INFORMAL NEGATIVE SANCTIONS 2
Sanctions are applied by authority, group or individual on other people behavior to either
endorse or condemn them. Informal negative sanctions in most cases are unofficial and carried-
out by a group such as families or an individual such as friends resulting to punishment and they
include sarcasm, criticism, and shame (Clinard & Meier, 2016, p. 29).
The recent time I used informal negative sanctions was during environment club meeting
in the environmental hall which was full to the brim where my best friends were making a lot of
noise and laughing loudly interrupting my speech. I notice the audience were not comfortable
with the noise evidenced by how they attracted the attention due to the noise emanating from
murmuring forcing me to cut short my speech. In response to the situation, I silenced them by
telling them to stand and share the joke with other club members, having nothing to say I told
them to behave in a mature way or get out, other members shouted unanimously Yes !
My friends felt ashamed and humiliated and uncomfortable participating in the meeting
and eventually avoided our normal activities. However, they maintained silence until we
concluded our meeting. After the meeting, they attracted the attention of the members where the
attitude of contempt was evident as a result of their behavior with some members openly
criticized their behavior. However, our friendship changed drastically evidenced by reduced
calls.
In my perspective, the reaction was effective since my friends and other club members
became attentive as other speakers talk during the meeting. The response I used to handle the
situation improved the situations of our meeting that had struggled with noise making issues. The
meetings that have followed to date members are attentive and respect every speaker.
