What does 'social control' mean?

Question

This is a question from homework: How did social controls shape Japanese identity and citizenship?

I don't know what this is asking, so can someone translate this language into something idiots can understand?

Answer 1

Most people are "socialized" as they grow up .  Parents teach their children social controls"   My parents said if you are at a stop sign , whether anyone is watching, you must stop.  When I was a teenager I went to England and my friend and I were offered a ride from a town by a friendly English guy and we declined.

Basically your socialized to fit in. In Japan it might be kids are socialized to never speak loudly, they may be socialized to become kamikaze's.  The more socialization your parents instill, the easier it is to get along in your culture.  They make rules kick in so you respond correctly, automatically.

Even though this isn't part of your question, when parents spoil their kids and let them do whatever they want,. these children grow up having difficulty because their parents gave them the wrong ideas about fitting in.

Answer 2

Main

Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.

aspects

persuasion ( in persuasion )

...purposes include informing or entertaining. Persuasion often involves manipulating people, and for this reason many find the exercise distasteful. Others might argue that, without some degree of social control and mutual accommodation such as that obtained through persuasion, the human community becomes disordered. In this way, persuasion gains moral acceptability when the alternatives are...

political systems ( in political system: Cities )

...class and occupation; the primitive magical leaders of the tribe were displaced by temple priesthoods presiding over highly developed religious institutions and functioning as important agencies of social control; earlier systems of rule by the tribal chieftains and the simple forms of communal leadership gave way to kingships endowed with magical powers and important religious functions; and...

population control ( in population: Malthus and his successors )

...of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers. This hastily written pamphlet had as its principal object the refutation of the views of the utopians. In Malthus’ view, the perfection of a human society free of coercive restraints was a mirage, because the capacity for the threat of population growth would always be present. In this, Malthus echoed the much earlier arguments of Robert...

propaganda ( in propaganda: Democratic control of propaganda )

Different sorts of polities, ranging from the democratic to the authoritarian, have attempted a variety of social controls over propaganda. In an ideal democracy, everyone would be free to make propaganda and free to oppose propaganda habitually through peaceful counterpropaganda. The democratic ideal assumes that, if a variety of propagandists are free to compete continuously and publicly, the...

satire ( in satire: Festivals )

...to the enquiring anthropologist, “when the people really begin to abuse me, and if you will come and do so too it will please me.” Festivals such as these provide sanctioned release from social inhibition and repression, and, in these circumstances, satire directed at men in power or at taboo institutions acts as a safety valve for pent-up frustrations.

cultures

Australian Aborigine ( in Australian Aborigine: Leadership and social control )

Aborigines had no chiefs or other centralized institutions of social or political control. In various measures Aboriginal societies exhibited both hierarchical and egalitarian tendencies, but they were classless; an egalitarian ethos predominated, the subordinate status of women notwithstanding. However, there is evidence in some areas, such as northeast Arnhem Land, Bathurst and Melville...

Confucianism ( in Confucianism: The historical context )

...ritual system. This system was based on blood ties, marriage alliances, and old covenants as well as on newly negotiated contracts and was an elaborate system of mutual dependence. The appeal to cultural values and social norms for the maintenance of interstate as well as domestic order was predicated on a shared political vision, namely, that authority lies in universal kingship, heavily...

Islamic law ( in Sharīʿah: Nature and significance of Islāmic law )

...law became a rigid and static system. Unlike secular legal systems that grow out of society and change with the changing circumstances of society, Sharīʿah law was imposed upon society from above. In Islāmic jurisprudence it is not society that moulds and fashions the law, but the law that precedes and controls society.

social issues

collective behaviour ( in collective behaviour: Long-term effects )

...of this testing is sometimes change and sometimes public demonstration that the old order is still viable. This view suggests that collective behaviour has as great a function to play in maintaining social stability as in implementing social change.

covenant ( in covenant: Nature and significance )

Covenants in the ancient world were solemn agreements by which societies attempted to regularize the behaviour of both individuals and social organizations, particularly in those contexts in which social control was either inadequate or nonexistent. Though ancient pre-Greek civilizations apparently never developed a descriptive theory of covenants, analysis of covenant forms and the ancient use...

custom and law development ( in primitive culture: Nomadic societies )

Outside the family there is no system of coercive authority. Some persons may, by their wisdom, physical ability, and so on, rise to positions of leadership in some particular endeavour, such as a raiding party or a hunt. But these are temporary and variable positions, not posts or offices within a hierarchical structure. Social order is maintained by emphasizing correctness in...

education ( in teaching: The doctrine of in loco parentis )

...parents to a school, the parents delegate to the school certain responsibilities for their children, and the school has certain liabilities. In effect, the school and the teachers take some of the responsibility and some of the authority of the parents. The exact extent and nature of this responsibility and power vary from one society to another and from one school system to another. This is...

sexuality ( in sexual behaviour, human: Social control of sexual behaviour )

Societies differ remarkably in what they consider socially desirable and undesirable in terms of sexual behaviour and consequently differ in what they attempt to prevent or promote. There appear, however, to be four basic sexual controls in the majority of human societies. First, to control endless competition, some form of marriage is necessary. This not only removes both partners from the...

social structure ( in social structure: Structure and social organization )

...that are interdependent or functionally interrelated. Third, individual choices are shaped and circumscribed by the social environment, because social groups, although constituted by the social activities of individuals, are not a direct result of the wishes and intentions of the individual members. The notion of social structure implies, in other words, that human beings are not...

taboo ( in taboo )

...is broad agreement that the taboos current in any society tend to relate to objects and actions that are significant for the social order and that, as such, taboos belong to the general system of social control. Sigmund Freud provided perhaps the most ingenious explanation for the apparently irrational nature of taboos, positing that they were generated by ambivalent social attitudes and in...

Answer 3

to make society they way you want it . i call it social engeneering

Answer 4

Probably something like...government puts censorship on things and whats required to be a Japanese citizen. It can be anything that has to do with how people can live in Japanese society. Something like voting, careers etc.

Answer 5

Social controls are mechanisms that a society or cultural uses to make people conform.  Strictly speaking, this doesn't include law enforcement, except insofar as it's abused or manipulated to force conformity (e.g. in Turkey anyone who brings up the Armenia genocide can be charged with insulting the Turkish government and jailed).

The question means, What are the ways which Japanese use to enforce social conformity among themselves, and how are these methods related to the legal and ethnic-cultural definitions of what it means to be Japanese?