INFORMAL MEANS OF SOCIAL CONTROL

Informal Means of Social Control Control by the public opinion: Public opinion is happened only in democratic country. It is also an important agency of social control. Public opinion can be defined as the collection of ideas and attitudes shared by members of a particular public. This is more possible in simple societies than in complex societies. In a village people are known to one another personally. It is difficult for a man from rural/village area to act contrary to the public opinion from his village. When we talk about “the public”, we usually mean the population at large. In sociology, however, public also has a different, more limited meaning. It is a dispersed collection of people who share some interest or concern, such as an interest in environmental issues, or in civil rights, or in outlawing pornography. In other way we can define it as a dispersed collection of people who share some interest or concern. Whenever a public comes in to being it forms an opinion. Public opinion is the collection of ideas and attitudes shared by the members of a particular public. There are public opinion and private opinion to an individual. “What a person says only to his wife himself, or in his sleep constitutes his private opinion” according to Turner and Killian. To them “What he will say to a stranger is public opinion”. In private many people will express doubts about an opinion. In public they might state an opinion shared by others. Public opinion may be said to be the collective opinion of majority of members of a group. Through public opinion the knowledge of the needs, ideas, beliefs, and values of people can be ascertained. Behaviour of the people is influenced by ideas, attitudes and desires which are reflected by public opinion. Public opinion can formulate and expressed through various mass media like press, radio, movies and legislatures etc. press include newspapers, magazines, and journals of various kinds etc. Folkways: Folkways is a term introduced by the late William Graham Sumner, professor at Yale and one of the earliest of American sociologists, in a famous book of that name published first in 1907. The word means literally the ways of the folk, the ways people have devised for satisfying their needs, for interacting with one another, and for conducting their lives. Folkways refer to the ways of the people. Folkways are norms to which we conform because it is customary to do so in our society. Conformity to the folkways is neither required by law nor enforced by any special agency of society. And yet we do all of these things, and thousands like them, without thinking. It is a matter of custom, a matter of usage. People in one society are not familiar with the folkways that existed in another society. It is different in each and every society in one aspect or another. Folkways are not as compulsive and obligatory as laws or morals. Those who violate folkways are not punished in formal ways. But the violators are put to gossip, slander and ridicule. One can ignore a few of the folkways but no one can neglect or violate all of them. The Mores: Much stronger norms than folkways are mores. The mores differ from the folkways in the sense that moral conduct differs from merely customary conduct. They absolutely insist that we behave morally, and violations of such norms will be severely punished. It can be termed as either mores or morals. When folkways act as regulators of behaviour then they become mores. Mores are considered to be essential for group welfare. The positive mores prescribed or prohibit behaviour patterns while the negative mores or taboos prescribe or prohibit behaviour patterns. Mores represent the living character of the group. The people who share them always consider them as right. They are morally right and their violation morally strong. Mores contribute to the solidarity and harmony of the group. So mores are always moulding human behaviour. They are the instruments of social control. Customs: According to MacIver and Page “the socially accredited ways of acting are the customs of society. Our daily activities in our society are regulated by our customs. They are self-accepted rules of social life. All individuals normally prefer to live according to the customs for they save much of our energy and time. Customs enlighten man in his social life. Customs are conformed mostly unconsciously. Customs are the long established habits and usages of the people. These are long lasted folkways and mores that are passed from one generation to another. The formation of custom is a gradual process. Religion: Religion has a great influence upon man’s behaviour in society. Different persons define religion differently. Religion is everywhere. Some form of religious belief exists all over the world. It ranges from belief in an invisible deity to worship of an animal. Some people may think that religion is a carry over from the superstitious past, hence highly important for primitive, backward societies only. Actually, religion is very much a part of our modern social life. According to Durkheim, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices regarding sacred things that unites its adherents in to a single moral community. Control by morality: Morality is an institution that is closely related to religion. It concerned with the conceptions of goodness and evil. Morality always helps to make a distinction between right and wrong or good or bad. Morality acts as a guide of human behaviour. Moral rules are obeyed because of internal pressure. Here man was afraid of society not of god. Religion and morality are mutually complementary and supportive. Sanctions: All kinds of norms play an important role in controlling behaviour, and society has various methods of enforcing them. These enforcement measures are called sanctions. They may be positive, rewarding conformity to norms, or negative, punishing violations. Some sanctions are applied by formal agents of Social Control such as the police, but most often sanctions are applied informally by parents, neighbours, strangers, and so on. By positive sanctions, they range from a smile to an honorary degree. Negatively, they may be anything from raised eyebrow to the death sentence. Sanctions are the supporters of the norms, the punishments applied to those who do not conform and the rewards given to those who do. There are more or less subtle ways in which disapproval may be expressed. One of the less subtle is ridicule, a powerful social sanction because no one likes to be considered ridiculous by those whose opinions he values. Sanctions are used to support conformity to the ideologies of the groups of which one is a member. The sanctions that support the ideologies are often stronger than those supporting the mores and what might be called “miss-belief” frequently has more serious consequences than misbehaviour. Miscellaneous Norms: Besides folkways, mores, and laws there are also several other kinds of devices, for Social Control. We can now devote a brief discussion on those factors also. They are: Fashion: Fashion may be defined as a permitted range of variation around a norm. Fashion operates in many spheres, but it is most familiar, perhaps, in the sphere of dress. The folkways prescribe that we wear clothing of a special kind in our society. But these requirements are very general indeed, and many variations are possible within the basic patterns. These variations in style, colour, design, and so on permit the expression of individuality. Fashion, in another way, may be defined as permitted range of variation around a norm. Fashion permits and regulates variety and thereby avoids a dull and deadening uniformity. They help us to express our individuality without going against norms. When these changes are relatively rapid or superficial or trivial or unexpected or irresponsible or bizarre, they are called fads rather than fashion. Ceremony: The function of ceremony is quite clear and needs no extended or elaborate discussion. Ceremonies are observed everywhere. In all societies such significant occasions as birth of a baby, confirmation, graduation, the death of an old man, the inauguration of a new factory, a promotion, the publication of a book, a new record in athletics, etc., are accompanied by some kind of ceremony. Ceremony, as can be seen, performs an important function in the life of a society and in the life of the individual as well. The ceremony confers public recognition upon it. Different societies, of course, ceremonialize different events. In some societies a girl’s first menstruation is made the occasion of a joyous ceremony; in others, such as our own, public mention of menstruation is tabooed, that is, prohibited by the mores. Rites: A rite is a ceremony. The term rites convey a sense of secrecy, of a ceremony known only to the initiated, of practices secured from the prying eyes of the curious. Rites then are not usually open to an entire community but are rather ceremonies reserved for the members of particular groups and hidden from public view. All secret societies have their rites and so also do groups that have relatively high qualifications for membership. An oral examination for the degree of doctor of philosophy, for example, serves not only as a test of the candidate’s qualifications- this is its manifest purpose- but also as a kind of rite, symbolizing, when successful, the student’s right to join a some what limited and select circle. Rituals: It is also a kind of ceremony. But this word carries the additional connotation of repetition. That is a ritual is a ceremony that is periodically and repeatedly performed. Such religious practices as the catholic mass are rituals, for they are regularly performed. Other examples are: Wedding Anniversary, New Year Day, Republic day etc. Ritual introduces temporal regularity and a precision of detail into many of the events that characterise our social life. Ritual also induces a sense of group identification and a group loyalty. Etiquette: Etiquette shares with ritual the property of precision. It is a code if precise procedures that governs the social interaction of people. Like other norms it contains the notion of propriety. It is proper, that is, to give or send a gift to those whose week-end hospitality one has enjoyed, to place a guest of honour etc. sociologically speaking, etiquette as a system of norms has three purposes. In the first place, like other norms, it prescribes standard procedures to be followed on specific occasions. Secondly, it indicates membership in a certain social class. In the third place, it serves to maintain social distance where intimacy or familiarity is not desired. Reserved by Rakhesh.C.K. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of Rakhesh.C.K.