Values, Norms, Roles and Social Control
A role is the set of behaviours expected of a person who holds a particular social position, such as the role of 'student', 'parent' or 'employee'.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn the precise difference between a role, expected behaviours attached to a position, and status, a person's social standing, and between ascribed and achieved status.
- Learn the difference between formal social control, written rules or laws, official agencies, formal sanctions, and informal social control, unwritten norms, everyday agencies, informal sanctions.
- Learn the difference between a positive sanction, a reward, such as praise or a promotion, and a negative sanction, a punishment, such as a fine or disapproval, for both formal and informal control.
- Learn that deviance is relative: the same behaviour can be seen as deviant in one context, group or era and acceptable in another, so deviance cannot be defined only by the act itself.
- For a scenario question, identify the specific role or status involved, then identify whether the sanction described is formal or informal, positive or negative, using the exact wording of the scenario.
- Link social control back to the perspectives: functionalists see it as maintaining beneficial value consensus, Marxists and feminists see formal control as often serving the interests of the powerful, and interactionists focus on how informal labelling itself can produce deviance.
- For an evaluation question, compare the relative importance or effectiveness of formal and informal control using specific examples rather than describing each in isolation.
Worked example
A student at college regularly arrives late to lectures. Her tutor gives her a formal written warning, and her friends in her tutor group start to exclude her from their group chat because they are frustrated with her lateness. Identify one example of formal social control and one example of informal social control in this scenario, and explain the sanction used in each case.
- Recall the definitions: formal social control uses written rules or procedures and official sanctions, while informal social control uses unwritten norms and everyday social sanctions.
- Identify the formal example: the tutor's written warning, since it comes from an official role, the tutor acting within the college's formal disciplinary procedure, and follows a set, recorded process.
- Identify the sanction type in that example: this is a formal negative sanction, a recorded punishment intended to discourage the lateness.
- Identify the informal example: the friends excluding her from the group chat, since this comes from an informal agency, her peer group, rather than an official institution.
- Identify the sanction type in that example: this is an informal negative sanction, disapproval expressed through social exclusion rather than any official record or process.
- Conclude: the scenario shows formal and informal control operating together on the same behaviour, the written warning from a position of official authority, and the informal exclusion from peers reacting to the same lateness in an unofficial way.
Practice questions
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Q1What is a social role?Show answer
Answer: The set of behaviours expected of a person who holds a particular social position, such as the role of student or parent.
Q2What is the difference between ascribed and achieved status?Show answer
Answer: Ascribed status is fixed at birth or given without choice, such as being born into a particular family, while achieved status is earned through a person's own actions or effort, such as becoming a qualified teacher.
Q3What is the difference between formal and informal social control?Show answer
Answer: Formal social control is based on written rules or laws enforced by official agencies, such as the police, using formal sanctions, while informal social control is based on unwritten norms enforced by everyday agencies, such as family or peer group, using informal sanctions.
Q4Give one example of a positive sanction and one example of a negative sanction.Show answer
Answer: A positive sanction rewards approved behaviour, such as praise or a promotion; a negative sanction punishes disapproved behaviour, such as a fine or being told off.
Q5Why do sociologists say deviance is 'relative'?Show answer
Answer: Because the same behaviour can be seen as deviant in one society, group, situation or time period, and as acceptable or even expected in another.
Q6Give one example of an agency of informal social control.Show answer
Answer: Family, peer group, or media, any one.
Q7Give one example of an agency of formal social control.Show answer
Answer: The police, or the courts.
Q8Explain, in one sentence, why functionalists see social control as generally beneficial for society.Show answer
Answer: Because functionalists argue social control helps maintain the shared value consensus that keeps society orderly and stable, which benefits everyone by allowing institutions to function smoothly.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two differences between formal and informal social control.
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Explain two reasons why sociologists argue that deviance is relative rather than fixed.
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Item I: Some sociologists argue that informal social control, carried out by agencies such as the family, peer group and media through approval and disapproval, is more effective at maintaining conformity in most people's everyday lives than formal social control carried out by the police and courts. Discuss the view that informal social control is more effective than formal social control in maintaining conformity to society's norms and values.
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See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
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