Table of Contents
Definition of Positive Sanction
(noun) A reward for conforming to established norms.
Examples of Positive Sanction
- When a student receives an award for academic achievement.
- At a football game, when a crowd cheers upon one team scoring against the other.
Positive Sanction Pronunciation
Syllabification: pos·i·tive sanc·tion
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /pAHz-uh-tiv sAngkshUHn/
- British English – /pOz-i-tiv sAngkshUHn/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈpɑzətɪv ˈsæŋkʃən/
- British English – /ˈpɒzətɪv ˈsæŋkʃən/
Usage Notes
- Plural: positive sanctions
- The terms “positive sanction” and “positive social sanction” are used interchangeably in a sociological context.
- Positive sanctions include awards, certificates, honors, medals, orders, praise, titles, and trophies.
- Sociologists study four primary types of sanctions:
Related Videos
Additional Information
- Word origin of “positive” and “sanction” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Burk, James, ed. 1991. Morris Janowitz: On Social Organization and Social Control. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- LaPiere, Richard T. 1954. A Theory of Social Control. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Melossi, Dario. 1998. The Sociology of Punishment: Socio-structural Perspectives. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.
- Park, Robert Ezra, and Ralph H. Turner. 1967. On Social Control and Collective Behavior: Selected Papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Related Terms
Works Consulted
Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged. 6th ed. 2003. Glasgow, Scotland: Collins.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011a. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011b. Sociology: A Global Perspective. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Jary, David, and Julia Jary. 2000. Collins Dictionary of Sociology. 3rd ed. Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins.
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Tischler, Henry L. 2011. Introduction to Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Cite the Definition of Positive Sanction
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “positive sanction.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 25, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/positive-sanction/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
positive sanction. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/positive-sanction/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “positive sanction.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 25, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/positive-sanction/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“positive sanction.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/positive-sanction/>.