One of the most important conditions for the normal functioning of society (or another social unit) is the predictability of people's actions. Otherwise, he is threatened with complete destruction.
In order to maintain the necessary norms of social behavior, society uses special mechanisms to influence people's consciousness in order to ensure the continuity of existing interactions and relationships.
One of these mechanisms is social control, whose functions are to create conditions for social stability.
There is a point of view that personality is formed as a way of survival in society as a result of control over the behavior of a person who is carried out by surrounding people.
It is they who teach a person certain standards and rules adopted in this society. Gradually, mastering and consolidating the obtained graying patterns, a person becomes a person. Those. he learns to comply with social norms based on his own individual characteristics.
In case of violation of the norms accepted in the community, the person is expected to receive social sanctions, which are any means of stimulating a person to follow established rules. Most often, sanctions mean certain means of punishment to which a person who deviates from certain rules is subjected.
However, social sanctions may also look like encouraging or supporting good behavior.
Social norms and sanctions are always interconnected; one does not exist without the other. The gradual easing of sanctions can lead to the complete disappearance of the norm.
With the help of them, social control is exercised over the observance of norms, which, in turn, guard the values accepted in society. For example, family prosperity is an important value for society. This means that everything that contributes to the good of the family is perceived as the norm, including the man’s ability to protect his loved ones. Therefore, social stereotype implies that it must be strong. Weakness is subject to sanctions in the form of contempt and ridicule of others, and strength is encouraged, as is clearly seen in the example of traditional societies, where a man has always been the head of the family, and he owned power. If norms begin to “blur”, lose clear boundaries, instability arises. For example, in modern society, the role of men as leaders and advocates is no longer so obvious. Relations in families, respectively, are far from as stable as in traditional cultures.
There are 4 types of sanctions: positive, negative, informal and formal.
The latter imply encouragement or punishment from official organizations.
Informal positive or negative sanctions - public approval or condemnation that is not official. It can be friendly praise, tacit approval or, on the contrary, ignoring and ridicule.
Positive social sanctions always mean the encouragement of some activity, and negative sanctions always mean punishment.
Depending on the severity of the sanctions applied in case of violation of a particular norm, types of social norms can be distinguished. The first is related to the features of human behavior in a given situation. These are manners and etiquette. The next type implies a deeper level of personality change. This includes traditions and customs, as well as group habits. And the third point, implying severe penalties for rejection, is laws and taboos.
Disobedience to norms is to some extent characteristic of any community. There are always people who for one reason or another reject not only traditions, but also laws. Usually they are punished, but others come in their place. According to sociologists, the percentage of people who violate the rules is constant in any community. It is due to this that equilibrium and flexibility of the system is achieved, and also an opportunity arises for the development of a social unit. Violators always identify weaknesses in the entire social system and show what can threaten it.
Social control and social sanctions in the course of education are “fixed” in the human mind. If the unconscious part of the psyche is a repository of uncontrolled impulses, then consciousness should provide a deterrent function. But it's not always the case. Deeply placed social prohibitions can also go into the realm of the unconscious and from there control human behavior. Thus, the culture of a given society is formed. Bans and taboos become part of the collective unconscious and do not require constant monitoring.
Excessive external control leads to the fact that society is degrading, as a person ceases to be responsible for his life and actions. In society, conditions must be created for self-determination of the person, taking into account the necessary norms. This is the main task of a harmonious society.