Sociology of institutions

Question 1

Goffman ‘Total Institutions’

Answer 1

• ‘total institution’
• Total institutions are characterised by a barrier to social intercourse with the outside
• all aspects of life are conducted in the same premises and under the same authority
• each member’s daily activities are carried on in the immediate proximity of the others, also doing the same
• all parts of a single day’s activities are strictly scheduled
• different enforced activities are based on a single plan whose pupose is the fulfilment of the proposed official aims of the insitution

Question 2

Goffman ‘moral career’

Answer 2

• the ‘moral career’ of a mentally ill patient is the process whereby a person with social ties, friends and family in the community is instituitonalised and converte into an inmate whose world is limited to his immediate hospital ambience ( Peele et al)
• 4 steps: Betrayal funnel, role stripping, mortification, privelege system

Question 3

Betrayal funnel

Answer 3

• Goffman
• people we trust most conspire against us when we are unwell, reporting our actions to doctors and MHT- circuit of agents, who run the decision-making process

Question 4

Role Stripping

Answer 4

-the institutionalization process begins with a series of assaults on the recruit’s self- hospital pjs etc

Question 5

Mortification

Answer 5

• series of assualts on the inmate’s self image
• private persona; activities go on public display and must ask permission for normal activities- this is termed civil death

Question 6

Privilege system

Answer 6

• patient is inserted into the lowerst rung of an all embracing privilege system
• system is based on house rules
• privileges are usually reductions in the institution’s control over the patient’s life- freedom is a token of reward

Question 7

Batch living

Answer 7

-the pattern in which all inmated did ‘the same thing’ and lived very similar lives inside institutions

Question 8

Binary living

Answer 8

lives of staff are in stark contrast as they have power and connection to the outside world and can change their own lives

Question 9

Secondary adjustments

Answer 9

• Goffman
• direct result of institutionalization
• habitual arrangements used by patients who now act as it their major concern is to escape the control of the institution
• these are usually unauthorised activities leading to obtaining of unauthorised ends

Question 10

Institutional neurosis

Answer 10

• Barton
• characterised by apathy, lack of initiative, loss of interest and submissiveness
• caused by loss of contact with the outside world, brutality and authoritativeness of staff, loss of friends and personal possessions, poor ward atmosphere and loss of prospects outside the institution

Question 11

Social reactivity and schizophrenia

Answer 11

• Wing and Brown
• social poverty and lack of stimulation are related to severity of blunted affect, poverty of speech and social withdrawal -‘clinical poverty’

Question 12

Malignant alienation

Answer 12

• Morgan
• progressive deterioration in the relationship between carers and the patient, including losds of sympathy and support from members of staff, who tended to construe these patient’s behaviours as provocative, kunreasonable or overdependent
• alienation may precede suicide/attempted suicide of the patient