Wiktionary
n. Any control, either formal or informal, that is exerted by a group, especially by one's peers
WordNet
n. control exerted (actively or passively) by group action
Wikipedia
Social control is a concept within the disciplines of the social sciences.
Sociologists identify two basic forms of social control:
- Informal means of control – Internalization of norms and values by a process known as socialization, which is defined as "the process by which an individual, born with behavioral potentialities of enormously wide range, is led to develop actual behavior which is confined to the narrower range of what is acceptable for him by the group standards."
- Formal means of social control – External sanctions enforced by government to prevent the establishment of chaos or anomie in society. Some theorists, such as Émile Durkheim, refer to this form of control as regulation.
As briefly defined above, the means to enforce social control can be either informal or formal. Sociologist Edward A. Ross argues that belief systems exert a greater control on human behavior than laws imposed by government, no matter what form the beliefs take.
Social control is considered to be one of the foundations of order within society.
Usage examples of "social control".
Anyway, her research was a detailed description of how the anticholinergics were used for social control.
It will take exact scientific knowledge, expertly applied to the crucial, most sensitive points of social control.
Beyond control of the individual is the serious business of social control, of shaping an entire society into a rational, reasonable, desirable arrangement in which satisfactions are maximized and frustrations are minimized, in which such sicknesses as war, murder, and other crimes cannot exist.
Such a person does not have available to his current transactions any tapes which supply data having to do with social control, appropriate 'shoulds' and 'should nots', cultural norms, or what, in one sense, may be referred to as conscience.
Sexual behavior seems open at the price of absolute social control on its reproductive consequences.
To give advice or offer inducements to any one, is a social act, and may therefore, like actions in general which affect others, be supposed amenable to social control.
This has always struck me as curious grounds for scientists to argue on, since notions of all-perfect creators were inventions of opponents more interested in devising means for achieving social control and obedience to ruling authorities than interpreting scientific evidence.
But obviously the man knew he was finished, and with that knowledge, whatever social control he'd managed to maintain up to now was gone.
The media and the agents of social control have been more aware of the consequences of exaggeration and overreaction and are more cautious in attributing to sections of society, some of the aforementioned characteristics of, what Stanley Cohen named, the folk devils.
This area was once the social control center, transport hub, you name it, of the Great Project.
Eyes blinking frantically, they'll cling with their last broken nail to the protective folds of social control.
Those are results of the political counterfeits that Vicki mentioned, when the heirs of a religious tradition sell out to the power structure and give them a means of social control.