social control
4
5.3
- noun
- /ˈsoʊʃəl kənˈtroʊl/
- Specialized
:
control social
- Parents often use social control to guide their children's behavior through rules and expectations.
- form of social control
- informal social control
- mechanism of social control
Examples
-
In many societies, laws serve as a form of social control to maintain order and discourage misconduct.
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The use of colonial methods of social control is not the monopoly of the Islamist movement.
Academic text (1998) -
Make no mistake, there are absolutely social controls within the group you are describing here.
Blog text (24) -
But it certainly no longer serves as a means of social control or maintenance of communal authority.
Blog text (18) -
Just another example of patriarchal social control.
-
Teens can quickly determine when a clinic is an attempt at social control rather than health care.
Academic text (1999) -
It was all about class struggle and social control.
-
The lack of social controls made him feel first giddy, then anxious.
Fiction book (2000) -
Socialization of the very young is one of the most potent forms of social control.
Academic text (1998) -
Missing are the voices of those who suffered the censorship, repression, and social control.
Academic text (1997)
Antonyms
How Strict
45
7.2
660
3.2
- Specialized
4
5.3
1
3.7
256
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase 'social control' is transparently built from 'social' (relating to society) and 'control' (the ability to direct or regulate), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to societal regulation of behavior. This compositional meaning follows common cross-linguistic patterns (e.g., equivalents in Spanish, French, Japanese), making it accessible to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Social control can be pictured as invisible ropes or signs in a town that keep people moving the right way: social means 'a group of people' and control means 'to guide or hold back'. So, social control is the ways a group uses 'rules', 'pressure', or 'punishments' to guide people's behaviour.