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: