Agents of Social Control
The ability of institutions, associations, and legal frameworks to shape or control the conduct of people individually and collectively is known as social control. Informal agencies, like families, can exert control through established practices and norms. As an alternative, organizations like the police use official regulations or laws to formally exert authority.
Every type of agent has different ways of regulating behavior, such as positive policies that aim to convince or promote voluntary conformity with society’s standards, and negative sanctions that punish those who break the rules. Agents of social control offer explanations for why individuals follow social norms and expectations.
Family
A child is the result of both their upbringing and their DNA. Born into this world with certain innate qualities that, depending on environmental cues, either develop or are stunted. He is in a similar predicament as a flower in this regard. It will blossom if given the right nutrients and attention. It will wither away if refused. The most significant social control mechanism is the family. All children learn from their immediate surroundings, which are initially supplied by their families. First, one learns manners, habits, and attitudes from their immediate role models, which include parents, siblings, kin groupings, and so on. The child is socialized by the family into the norms, values, traditions, and practices of the groupings. Consequently, a child’s personality is mostly shaped by their family.
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In a village, a person inherits their status from their family. The elderly play a major role in molding a person’s personality. This shows itself in people’s unique attitudes, passions, and lifestyles, among other things. In most cases, elders arrange marriages, which are viewed more as a family connection than as a union of two people.
In urban areas, the family still has a significant influence on how people develop as individuals. On the other hand, the nuclear family is more common than it is in villages due to factors including industrialization, low income, and space scarcity. Families, therefore, frequently concentrate on one another. As a result, individualism is emphasized more than the collectivism that is typical in villages. The classroom, playground, peer group, and media are examples of secondary institutions that support the socialization role that families play.
In contrast to a rural setting, the person’s social standing is primarily determined by his or her accomplishments, however, family plays a role as well. In cities, most weddings are still arranged by parents and elders. Nonetheless, the girl’s and boy’s permission is requested. Outside of caste and religion, marriages are also becoming more common. Individual choice is therefore becoming more and more significant. In contrast to a rural situation where the family network offers a readily available conflict resolution mechanism, individual disagreements are more likely to result in separation and divorce due to the absence of strong family support on both sides.
Neighborhood
In villages, the individuals living there are typically members of the same caste or family. As a result, partnerships are formal and intimate. Strong ties exist even beyond the surrounding neighborhood, as evidenced by the fact that a family’s son-in-law is sometimes considered the son-in-law of a much broader group, sometimes the entire village. On the other hand, formal connections characterize neighborly relationships in an urban setting. They are much weaker than those observed in rural areas because they are characterized by sporadic contact. Neighborhood ties are nearly always secondary in large cities. There is very little interaction between neighbors like this.
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As a result, the village neighborhood enthusiastically participates in a variety of family activities every day. By doing this, it serves as a medium for social control. It corrects nonconformist behavior and guarantees consistency and compliance. For example, in a community, neighbors would begrudgingly and even sarcastically criticize a son for not taking care of his elderly parents.
While there is less strict regulation of personal conduct in cities, neighbors keep an eye on each other’s behavior. For example, if someone were tossing trash outside, their neighbors would likely call him out for detracting from the neighborhood’s atmosphere.
Public Opinion
Public opinion is a term frequently used to describe the collective beliefs of people on issues affecting the interests of the community. Public opinion is shaped by newspapers, radio, television, movies, laws, pamphlets, and even word-of-mouth. In isolated rural villages without access to media such as newspapers or television, people turn to “gossip” to learn about local events and voice their opinions. Nonetheless, radio has grown in importance as a news source for events occurring in far-off regions. There are several reliable sources to learn about events happening in far-off regions. Newspapers are also read aloud in groups. The villagers have also recently been exposed to television.
Public opinion is mostly shaped by print and visual media in urban areas. Newspapers have gradually lost ground to television as the audio medium becomes increasingly potent. Newspapers, however, still have an impact on the opinions of the educated population.
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