Resocialization in Total Institutions

In certain situations, people are voluntarily (or sometimes involuntarily) resocialized within a highly controlled social environment (P. Rose, 1979:320). Resocialization is particularly effective when it occurs within a total institution. Erving Goffman (1961) coined the term total institutions to refer to institutions, such as prisons, the mili­tary, mental hospitals, and convents, which regu­late all aspects of a person's life under a single authority. The total institution is generally cut off from the rest of society and therefore provides for all the needs of its members. Quite literally, the crew of a merchant vessel at sea becomes part of a total institution. So elaborate are its require­ments, so all-encompassing are its activities, that a total institution often represents a miniature soci­ety.

Goffman (1961) has identified four common traits of total institutions. First, all aspects of life are conducted in the same place and are under the control of a single authority. Second, any ac­tivities within the institution are conducted in the company of others in the same circumstances— for example, novices in a convent or army re­cruits. Third, the authorities devise rules and schedule activities without consulting partici­pants. Finally, all aspects of life within a total in­stitution are designed to fulfill the purpose of the organization. Thus, all activities in a monastery are centered on prayer and communion with God (P. Rose et al., 1979:321-322).

Individuality is often lost within total institu­tions. For example, upon entering prison to begin "doing time," a person may experience the humiliation of a degradation ceremony as he or she is stripped of clothing, jewelry, and other per­sonal possessions (H. Garfinkel, 1956). Even the person's self is taken away to some extent; the prison inmate loses his or her name and becomes known to authorities as No. 72716. From this point on, daily routines are scheduled with little or no room for personal initiative. The institution is experienced as an overbearing social environ­ment; the individual becomes secondary and rather invisible.

Goff man's concept of a total institution alerts us to the negative aspects of depriving people of contact with the larger society. The power of such institutions in shaping people's behavior was dis­turbingly illustrated in a famous experiment by Philip Zimbardo (1972, 1974; С Haney et al., 1973). He and a team of social psychologists care­fully screened more than 70 college students for participation in a simulated prison. By a flip of a coin, half were arbitrarily designated as prison­ers, the others as guards. The guards were al­lowed to make up their own rules for maintaining law, order, and respect.

After only six days of operation, Zimbardo and his colleagues were forced to end the experiment because the student guards had begun to take pleasure in cruel treatment of prisoners. About a third was tyrannical in their arbitrary use of power, while the remaining guards did not agree with this tough approach. At the same time, the prisoners meekly accepted their confinement and mistreatment. More recently, sociologist Ivan Fahs conducted several replications of Zimbardo's model prison experiment over a four-year period; he came to the same disturbing find­ings (Greene, 1987a).

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16