Chapter Four Class Notes - Part A

Class Notes
Professor Henry Schissler
Chapter Four – Part A

Deviance and Social Control

Social Control refers to the techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society.

Without thinking, most of us accept and respect basic social norms and assume that others will do the same. Our behavior reflects an effective process of socialization to the dominant standards of a culture.

We are also aware that individuals, groups, and institutions expect us to behave “properly.” This expectation carries with it sanctions, penalties & rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.

Penalties for informal sanctions (informal social controls) may be ridicule, raising an eyebrow, or rejection.

Penalties for formal sanctions (formal social controls) may be fines or jail sentences. They are carried out by authorized agents, such as police officers, physicians, school administrators.

Laws are governmental social controls.

Techniques for social control operate on both the group level and the societal level.

Conformity is going along with peers – individuals of our own status, who have no special right to direct our behavior (group level).

Obedience is compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure (societal level).


Deviance violates the social norms & values shared by most people; it is behavior that goes against the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.

Deviant behavior is usually negative, but not always. A member of an exclusive social club who speaks out against its traditional policy of excluding women is deviating from the clubs norms.

We are all deviant from time to time because we violate certain common social norms in certain situations.

There are grades of deviance. Robbing a bank is a stronger deviant act than being late for class.

Deviance = Deviation (from societal expectations of behavior)

Deviance can vary from social group to social group but, in macro-level society, there are overarching values & social norms that identify, clarify, and promote what is viewed as “abnormal” or deviant behavior.

In our society, alcoholism, drug addiction, or being overweight are all deviant. But by taking a closer look at these examples, a series of macro-level issues come into play.

Alcoholism & Drug Addiction – crack vs. cocaine, “The Diseasing of America”, including diseases for deviant behaviors vs. personal responsibility, self-help and Labeling Theory: reinforced deviance as personal identity; “disease of relapse”

Nigeria: fat is a mark of beauty vs. Western society where fat is gluttony, lack of discipline and character; is also called “disease” in self-help community

Deviance & Social Stigma –
Stigma describes the labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups

Stigmatizing label may remain after deviant behavior ends: ex-convict, recovering alcoholic, compulsive gambler

Prestige Symbol draws attention to a positive aspect of one’s identity, a trophy, a commitment or wedding ring

Stigma Symbol discredits or debases one’s identity, Internet-based registry for convicted sex offenders

Explaining Deviance

(1) Functionalist Perspective – Deviance is a common part of human existence, with positive (as well as negative) consequences for social stability.

Deviance helps to define the limits of proper behavior. The punishments established within a culture (both formal & informal mechanisms of social control) help to define acceptable behavior and thus contribute to stability.

Anomie –
a state of normlessness that typically occurs during a period of profound social change and disorder; it describes a loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. (introduced by Emile Durkheim)

Anomie Theory of Deviance –
Robert Merton adopted Durkheim’s anomie theory and expanded upon it:
Why do people accept or reject the goals of a society, the socially approved means of fulfilling their aspirations, or both?

One important cultural goal and macro-level value in the U.S. is success, measured largely in terms of money. Our society offers specific instructions on how to pursue success – go to school, work hard, do not quit, take advantages of opportunities, and so forth.

This success emphasis causes people to adapt, either by conforming to or by deviating from such cultural expectations. There are five basic forms of adaptation.

(1) Conformity to social norms, the most common adaptation, involves acceptance of both the overall societal goal and the approved means. It is not deviant.

(2) Innovation, a form of deviance, means accepting the goals but pursuing them with means regarded as improper (Tony Soprano).

(3) Ritualism, a form of deviance, means abandoning the success-goal and becoming committed to the institutional means (work). “Work for work’s sake” has meaning in many cultural & sub-cultural groups, including rural & urban poor church congregations.

(4) Retreatism, a form of deviance, means withdrawing from both the goals & the means to achieve. Vagrants and drug addicts are typically viewed as retreatists our society.

(5) Rebellion, a form of deviance, is the attempt to create a new social structure because of deep feelings of alienation from the cultural status quo. It is pro-active rather than a retreat. It means standing up to “what is”, rejecting it, and finding a new social structure.

Merton’s theory is quite rigid, focusing on five “types”. Perhaps there are more than five, or overlap; and, there are definitely grades of each one – from a minor reaction to powerful reactive behaviors.

Merton’s Structural Strain theory looks at the consequences that will occur when the non-deviant conformity to social norms does not work. We are socialized to believe that success can be ours if we follow the “specific instructions” of society – education, hard work, perseverance, and so on.

Imagine that we take each and every step (to the best of our ability) but do not achieve success. We understand the success-goal but simply do not have the means to achieve it.

What happens to us? Who do we become? Having failed, will we enter the “deviant layer” as a reaction to this reality? And, finally, how is our self-perception impacted?

Ira Goldenberg’s Hourglass seeks to show us how the larger society and different classes of people are duped into believing that individuals are entirely to blame for their “failures” via the Structural Strain perspective.


(2) Interactionist Perspective – There are two primary explanations for deviance from the perspective that emphasizes everyday interaction & behavior among people on the micro-level.

Individuals undergo the same basic socialization process whether learning conforming or deviant acts. They learn how to behave in social situations – whether properly or improperly. Deviance is culturally transmitted through interactions with others.

Through interactions with a primary group and significant others, people acquire definitions of proper & improper behavior. Differential Association describes the process through which exposure to attitudes favorable to deviance & criminal acts leads to violation of rules. This concept helps to explain the deviant behavior of juvenile delinquents, graffiti artists, gang members, and other similar types of groups.

Labeling Theory – people become deviant because certain labels are attached to their behavior by an authority, group, or society. This is called Primary Deviance.

Secondary Deviance occurs when people come to accept the label and see themselves as deviant. Secondary Deviance is typically reinforced by culture & society. This cements each individual’s self-appraisal as deviant.

When self-perception is deviant, behavior is more likely to mirror self-perception. Reinforced deviance, therefore, breeds more deviance.

Different people are or are not labeled deviant for the exact same behavior. This reinforces the Labeling Theory perspective. (Examples: walking the halls of High School without a hall pass but in different garb; good family, achieving male, belongs to High School organizations, plays a sport: deviant behavior is “sowing wild oats” vs. non-achieving unpopular male, isolated from in-groups: deviant behavior is “par for the course” and deserving of strong sanction)

Racial Profiling – people are identified as criminal suspects purely on basis of race, ethnicity, age, status vehicle. New Jersey: DWB (Driving While Black) stops for routine traffic violations; some suburbs: higher rate of stops for Hispanics and African Americans, teenagers, drivers in old cars.

3. Conflict Theory

Agents of social control and powerful groups can generally impose their own self-serving definitions of deviance on the general public. (sentencing for corporate criminals, corporate “welfare” including taxes paid by wealthy families vs. poverty “welfare” and taxes paid by middle-income wage earners)

People with power pass laws that coerce others into their own morality. (Stem cell research; abstinence-based programs – not family planning that includes contraception – to poor countries with high HIV/AIDS infection rates)

Laws do not represent a consistent application of societal values, but instead reflects competing values and economic interests. (Marijuana is outlawed and cases prosecuted vigorously, while tobacco and alcohol are legal; there are many laws against gambling, drug usage, and prostitution, many of which are violated on a massive scale)


Psychology as an Agent of Socialization

Psychology in general and Clinical Psychology in particular serves as an Agent of Socialization in society.

Clinical Psychology mirrors a society or culture’s view of what is “abnormal” or deviant behavior. Clinical Psychology serves as a measuring stick for appropriate & inappropriate behavior in society.

Clinical Psychology publishes a text that is updated about every decade or so. The text The Diagnostic & Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders defines every “psychiatric diagnosis”, outlining the abnormal behavior associated with the disorder. Treatment for the disorder is based around the premise that “success” means a return to normal behavior.

Normal Behavior = Cured or “in remission”

For biologically based disorders like Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, normal or acceptable behavior can only be achieved through psychotropic or psychoactive medications.

For disorders that are triggered by socio-environmental events like situational depression, normal or acceptable behavior can be achieved by resolving feelings associated with the trigger event(s). In modern society, psychotropic medications are used for more and more disorders. While advances in modern medicine are significant & important, the pharmaceutical industry is a massive bureaucratic corporation focused on profits.

The Diagnostic & Statistical Manuel has a series of disorders called Adjustment Disorders. An individual is diagnosed (or labeled) with this psychiatric condition for various reasons –
Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood
Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety
Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety & Depressed Mood
Adjustment Disorder with Disturbance of Conduct
Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Disturbance of Emotions & Conduct
Adjustment Disorder Unspecified

Acute = less than 6 months & Chronic = over 6 months

What are individuals having trouble adjusting to?
From the DSM, “The stressor may be a single event (e.g., termination of a romantic relationship), or there may be multiple stressors (e.g., marked business difficulties). Some stressors may accompany specific developmental events (e.g., going to school, leaving the parental home, becoming a parent, failing to attain occupational goals).”

These socio-environmental events are called “Psychosocial”. As defined by Psychology, they support societal expectations of “normal” and “abnormal”, and they promote deviant self-identity through labeling or diagnosing. They are social controls as evidence by their ability to tell individuals what behavior is accepted in society & what behavior is not.