social control Archives - Keith E Rice's Integrated SocioPsychology Blog & Pages

Online Censorship: where do we draw the Line?

by Carla White I am delighted to publish this ‘guest blog’ by Carla White. Carla is an experienced writer and blogger who describes herself as “passionate about looking deeper into the world around us”. She writes ‘alternative’ news posts for numerous websites and also has experience running and maintaining websites. She says: “You can always find me at my laptop, with a cup of coffee!” You can email Carla to find out more about her work. Social conditioning has a considerable effect on crime. It was Émile Durkheim who first noted the existence of a values consensus when, in 1893, he wrote about a collective consciousness that defines societal norms and makes certain acts unthinkable to conforming citizens. This idea is one regularly used by governments as justification for censorship. By reiterating the taboo nature of certain topics, they hope to reduce mass indulgence in these things. Admittedly, this tactic has seen success. Child pornography, bestiality and cold-blooded murder are just some examples of topics that incite shock and terror in the hearts of most. However, whenever information is restricted on a national scale, an ethical question is raised. At what point does information control become an active manipulation of the collective conscience? A brief… Read More

27/07/2017
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SocioPsychological Factors in Crime #3

PART 3 Cognitive Factors Do criminals and deviants think differently to non-criminals and non-deviants? Samuel Yochelson & Stanton Samenow (1976) certainly thought so. They studied 255 male participants from various backgrounds – eg: black and white, wealthy and poor, inner city and suburbs – over a 14-year period. With regard to the participants, the ‘studied offenders’ were criminals sent to secure mental hospitals because the court had accepted their pleas of ‘diminished responsibility’ which means their actions did not meet the culpability factor in mens rea. In all the researchers found 52 ‘errors’ in thinking. These were not necessarily unique to criminals but were considered to be displayed more by criminals, However, as there was no control group of non-criminals with whom to compare thinking patterns, this may not be an accurate assessment. The ‘errors’ included:- in childhood seeing requests from authority figures such as headteachers and parents as impositions wanting an exciting life at any cost being habitually angry as their way of life lacking empathy with others pursuing their own interests and feeling under no obligation to do anything for anyone pre-judging situations and being poor at responsible decision-making A number of the errors identified would fit with a… Read More

09/06/2016

What is Mental Illness?

Relaunched: 9 May 2019 There are some very good reasons to try to define what mental illness is and, as a corollary, what good mental health is. For example, if a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist is to treat a patient, they must be able to identify the illness. For psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to be able to recognise illnesses reliably means having a classification system which lists the symptoms (indicators) of the various illnesses. Then, when the illness is correctly identified, the appropriate treatment can be administered. Good mental health is the recognised standard to be achieved via application of the treatment. Also, it is only by linking symptoms together to recognise the syndrome of the illness that is it then possible to search for causes of the illness (aetiology) and apply or develop a treatment for the illness. The example often used to justify this position is that of Richard von Krafft-Ebing. A medical student in the 19th Century, he linked together the symptoms of what we now call Syphilis – delusion, forgetfulness, mental deterioration, eventually paralysis and finally death – to form the syndrome of what he called ‘General Paresis’. From this he established (1886) that General Paresis was caused by infection… Read More

04/11/2015

Social Control

Updated: 4 July 2020 Social control is necessary to maintain social order – the functioning of society without chaos or continual disruption. It ensures that only a limited number of values and norms are acceptable . By so doing, it provides predictability, a key element that all societies need. Without having a considerable degree of prediction as to how others will act, peaceful and productive interaction between people becomes all but impossible. Social control, therefore, makes society possible by ‘policing the boundaries’ and dealing with deviant and criminal behaviours. Émile Durkheim (1893) argues that the limited number values and norms considered acceptable – the values consensus – gives a culture or sub-culture – a collective conscience. This values consensus is spread memetically to infect the minds of the members of the social groups. Functionalists tend to make the assumption that it is only when social control becomes ineffective that people turn to deviance and crime. There are 2 forms of social control, informal and formal, and most societies have a mixture of these 2 approaches. Smaller and more self-contained groups tend to use more informal mechanisms. The larger and more complex a society is, the more it will tend to use formal mechanisms.… Read More

03/11/2015
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Suicide?

Updated: 20 July 2013 Early in 2013 The Guardian’s James Meikle, based upon data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), reported that 6,045 suicides were recorded in the UK among people aged 15 and over during 2011. This figure represented a significant rise that, unfortunately, was part of an upward trend. (In 2001, Kevin Brewer noted that suicides in the UK were about 4,000 per year.) The suicide rate was 11.8 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest since 2004. In England, the suicide rate was 10.4 deaths per 100,000; highest in the north-east, at 12.9, and lowest in London, at 8.9. In Wales, the suicide rate was 13.9, up from 10.7 in 2009. Meikle acknowledged that suicide rates were slightly lower in Northern Ireland – ie: 289 suicides in 2011, down from 313 in 2010 – and Scotland, though clearly still concerning. The ONS figures reveal an effect of age and gender:- The male suicide rate in 2011 was the highest since 2002, and among 45-59-year-old men the highest since 1986. For men, the suicide rate was 18.2 per 100,000 population. The rate was highest among males aged 30-44, at 23.5 per 100,000. Among 45-59-year-old men the figure was 22.2… Read More

29/10/2015

Functionalism

Updated: 18 May 2017 Functionalism is a Structuralist theory – hence it is sometimes known as Structural Functionalism. It is a ‘top-down’ theory that focuses on society rather than the individuals within it. As such, it is a powerful concept for exploring the Lower Right in 4Q/8L and how it influences and is influenced by the Lower Left – structuration, in Anthony Giddens’ (1984) terms. In Functionalism society is the focus because the individual is produced by society – ‘social products’, as George Herbert Mead (1913) termed them. People are the product of all the social influences on them: their family, friends, educational and religious background, their experiences at work, in leisure, and their exposure to the media. All of these influences make them who and what they are and how they perceive themselves: the confluence of schemas in their selfplexes. In this view, people are born into society, play their role in it – like cogs on a wheel – and then die. However, the deaths of individuals do not mean the end of society. Society continues long after they are gone. According to Émile Durkheim (1893), beliefs and moral codes are passed on (memetically) from one generation to the next.… Read More

13/10/2015
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Society & Community

These pages use the models and theories of the Integrated SocioPsychology approach and the behavioural sciences in general for analysing and understanding how we interact and function in societies and communities. They look at those social forces which influence our behaviour, taking into account cultural and cross-cultural factors. More immediately-topical observations can be found in the Blog. There are both miscellaneous features and sections on topics which I believe to be particularly relevant to the functioning of a society…such as education and crime & deviance. Critically important is the section on MeshWORKS – the concept developed by Don Beck which facilitates both a longitudinal and a cross-sectional view of related issues for all relevant parties. Those who support the Integrated approach and are interested in such matters are invited to submit pieces for publication here as ‘guest features’ or ‘guest reports’. Please get in touch with your ideas via the Contact page. Underclass: the Excreta of Capitalism Feature exploring the concept that the rise of the Underclass is the inevitable waste product of unfettered Capitalism Islamification: Europe’s Challenge Feature exploring what Islamification might mean for Europe and how the changes it will bring might best be handled Social Change Pages on social change… Read More

11/10/2015

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