Most social groups operate in accordance with certain laws and regulations that, to one degree or another, govern the behavior of all members of the community. These are laws, traditions, customs and rituals.
The former are developed at the state or regional levels, and their observance is absolutely necessary for all citizens of a particular state (as well as for non-residents located on its territory). The rest are, rather, of a recommendatory nature and irrelevant for a modern person, although for residents of the periphery they still have considerable weight.
Conformism as a way of adaptation
Maintaining the usual state of affairs and the existing order is necessary for people, like air. Children from a young age are taught how it is desirable or even necessary to behave in the society of other people. Most educational measures are aimed at eliminating actions that may be unpleasant for others from their behavior. Children are taught:
- To restrain the manifestations of the body's vital functions.
- Do not annoy people with loud speech and bright clothes.
- Observe the boundaries of personal space (do not touch others unnecessarily).
And of course, this list includes a ban on acts of violence.
When a person gives in to education and develops appropriate skills, his behavior becomes conformist, that is, socially acceptable. Such people are considered pleasant, unobtrusive, it is easy to communicate with them. When an individual’s behavior differs from the generally accepted pattern, various penalties (formal and informal negative sanctions) are applied to him. The purpose of these actions is to draw a person’s attention to the nature of his mistakes and to correct the behavior model.
Psychology of personality: a system of sanctions
In the professional vocabulary of psychoanalysts, sanctions mean the reaction of a group to the actions or words of an individual subject. Various types of punishments are used to implement regulatory regulation of social systems and subsystems.
It should be noted that sanctions are also rewards. Along with values, rewards encourage compliance with existing social norms. They serve as a reward to those subjects who play by the rules, that is, for conformists. At the same time, deviation (deviation from the law), depending on the severity of the misconduct, entails certain types of punishments: formal (fine, arrest) or informal (reprimand, conviction).
What is “punishment” and “censure”
The application of certain negative sanctions is due to the severity of the socially disapproving misconduct and the rigidity of the rules. In modern society they use:
- Penalties.
- Reprimands.
The former is expressed in the fact that a violator may be fined administrative penalty or they restrict access to socially valuable resources.
Informal negative sanctions in the form of censure become a reaction of members of society to manifestations of dishonesty, rudeness or rudeness on the part of the individual. In this case, the participants in the community (group, team, family) may cease to maintain relations with a person, express social disapproval to him and point out the peculiarities of behavior. Of course, there are fans to read notations about and without it, but this is a completely different category of people.
The essence of social control
According to the French sociologist R. Lapierre, sanctions should be divided into three main types:
- Physical, which are used to punish a person who violated social norms.
- Economic, which consist in blocking the satisfaction of the most important needs (fine, penalty, dismissal).
- Administrative, the essence of which is in lowering social status (warning, recovery, removal from office).
In the implementation of all of the above types of sanctions except the offender, other people take part. This is social control: society uses the concept of norm to correct the behavior of all participants. The goal of social control can be called the formation of a predictable and predictable model of behavior.
Informal negative sanctions in terms of self-control
For most types of social punishment, the presence of unauthorized persons becomes mandatory. For example, a person who violates the law should be convicted in accordance with the legislation (formal sanctions). A lawsuit may require the participation of five to ten people to several dozen people, because imprisonment is a very serious punishment.
Informal negative sanctions can be used by absolutely any number of people and also have a huge impact on the offender. Even if the individual does not accept the customs and traditions of the group in which he is located, hostility is unpleasant to him. After some resistance, the situation can be resolved in two ways: leaving the given society or agreeing with its social norms. In the latter case, all existing sanctions are important: positive, negative, formal, informal.
When social norms embedded deep in the subconscious, the need for external punishment is significantly weakened, as the individual develops the ability to independently control his behavior. Psychology of personality is a branch of science (psychology) that is engaged in the study of various individual processes. She pays a lot of attention to the study of self-control.
The essence of this phenomenon is that a person compares his actions with generally accepted norms, etiquette and customs. When he notices a deviation, he is able to determine the severity of the offense himself. As a rule, such violations result in remorse and a painful guilt. They testify to the successful socialization of the individual, as well as his agreement with the requirements of public morality and norms of behavior.
The Importance of Self-Control for Group Well-Being
A feature of such a phenomenon as self-control is that all measures to identify deviations from the norms and apply negative sanctions are carried out by the violator himself. He and the judge, and the jury, and the executioner.
Of course, if other people become aware of the misconduct, public censure may also occur. However, in most cases, even if the event is kept secret, the apostate will be punished.
According to statistics, 70% of social control is carried out through self-control. To one degree or another, many parents, heads of enterprises and even states resort to this tool. Properly designed and implemented guidelines, corporate rules, laws and traditions can achieve impressive discipline with minimal time and effort to conduct monitoring activities.
Self-control and dictatorship
Informal negative sanctions (examples: conviction, disapproval, removal, censure) become powerful weapons in the hands of a skilled manipulator. Using these techniques as a means of external control over the behavior of group members and at the same time minimizing or even eliminating self-control, the leader can gain considerable power.
In the absence of their own criteria for assessing the correctness of actions, people turn to the norms of public morality and a list of generally accepted rules. To maintain balance in the group, external control should be the tougher, the worse self-control is developed.
The reverse side of excessive control and petty guardianship of a person is the inhibition of the development of his consciousness, the damping of the willful efforts of the individual. In the context of the state, this can lead to the establishment of a dictatorship.
Well intentioned ...
In history, there are many cases when the dictatorship was introduced as a temporary measure - its aim was called to restore order. However, the existence of this regime for a long time and the spread of strict compulsory control of citizens impede the development of internal control.
As a result, gradual degradation awaited them. These individuals, who are not accustomed and do not know how to take responsibility, are not able to do without external coercion. In the future, the dictatorship becomes necessary for them.
Thus, we can conclude that the higher the level of development of self-control, the more civilized the society and the less it needs any sanctions. In a society whose members are highly capable of self-control, democracy is more likely to be established.
