Diandra Maria Pânișoară
Mechanisms of Social Control in
Different Social Contexts H umans have always been malleable beings. There are several ways to manipulate an individual, to take steps towards a political or religious arrangement. The most logical option is to take the person from a young age and educate him or her with certain limits and restrictions in order to enter the norms of the society you want to form. Young children, especially from 0 up to 7 years old are extremely malleable, their brains are not formed at all and they can be molded into anything. Of course, we have multiple questions on this subject. Are we born with a certain character or the environment in which we grow up shapes us? The latest studies say that both equally. We are born with certain cognitive and emotional capacities, these are metamorphosed into a way of living with the environment around us. Thus, in the scenario of shaping the perfect citizen, the easiest thing is conditioning. The Cambridge Dictionary describes conditioning as “the process of training or influencing a person or animal mentally so that they do or expect a particular thing without thinking about it.” Multiple experiments have been created to prove the effects of conditioning. The best-known example is an experiment conducted by behavioral psychologist John B. Watson who was determined to discover the processes of conditioning. He took a baby and placed him in front of some fluffy white elements. At first, the child enjoyed their presence and showed no sign of contempt or fear when the objects were presented in front of him. After these things were noticed, every time the child touched a white and fluffy object, a powerful sound that frightened the child was placed next to him. Over time, the child became repulsed by such white and fluffy objects and every time they appeared to him without any sound, the child panicked and refused to touch them. This experiment not only proves to us how powerful
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