Social sanctions and norms

One of the most important conditions for the normal functioning of society (or another social unit) is the predictability of people's actions. In the opposite case, he is threatened with complete destruction.

In order to maintain the necessary norms of social behavior, society uses special mechanisms to influence people's minds 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 a person is formed as a way of survival in a society due to control over the behavior of a person that is performed by people around him.

It is they who educate a person about certain norms and rules that are accepted in this society. Gradually, mastering and fixing the received samples of graying, a person becomes a person. Those. He is trained to meet social norms based on his own individual characteristics.

In case of violation of norms accepted in the community, a person expects social sanctions, which are any means that stimulate a person to observe established procedures. Most often, sanctions are understood as some means of punishment to which a person who has departed from certain rules is subjected.

However, social sanctions can also look like encouraging or supporting proper 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 over observance of norms is carried out, which, in turn, stand guard over the values accepted in society. For example, family prosperity is an important value for society. Hence, everything that contributes to the welfare of the family, is perceived as a norm, including the ability of men to protect their loved ones. Therefore, a public stereotype implies that it must be strong. Weakness is subject to sanctions in the form of contempt and ridicule of others, and force is encouraged, which is clearly seen in the example of traditional societies, where the man was always the head of the family, and he owned power. If the norms begin to "blur", lose clear boundaries, there is instability. For example, in modern society, the role of men as leaders and defenders is not so obvious. Relations in families, respectively, are not as stable as in traditional cultures.

There are four types of sanctions: positive, negative, informal and formal.

The latter implies the encouragement or punishment emanating from official organizations.

Informal positive or negative sanctions are public approval or condemnation, which is not official. It can be a friendly praise, tacit approval or, on the contrary, ignoring and ridicule.

Positive social sanctions always imply the encouragement of an activity, and negative penalties are a punishment.

Depending on the seriousness of the sanctions applied in case of violation of a given norm, it is possible to identify types of social norms. The first relates to the characteristics of human behavior in a given situation. It's 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 a severe punishment for rejection, is laws and taboos.

Non-compliance with 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. They are usually punished, but others take their place. According to sociologists, the percentage of people who violate norms is constant in any community. It is through this that the balance and flexibility of the system is achieved, and there is also the possibility for the development of a social unit. Violators always identify the weak points of the entire social system and show that they can threaten it.

Social control and social sanctions in the course of education are "fixed" in the mind of a person. If the unconscious part of the psyche is the storehouse of uncontrolled impulses, then consciousness should provide a deterrent function. But it is not always the case. Deeply laid down social prohibitions can also go into the sphere of the unconscious and from there control the behavior of a person. Thus, the culture of this or that society is formed. Prohibitions 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 deeds. In society, conditions must be created for the self-determination of the individual, taking into account the necessary norms. This is the main task of a harmonious society.