Week 6 - Question One: Formal and Informal Social Controls at Montgomery College

What mechanisms of formal and informal social control are evident in your college classes and in day-to-day life and social interactions at Montgomery College?


Formal Social Control:


College Classes - Professors exercise formal social control over their classes by use of their social role and status as an authority figure.  Students are obedient to their professors and adhere to their rules and expectations, which are covered in the syllabus and imposed during every class session (e.g. raising of hands to answer question, discontinuing sidebar conversations when asked, adhering to class schedules and assigned task, etc.).


Day-To-Day Life - Montgomery College, as a social institution, has a set of policies and norms called  "the student code of conduct", which are handed down by the Board of Trustees, a bureaucratic component of the organization that uses rules and hierarchical structure to govern the schools outcomes.  Some of the deviant behaviors that they look to prevent are smoking on campus, reasonable dress codes, littering, theft, appropriate use of college email, sensitivity to the multi-cultural student body and a sense of cultural relativism within the microcosm of Montgomery College.   


Social interactions - Whether interacting with school personnel, such as financial aid, guidance counselors, or the cafeteria casher deviant behavior like vulgar language, physical assault, or disorderly gatherings are not tolerated and campus security is on the premises to enforce adherence to these social norms. 


Informal Social Control:


College Classes - Most classmates are annoyed by fellow students that will attempt to cheat by looking on their papers, come to class late and disrupting the session, unprepared for class and have to infringe on the resources of the prepared student.  The deviant student is frowned upon, looked at negatively and made to feel a sense of shame and embarrassment, which stigmatizes that student.


Day-To-Day Life - Students expect their fellow students to conform to basic social controls of waiting their turn in line, holding the door for others if they are directly behind them, giving them the right-a-way if the are a pedestrian in the parking garage, and respecting the "rule of silence" when studying in the library.  Deviance to these social norms can be confronted directly by peers, given disrespectful glances, indirect verbal chatter of condemnation or sometimes even result in physical fights.


Social Interactions - When students interact with one another in lecture, lab, at presentations, or in the social gathering areas informal controls are evident in what is considered "cool."  It is not cool to grope a girl in public, curse profusely, or fight.  Fellow students who deviate from these behaviors are ostracized, shamed or made to fell embarrassed.  This stigma can make them feel like they are in the "out group" and encourage them to conform to the social norms. 

http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/pnp/#Chapter_4