Component 1 Section A: social control and conformity, including formal and informal social control, positive and negative sanctions, agencies of social control, and functionalist, Marxist and interactionist explanations of how order is maintained.

What this dot point is asking

This statement is about social control: the ways a society persuades or compels its members to conform to its norms. You need the distinction between formal and informal social control, the role of positive and negative sanctions, the agencies of control, the link between socialisation and conformity, and how functionalists, Marxists and interactionists explain why order is maintained. It completes the Section A foundation: culture sets the rules, socialisation teaches them, social control enforces them.

The answer

Formal and informal social control

The two forms differ in how codified and official they are. Formal control rests on explicit laws and authorised agencies; informal control rests on the expectations of those around us and the desire for approval. In practice, most social control is informal, because people who have been well socialised regulate their own behaviour without any official agency being involved.

Sanctions and the link to socialisation

Control operates through sanctions:

• Positive sanctions are rewards for conformity (praise, prizes, promotion, approval) that encourage people to repeat approved behaviour.
• Negative sanctions are punishments for deviance (criticism, ridicule, fines, imprisonment) that discourage rule-breaking.

The crucial point is that social control is closely tied to socialisation. When norms have been internalised, conformity feels natural and self-imposed, so external control is rarely needed. Formal control is, in this sense, a backstop for the minority who have not internalised the rules or who choose to break them.

Agencies of social control and the perspectives

The agencies of control overlap with the agencies of socialisation: the family, peer group, media and religion exercise informal control, while the criminal justice system (police, courts, prisons) and other official bodies exercise formal control. Workplaces and schools exercise both.

The perspectives explain control differently:

• Functionalists see social control as necessary for order: it maintains the value consensus and integrates individuals, so society can function (Durkheim, Parsons).
• Marxists argue control protects ruling-class power: agencies of control (especially the law and the criminal justice system) enforce rules that benefit the powerful and keep the working class in line (the repressive and ideological state apparatuses, Althusser).
• Interactionists stress that deviance is socially defined: control is not simply applied to objectively bad behaviour but to behaviour that has been labelled deviant, and labelling can amplify the deviance it targets (Becker).

Examples in context

A strong answer keeps formal and informal control distinct, names positive and negative sanctions, and attaches a perspective to show that sociologists disagree about whose interests control serves.

Try this

Q1. Explain what is meant by 'sanctions', using one positive and one negative example. [6 marks]

• What the marker wants. A definition (AO1): sanctions are the rewards and punishments used to enforce norms, with a positive example (praise, a prize) and a negative example (ridicule, a fine), and the point that they reinforce conformity.

Q2. Analyse two reasons why most social control is informal rather than formal. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points: successful socialisation means people internalise norms and control themselves, and everyday agencies (family, peers, media) apply constant pressure through approval and disapproval, each applied to an example and linked to the idea that formal control is a backstop.