A Review of SRV Using the Ten Recurrent Themes:

Wolfensberger originally identified seven recurrent themes that ran through SRV.  He stressed that these themes are not in themselves SRV, but that the themes illuminate the structure of SRV.  He reformulated the themes which now amount to ten categories.

The descriptions that he applies to each themes are, in his usual fashion, wordy and difficult to remember easily.  I use an abbreviated form of titles:

1.       Unawareness

2.       Social Imagery

3.       Mindsets And Expectancy

4.       Roles and Deviancy

5.       Competency And Development

6.       The Effectiveness of Actions

7.       Relationships Between People

8.       Imitation and Modelling

9.       Integration And Participation

10.   Positive Compensation

Wolfensberger’s descriptions are:

1.       The Role Of (Un)Consciousness

2.       The Dynamics And Relevance Of Social Imagery

3.       The Power Of Mindsets And Expectancy

4.       The Relevance Of Role Expectancy And Role Circularity To Deviancy-Making And Deviancy-Unmaking

5.       Personal Competency Enhancement And The Developmental Model

6.       The Concepts Of Relevance, Potency, And Model Coherency Of Measures And Services

7.       The Importance of Interpersonal Identification Between Valued and Devalued People

8.       The Pedagogic Power Of Imitation, Via Modelling And Interpersonal Identification

9.       The Importance Of Personal Social Integration And Valued Social Participation, Especially For People At Risk Of Social Devaluation

10.   The ‘Conservatism Corollary’, Or The Concept Of Positive Compensation For Devalued Status

A brief summary of each theme might be given as follows:

1.       Much of human behaviour is not under immediate Conscious control. Consciousness can be increased by practice.

2.       Social Imagery is an important determinant of how we react to situations. Often it is a main determinant of our reactions. Social Imagery can be improved.

3.       Previous experiences create Mindsets and Expectancies which often dictate future reactions to similar experiences. Mindsets and Expectancies can be changed by education and experience.

4.       Roles are a major component of how we live our lives. These roles may be forced upon people and create Deviancy. New Roles can be found for people and Deviancy can be avoided by such new Roles.

5.       Personal Competency is important for role acquisition. The Developmental Model states that all Humans are capable of learning and changing through experience. Extra competencies can be encouraged by suitable actions.

6.       It is important that any measures taken to improve the plight of societally devalued people is Relevant, Potent and Coherent. Failure to ensure this will compromise such measures. It is possible to improve Relevance, Potency and Coherency of such measures.

7.       If people who are not societally devalued are able to meet with people from devalued classes and experience positively such contact, they will understand better the commonality and basic humanity that they share. This can strongly defend devalued groups from harm. Such relationships can be encouraged and supported.

8.       Imitation is one of the most potent forms of learning known. It is important that people from devalued groups have suitable experiences and role models for imitation. Such positive experiences and role models can be made available.

9.       Personal Social Integration and Valued Social Participation are particularly valuable for people at risk of devaluation. Such positive results can be caused to happen.

10.   If people are already at risk of social devaluation, extra effort should be made to avoid their coming to harm in other ways; extra effort should be made to ensure that the best outcome is achieved. It is possible to overcome negative features and avoid future negativity by the use of Positive Compensation

1/  Unawareness

Introduction

Many of our actions happen automatically- we are not necessarily aware of everything we do or of our motivations for doing them.

It is possible for people to act with full awareness or with less than full awareness. This may also be described as acting with full consciousness or with less than full consciousness.

Wolfensberger uses the terms Consciousness and Unconsciousness, and this has led to some misunderstandings in presentation where people grasp at their own 'common sense' definitions of Consciousness.

What is Consciousness, What is Unconsciousness

An Aside on the Word Consciousness

The word "Unconsciousness" can have a variety of meanings.

Most commonly among the general population is the meaning of "not being aware", for instance, people think of unconsciousness as what one experiences when asleep, severely intoxicated with alcohol or other drugs, anaesthetised, "knocked-out" by trauma, passing out through lack of oxygen, fainting etc.. This can be thought of as Gross Unconsciousness- total lack of awareness.

People may also think of unconscious acts that occur without consciousness. For instance, many people are aware of the realisation that they have been driving for the past fifteen minutes, but have no recollection of consciously making any particular decisions about such driving at a conscious level. This is how we manage to drive whilst listening to a radio programme, talking with others, or thinking deeply about something. It is a learned skill that enables the brain to deal with more pressing matters whilst dealing with complex, but enduringly and deeply learned patterns of behaviour. Athletes and musicians will talk of finally perfecting their techniques (e.g. pole-vaulting or playing arpeggios) only when not needing to think of the action consciously at all.

Finally there is the type of unconsciousness that might be loosely described as Freudian. However, the separation between conscious and unconscious in this meaning predates Freud.

There is also much work on unconscious learning which shows that changes occur in our knowledge and skills of which we have no conscious awareness.

Continuum Of Consciousness And Their Interactions

We may see the brain processes as a continuum running from totally unconscious and unreachable to the full awareness of normal mental life.

One only need accept that many things within the mind of which we are not fully aware affect the manner in which we think at a conscious level.

I have found that it is easier to start with the concept of awareness, and then to link the concept of consciousness to it.

What is Awareness, What is Unawareness?

The Limits of Awareness

This awareness may be about what is actually happening, or about intentions behind what is happening.

Awareness is often less than full because of mental mechanisms that limit consciousness to allow easier action.

These mental mechanisms are often essential to allow full functioning of the person who otherwise would be working in ‘information overload’.  Imagine having to think consciously of all the things that you are doing at once, e.g., walking, how you are keeping your balance, how you are moving your mouth in talking, what the social mores are about what you should or should not be saying.  All of these things are to a greater or lesser extent carried out unconsciously.  It is impossible to imagine life without it being incredibly rich with many unconscious process.  Unawareness buys us the time to exist!

However, when such unconsciousness, unawareness is harming other people you are important to us, then common sense says that we should reflect and consider this consciously.

SRV promotes moving towards full awareness of all actions and intentions if our intention is to avoid further harm to the lowly. 

“Consciousness is to be Preferred to Unconsciousness.”

Mental Mechanisms of Ego Defense

Psychodynamic psychology suggests that the inner core of our being, our sense of self, our ego is quite fragile.  We have a deep seated desire to feel good about ourselves.  In order for this to happen, our ego integrity must be defended.  Many events in the outside world appear to threaten this.  The mind defends the ego by engaging in thought processes known as ego defence mechanisms.  These are unconscious processes for the most part.

There are many of these and they are various and powerful.  The table below gives a description of these ego defences:

Source:

Tulane University:

http://www.tmc.tulane.edu/psych_neuro/psychclerk/mech.htm

Unawareness and the False Defence of Indefensible Practices

Many of our actions happen automatically- we don’t think consciously about everything we do. If we devalue a group of people (consciously or unconsciously) we may act unconsciously to cause bad things to happen to those people.

SRV says that this unconscious causation explains how society may do bad things to people while at the same time insisting that society is helping these people.

It explains how we used to lock up the mentally ill in big old hospitals; it also explains why we now tend to force people with mental health problems to live in poor areas, waste their days in meaningless activity, miss out on education and deny them valued leisure pursuits, whilst maintaining that we are helping them.

Unawareness and Organisations

Practices grow up in Institutions or Organisations that may once have been useful, but become unconscious and sometimes harmful.

Pillowcases

Sanitary Towels

Milk Boilers

Menzies has shown how hospital staff act in unconscious ways to cope with difficult realities.

Unawareness and History

Distortion in the passing on of the ideals, facts, history. History is not objective. The actuality of what happened gets distorted in a variety of ways.

Unconscious processes cause individuals and groups to reassess and reinterpret what happened; this distortion is often self serving. There is a saying that ‘History is the story told by the winners’. Only partial accounts may survive. In certain contexts, high consciousness is disincentived and or punished. People who are conscious of what is happening and speak out against the majority view may be seriously sanctioned. This happens on international, national, local and group levels. Consider the treatment of Social Reformers.

Unawareness in Overt and Covert Goals

SRV would ask you to consider the possibility that human services have unstated (covert) goals as well as public (overt) goals. 

A ‘rehabilitation’ facility may have a major covert goal of protecting society from supposedly dangerous or difficult people. A ‘Community Resource Centre’ may have a covert goal of ‘child minding’ adult ‘children’.

A homelessness project may have a covert goal of removing people from sleeping rough so as to minimise distress to ‘valued citizens’.

Such covert goals may only be obvious from images used in the process of branding people-at-risk.

This is also referred to as Manifest and Latent Function. It can be seen that the move from Latent to Manifest, from Covert to Overt, and their reverses are often unconscious processes. It also explains how service workers can end up defending the indefensible within their services.

Summary

Social devaluation is largely unconscious. It is obvious that unconsciousness is present in society and in all of its constituent parts, including in human service organisations. It is a powerful shield for people to use against the reality of social devaluation.

However, unconsciousness is an enemy of devalued people and of SRV. If we are to make any progress against devaluation and wounding of people-at-risk, then high consciousness must be attained. If we are to achieve high consciousness that will mitigate the devaluations and wounds, we must make special efforts to understand our own motivations, to clearly and empirically research the subject, and retain awareness of the possibility that unconsciousness may always overcome our expressed aims.

2/  Social Imagery

 Introduction

SRV suggests that we are dependent on signs and symbols to make social decisions. We treat people differently purely because of their appearance.

For instance if someone is dirty and untidy, this image will tell us how to treat the person. If someone looks like us, we will treat them in a particular way. If people are surrounded by negative images, this will affect our response to them.

Studies from anthropology and from Social Psychology show that social imagery is highly determining of social outcome.

Use Of Imagery

Imagery refers to the ideas created in the brain by the phenomena perceived by the senses. As with several other mental mechanisms we have discussed, it is a type of mental short-cut. An image of a person or a thing saves time in processing all the information available. It can be very useful to save processing time by only considering the simplicity of the image rather than the complexity of the totality of the information available. However, sometimes the symbolism will be overwhelming and will also be contradictory to the reality of the situation perceived. Reacting to a false symbol can result in problems for the perceiver and for the perceived. When the person perceived by imagery is a person-at-risk it can have major negative effects on them.

Imagery is overwhelmingly important.

Imagery can be an individual image, or the image transferred to the person by their physical and social surroundings.

Use of Semiotics- Signs and Symbols

Semiotics is the academic study of signs. Signs have been defined as "any mark, bodily movement, symbol, token, etc., used to indicate and to convey thoughts, information, commands etc."

Semiotics suggests that when we are interpreting the world, we are largely driven by the signs and symbols consciously and unconsciously attached to objects, rather than by the objects in themselves.

The mind sees the symbols and signs and interprets the object accordingly.

This procedure is time-saving and effective, because it means that every stimulus does not have to be interpreted from scratch.  However, like any ‘short-cut’ it may lead to misinterpretation on occasion.

These signs and symbols are the underlying language of Images.

Some Examples of Signs and Symbols in Action

·         Uses of colour in Marketing and Advertising

·         Creation of benign emotions in potentially threatening environments.

·         Use of Body Language

·         Interpretation of Clothing and Presentation

·         ‘Reading’ a Supermarket

·         ‘Reading’ an unknown City

·         Acting correctly in different situations:

o        Learning Environments

o        Pubs

o        Street environments

o        Home environments

o        Churches

Image Juxtaposition

Placing objects or people close together is called juxtaposition.

Placing objects or people with certain images (whether positive or negative) close to other objects or people is called image juxtaposition and may lead to:

Image Transference

Image transference occurs when different objects or things are placed in juxtaposition.

Advertisers use positive images as part of what this image transference.  This is a method of placing a neutral product close to objects or people that have a high perceived value.  This results in the positive images transferring to the neutral product.  

For instance toilet paper is given a positive and cuddly image by placing it in close proximity to a puppy, or a rather banal alcoholic drink is given prestige by its association with high-value surroundings and people.

Negative images can also be transferred in this way, for instance by placing an old-peoples’ home next to funeral home.

Things or people seen together are thought of as close to each other in both space and in association.  Think of the sayings ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ or ‘Give a dog a bad name’, ‘Mud sticks’, ‘It only takes one rotten apple in a barrel’.

Images may be transmitted purely by association- image transference. Image may be transferred between individuals- if a person is mixing with people who display a certain image, but does not display that image their-self, they are still likely to be perceived as having the image of the group.

Placing someone in a different environment may change the image projected.

Names and other words used about a person may radically alter the image perceived.

This image transference is used by advertisers to transfer positive feelings that people have about positive images, competencies and roles, to neutral products.  They spend millions of pounds a year to do this.  They are hard-nosed businessmen.  If it did not work, then they would not waste their money.

If our services are surrounded by negative images, low competencies, and reduced expectations, then image transference will work in the same way, except that it will result in the transfer of negative images to users of our services.

Trigger Effects

Sometimes image transference is so complete that only a single sound or sight will trigger a thought about a product.  This goes for advertising and also for image transfer to people at risk of devaluation.

First Impressions Count

Forming impressions is an automatic act.  We often make quick judgements about people or situations on minimal initial information.  Very little negative information is required to form a negative impression.  Negative impressions are formed quickly and take a great deal of contrary positive evidence to counteract the initial impressions.

Personal Image

Personal Image is seen as very important in our society. Large amounts of money and much time is spent by valued people in chasing after a good personal image. Clothing, make-up, personal possessions, physical fitness, fashionable activities, etc. are all chased after, not necessarily for themselves, but because of what they say about the individual. For instance, if a person wanted to be accepted in modern youth culture, all of the above would be sought in terms of going to concerts or raves, fashionable clothing, CDs and good sound systems, interest in ecological issues and possibly a sense of illegal drug use appropriate for the era. The overall goal is acceptance into a peer group, and the route taken is image management. Consider how difficult it would be to gain admission to such a group without the appropriate image.

Now consider how difficult it must be for persons-at-risk if they have a contrary image to valued positions in society.

Corporate Image, Public Relations and Spin Doctors

Much effort is made by companies and individuals to ensure that their image is enhanced or protected.  Public Relations firms and gurus and Spin doctors are rarely out of the news.

Management Of Spoiled Identity- Stigma

Goffman describes this subject in depth in the five essays in his book ‘Stigma’. He covers how stigma affects social identity, how stigmatic signs can be controlled and how stigma affects social versus personal identity; he also summarises some aspects of deviancy theory.

Primitive Responses To Images

Horror at seeing a skeleton or skull- a reminder of death- is deep seated and automatic. Such an appearance may cause immediate fear and even screaming.

Images Which Carry Emotion

Symbols and images are the language of affect- they predate abstract verbal language. Because of this they operate at a deep and often pre-literate and pre-conscious level. The effect they have is on affect rather than on higher cognitive structures such as conscious thought. Their emotional load can overcome and block-out conscious desires.

Symbols With Deep Meanings

Symbols often have a very long history so that they become embedded (red as the colour of danger-blood). The reaction to them can be deep and visceral and may even be determined by pre-conscious (animalistic) reactions.

Response to physical impairment (facial disfigurement, loss of limb or degeneration of the body) may also fall into this class.

Response to potential or actual threat may also fall into this class.

The Effect of Image on Personal Interpretation

The Image that a person has affects the entire social interpretation of that person. For instance, physically attractive people are assumed less likely to be maladjusted or disturbed.  A physically attractive person is more likely to be offered a job.  Attractive people are assessed as happier, more successful and more likely to get married.  Attractive women defendants were treated more leniently by jurors.  Physically attractive people are likely to be judged as more capable, and their work is likely to be seen as better. An essay marking experiment where the essay was accompanied by a picture of the supposed writer showed a difference in grading dependant on the attractiveness of the writer.

We have already talked of positive and negative image-transfer. Images surrounding people-at-risk tend to be overwhelmingly negative.

The Problems with Negative Images

Negative Images Are Problematic To The Degree That They

·         Are negative

·         Are attached to people at value risk

·         Enlarge or play into pre-existing negative stereotypes

·         Are attached via a large variety of communication channels

·         Are attached relentlessly

Images Associated With People At Risk Of Devaluation

·         Sick or diseased organism

·         Children

·         Non-human

·         Objects of Dread

·         Objects of Pity/Charity

·         Objects of Ridicule

·         Dying, or Already Dead

How Images are Transferred

Images are transferred via various media (methods of transfer of information):

·         Characteristics Of The Physical Setting

o        Internal and External Appearance Aspects:

o        Harmony with neighbourhood

o        Consistency with Culturally Valued Analogue

o        Beauty, upkeep and seasonal appointments

o        Physical Features

o        Location/Proximity

o        History

·         Groupings With Other People

o        Clients

o        Staff (including volunteers)

o        Others

·         Personal Imagery

o        Appearance

o        Possessions

o        Autonomy and Rights

o        Language

o        Personal Names and Labels

·         Service Names and Labels

·         Setting and Location Names

Branding

Branding means marking an object or a person in some way that makes it obvious that it is part of a class.  

Cowboys branded cattle to show which ranch they belonged to.  Convicts were branded to indicate they were felons.  Concentration Camp victims were branded with a number.  This was to identify members of a group, and was used to avoid escape or assist re-capture.

Companies talk of Brands and Brand Images. 

Human services can be said to brand service users if they mark them in some way to ensure that they are obviously a part of a class.  This class is usually a socially devalued one.

People-at-risk can be branded by clothing, learned or caused behaviours, groupings, facilities used, people associated with and by many other methods.

Branding of people-at-risk usually leads to poorer life outcomes.

Prestigious Names/Images Used By Businesses

Businesses use high-powered, positively respected words to associate their business with positive images:

Branding of the Lowly

Common Examples of (Un)consciously Attached Negative Image and Symbol Association With People-at-Risk

These are the ‘brands’ that we are attaching to people-at-risk.

What Does This Branding Of People-At-Risk Lead To?

If this was an advertising campaign for people-at-risk, we would have to assume that what the commissioning body for the campaign wanted was for people-at-risk to be avoided, disdained, damaged and possibly even destroyed.

SRV does not say that this is what service providers consciously intend, but it does suggest that there is an unconscious negative motivation that leads to this.

Unfortunately, it is just as destructive when caused by unconscious motivation as by conscious motivation.

Images For Which People Are Likely To Be Devalued

Not looking or acting like the image and expectation of ‘real’ or ‘full’ humans. For instance:  severely physically mutilated or deformed, racially different people (look at the description of Blacks in pre-Mandela South Africa or in the American South pre-1950).   (Non-human Image)

Failing to reciprocate relationships.  (Non-responsive Image)

Being Perceived to deliberately and habitually violate or seek to destroy major societal value structures.  For instance:  Offenders, Homeless, Drug and Alcohol Abusers, Political Activists.  (Criminal/Offending Image)

Being seen as a great danger.  For example assault, contagion, prisoners, mental patients, paedophiles, people with AIDS or HIV.  (Danger Image)

Being seen as disproportionately burdensome, demanding, or an obstacle to others desired ends.  For example: elderly dependent people, severely disabled children, patients costing more than their insurance or the state can bear.  This is particularly a problem with the elderly with a fear of being a burden in their own family- devaluation can occur in the family.  (Burden Image)

Being in violation of multiple values and valued images.  For example:  A homeless alcoholic with AIDS.

How We Mark And Give Deviant Images Devalued Groups

1/   Putting services to people-at-risk into value tainted areas.

2/   Placing people-at-risk with one negative image close to people-at-risk with another negative image.

3/   Using value-impairing methods, activities and structures to people-at-risk of            devaluation.

4/   Giving people-at-risk comical, bizarre or negative names and labels.

5/   Giving services for people-at-risk comical, bizarre, deviancy-imaged names, or over-stressing, by size or other method, negative imagery.

6/   Neglecting personal appearance imagery of people-at-risk.

7/   Funding services with image-tainted monies or de-valuing appeals.  Charity Funding.

8/   Marking people-at-risk in distinguishing ways-  body marks, clothing, dwellings, passports, armbands, branding.

Image Management

Some people may deny that poor image can have a negative effect or deny the fact that image management may have a positive effect.  However, research shows that image does have a major effect on the way people are treated.

Specifically, women who dress in a professional manner (suit or dress and subdued jewellery) are evaluated more favourably for management positions than women who dress in a more traditional, feminine manner.  Wearing glasses increases the assessment of intelligence, and beards for men (in the USA at least!) and long hair for women reduce the impression of intelligence.    It should also be noted that job applicants who emit high levels of non-verbal cues - persons who smile, nod, and lean forward during an interview are assessed more positively than  those the who do not emit such  positive non- verbal cues. 

You  should consider also what import this finding has for those people who are learning disabled, mentally ill, or physically disabled, and because of this have difficulty in emitting appropriate non- verbal cues.

The Importance Of Personal Names

There is research to show that the names of children can be predictive of differential performance, but we are not sure of the reference for this.  For instance, children named Claude, Spike, Arbuthnot,  Tyson might be treated very differently, have different images and develop different skills purely because of the possession of those names and the images that go with them.

Charity Advertising Imagery

It is useful to look at the images promoted by charities raising funds for people-at-risk.  Many of these images are at the forefront of the branding of these people.  The MENCAP crying child, the use of Dennis the Menace by SCOPE, and various campaigns by other disability organisations are fruitful sources for conscious and unconscious image creation and transfer. 

The Importance Of Media Generated Imagery

The various published media (Newspapers, magazines, radio and television) are responsible for the generation, attachment and amplification of a great deal of negative imagery to people-at-risk.

Summary

Imagery is extremely important.  It controls how we perceive, interpret and act towards the outside world.  It truly controls our lives.

3/  Mindsets And Expectancy

Introduction

The power of expectancy is often under-rated. If we have a deep belief that something will happen, we may interpret the evidence in such a way that we perceive it as happening in reality.

Large collections of expectations form mindsets which cover wider areas of expectancies.

If we have no experience of particular groups of devalued people (learning disabled, mentally ill, prisoners) learning and changing, we will not expect these people to learn and change. If we do have such experience, we will expect such change to occur.

The Utility And Dangers Of Mindsets And Expectancies

There are disadvantages and advantages in having mind sets and expectancies. They can again be seen as ‘short-cuts’ to enable effective response to a complex world. However, they can impact strongly and negatively on people-at-risk.

Definitions

Mindsets, A Definition

Mindsets are enduring models within people’s minds that allow them to interpret the world in a way that is acceptable to them. These mindsets are made up of a series of expectations about how the world should work. These expectations can be positive- the belief that something will happen, or negative- the belief that something will not happen.

Mind sets can be based on a variety or facts or roles. Age, gender, are perceived or presumed competence is, occupational status, or social status and attributed social value may be the basis for a mind set

Expectancies, A Definition

Expectancies refer to what a person expects will or not happen. They are often generated by mindsets.  Expectancies refer to smaller items of behaviour. Mindsets refer to global aspects of the way the world works.

Expectations are related to, but different from, intentions. Intentions referred to what was one wants one wants; expectations refer to what one thinks will happen.

One’s expectancies - especially that a certain event or outcome will occur - can strongly shape one’s expectations in a wide range of life domains: including: economics, politics, sociology, science, religion, and so on. However, expectancies deal not only with what other people can or will do but also with the likely heard of anything happening: that is the probability of a particular event or events.

The Effects of Mindsets and Expectancies

In the following, for conciseness, where I have used Mindsets as a definer you should also think of Expectancies.

The Effect Of Mindsets

Mindsets are very strong influences on people. Consider the mindsets of political liberalism or conservatism. Consider the mindsets of Pro-life and Pro-choice about abortions. Religious beliefs are also mindsets- consider how committed to their religion and its views people can be.

These mindsets dominate the thinking of the person about social, political and economic issues. It is very difficult to convince someone with a particular mindset that the world could possibly work well in a way different from their expectations.

The Effect Of Mindsets In Interpreting Devalued Groups

Wolfensberger notes that if you have a strong mindset that a person or class is sub-human and you believe that they cannot grown and learn, then any actual growth or learning many not be recognised nor believed.

Effects Of Mindsets On Perception And Learning

Mindsets and expectations can shape perception and learning. If you have a tendency to view the world in a particular way, you will seek out evidence to support that, and ignore evidence to the contrary. This is cumulative and is open to the effect of positive feedback.

Mindsets, Expectancies and Science

Wolfensberger: notes that expectancies in science can have two effects- they may allow you to see things that otherwise would not have been seen, and they can prevent you from seeing things that otherwise would be obvious.

He notes the saying “if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it " and notes that not only is  "seeing is believing" but also "believing it is seeing".

Kuhn and Paradigm Shifts

Thomas Kuhn is a philosopher of science.  He suggests that science moves forward engaging in what he calls paradigm shifts.  There is always a ‘Master’ way of looking at a problem.  Research within this paradigm continues until someone reframes the problem and suggests another paradigm which then allows thought to move within a different frame, a different paradigm.  So a paradigm shift occurs. 

This use of paradigm mirrors the usage here of ‘Mind-set’ and ‘Expectancies’.

Examples Of The Effects Of Mindsets In Science

Wolfensberger notes that  Galen the physician laid out an anatomy that would endure for centuries (because after the rise of the Christian Church, dissection was discouraged.  Errors that he made (for instance the five lobed liver (when in fact it has only three) were taught as true even after further dissection showed this was. Even Leonardo da Vinci drew a five lobed liver.

Canals were regularly ‘seen’ on Mars, despite their actual absence.

Reverse colour playing cards are interpreted as normal

Another series of experiments showed how subjects’ reactions to drugs or alcohol was mediated by what they were led to expect.

Solomon Asch’s experiments on Cognitive Dissonance also indicate how expectancies can affect belief.

Miscellaneous Examples Of Mindsets

Race notes that David Schwartz noted that:

 ‘….an immigrant to a particular area of America who wanted to grow grapes of a certain variety.. The mindset of the local farmers was that this was impossible, and they cited all sorts of ‘factual’ or ‘scientific’ reasons why this was so. With a different mindset the immigrant persevered, and eventually achieved the ‘impossible’ by growing grapes successfully’

Race also notes that Riddell shows that gender expectations can not only affect teacher expectations, but can also affect pupil expectations of themselves, especially in the choice of subject.

The Effect Of Mindsets On Social Evaluation Of People

From Wolfensberger:

‘The mind sets that we are particularly concerned with are about evaluations of, and expectations about people. Both expectations upon, and evaluations of, people are apt to be strongly tied to one’s world views and religion. For instance, someone may view humans as basically good, and therefore have little basis for explaining what is going on when they do wrong.

‘Remember that only a little information is needed to confirm a stereotype, a great deal is required to overcome it: this can be seen as one of the effects of mind-sets.’

Pygmalion in the Classroom

For instance, if a teacher is told within a group of children, there are two groups, one group ‘bloomers’ and another group dull, teachers would then rate the ‘bloomers’ as more curious, more interested, and happier than the others. This despite the fact that the groups were chosen randomly. Additionally, the teachers would give higher grades to the bloomers. Most surprising and worrying of all, at the end of the second year of the experiment, the bloomers showed a greater gain in objective IQ measures than the group labelled as dull.(Pygmalion in the Classroom). This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because of mindsets about people-at-risk, expectancies are often low and this leads to poor outcomes for those people-at-risk. This again is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Effect Of Mindsets On People-At-Risk

From Wolfensberger:

‘Now a special concern to Social Role Valorisation our expectations that are unrealistically low, and evaluations that are negative or devaluing.

‘A striking example of negative expectancy propaganda are of all the awful things that parents of impaired babies are so often told by their physicians - sometimes even while the child still in the womb. The parents who believe any false information along these lines often do things that are very harmful the child, or failed to do all sorts of beneficial things.

‘An example of how the negative mind sets can develop was brought out in a study of mothers of infants aged three to four months. Those whose infants had been premature touched their babies less often, interpreted them as more than they were, selected simpler toys for them, and rated them as both less attractive and less likeable than did mothers of full term babies. So we can see the negative expectancies cycles begin even at birth.

As with other mind processes and content, expectations can be held at a very unconscious level. This is illustrated by what one artist did he was asked to portray a child once as handicapped, and the second time as non- handicapped, but otherwise the same. The non- handicapped child is shown smiling, waving, and neatly dressed whilst the same child is interpreted when handicapped as sad and shabbily dressed, probably reflecting the expectancies that devalued people are poor, and look bad, and are unhappy’

Particular Mindsets And Low Expectancies

From Wolfensberger:

‘Two particular mind sets account for a very large proportion or unfairly low expectancies.

‘One is the belief that the party is less capable than it is. The other is that (consciously or unconsciously) someone does not want a person-at-risk to possess virtues, or to have the experience good things.’

Believing that Devalued Persons are Incapable

It is common for a Person-At-Risk of devaluation to be seen as less capable than they really are.

From Wolfensberger:

‘The problem is that either out of ignorance or because of devaluation, people are surrounded with a consensus view that this or that devalued person or class cannot or should not be able to do this or that which valued people are expected to be the or do .’

Believing that Devalued People do not Deserve Good Things

There is often a societal belief that a person-at-risk should not have the good things of life.

From Wolfensberger:

‘Second, consciously or unconsciously, some party A does not want a party B to have a positive image, to possess virtues, are to have the experience good things. Therefore, Party A holds, and communicates, low expectancies about Party B.

‘For instance, "everybody knows that you can’t have a handicapped children in regular classes ", "everybody knows that this class of people need to live in large remote institutions" .’

What Can Be Done To Counteract This

Obviously, ignorance about what can expect from a party is easier to overcome than devaluation of the party, or ill will toward it. Therefore, where expectancies are significantly lower than would be realistic, one should try to determine whether these are grounded in ignorance or in ill-will, and address them in different ways.

Regardless of whether negative information is grounded in ignorance or devaluation, if it "works" so to speak, then second parties will not expect much from first part is, in the following kind of vicious circle.

How Negative Expectancies Shaping Mindsets And Expectancies

Wolfensberger says that:

‘… a major theme…is how to shape the mindsets and expectancies that people hold about various devalued persons and classes so that these mindsets

a/ are as positive as realistically possible

b/ presume the presence of potential for growth and development

c/ expect such to take place

d/ expect people to fill valued rather than devalued roles in society.’

Summary

Mindsets and Expectancies shape the way that we perceive and interpret the world.

4/  Roles and Deviancy

Introduction

We have done previous work on roles during the first two days of the course.  This section broadens the approach to Roles and looks at them in more detail. 

The power of roles in determining social behaviour is often underrated and misunderstood. The great majority of social interactions are controlled by roles.

Many devalued people occupy roles which have negative expectancies attached to them. outcomes.  It is possible to manipulate roles so that the expectancies attached to them are more positive.  Multiple deviant roles may work as a vicious circle leading to further role loss and negative

Roles

Conformance To Role Expectancies

Conforming to role expectancies is an (almost) universal phenomenon. This is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Role expectancy is particularly powerful if the situation is socially ambiguous (Solomon Asch), or with people who are emitting authority signals (Stanley Milgram). If people expect that someone in a certain role should act in a certain way, that person is likely to do so. This works positively as well as negatively. If a person is encouraged in their work, supported, and told how well they are doing a job and how valuable they are to the organisation, they will tend to conform to that role. Conversely if a person is given the role of a ‘scapegoat’, they will gradually conform to that role.

The individual’s own self-image and self-efficacy will affect their likely success rate. This is the ‘I think I can, I think I can’ effect. Additionally, low self-efficacy in Social Situations leads to anxiety and avoidance, hence to fewer chances to change positively.

How Role Expectancies May Be Expressed

Positive and negative role expectancies may be expressed by: Structure of the physical or social environment, people or groups associated with the person-at-risk, behaviours expected, language used, general imagery.

Difficulties in Liberating People from Negative Roles

It is very difficult to liberate devalued people from negative roles because:

Their role models are likely to be devalued, their environment is likely to convey negative signals, they will receive negative messages from most people they encounter, they are likely to have been socialised into negative roles over a long period of time, and finally, they may feel very insecure in any other role than their familiar negative one.

How Roles Can Have A Powerful Impact

·         Image in the eyes of others- status and reputation;

·         Image in own eyes- self-image;

·         Acceptance and Belonging; Association and Relationships;

·         Autonomy and Freedom

·         Personal Growth and Development;

·         Opportunities to make contributions to others;

·         Material side of life;

·         and Lifestyle

How Roles May Determine Behaviour

At Stanford University, Zimbardo set up a mock prison staffed and inmated solely by students, randomly assigned to each group.

After a few days, the guards’ behaviours had become so brutal and the prisoners so withdrawn that the experiment was stopped.

Yet the groups were randomly assigned- the roles determined behaviour completely.

Three Different Parties That Use Role-Conveying Media

·       The ‘first party’, i.e. a person or group who is a (potential) role incumbent

·       The ‘second party’. i.e. those who convey role expectancies to or about the first party

·       The ‘third party’. i.e. ‘observers’ in the broad sense of the term

The First Party- The Potential Role Incumbent

·       The first party consists of those people and groups about whom or for whom a Social role is being developed. These people are the potential role incumbents. So, for instance, (potential) role incumbents will convey (potential) role messages about themselves by the way they dress, the settings where they are found, the people they associated with, etc. Regardless of whether they use these channels consciously, intentionally, or otherwise, role cues about themselves will be conveyed.

The Second Party- The Interpreters

·       Then there are those people who use certain channels or media to convey role expectancies to or about the first party. We will refer to them as “the second party.” Thus they will put potential role incumbents into certain places, they will demand or permit certain activities of them, they will use certain language to and about them, etc., in order to convey a message that “you are this or that.” Examples of such second parties especially relevant to devalued people include parents and family members, human service workers(such as teachers, medical personnel, are social workers), and public officials.

The Third Party- The Observers

·       Then there are a group who “observe” the first and second parties. These people are “the third party,” or as “third party observers.” In many instances of these would be members of the public. In some instances it would include fellow service recipients (such as the other children in a classroom, the other residents in a facility, etc.) these people tend to do and say things and reinforce the direction of the role expectancies (either positive or negative for instance) and role performance they see being enacted or built up.

·        

Role Domains

Roles have a number of domains: Relationships, Residence, Economic, Education etc.

Here are some examples:

Deviancy Role Perceptions and Resultant Service and Model

The way in which people are perceived via their historical deviancy roles has a determining effect on how society will treat them.  If a person is seen to be in the role of patient, they will be seen as in medical need and treated by doctors and nurses.  If they are seen as a menace, they will be seen as criminals and contained by jailers.  This applies even when such people are not ‘sick’ or a ‘menace’ but are only seen as occupying those roles.  Additionally, the ‘nurses’ and ‘doctors’ may not be truly so (they may be untrained or so poorly trained that they would not be acceptable to the valued world) and the ‘jailers’ may not be true prison guards, but may be nurses or other professions acting as jailers.

Roles That Certain Groups Have Forced on Them

Depending on the ‘label’ used for a devalued group, the individuals in that group will be very likely to have certain of the following roles forced upon them

Deviancy

Deviancy is a sociological description of individuals or groups of individuals who are seen by the ruling cultural, political and economic majority of that society as acting in manners which are disapproved of by that majority.

It does not imply that the persons concerned are in any way ‘deviant’ in themselves, only that they are so interpreted by that society.

Historical Responses to Deviancy

Wolfensberger notes:

‘Now if we go a bit into the history of societal reaction to devalued people, we can probably categorize all societal responses into four cate­gories (Table 3). Societies, or individual people, have always wanted to destroy deviant individuals, be it by capital punishment, euthanasia, abortion, genocide, and slaughter. The second broad category is to pro­tect non-deviant people from deviant people. That is what society, and we as service providers, do much of the time. The third category is a reversal of the second in that the society, or majority culture, is seen as evil, and a particular group of people is seen as needing protection from the evilness of its major culture. For instance, some people have labelled retarded people as holy innocents who must be taken out of the evil culture and put into sheltered havens. So we may see services of this nature where the innocent, the harmless, the defenceless can be protected’

Summary

Roles are highly determining of the life outcomes of potentially devalued people.

5/  Competency And Development

Introduction

Competencies are necessary for entering most roles.

Competencies are often denied to devalued people.

Enhancing competency relies on a belief in the developmental model- that people are always able to change, learn and adapt. If we do not believe in this, then competency enhancement becomes difficult if not impossible.

An essential part of ‘being human’ is the assumption that development is not only possible, but likely.  This developmental model is particularly important in the gaining of competencies.

We should always be aware of how societal response (a service) may inhibit or encourage personal competence enhancement, especially whether it promotes the developmental model.

Competency

Why Is Personal Competency Important

Personal Competency is highly valued in Western Society. Conversely, incompetency is despised and sanctioned.

Personal Competency Enhancement is a natural growth mode and is valued in itself. It does not need to lead to a particular useful goal to be highly valued.

SRV promotes Personal Competency Enhancement because if Persons-at-Risk are seen to be incompetent, they will be further harmed by society.

A basic belief of SRV is that most persons-at-risk are capable of learning, developing, improving and changing and that people have the right to do this. It is a basic human faculty. However, this basic right is often denied to people-at-risk.

Competence Is Important For The Following Reasons

Competency is necessary to perform many valued social roles. People who develop one additional competency are more likely to learn others.

Competence can help overcome functional impairment.

The more competencies a person has, the more negative roles and images they will be able to bear without further losses.

It should be noted that people who once held valued roles or competencies will continue to be valued even after they lose them.

Next to the sheer maintenance of life, a developmental approach/model is probably the most important requirement of a human service.

Finally, competency enhancement is often in the mission statements of human services and should be carried out assertively.

Stratagems For Maximal Competence Development

The Earlier The Better

Generally, the earlier in life competencies are learnt, the better. This is because growth potential is higher in early life and progressively declines with age.

This is important to all service provision, not just education. It is appropriate for residential, habilitational, rehabilitational, residential, medical and correctional services.

 As Soon As Possible

Competency enhancement should begin as soon after onset of an impairment or vulnerability as possible. This is often not the case with people-at-risk; their needs for competency development are often put after the desires of more valued people.

On The Most Severely Impaired First

If resources are limited, they should be used on severely impaired people before mildly impaired ones, not only as a matter of justice, but also because this is the optimal use of those resources. Unfortunately, services for people-at-risk often concentrate their energies on those least at need because the outcome is so much more pleasant for the deviancy managers.

In An Optimal Social and Physical Milieu

If relieved from fears, insecurity, anxieties, and other personality constrictions, handicapped people can show dramatic gains, even in measured intelligence. People should be afforded the least restrictive structure; i.e. neither more nor less structure should be applied than the person needs.

Using The Most Powerful Intervention Available

Vastly more knowledge and technology exists about how to advance people toward their potential than is known by, or utilised in any one service; therefore, no matter how good any service/agency is, there exists a better way.

The Importance Of Relevance And Potency

There are two major measures of Development of Personal Competencies- Relevance and Potency. This is covered under the theme of “Effectiveness of Services and Other Actions”, Potency and Model Coherency. Unfortunately many programs which claim to develop competency are in fact neither relevant nor competent.

Broad Areas of Personal Competence

1/ Bodily integrity and health, and the capacity to protect and maintain these

2/ Bodily Competence

3/ Self-help skills

4/ Communication

5/ Intellectual ability, skills, habits and disciplines

6/ Motivation, initiative, drive, persistence

7/ Competent and responsible exercise of personal autonomy and control

8/ Confidence, self-possession

9/ Social and Relationship competency

10/ Expression of Individuality.

Efforts need to be made in each of these areas to maintain and encourage competence.

What Is Needed For Effective Competency Enhancement

If people are to have their competency enhanced, they require opportunity, time, encouragement, educational facilitation and tools appropriate to the task. For instance, if someone is to learn the competence of social functioning, they will require the opportunity to observe competent social functioning; they will require support from someone possibly more skilled than they are in the field; they will need time to do this and encouragement from people who value them and are valued by them; finally they will need appropriate tools, which would include appropriate dress, money, and any props necessary for carrying out the actions that go with the competence.

Next to sheer maintenance of life, a developmental approach/model is probably the most important requirement of a human service.

Social Role Valorisation is one of a number of embodiments of the developmental model, and is probably the most systematic of these.

Development

The developmental model is an important assumption about what it is to be human.

Its relationship to SRV lies in the fact that oftentimes people at risk of devaluation are not seen as able to benefit from the developmental model (someone with the label ‘Learning Disability’ will be seen as incapable of learning new skills; someone with the label ‘criminal’ will be seen as unable to change their behaviour; someone with the label ‘schizophrenic’ will be seen as incapable of learning to control their hallucinations.)

Summary  

Personal Competency and an adherence to the Developmental Model may assist people at risk of devaluation to climb out of devalued roles and into valued ones.  Lack of attention to the Developmental Model and to Personal Competence may lead to the accrual of further negative roles.

6/  Effectiveness Of Actions

Introduction

This section includes details of SRV related techniques for assessing how interventions with the lowly may help or harm them.  Currently it is written largely around the assumption that it will be a service (usually a human service) which is involved in the intervention process.  With the advent of further work by Wolfensberger it is now possible to extend this to cover individual intervention, but this is not yet reflected in the text below.  Where the term Service is used, please also think of lower level (individual) interventions also.

How Do We Know If a Service/Intervention is Effective?

It is important to know the real effect that a service or intervention is having on the people who are meant to be served by it.  This is very difficult because of confounding factors- the service may be very good at meeting the needs of the provider and the community at large, but actually be very poor at meeting the individual needs of the lowly.

We do know from experience that service response to devaluation or to primary affliction is often flawed.

PASS and PASSING

These two assessment procedures allow services to be assessed using SRV/Normalisation appropriate scales that look at the actual benefit/harm done to the service user.

Relevance, Potency and Model Coherency

A measure of the effectiveness of service response may be made by measuring whether it:

·         Is relevant to the needs of the service users

(RELEVANT)

·         Is as intense as possible

(POTENT)

·         Uses a model which coherently addresses the problem

(MODEL COHERENT)

Relevancy

Relevance means matching the type of assistance offered to people-at-risk to that person’s major problems or needs. It also means that if more than one person is to be assisted, clear focus is kept on each individual person’s problems or needs.

Potency

Potency means that the type of assistance offered to people-at-risk makes use of the means most likely to meet that person’s needs. It must ensure that a person’s time is used with intensity and efficiency.

Model Coherency

What is Model Coherency?  Look at the two terms Model and Coherency.

Model

A model is something that is like something else, for instance, a dolls house is a model of a real house, a toy car is a model of a real car.

Coherency

Coherency means how well pieces fit and interact together.

Model Coherency

Model coherency is a measure of how well the component parts of a service fit and interact together and how easy it is to understand.

What Does Model Coherency Require     

·         Identifying central needs (the service purpose), 

·         Separation of service function (home, work, education, leisure etc.), and 

·         Identification of how this would be provided for valued people.

How do Valued People Fulfil These Needs?

It is useful to consider how valued people fulfil the needs said to be provided by services for the lowly.

To do this we need to consider specifically what is provided in valued settings.

How such services are provided to valued people may be determined by deciding on what the Culturally Valued Analogue is.  This is described in detail in the next section, but sufficient for now to say that the Culturally Valued Analogue is the way in which certain elements of life are provided to valued people.

From Services to the Lowly to Culturally Valued Analogues

The following examples demonstrate how we may decide what ‘should’ be offered in place of the service actually offered to the lowly.

Example 1: Multi-person residence for people with mental illness

Example 2: A Day-Service for people with developmental difficulties

Example 3: Disco Club for people with a variety of problems

(Mental Illness, Developmental Difficulties, Physical Impairment)

From Primary Function to Model Coherency

Having decided on

Primary Function,

Central Needs,

Service Function and

An Analogue for valued people,

we can then go on to investigate how Relevant the service is, how Potent it is, and if it is Model Coherent.

Relevancy of a Service

Relevance is decided by how well a service meets the real needs of an individual or group. 

For instance, an adequate ordinary house with a normal family structure of its function meets the needs of people for a Home very well- it is entirely relevant. 

However, a multi-occupancy residence for young people with mental health problems may meet the needs of a service provider or society very well (See  Overt/Covert, Manifest/Latent ) but may fail totally to provide any of the essentials of Home.  It is not relevant.

Potency of a Service

Potency is a measure of how much appropriate effort is made to help an individual or group to meet their real needs.

For instance, a good school with dedicated teachers committed to helping young people to reach for high academic and social goals will meet the needs of people for Education very well- it is Potent.

However, Special Education in a school for people with educational difficulties which concentrates on controlling behaviour and occupying the users to avoid any confrontation will not be seen as potent, despite its successful function of meeting the needs of Valued schools and parents for the daytime occupation of such service users (See  Overt/Covert, Manifest/Latent )

Model Coherency of a Service

It is only possible to decide how coherent a service is when we examine it internally and compare it with something from the valued world that ‘does the same job’.  This is the role of the Culturally Valued Analogue which is described below.

Examples of Relevant, Potent and Modelly Coherent Services

 In services for valued people, there is usually a high degree of relevance, potency and model coherency. 

For instance, if you go to a lawyer or Citizen’s Advice Bureau, it is likely to be in an office setting in an office area, staffed by skilled people with appropriate qualifications.  The people will treat you as a client worthy of respect and will not necessarily know of your illnesses or personal history.  They will make every effort to find out what your real problem is and try to apply the best means to address it.  They will owe a duty of care to the client.

Advice to people with mental health problems is often given in leisure centres for people with mental health problems.  Advice is often given by nurses.  The surrounding are often scruffy and only marginally like a modern office.  The advice giver will normally know the full personal and medical history of the client.  Furthermore, the advice giver will often have a duty to share information discussed with a clinical team.  The model is incoherent.  Additionally, only lip-service may be given to trying to find out what the real problem is, and only partial efforts may be made to overcome the problem.  They will owe a duty of care to the service.

What Usually Happens to Devalued People?

Such Relevant, Potent Modelly Coherent services are rarely available for devalued people.

What Effect Does this Have?

If the majority of services offered to people-at-risk lack relevance and potency and are model incoherent, this will do further damage to those people in terms of image and competence.

Unfortunately most services offered to people-at-risk are not relevant, potent or model coherent.

Why Service Models Are Rarely Coherent?

Services for people-at-risk in the area are not comprehensive, they lack a range of options which leads to pressure to provide more than one function within a single service.  This leads to reduction in pressures to design new and valued options.

Also, we have inherited past services which have: models from past types of services; locations, buildings, internal fittings from past services; staff identities, expectations, hierarchies from past services; schedules and routines from past services; methods and processes from past services; service user groupings from past services.

all this made worse by lack of awareness by planners.

Why is Model Coherency Important?

·         It encourages competence and experience enhancement

·         It encourages image enhancement

·         It focuses attention on real needs and purposes

·         It promotes the most effective use of resources

·         It ensures that purpose is not diluted by multi-function efforts

·         It encourages greater choice for working together

·         It encourages greater choice for collective responsibility

·         It promotes development of generic resources

Criteria For Coherency

1/   Based on what people served actually need in ways that are familiar and    valued according to local standards

      (THEORETICAL CONSISTENCY)

2/   Do all the component parts of the response fit together with each other?

      (INTERNAL CONSISTENCY)

3/   Around one single service purpose 

      (FUNCTION CONSISTENCY)

4/   In accordance with stated intention 

      (MANIFEST FUNCTION CONSISTENCY)

Model Coherency - The Key Principle

The primary (central) function of a service should:

Meet the primary/main/most important/fundamental) needs of the people who use the service.

According to Social Role Valorisation, the service should do this in a way that other (valued) citizens (us!!)

Would:                    Understand, expect to see, recognise  

(CULTURALLY NORMATIVE)

Would:                    Want, demand, desire/aspire to

(CULTURALLY VALUED)

This should:         Be the same as, equivalent to, correspond to, be an

(ANALOGUE OF THE SERVICE)

Therefore we need to establish and describe the

CULTURALLY VALUED ANALOGUE

Culturally Valued Analogue (CVA)

What Is An Analogue

An analogue is something that is like or similar to something else.  It may have a similar function.  For instance one could say that gills in fish are an analogue of lungs in mammals- they do the same job. An analogue can be like a model or pattern.

How A CVA Can Help Determine Model Coherency

A Culturally Valued Analogue can apply to major life functions (home, work, education, leisure) and also to smaller life functions (sub-components of the above like cooking, job-training, relationships, etc.)

A Culturally Valued Analogue (CVA) is a representation of something that MOST ordinary valued citizens would VALUE.

For instance, we could describe the component elements that make up what we think as a valued FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY

An analogue of this FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY would be a representation of it through our description of its component elements.

A useful way to analyses a service and compare its stated purpose with a CVA is by examining the components under the separate headings and analysing what makes up the FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY.

CVA Components

·         What

·         How

·         With Whom

·         By Whom

·         When

·         Where

·         Language Used

·         Image Projected

·       So if we were analysing a FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY we would look at:

·       What- happens

·       How- do we know how to

·       With whom- do we share this

·       By Whom- are decisions made

·       When- are do we do it

·       Where- is it located

·       Language Used- what is appropriate

·       Image Projected- what image does this project

·       All considered for a highly valued FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY for valued people

Using the CVA to Determine Model Coherency

To do this we use a Spider-graph: 

Language Used:                               Words, Labels, Descriptions

What:                                                         Content, Activity

How:                                                           Style, Ambience, Methods, Processes

With Whom:                                    Groupings, Characteristics, Size, Roles

By Whom:                                       Staff:  Identity, Competence, Background, Roles

When:                                                         Timings, Rhythms, Durations, Routines

Where:                                            Location, Internal and External Design Features, Use of                                                                            Space

Image Projected:                              Interior and Exterior

Determining Model Coherency Using a CVA

We now return to the FUNCTION/ACTIVITY/FACILITY offered to the devalued group and repeat the exercise using a spider graph for that.

Comparing the two spider graphs will indicate how the model is (or more likely is not) Modelly Coherent.

Model Coherency Impact

There is now a deeper analysis of this subject; this is called Model Coherency Impact.  This may or may not be discussed at this point depending on time available.

Summary

Model coherency may be the best method available for telling us what is really happening during an intervention with people at risk of devaluation.

7/  Relationships Between People

Introduction

This is to do with how we enable people-at-risk to get a sense of sharing with other valued people.

People gain many benefits from being among and sharing with other valued people. This is often denied to people-at-risk.

Belonging to a Valued Community is something that we all value. The community to which we belong to or strive to belong to will often determine the type of life that we have.

Relationships Between People

Our social identity is a product of our interactions with other people. We build a richness of social identity from the variety of contact that we have with others. Knowing others, and having other people value us, protects us from harm.

Devalued people often have a limited set of people to interact with and often have fewer and less intense real supportive relationships.

They also suffer from the fact that many people in society see them as ‘not like me’.

If people see devalued people as very akin to them, they will feel better about them and treat them better.

If devalued people are seen as being identified with valued people, less harm will come to them.

Empathy and sympathy may be valuable parts of this interpersonal identification. However, this should not descend into charity or pity imaging. So long as that is avoided, the positive elements of ‘there but for the grace of God, go I’, or the feeling that one should help because of a personal moral imperative, may be useful.

Strategies for Fostering Interpersonal Identification

·         Improving the approachability of each party by the other, e.g. via:

·         Presence, e.g., Physical Integration

·         Appearance

·         Conduct, including courtesy, helpfulness, unselfishness, affection

·         Assure that when contact occurs, it is experienced as positive.

·         Engage each party in experiences that make them see the world through each other’s eyes, e.g., via:  Media, Literature, and other interpretations.

·         Participation by devalued persons in typical lifestyles and activities, e.g. community residences, public education, full-day productive work.

·         Fostering empathy with devalued people.

·         Engage parties in shared intensive experiences

·         Foster each party’s sense of responsibility for the other.

 The Contact Hypothesis

The contact hypothesis springs from moves toward racial tolerance in the USA. Allport hypothesised that for stereotypical discrimination to be overcome, the following were necessary:

Contact was necessary but not sufficient. The contact must :

1/ Be prolonged and involve co-operative activity

2/ Occur within a framework of official and institutional support for integration. Legislation is not sufficient, but may be necessary to cause change.

3/ Involve groups of equal social status.

 Use of Similarities

Much avoidance due to stereotyping is due to misunderstandings about the degree and type of difference between the in-group and the out-group. If people are encouraged to initiate and continue contact, similarities are likely to be discovered and concentration on differences minimised or ignored.

Three models of improvement in attitudes towards out-groups were suggested

1/ Bookkeeping- accumulation of favourable information about an outgroup gradually improves the stereotype

2/ Conversion- dramatically counter-stereotypic information about an outgroup causes a sudden change of attitudes

3/ Subtyping- stereotype-inconsistent information produces a sub-type within the out-group.

Research indicates that contact improves attitudes towards individuals in the out-group, but that it does not easily generalise to the group as a whole. This is also applicable to people at risk who come to see ‘normal’ society as an out-group.

Five Practical Implications of Interpersonal Identification

People who identify with others will generally

1/ Want good things for the others

2/ Want to be with the others

3/ Communicate good things about the others

4/ Want to please the others; do what the others ask

5/ Possibly want to be like them.

 Strategies For Fostering Interpersonal Identification

Make it easier for both people-at-risk and the valued public to interact

By ensuring that people-at-risk are enabled to be there in society (have presence), and to appear acceptable to society by appearance and by behaviour.

Assure that when contact occurs it is experienced as positive by both parties

It is no use if contact occurs, but it is seen as negative by either party.

Improve Communication Between The People-at-Risk and Valued Citizens

Help both the people-at-risk and the valued public to understand the world-view of the other group by: positive presentation in media, literature and other interpretations, participation by people-at-risk in typical lifestyles and activities, and by fostering empathy with people-at-risk.

Encourage Each Party’s Sense Of Responsibility For The Other

People who feel that they have an investment in another person or group of people are more likely to continue identification with them.

The Challenges of Interpersonal Identification in Social Role Valorisation

Getting privileged people to see a reflection of themselves in people who are devalued/at risk (to identify with them and accept them as equals in humanity).

Getting devalued people to identify with persons of adaptive identity and look

to them as models.

Summary of Relationships Between People

Interpersonal Identification- relationships between people- is at the core of how people who are lowly and are poorly treated by society may be assisted to improve their lot.

8/  Imitation and Modelling

Introduction

It is known from educational theories that one of the most powerful methods of learning is imitation. Much of what we have learned about how to behave, indeed, how to be human, is learned by imitation.

If someone who knows how to do something demonstrates the method and style of doing it, others may imitate it. This takes place consciously and unconsciously.

We are especially likely to imitate the behaviour of someone we respect, admire or just.

We learn who we are by imitating other people, especially in childhood. This ability continues throughout the whole of a person’s life.

Our behaviour is unconsciously shaped by societal pressures. There is a great human need to not offend other people by behaviour. We unconsciously copy other people to ensure that we do not offend. There is considerable research on shaping of human behaviour from scientific interventions on a small scale. The shaping that occurs unconsciously and naturally is even more pervasive.

No-one needs to be educated in pub-going or church-going, we learn by imitating other people’s behaviours.

Many people-at-risk only have the chance to imitate other people-at-risk. This is often because of segregation, congregation, and social and relationship discontinuity.

SRV requires that people-at-risk have the opportunity to learn appropriate behaviours from valued models in culturally valued settings as much and as often as possible.

Again issues of relevance and potency occur. Is the available opportunity for imitation relevant to the needs of the person; is the place where imitation is encouraged the best place; is the effort diluted by group size?

Bandura’s Definition Of Modelling

In 1976, Albert Bandura wrote that one of the most powerful procedures for achieving enduring changes in behaviour involves "induction through modelling, refinement through enactment, and reinforcements from successful use." His Social Learning Theory showed that this reaction is not just a mechanical imitation, it involves active social involvement.

Two Distinct Major Types Of Modelling and Imitation

Acquisition Modelling:

Demonstration of the process of learning or acquiring a behaviour or a role.

Performance Modelling:

 Demonstration of the performance of a behaviour, skill, or role.

Acquisition Modelling

(Demonstration of the process of learning or acquiring a behaviour or a role.)

Acquisition modelling involves the demonstration of the learning process by one or more learners, which helps an observer learn the same thing that the model is learning. This contribution to the learner’s progress can take place via several mechanisms:

proving to a learner that something can, in fact, be learned

demonstrating to the learner how something can be learned, and how to handle one’s emotions during such a task

demonstrating how a learning task is solved

on occasion, constituting a ‘horrible example’ of how not to do things

capitalising on a learner’s motivation to be and do like the model, or even improve on the model.

For example, a person who is in the process of learning to tie shoelaces, or knot a necktie, or walk with a prosthetic leg can be taught these things, or may learn them, ‘in front of’ others who need and are ready to learn the same thing. Such a model may be able to convey the necessary learning better than someone who has long since mastered these tasks.

Performance Modelling

 Demonstration of the performance of a behaviour, skill, or role.

Performance Modelling involves the demonstration by the model of some kind of behaviour which the observer more or less already possesses, but which the observer is unlikely to perform without further motivation. In other words, such modelling tries to induce motivation in the observer to do things they are already competent in but don’t perform without further motivation. For instance, a person may know how to eat properly at the table, but may simply not do so unless ‘inspired’, ‘reminded’, ‘instructed’, or shamed into it, by the presence and performance of someone else who does use good table manners.

Research Showing The Power Of Modelling

Examples: children seeing adults give tokens.

Children watching pro-social behaviour on Television.

If people are first shown an act of helpfulness are more likely to be helpful themselves. (Changing tyres)

Return of a lost wallet.

Learning by vicarious experience.

Intentional And Unintentional Modelling

Much like image, communication can exist and work either consciously or unconsciously, sent or received, so can modelling be either intentional, or unintentional, in which latter case it is also much more likely to be unconscious. Similarly, imitation can be both conscious and unconscious.

The power of imitation has been documented by innumerable studies and historical events, and is manifested every day around us.

Various Notes On Imitation And Modelling

Experts in organisational psychology report that company employees tend to mimic the behaviours of their superiors, often unconsciously.

After Saddam Hussein became dictator in Iraq, an unnerving number of government officials began to take pains to make themselves look like him.

When Marilyn Monroe killed herself, suicides in the USA rose. Similarly after the suicide of Kurt Cobain.

Similarly, suicides were said to increase after attempted suicides of soap-opera characters- for instance Angie Watts in East Enders.

The Importance Of Imitation In Childhood Learning

Imitation is most basic in childhood, being one of the most powerful processors of socialisation. Children will imitate their elders, where the clothes or accessories of star athletes or media performers, the top of their mannerisms, gait, speech or gestures etc. In adolescence and young adulthood, and imitation becomes heavily focused on clothes, fashion Commerce manner speech, and certain behaviours. If you have been around teenagers, you are probably very familiar with us phenomenon. For instance a teenager may absolutely refuse to dress in a style which differs from that of his or her peers.

Imitation In Hierarchical Structures

Imitation also plays a big role in hierarchical structures where the underlings commonly imitate the behaviour, appearance, and status symbols of the higher ups, wants to improve their own status via similarity with the higher ones, or in order to curry favour with them.

Historical Examples Of The Power Of Modelling

In 1585, King Henry the third of France (1551 - 1589) began to carry a cup and ball child’s toy in his hand almost everywhere he went, playing with it. Soon, several Dukes, Cardinal, hundreds of court members, and then all sorts of nobles and young people began to do the same thing.

When Marie Antoinette became pregnant, all the fashionable ladies of the court adopted maternity clothes, complete with cushions underneath, so that they all too looked pregnant. They even enlarged their cushions and dresses as the nine months went on.

When Hitler began to grasp his belt buckle as he walked around, or other high Nazis and members of the SS started to do it as well. Previously, German military officers had not used to grasp their belt buckles.

All phenomena of mass hysteria involve elements of imitation dynamics. So to do the phenomena of phases and fads. After Napoleon’s rise to power, generals all over the world, began to imitate Napoleon by sticking a hand inside the front of the coats or jackets. They did this even if they would not have supported or allied themselves with Napoleon when he was alive, but because they envied him his skills and generalship, and because by doing so, they were also imitating all their other higher officers. Since few of these officers had ever met Napoleon, they learned it all via facsimiles.

Nowadays, crazes and fads are propagated mostly by the media and almost instantly rather than via slow person-to-person transmission.

The election of John Kennedy to the presidency was an instant financial disaster to the hat industry because Kennedy never wore a hat, and millions of men began to do the same.

In this current age of medical miracles, people not merely dress, talk, sing or move like their facsimile models, but even have cosmetic surgery done to make them look like the models, often trying to look like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson or Madonna.

A number of studies have shown a significant relationship between publicity given to suicides, particularly of prominent persons, and the subsequent suicide rate in the general population. are sometimes referred to as "imitative deaths" Copycat suicide are particularly likely to occur if one identified with a person who died. (consider Kurt Cobain).

The Power Of Imitation In Training And Induction

Because of its power, an imitation in conjunction with role circularities is used in many programmes are of training or changing people, for instance basic military training.

The trouble is the negative modelling is at least as powerful as positive modelling. There is one reference to nurse training before 1970 being mainly the inculcation of methods of behaving like other nurses.

 Negative Results Of Imitation

One need not look further than one’s own life and reflect on all the people one has imitate it oneself, involving positive as well as negative, and anything from dress to mannerisms. Here we must be honest with ourselves because we often do not like to admit to our imitation of others.

Sayings Which Capture The Essence Of Imitation and Likeness

The imitation theme is also in captured in many savings such as "like father, like son," or, like mother, like daughter," "a chip off the old block", "do what I say, not as I do" and "monkey see, monkey do," though a more accurate phrase in many cases would be a human see, human do.

Five Important Realities About Imitation

1/ Imitation is built into human nature

2/ Imitation is one of the most primitive learning mechanisms

3/ Imitation pedagogies are extremely powerful (Its extreme power)

4/ Imitation serves very adaptive functions, even though it has disadvantages

5/ In childhood, the processes of imitation and role-playing converge

Factors Which Make Imitation Likely To Take Place

Identity Of The Model Demonstrator

One or more people who can/will perform the desired roles or behaviours; has characteristics that the learner admires, values, aspires to, identifies with; actually performs roles/behaviours, perhaps habitually.

Links To Each Other

Models or ‘facsimiles’ thereof, are present in sufficient numbers in the learner’s environment; models/facsimiles perform roles/behaviours perhaps repeatedly, habitually, or exageratedly, while learner is attending; if necessary, the learner is prompted to imitate; learner is reinforced for ever closer approximations of demonstrated roles/behaviours; models may also be reinforced; learner rehearses roles/behaviours.

Identity Of Learner

Capacity to imitate, at least in approximation; opportunity to imitate, awareness of: environment, including other’s behaviours:- own behaviours; open/susceptible to learning new/alternate roles/behaviours; positive view of, identification with the model.

Why Imitation Is So Important

If we accept that people may have been cast into socially devalued roles, but once there they have learned how to exist in them, then it is obvious that learning new behaviours is a very good exit from these negative roles. Learning of this type- social learning- is best achieved by the use of role models and imitation. Additionally, because many people-at-risk may have a limited ability to learn in a more didactic manner, modelling is extremely important for them.

Summary

Imitation and Modelling are extremely powerful, both in impelling people into devalued atates and also in rescuing them therefrom.

9/  Integration And Participation 

Introduction

We gain our social identity from our position in society. Most of us have complex and deep relationships with valued members of the community.

Many people-at-risk are denied this. SRV promotes social integration and valued social participation in all matters appropriate for the person-at-risk.

Most of us live our lives integrated into a community of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

These people are able to support and protect us when things go wrong.

People who are devalued are likely to have fewer of those bonds, and so have less social protection.

If people who are devalued by society are not in contact with valued others (because of for instance, segregation), then those valued people will be denied the chance to get to know the devalued people as potential colleagues, friends etc..

If devalued people are enabled to become part of society in a fully integrated manner.

People should be encouraged to develop roles such as customer, friend, work-colleague, companion, interest-group member, bank client, pub goer, cinema attender, disco goer, student, letter writer, phone user, public transport user, driver, cyclist, GP user, voter, etc.

This is important for two main reasons. It helps the person-at-risk to feel integrated into the community. It also helps the community to see a person-at-risk integrated into the community and engaging in valued social participation.

Definition Of Personal Social Integration and Valued Social Participation

‘From an SRV perspective, ‘integration’ means ‘personal social integration and valued social participation.’ This in turn would require (a) valued participation, (b) with valued people (c) in valued activities that (d) take place in valued settings.’

Misunderstandings and Errors

"Dumping" people into society without the means to cope

Denying people needed extra services

Serving large numbers or a wide variety of people-at-risk within the same setting.

Social Integration and Valued Participation consists of: People-at-risk being enabled to engage in a culturally normative quantity of contacts, interactions and relationships with ordinary and valued citizens in normative activities in valued or ordinary physical and social settings.

Advantages of Social Integration

Some of the and Valued Participation are as follows:

·         Protection of the person’s welfare

·         Services in normative settings are likely to be of higher quality

·         People respond positively to normative behaviour

·         Typically integrated settings afford a greater variety of experiences

·         People can more freely exercise autonomy, choice, freedom and citizenship

·         People meet a wider range of people and form mutually fulfilling relationships

·         Services more likely to be based on right rather than charity or pity

·         Greater likelihood that the person-at-risk will contribute to society

·         Society at large is likely to be better educated about the needs of persons at risk, and more tolerant.

Personal Social Integration And Valued Societal Participation

Personal Social Integration is the enmeshment of people in a network of social networks. Valued Societal Participation is the involvement in roles and activities that are highly valued by others in society. For instance, using shops, pubs, leisure activities and just walking down the street and talking with people in your own community is Personal Social Integration. Taking part in local politics, being an altar boy, running a charitable committee, sitting as a school governor, are Valued Societal Participation.

Personal Social Integration and Valued Societal Participation

consist of:

Adaptive participation by a (devalued) person in a culturally normative quantity of contacts, interactions, relationships, and roles with ordinary and valued citizens, in valued (or at least normative) activities, and in valued (or at least ordinary) physical and social settings.

Valued Social Participation Versus Distantiation, Segregation And Exclusion

Much positive benefit flows to all people from their roles of being engaged in valued community issues and from being valued by others for doing so. It is not possible to even start to gain these benefits in any real sense if people are distantiated, segregated and excluded. However, if this distantiation is necessary (for criminal acts for instance), valued social participation should still be encouraged. This is because it will maintain the competencies of the people so excluded, and will also aid their self image. The experience of long-term prisoners returning to the community and being still excluded and de-skilled shows that the total exclusion often practised leads to damage to the individual and the community.

Foundations of Friendships

There are eight main indicators of probability of friendships:

·         Physical Attractiveness (see above under Image and Interpersonal Identification)

·         Proximity

·         Familiarity

·         Availability

·         Expected Continued Interaction

·         Reciprocity

·         Similarity

·         Need Complementarity

Therefore, to encourage friendships and other relationships, we should improve people’s image, ensure that people-at-risk are close to others, that they become familiar to others, remain available for friendship; we should encourage expected continued interaction; to help relationships we should encourage reciprocity in relationships and seek to find people who are similar in interests and outlook to the people-at-risk to fill friendship roles.

Reasons Why Interpersonal Integration Might Become Possible For People-At-Risk

The person is seen as having something in common with the valued parties

The person is seen as having valued assets-Skills material possessions status and Image connections and influence

The person is seen as a likely friend of the valued parties

Why Social Integration Is So Consistent With Our Values Base

Idealised Judaeo-Christian values, e.g. acceptance, compassion, mutual assistance, self sacrifice, mutual submission

Basic idealised socio-political values of equality and civic participation

Summary

Social Integration and Participation is a powerful method of giving new roles to devalued people.  Unfortunately, devalued people are often denied such Social Integration and Participation.

10/  Positive Compensation

Introduction

All of us have some things we are good at and some things that we are less good at. For most people, the number of good things about us massively outweigh those that are bad.

People who are devalued are likely to have fewer things at which they excel, and many things at which they are seen to be bad at.

If we are to support people who are devalued, extra effort should be put into finding extra positive attributes to outweigh their negatives.

This is the essence of positive compensation- that extra effort must be put into overcoming personal deficits in people who are devalued.

This may at times involve being very careful about choices- avoiding risky images or roles which might accidentally increase the negative position of the devalued person.

For instance, if an otherwise valued person goes out on a Friday night and drinks heavily, they may be seen as ‘letting off steam’ or ‘a bit of a lad’. If a person with severe mental health problems does so, they are likely to be imaged as ‘waster’, ‘dangerous’, ‘unworthy’ etc.. If a person with learning disability is dressed in a clown costume, it feeds into a negative stereotype and affects that person negatively; if a popular politician does this for charity, she would be unlikely to be negatively affected by it.

Definition of Positive Compensation

The Conservatism Corollary to Social Role Valorisation is derived from the following:

Most people have at least some wounding experiences in their lives. However there is a crucial differences between valued people and devalued people (and their families). Those people who are continually and massively wounded must be positively compensated if they are to achieve the good things in life.

To Not Do Further Harm

A Maxim of the Christian Church from its early days was:

“Afflicto Afflictio non est Addenda” (One must not further afflict the already afflicted.) Origin is possibly from the Jewish Septuagint Bible.

A modern equivalent is a book by Böhm Verwirrt nicht die Verwirrten translated as meaning “don’t confuse the already confused”.

One of the prime edicts of medicine is that “The Physician shall do the Sick No Harm”.

The importance of not doing further harm is also contained in the saying ‘don’t add insult to injury.’

As one mother of a child with Downs Syndrome said, “I decided that from the outset I would never be guilty of adding additional handicaps to my child”

Recently however, especially in human service culture, these ideas are often overturned so that the already afflicted are now the most likely to be further afflicted.

What The Conservatism Corollary Says

From Wolfensberger’s own definition:

‘…the conservatism corollary posits that the greater the number, severity, and/or variety of deviancies or vulnerabilities of an individual person, or the greater the number of devalued persons there are in a group or setting, the more positively impactful it is to:

a/ reduce even only one or a few of the deviancies or vulnerabilities of a person, or of members within the group

b/ reduce the proportion or number of devalued people in the group; or

c/ compensate for the vulnerabilities or deviancies of persons or group members through the presence of positively valued characteristics.

These impacts are usually most immediately obvious in the image domain, but can also be relevant to competency.’

The Most Valued Option

When there is a range of valued measures/options for enhancing social imagery or personal competency or otherwise alleviating vulnerability, choosing the more valued or most valued option and the least risky.

It is important to stress that the question here is about how valued an option is. It is not simply choosing an option that is most socially conservative, but that that is most valued. For instance, it is ‘conservative’ to wear a business suit and talk in a received southern accent; to do this whilst attending a football match at Carlisle would not be a valued option.

A few years ago I saw a young man cycling down the main street of a Cornish town- a long hill. He was scrupulously observing the highway code- making hand signals boldly for every manoeuvre. It was conservative but ‘odd’, i.e. not valued and not normative. When he pulled off the road in front of me I could see that he had Down’s Syndrome. The conservativeness of his training had marked him out as deviant! Conservative should call to mind ‘high value and low risk’, not morally or socially conservative.

Natural Defences Possessed By Valued People

Valued people have the ability to soak up many additional negative images because of their other positively valued assets. For instance, university lecturers can dress non-conservatively, but still be seen as serious people.

Heightened Vulnerability Of Devalued People

Conversely, devalued people (and their families) exist in its state of ‘heightened vulnerability’- they are especially at risk.

They may be members of the class or group that that is collectively devalued so that their very identity is made up of these devaluations. They become defined by their devalued identity.

They may have experienced long-standing wounding and degradation.

They may never have been accorded valued status, they may have been born devalued, and may come from a multi-generation devalued class.

That is to say that the roles and the risks are passed from one generation to another. Consider the caste system in India, especially the harijan class (previously called the untouchables) who deal with rubbish and ordure; their condition is of almost total exclusion from valued society, and the role is inherited by their children. There is also the Burakumin class in Japan who have been deeply devalued by the Japanese for about 1700 years even though they are racially, linguistically and culturally indistinguishable from their fellow citizens. The Burakumin are seen by the other Japanese as ‘eta’ meaning filth and ‘hinin’ meaning non-human; they were not included in population counts; even now, agencies exist to check out backgrounds of future spouses to ensure that they are not Burakumin. Similar considerations apply to what is called the ‘underclass’ whereby a group of people with limited life skills, money, property, societal-position, education, passes on these attributes to the next generation with little chance of escape.

They are more likely to suffer multiple wounds, competency impairment, deviation from cultural norms in such areas as appearance, behaviour, associations and/or beliefs, sparse social and physical resources and stressful lives.

They are likely to continue to be subjected to repeated and sequential wounding, to the point of death making.

Positive Compensation is Important To

For example, people who are:

·         Devalued or very likely to be come so.

·         Members of entire societally devalued classes.

·         People of middle age or older.

The Additional Effect Of Wounds On People-At-Risk

Wounds inflicted on devalued, vulnerable parties have much more serious, long-term, pervasive, devastating identity- and life-defining impact than the same wounds inflicted on a relatively valued or non-vulnerable party. A wound that seems like a major inconvenience to a valued party, may be life-threatening to a person-at-risk.

Hitting on the Wounded Spot

One major problem faced by people who are devalued by society is that they have a particular individual constellation of wounds.  Unfortunately societal response to such people actually further wounds such people by consciously or unconsciously further wounding them in exactly the same place over and over again.  This is called ‘Hitting on the Wounded Spot’.

Examples include:

People with the label ‘Mentally Ill’ who are at particular risk of being seen as a Threat are often housed in buildings which look like they are designed for threatening people- thus hitting on the individual’s wounded spot.

People who are physically disabled and are at risk of being seen as incompetent are often offered physical surroundings which make it impossible for them to display the competencies that they do have.

Examples Of Heightened Vulnerability

Consider people-at-risk to be at Heightened Vulnerability.

Examples:

·         Person with Immune System Compromise: Avoid infection at all costs

·         Person with Dementia: Avoid fear, insecurity and confusion at all costs

·         Person with Brittle Bone Syndrome: Avoid trauma at all costs

·         Person-at-risk of devaluation: Avoid further devaluation at all costs

Sensitivity And Positive Compensation

Dave Race suggests that the term Sensitivity be used- looking at how sensitive individuals or groups are to further negative events. He suggests we apply a ‘Sensitivity Test’ to situations.

He gives examples- a quiz night at a local pub may be valued activity, but it may emphasise low intellectual abilities. Trainers, which may be seen as highly valued footwear, may reinforce stereotypes in older adults or learning disabled children. Using ‘Disabled’ toilets may emphasise the negative images of a person with disability.

Positive Compensation And Groupings

When people are in groups, the theme of Positive Compensation is increased in importance.

There is a great risk of image transfer between people in a group.

Positive Compensation requires that such possible negative outcomes are analysed and risks are only taken where absolutely necessary.

The Load Of Bricks Analogy

If you imagine that we all carry our burdens (wounds, negative images) around on our backs, most of us carry relatively small burdens.

People-at-risk almost always carry vast burdens.

Eventually, as the load (almost inevitably) increases for the person-at-risk, the burden will become too great and they will ‘fall’ and may even be killed by the load.

Why Normative Responses May Be Detrimental To People-At-Risk

Some practises that are normative or even enhancing to people of the valued culture may nonetheless be harmful if applied to vulnerable or devalued parties because the measure in some way further heightens that person’s initial vulnerabilities. For instance, Fancy Dress parties at New Year may be normative, and even valued for valued people, but many items of fancy dress are strongly imaged linked to negative historical deviancy roles.

How Normative Conditions May Not Be Good Enough For A Devalued, Person

The conditions may accidentally reinforce negative stereotypes about the vulnerable party. For example, fancy dress.

The conditions may exaggerate a negatively valued characteristic. For example, people with schizophrenia are stereotypically labelled as dangerous and out of control; any imaging as threat would be dangerous for this group. However within some age groups, close-cropped hair and ‘distressed’ clothing can be normative and even valued. However, this will exaggerate the perceived dangerousness of the person if they are labelled as mentally ill..

The conditions accidentally hit upon a party’s wounded spot. For instance, taking a person with senile dementia on holiday to a foreign country make increase the level of confusion suffered by adding extra confusing situations.

The conditions co-incidentally impair an already diminished competency. For instance, a person with difficulty with walking, who may need a wheelchair, will not be helped by the normative environment in most cinemas which often have steps up to and within the auditorium.

The more a party is vulnerable, devalued or impaired; and the longer this has been the case, the more important it is to not add to the party’s vulnerability, especially in terms of actual devaluations and wounds, and yet greater susceptibilities.

Reduce those susceptibilities, devaluations and wounds that already exist,

Compensate for existing susceptibilities, devaluations and wounds by adding value and competencies to that party including those areas that are as yet un-degraded.

Some Common Sayings That Help to Bring to Mind The Importance Of Positive Compensation

Thinking in terms of verbal expressions that contain relevant truths:

·         Going the extra mile

·         Not taking any chances

·         Bending over backwards

·         The straw that broke the Camel’s Back

·         An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

·         A stitch in time saves nine

·         Don’t spoil the ship for a ha’porth of tar

The validity of the saying that a straw can break an overburdened Camel’s back has even been borne out by research on the field of ‘chaos theory’ of physics, which has shown that when the sand pile is constructed one single grain at a time, there is a point at which the addition of only a single grain more can start an avalanche. This is called a point of criticality. In the lives of devalued people there are millions of such points.

Specific Strategies To Use For Positive Compensation

Some specific possibilities to consider for are listed below;

Reduce the number of stigmata (especially obvious ones) of an individual. For instance, by working on simple matters such as style of dress, personal hygiene and possessions carried by a person may reduce the number of signs of ‘differentness’, that major and difficult stigmata such as deformity or behaviour may be less noticeable, or at least not so magnified.

Enhance the image of a person at risk by re-arrangement of other juxtapositions in terms of variety, frequency of occurrences and image importance by :

Reducing Negative Ones

Increasing Positive Ones

Adding/Creating New Positive Ones.

For instance, not presenting people always in company of other people at risk, not frequenting low-rent areas for shopping or recreation, finding and acquiring friends, acquaintances and colleagues who are seen as valued, and socialising with them in valued venues.

Minimising the size of groups of devalued people and the number of stigmata manifested by various members of the group

In the case of a previously valued person, bring that person’s former status to the minds of others using multiple means (particularly those who have become sick, elderly, senile.) For instance, it was accepted fact in Oxford and Cambridge hospital wards for the confused elderly, that a medical ‘Doctor’, or a university lecturer would automatically get a single room. In fact in Oxford for many years, there was a tendency to send middle-class professionals to the Warneford Hospital (the old private hospital) and the working class to Littlemore Hospital (the old county lunatic asylum).

To the degree that it is not unrealistic, emphasise to others any positive prospect for the person. The simple fact that someone has abilities is not always immediately obvious; by advertising this, one can decrease the likelihood of the person being further negatively valued. For instance a person with autism who is a very good artist could be surrounded by examples of their excellent work in the area they live, work or socialise.

Differential Between Valued and Devalued Personal Consequences

Existing in a state of heightened vulnerability may magnify the consequences of simple problems (for a valued person) to that of major further negative consequences (for devalued persons).

Why is Positive Compensation for Disadvantage So Important?

The more negative experiences, images, lost competencies and lessened roles that people-at-risk obtain, the less their life chances are. These additional negative experiences are not just cumulative, they are multiplicative. So, each added positive image, positive experience, extra competence, or valued role that people are given, their life chances will get considerably better. So, gaining one extra positive result is powerfully life-enhancing. Gaining one extra negative result is powerfully life-limiting. Every effort must be made to gain a positive result.

Strategies to Avoid Further Devaluation

Prevention, Remediation and Compensation are the main strategies for avoidance of further devaluation.

What Action Is Demanded

The main thrust of the conservatism corollary can be very simply stated as follows: the more a party as vulnerable, devalued , or impaired, and along the longer this has been the case, the more important become the three strategies of prevention, remediation, and compensation .

The more a party is vulnerable, devalued or impaired, and the longer this has been a case, the more important it is to encourage:

Prevention: not making a bad situation worse by adding actual additional devaluations 

and wounds and yet greater susceptibility to further negative experience. 

Remediation: reducing those susceptibilities, devaluations and wounds that already exist.

Compensation: compensation for existing susceptibilities, devaluations and wounds by adding value and competencies to that party, including in domains that are as yet un-degraded.

The first step is not to make a bad situation worse. Using the analogy of comparing wounds to bricks one could try not add any more bricks to the load the party already has to bear, because the added bricks might be the ones that crushed the party.

Prevention

Where a party is at increased risk of being wounded, one should avoid doing anything to increase that risk. Therefore, one should try to avoid putting the person in situations where the chances of his succeeding are very low. Rather, situations should be so structured as to greatly increase the chances of success.

Attempt to prevent the actual affliction of devaluation or wounds to those already devalued and wounded. There is a tendency in services to place people into wounding environments.

For example, a person known to have an immunity deficiency should not be recklessly exposed to situations in which there is a distinct risk of infection. Similarly, a person whose mental faculties are deteriorating, perhaps due to some disease process, and who is aware and pained by this, should not be put in situations where he or she will very likely experience competency failure. (For instance, by admitting them for assessment to another building, a large and rambling house, with confusing signs, noisy and smelly, full of other confused people, staff who change repeatedly in shifts and who do not know the person; however, this is what most often happens to the confused elderly.)

It is normal in this field to place people in environments which wound for instance by displaying negative images (see above) or reduce competencies (calendars and clocks that are wrong, unusable furniture and cutlery). These conflicting messages separate people from reality rather than put them in touch with it.

For instance, a man who has just come out of prison after serving a sentence for a violent act will be at a disadvantage at best. But he will be at an even greater disadvantage if he is given, or acquires, or wears, motorcycle gang clothes and accessories, or goes around unshaven. After all, for generations, criminal types have been stereotyped in the graphic arts as unshaven.

It might also be added that with the near demonisation of valued people who smoke, and the fact that if a person is depicted on television or in movies as a smoker, he is almost always a ‘baddie’, (in fact it has become a sign of badness in visual arts), the mere act of smoking for a person-at-risk of devaluation is an indication of encouragement to further devaluation.

If a person is already apt to be ridiculed, one should not encourage that person to dress up as a clown for because doing so greatly increases the risk of being cast into the object of ridicule role.

Similarly, elderly people visiting Santa Claus promotes a child role; naming a building in a psychiatric institution the ‘Hatch Building’ unconsciously links to the concept of the Booby Hatch- a generic devalued name for an asylum of old.

In contrast, an example of not compounding wounds is where a vulnerable person has already suffered painful relationship discontinuities. Here, one would bend over backwards and accept all sorts inconveniences and sacrifices in order to preserve the person’s existing relationships, even if these are very imperfect. For example, it is very common for human service personnel to think they are doing a service recipient a favour by transferring or promoting that person, even when this transfer or promotion to another programme will mean the person loses contact with the best, and perhaps only, friends he or she has. If it is really better on balance for a person be transferred or promoted, then responsible personnel should give much thought as to how to allow and even assist the person to maintain contact with his or her friends.

As well, it is not uncommon for the families of many devalued people to be very troubled themselves, and for the person’s family relationships to be a very problematic mix of valuable ones and negative experiences. In such instances, not adding to the existing wounds or vulnerabilities means not automatically dumping the person into such a dysfunctional family, but also it does not mean cutting the person off from all contact with them. The resolution that is best for the person will be that that is least

Remediation

In addition to not adding to people’s susceptibilities, risks, devaluations, and wounds, one should also make active efforts to reduce these. Using our earlier analogy of social devaluation being like a load of bricks, and we could say that one tries to lighten the person’s load, from a large number bricks to a smaller number of bricks. This is remediation.

Early and incisive action is particularly important. It is well known that the severity of the problem or impairment is most like to be reduced if properly addressed as soon as you discover it, and as early in life as possible. Therefore, as soon as it is discovered that a child has a problem or impairment, aggressive and constructive measures should be taken immediately, so as to reduce the reducible problems and complications.

Here is an example. Knowledge, and even research, point the fact that devalued people are at very heightened risk of getting assaulted if they are verbally aggressive, that is to say if they have a "big mouth". Even in the Human Services, service workers are apt to lose control and assault such persons. Thus, it is particularly important to teach competency-impaired people not to develop habits of talking loudly and obnoxiously, "Mouthing-Off," or being verbally assertive in ways that are either culturally devalued or far out of proportion to such persons concomitant social graces or other compensating competencies. Otherwise, one is actually adding to the always high risk that violence will be inflicted on such persons. This is a very good example of a conservatism indication of that is almost totally unrecognised and untaught in human service culture. In fact, in that culture, the assertiveness craze has been promoting just the opposite.

Compensation

The third part of the conservatism corollary is to compensate for devaluation and its associated vulnerabilities by adding value and competency to the party at risk were possible. This one can do regardless of what one does in the other two categories. Earlier we mentioned role domains. Seeking out some of the positive role domains for people at risk of devaluation and assisting them to fill these roles will seek to compensate them for other negative roles. You will remember that we earlier explained that when mitigating positive elements are perceived as associated with the devalued party, this is apt to lessen the severity of devaluation of that party. This is what compensation is all about: mitigating the severity of devaluation by adding positive elements. Here, we should note that it is important to add value not only in those domains in which a person has already suffered competency-diminishment or image impairment but also in those domains on which a person may function normatively, and may not have been wounded.

Compensation can also involve strengthening the party’s own resources so the party is better able to bear the burdens of devaluations and its associated costs. If you think back to the bricks analogy this is like adding extra muscles to allow the person to continue to carry large numbers of bricks. For example, one could teach devalued person skills and pursuits that are image-enhancing in order to compensate for their low status. If they already have such skills, one could promote the use of them. Instead of teaching devalued person has only limited or lower class sports and recreation skills, or those already heavily associated with a specific devalued class, (such as ‘bowling for the handicapped’, or basketball for "black" youth), one might explore more image enhancing ones such as tennis, skiing, rowing, golf, or fencing. Or at least, one could promote sports and recreations such as, swimming, dance, chess, etc. - that are not stereotypically associated with a devalued class.

Similarly, an image- and competency-enhancing skill that many learning disabled people managed to acquire in multi- lingual cultures, such as Quebec, Switzerland, and Belgium, is to speak in more than one language.

The Utility And Public Acceptability Of These Strategies

The three strategies of the conservatism corollary are quite consistent with certain cultural values that make the strategies quite intelligible to the public, and that can therefore be recruited so as to enlist public support.

Some Additional Specific Implications of The Conservatism Corollary

When there is a range of available measures/options to enhance social image or personal competency, or alleviate vulnerability, the more valued or least ‘risky’ measure for the person or group at issue is usually the most adaptive.

There is commonly more than one way of living, or doing what is needed. Some ways may not be available, whereas others are. With people who are already devalued or at risk, the culturally more valued option is usually more in accord with the conservatism corollary. To illustrate this point, we can think of any number of phenomena as falling along a distribution that takes the shape of the Bell Curve, also known as the normal distribution curve

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So that the most statistically common, typical or prevalent methods are in the middle and in the majority. To the left are the less common and negatively valued methods, and to the right are the less common but highly valued methods. Here are some samples of value continuities in our society, arranged according to various life domains or spheres of activity.

A Contrast Among Various Alternatives for Addressing Needs

One could add thousands of other examples, all the way to how to drink a cup of tea- spilling and slurping or gulping; drinking it politely; or drinking it out of bone china with your little finger sticking out.

Note that valued persons may have patchy profiles, placing on the right in some things, in the middle on others, and on the left a few times or once in a while; but devalued people may be on the left in most things most of the time. (This refers to the Bell Curve.)

In the light of what we have already covered, we can see that the conservatism corollary would point to what is more or most valued, even if it is less common- that is, the right end of the curve.

Of course, Social Role Valorisation would also draw on most things that are culturally normative, statistically common, typical, and prevalent, but often what is ‘normal’ may simply not be good enough, and in some cases it will be outright harmful to people at risk.

Specific Risks

Whenever a decision is to be made with or for a person where there is more than one single option available for a vulnerable party, the more, or even most, valued option is likely to be the most valorising. For instance, should a devalued person be introduced as Bobby Jones, or Mr Robert Jones?  If the occasion is one where either would be appropriate, then it would be more enhancing for the person to be introduced in the more formal way. Where the occasion is one where either T-shirt and jeans, or a collar and tie and a nice pair of trousers could be worn, the latter would be more enhancing for the devalued party. Where a person could travel either by train or by coach, it would be more enhancing for that the party to travel by train, since trains are much more positive image; coaches are often imaged as low class. Where a guest at a table might be served either first or not, it is more enhancing for devalued person to be served first, to be given first choice, etc.

In any case, keeping mind that the conservatism corollary often implies a capitalisation upon what people value, rather than a statistically normative practice.

Note that any single such measure may not mean much, but consistently opting for the more valued option will soon add up.

Summary

Different people have different degrees of woundedness.

Different people differ in their level of societal devaluation

The more wounded a person is and the more devalued a person is, the more care will need top be taken to ensure that the processes of wounding and devaluation do not spiral out of control.

Minor negative events will have minor effects on valued and less wounded people; the effects of such minor negative events on wounded and devalued people may be devastating.

The word ‘Conservative’ has many negative connotations in the human service world in Britain; this negative association is less so in the USA. It is probably preferable in Britain to talk of Positive Compensation and to avoid reference to Conservatism except to allow people to read and understand American text.