social control

Question 1

What is social control in psychology (AO1)

Answer 1

The use of psychological knowledge to regulate or modify other people’s behaviour for social purposes is a form of control.

Positive: In some cases this is useful particularly if behaviours which put others at risk are reduced, for example, violent or inappropriate behaviour.

Negative: However these techniques can also be used in other contexts where they raise concerns about ethics and personal freedom.

Question 2

How can social psychology be used as a form of social control? (Reduce prejudice)

Answer 2

Social psychology can be used as a form of social control to benefit society because it can reduce prejudice.

For example, Sherif found that superordinate goals (2 groups working together to achieve the same goal eg. fixing a burst water pipe) reduced prejudice between two groups.

Therefore, this is a strength of social psychology because we could use superordinate goals to reduce prejudice in different ethnic groups of society.

Question 3

How can social psychology be used as a form of social control?

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Answer 3

A weakness of using social psychology as a form of social control is that it can be used to increase prejudice.

For example, Tajfel found that people become prejudiced because they compare their own group’s qualities and interests with another group’s, and see themselves as better.

This is a weakness because an oppressive government could use propaganda to highlight the differences between groups in society, therefore creating prejudice.

Question 4

give 3 points on cognitive psychology and social control

Answer 4

• dementia villages - controlling environemnt means they experience less distress
• however, they are being deceived
• accuracy of memory can be manipulated

Question 5

How can cognitive psychology be used as a form of social control? (Dementia villages)

Answer 5

The use of dementia villages

Dementia villages are safe and stimulating places where people with dementia can live (much like a retirement home), they live with other people who have dementia in an aim to reduce the distress which can be caused by the confusion which they experience in everyday life.

By controlling the individual’s environment they are experiencing less distress and therefore social control can be argued to be a positive thing.

Question 6

cognitive psychology and social control

accuracy of memory

Answer 6

Accuracy of memories be manipulated

Leading questions can activate specific schemas that influence how the memory is reconstructed. If a question suggests a particular detail or context, the person’s schema related to that detail or context might become more active, and they might incorporate that suggested detail into their memory