 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss the internal means of social control. When we talk about the deviant behavior, we have to discuss the mechanisms of social control. And internal social control is considered one of the important mechanisms of social control. So it means that the control which refers to the individual's own sense of right and wrong. It depends on your own conscience. Every person has a socialized conscience, which we call Zameer, and it exists. So internal mechanisms of social control, it's an appeal to your conscience or your inner voice which makes you aware that the action that you are going to commit might be wrong and it would have serious negative repercussions on you or on society. So this can include personal beliefs, values, and morals. It depends on how your conscience is socialized. Your religious value system is very important for you, your society is very important, and the values of your family are very important for you, which triggers your conscience or conscience. As soon as you are involved in a negative practice or negative behavior, which is considered deviant. In Pakistan, religion plays a significant role in the internal means of control for many individuals. And similarly, family upbringing and cultural traditions can also shape an individual's internal means of social control. Internal means of social control can be effective in guiding behavior and promoting social cohesion. So the purpose of the society is to produce a balance in the society, restoration of the social order, and the purpose of the society is to create a balance in the social order. So the internal means of social control plays a very important role in this. Because you cannot see the line enforcement agencies, there are a lot of confined spaces like classrooms, your home, or someone's drawing room. These are confined social spaces, and the external means of social control is not there. But despite this, what is present within you, it prevents you from causing any harm, not cheating, not lying, not stealing. However, they may not always align with the social norms and can vary greatly between the individuals. So because we see a lot of variations in this tradition, a lot of people in internal mechanisms of social control commit deviancy despite socializing, so that is why we can say that individual to individual behaviors vary, it depends on how strong an internal mechanism of social control is.