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Results for “Social Control, Informal”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Alcohol and other drugs: the response of the political and medical institutions.

Formal and informal social control in shaping individual behaviors toward the use of alcohol and other drugs is discussed. Emphasis is placed on formal social control as it occurs in two major institutions. The state, which embodies the political and legal structures of the society is discussed in terms of the social control of some of the consequences of drinking, such as public drunkenness, alcoholism, operating vehicles with specific blood alcohol levels, and crime and alcohol use. The medical institution's involvement in alcohol and drug control is discussed in terms of the physician's role in diagnosing alcohol and drug dependent individuals. Two contemporary cases, those of pregnant addicts and alcohol-related organ transplant patients, illustrate the significant interactions between the responses of the political and medical institutions, and the broader influences that help shape these responses.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1992

Prohibition or liberalization of alcohol and drugs? A sociocultural perspective.

The "war against drugs," and calls for increasing restrictions on the availability of alcoholic beverages, reflect a resurgence in the popularity of mandated formal controls and suspicion of informal controls. A small, but increasing countercurrent recommends various forms of liberalization of access to alcohol and drugs. Both viewpoints are being promulgated for their efficacy in reducing and/or preventing a broad range of problems "associated with" (and often assumed to be caused by) psychoactive substances. In the absence of rigorous empirical evidence on the subject, critical examination of prior experience in the United States, and of analogous experiences in other cultures, provides a range of relevant "natural experiments." The association of alcohol and cocaine with various problems varies markedly from culture to culture and from time to time within a single culture. The definition of "abuse" problems is evidently based on social constructions rather than reflecting the epidemiology of public health and social welfare. Formal and informal controls are not mutually exclusive and can be complementary. A broader view of education and of controls could result in fruitful natural experiments among jurisdictions within this country, and lessen alcohol and drug problems at the same time.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1990

Cultural factors in the choice of drugs.

The human animal has discovered a wide range of drugs, some of which are readily available products of nature, and has invented others by means of manufacture or processing. The meanings, uses, and associations that are attached to such drugs vary from one population to another and are often different for subgroups within a given population. Even the effects of drugs vary, demonstrating that they are not inherent in the substances or in the biochemical impact they have on the human organism. Meanings, uses, and associations often change over time as well. These facts, briefly illustrated with selected examples, demonstrate that culture is an important aspect of the environment--interacting with biological and psychological factors--in relation to choices individuals make about drugs, their uses, and the outcomes of use. The concept of culture has heuristic value in describing and analyzing beliefs and behavior, but it should not be construed as an etiologically powerful entity. Culture can be viewed as a metaphor, reflecting and incorporating social consensus and controls. Any serious attempt to change patterns of drug use must involve changes in the culture, and education promises to be the most likely way of altering both individual choices and cultural patterns. Whereas "the control model" of prevention unrealistically relies on formal legislative and regulatory controls, "the sociocultural model" emphasizes more powerful informal social controls.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1992

Faculty/student perception of organizational climates in the schools of nursing, Oyo State, Nigeria.

This study examined the influence of educational status and gender on the faculty and students' perceptions of their school climates. A self-designed questionnaire was used to elicit information from the 385 subjects (320 students and 65 tutors). Analysis using the t-test technique revealed that there were no significant differences at the 0.05 level of probability in the perceptions of: (a) faculty and students on climate variables "thrust" (t = 0.31) and "control" (t = 1.19); and (b) both sexes on climate variables "thrust" (t = 1.69), "control" (t = 1.13) and "disengagement" (t = -0.53). The conclusion therefore, is that educational status and gender have little or no influence on the peoples' perception of their school climates.

Educational Status↗
PubMed1978

Multiple suicide attempts and informal labeling: an exploratory study.

Attempted suicide is considered to be a form of deviant behavior. Multiple suicide attempts are evaluated within the labeling perspective. Specifically, it is determined if labeling theory can explain acts of repeated suicide attempts as a form of deviance. Two hypotheses are created to test the influence of informal labeling on multiple suicide attempts. Family and friends constitute the categories most important in informal labeling. Labeling by them is measured through a series of behavioral scales. It is hypothesized that the greater the labeling by each of these categories, the greater the likelihood of recurrence of attempted suicide. It is also predicted that the greater the "self concept as suicidal," the greater the likelihood of recurrence. Labeling by family and friends was found to be significantly related to repeat. Conclusions about the relationship between "suicidal self-concept" and repeat were not drawn.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Performance of psychiatric hospital discharges in strict and tolerant environments.

Community mental health professionals are greatly concerned with the type of social environment most conducive to helping patients remain outside psychiatric institutions and improving the quality of their lives in the community. This paper examines the tolerance of deviance characterizing significant others in the patients' environment as it relates to community tenure and selected measures of performance and quality of life of the older patient in the community. A possible role is suggested for differential tolerance of deviance in the lives of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals. Although it would appear that patients may return to the hospital at a higher rate from low tolerance environments, it may be that for patients who remain in the community, the quality of life may be better in low tolerance environments in terms of social interaction and life satisfaction. The deviance model is of value in the continuing efforts to understand the role of the social environment in the community life of discharged patients.

Attitude↗
PubMed1976

Person perception and the Berkowitz paradigm for the study of aggression.

Three experiments in person perception were conducted to investigate the conditions under which naive observers label an actor as aggressive and to ascertain how this label affects the reactions of the observers to the actor. These studies were performed by exposing subjects to written descriptions of Berkowitz's much-used paradigm for the study of aggression in order to additionally demonstrate that naive observers do not label in the same way as do research psychologists. In Experiment 1 the hypothesis was confirmed that harm-doing behavior is labeled as aggression only when it is antinormative. When harm doing was justified by the instigation or attack of another person, its use did not lead to the actor being labeled as aggressive. In Experiment 2 it was found that violation of the limits imposed by the experimenter on the number of shocks that could be used by actors led observers to characterize them as aggressive even when their action was justified by the prior instigation of the other party. Violation of two norms led to a more aggressive rating of the actor than did the violation of only one norm. Experiment 3 showed that actors who are labeled as aggressive are disapproved of and avoided by observers. The results of these studies are discussed in terms of the ecological validity of Berkowitz's research paradigm and metatheoretical implications for the scientific study of harm-doing behavior.

Aggression↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Biosocial models of adolescent problem behaviors.

This paper develops a biosocial model of adolescent age-graded norm violations ("problem behaviors"), combining a traditional social control model with a biological model using steroid hormones. Subjects were 101 white boys drawn from the 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade rosters of selected public schools, and ranging in age from 13 to 16. Subjects completed self-administered questionnaires and provided blood samples which were assayed for the behaviorally relevant hormones. Boys' problem behavior shows strong hormone effects. Social and biological variables have both additive and indirect effects. Using a biosocial model leads to conclusions which are different from those which would have been drawn from the sociological model alone.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Sibling influences on adolescent drug use: older brothers on younger brothers.

This study was designed to examine sibling influences on adolescent drug use. The sample was composed of 278 white, predominantly middle-class male college students and their oldest brothers. Self-administered questionnaires were taken separately by the students and their brothers. The findings indicated that the oldest brother's personality and the sibling relationship had an influence on the younger brother's drug use. Three hypothesized mechanisms that supported the findings, the Personality Influence Mechanism, the Genetic Temperament Connection, and the Environmental Reactive Mechanism were discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

A feminist poststructuralist analysis of the knowledge of menopause.

The aim of this research innovation was to foster an understanding of women's experiences with menopause by exploring the interrelation between the knowledge in the scientific/medical discourses, both past and present, and the knowledge in the everyday discourses of a select sample of midlife women regarding the closure of menstrual life. The significance of this study is that it provides a social, historical, and cultural horizon from which to begin to understand the experiences of menopause. By developing an alternative knowledge of menopause, this research challenges the prevailing discourses of menopause, resists the way these discourses have solidified into what is accepted as truth, and makes visible the links among values, assumptions, research, and knowledge.

Cultural Characteristics↗