relationship is built up with consellor
- Little equipment needed, low cost and time efficient
- Client controls the speed and progression of their therapy so power of therapist is minimised
- Client can withdraw so they have power
What are the drawbacks of using classical conditioning as a method of social control?
- Might feel pressure to move up the heirachy in SD
- Aversion therapy used on homosexuals - can be abused
- Aversion therapy difficult to apply in real life
- SD only works if client can learn to relax
- SD has little value for disorders like anorexia
- Practitioner has most power as they carry out therapy
What are the key issues in social control regarding treatment or therapies?
- Power of the therapist - unethical if too much
- Who decides whether a person needs trreatment or therapy
- Issues of individual freedom
How has Bandura’s research been used to control society?
Found children were likely to imiatate aggressive role models on TV and in real life. 9pm watershed created and age certificate for films.Controlling the level of aggression children are exposed to so they reduce their imiatation.
Strengths of the 9pm watershed?
- Reducing aggression levels in society is ethical
- Parents can still show their children this content if they want to
Weaknesses of the 9pm watershed?
- Bandura’s research criticised for lacking ecological validity and mundane realism
- Restricting content may not reduce aggression
- Element of choice taken away from children
- Ultimately up to the parents
What is a token economy?
This is a system whre tokens are given (either physical or some sort of points system) when an individual displays behaviour that is seen as desirable to the institution, the points can be exchanged for a prize or goods
How can punishment be incorporated into a token economy?
By taking priviliges away if undesirable behaviour is shown.
How can RCT be used as a form of social control?
It suggests that prejudice is less severe when there isn’t a zero sum so resources should be shared so there isn’t one winner and one loser
