Five theoretical models gleaned from the literature on exmental patient adjustment are tested to determine their comparative predictive powers. The models include the medical, moralistic, anomie, labeling, and interactionist models. Findings suggest that a dynamic interactionist framework is more efficacious for predicting posthospital adjustment than other, more static models. Variables which predict best are ideology and behavioral expectations of significant others. These results substantiate the interpretation shared by interactionist theorists that definitions of social reality (e.g., mental illness) are constructed by, as well as influential in, everyday social interaction.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ANGRIST, S. S. (1966). 'Mental Illness and Deviant Behavior: Unresolved Conceptual Problems.'Sociological Quarterly7 (Autumn): 436-448 .
2.
ANGRIST, SHIRLEY S. , MARK LEFTON , SIMON DINITZ , and BENJAMIN PASAMANICK (1968). Women After Treatment: A Study of Former Mental Patients and Their Normal Neighbors. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts .
3.
BECKER, HOWARD S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press .
4.
BERGER, PETER L. , and THOMAS LUCKMANN (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc .
5.
BURSTEN, BEN , and ROSE D'ESOPO (1965). 'The Obligation to Remain Sick.'Archives of General Psychiatry12 (April): 402-407 .
6.
CLINARD, MARSHALL B. (1963). Sociology of Deviant Behavior. Rev. Ed.Chicago: Hold, Reinhart and Winston, Inc .
7.
CLINARD, MARSHALL B. (1964). Anomie and Deviant Behavior. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe .
8.
DINITZ, SIMON , MARK LEFTON , SHIRLEY ANGRIST , and BENJAMIN PASAMANICK (1961). 'Psychiatric and Social Attributes as Predictors of Case Outcome in Mental Hospitalization.'Social Problems8 (Spring): 322-238 .
9.
DINITZ, SIMON , MARK LEFTON , SHIRLEY ANGRIST , and BENJAMIN PASAMANICK (1962). 'Instrumental Role Expectations and Posthospitcal Performance of Female Mental Patients.'Social Forces40 (March): 248-254 .
10.
ERIKSON, KAI T. (1957). 'Patient Role and Social Uncertainty: A Dilemma of the Mentally Ill.'Psychiatry20 (August): 263-274 .
11.
ERIKSON, KAI T. (1962). 'Notes on the Sociology of Deviance.'Social Problems9 (Spring): 307-314 .
12.
FREEMAN, HOWARD E. , and OZZIE G. SIMMONS (1963). The Mental Patient Comes Home. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc .
13.
GOFFMAN, ERVING (1959). 'The Moral Career of the Mental Patient.'Psychiatry22 (May): 123-142 .
14.
GOFFMAN, ERVING (1961). Asylums. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company .
15.
GOFFMAN, ERVING (1963). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc .
16.
GOVE, WALTER R. (1970). 'Societal Reaction as an Explanation of Mental Illness: An Evaluation.'A merican Sociological Review35 (October): 873-884 .
17.
GREENBLATT, MILTON , DANIEL J. LEVINSON , and GERALD L. KLERMAN (eds) (1961). Mental Patients in Transition: Steps in Transition. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher .
18.
GUREL, LEE , JACOB COHEN , JOHN E. DAVIS , and JEANNE GIOVANNONI (1964). Factors in Mental Hospital Effectiveness. Washington, D.C.: Psychiatric Evaluation Project .
19.
LAMB, H. RICHARD , and VICTOR GOERTZEL (1971). 'Discharged Mental Patients Are They really in the Community?'Archives of General Psychiatry24 (January): 29-34 .
20.
LEMERT, EDWIN (1951). Social Pathology. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company .
21.
LEMERT, EDWIN (1962). 'Paranoia and the Dynamics of Exclusion.'Sociometry25 (March): 2-20 .
22.
MECHANIC, DAVID (1962). 'Some Factors in Identifying and Defining Mental Illness.'Mental Hygiene46 (January): 66-74 .
23.
MEIER, DOROTHY , and WENDELL BELL (1959). 'Anomia and Differential Access to the Achievement of Life Goals.'American Sociological Review24 (April): 189-202 .
24.
MICHAUX, WILLIAM W. , MARTIN M. KATZ , ALBERT A. KURLAND , and KATHLEEN M. GANSEREIT (1969). The First Year Out: Mental Patients After Hospitalization. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press .
25.
MYERS, JEROME K. , and LEE L. BEAN (1968). A Decade Later: A Follow-up of Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc .
26.
SCHEFF, THOMAS J. (1963). 'The Role of the Mentally Ill and the Dynamics of Mental Disorder.'Sociometry26 (June): 436-453 .
27.
SCHEFF, THOMAS J. (1968b). 'The Societal Reaction to Deviance.' Pp. 276-290 in Stephen Spitzer and Norman Denzin (eds), The Mental Patient. New York .
28.
SCOTT, MARVIN B. , and STANFORD M. LYMAN (1968). 'Accounts.'American Sociological Review33 (February): 46-62 .
29.
SPITZER, STEPHEN P. , and NORMAN K. DENZIN (eds) (1968). The Mental Patient: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company .
30.
SROLE, LEO (1956). 'Social Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study.'American Sociological Review21 (December): 709-716 .
31.
SZASZ, THOMAS S. (1964). The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers .
