Book notice #2
David Race. Social Role Valorization and The English Experience. London: Whiting and Birch Ltd., 1999.
Dr. Wolfensberger is by far the most prolific writer about SRV, but a few other writers have contributed greatly to the body of published work concerning SRV. One of these is Dr. David Race, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Salford and the Chair of Values Education and Research Association in the UK.
From the Prologue: The need for this book
… the events of the years since 1983 have resulted, in my view, in a lack of availability of a detailed explication of SRV theory in England. The third edition of Wolfensberger’s introductory monograph (Wolfensberger 1998) goes a long way to filling this gap, and should ideally be read in conjunction with this book, which follows the same structure. What is, hopefully, important about this book to an English audience is its two main objectives. First, both for readers unfamiliar with either normalization and SRV, and for those who have had some contact with those ideas, the book attempts, in an English context using mainly English writings as evidence, to lay out my interpretation of SRV theory … The second objective … is my attempt, in the course of the explication of SRV, to address as many of the academic critiques of the theory (or more usually of the English experience of ‘normalisation’) as possible, so that the current ‘accepted wisdom’ might be challenged.
Abbreviated Table of Contents:
Prologue
Acknowledgements
1. ‘Normalisation’ and SRV: An English experience
2. Social Devaluation: The foundation of SRV
3. Experiences of devaluation: ‘The wounds’–Part one
4. Experiences of devalued people: ‘The wounds’–Part two
5. Social roles and SRV theory
6. The ten themes of SRV: Consciousness and unconsciousness; symbolism and imagery
7. The ten themes of SRV: Mindsets and expectancies; The power of role expectancies and role circularity
8. The ten themes of SRV: The developmental model and personal competency enhancement; Relevance, potency and model coherency
9. The ten themes of SRV: Interpersonal identification; The power of imitation
10. The ten themes of SRV: Personal social integration and valued social participation; The conservatism corollary
11. Conclusion and epilogue
References
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‘Using role theory to describe disability’
I ran across this reference to an article with an interesting title. I encourage someone to read it and send us a review.
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/books.htm?chapterid=1783288&show=abstract
Sharon Barnartt (2001), Using role theory to describe disability, in Dr Barbara Altman, Dr Sharon Barnartt (ed.) Exploring Theories and Expanding Methodologies: Where we are and where we need to go (Research in Social Science and Disability, Volume 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.53-75
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Training idea #1
The role communicators give us a good and practical tool to analyze, evaluate and plan for (valued) social roles. What are the role communicators?
• physical setting
• personal presentation and appearance
• social juxtapositions, associations and groupings with other people
• activities, schedules, routines, use of time, rhythms
• language, program and agency logos
• miscellaneous other media and imagery
(NB: the above media are taught about more fully in multi-day SRV workshops; also see pp. 64-69 of the 2004 3rd rev. ed. of the SRV monograph authored by Dr. Wolfensberger)
Looking at the role communicators over time can help us to identify what particular role(s) a certain person has. Thinking about how to structure and take advantage of the role communicators can help us to support a socially devalued person to take on a new valued role or to shore up someone in a valued role that they already have. Changing the role communicators can also help to ‘spring’ someone from a devalued role.
We can help service workers and others learn about the role communicators in general before thinking about them particularly in terms of socially devalued people. One way we might do this is by watching easily available video clips and looking for examples of the role communicators, while trying to identify what particular social roles they point to (e.g., client, menace, patient, student, neighbor, worker, regular customer, etc.).
You could write the names of the role communicators up on a flip chart or project them and have people write down examples they see or shout them out as they occur on the video. You could also give people a handout listing the role communicators and have them fill out the handout as they watch a video.
Even watching one 5 minute video a week at a staff meeting or over lunch, for several weeks in a row, could help people better understand and be able to identify the role communicators. Help get staff and others in the habit and mindset of looking for and thinking about role communicators.
Another adaptation could be to show a video with the sound turned off, to see what role communicators and roles people can identify without listening to language use.
(A good follow up exercise would also be to make clear the likely impacts of roles, i.e., how devalued roles tend to lead to further wounding and devaluation, and how valued social roles tend to lead to greater access to the good things of life. So, help people see the link from role communicators to roles to wounding or to the good things of life. See our previous post.)
Below are a few video links that might work for this. Some of these are lengthy but you can just watch a segment. These are just my own examples: you could find plenty yourselves to use this exercise. I chose a few generic videos, some old sitcoms and a more recent show. Others are specific to human services. Please let me know how it goes and share other video links by posting a comment.
generic videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOEwcnBpOVc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z9p9VgbzIM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wp3m1vg06Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5D20pzPeLE
human service specific:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K5QAr6j7v4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TqRcGt9ch0
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Reflect on roles: ascribed and function-contingent
Some roles are function-contingent, in that they depend on someone being able to do something (e.g., like the worker role). Some roles are more ascribed, in that they are attributed to a person essentially without having to do anything (e.g., many relationship roles) (p. 31, A brief introduction to Social Role Valorization, Wolfensberger, Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry, 2004).
Think about your social roles: which are function-contingent, and which are more ascribed? Reflect on how even ascribed roles can bring greater access to the good things of life. Let us know what you think.
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Churches and devalued people: ‘Good Samaritan’ parable
Jeff McNair of CalBaptist University posted in his blog recently about the social devaluation of impaired people within and by churches (and I would assume, by extension, by synagogues, mosques, etc.). McNair is touching on one of the most common wounds of socially devalued people, that of segregation, in one of the places where belonging and welcoming is one of the commonly proclaimed values. Another striking illustration of deep unconsciousness.
In my experience, many churches, synagogues and temples are not even physically accessible, never mind good at supporting people who have mental disorders or are poor or senile, etc. to be in the valued social role of member (parishioner, worshipper, etc.).
In the post, McNair references Wolfensberger and the common wounds, described in Wolfensberger’s monograph as well as in longer Social Role Valorization workshops.
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NYT article: Using Theater As a Salve To Soothe Minds
This New York Times article describes a
European drama school where people with disabilities not only learn their own lines but also design and make sets and costumes, do their own makeup and, finally, conceive dramatic plots.
The drama school is called Pathological Theater (NB: role communicator of what we name programs). Pathology means the study of the causes and effects of diseases. It can also be used to refer to abnormalities or malfunctions. What does this communicate about the people associated with the Pathological Theater?
When you look at the article, compare the picture of the founder with the picture presumably of two of the actors. His picture has a caption, shows him smiling and in a nice button down shirt. The caption gives his name and several roles. The caption for the photo of the two actors is included in the founder’s caption, rather than being under their photo. It does not give their names but does describe them as ‘members of the company working on a scene.’ It is a very odd photo. What roles do the photos communicate without the captions? How about with the captions?
Evidence in the article of segregation/congregation:
15 teachers instruct 60 students–mostly schizophrenic, catatonic, manic-depressive, autistic and those with Down syndrome
Evidence of competency enhancement:
Marina Fiaschette, 42, who has Down Syndrome … In 2008, she acted in Mr. D’Ambrosi’s “Medea,” reciting in ancient Greek.
Role references:
I am an actress now.
The article could be used as a the basis for an exercise in an SRV or related workshops.
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Book review ‘Valuing Older People’ mentions SRV
This recent book review mentions SRV, I assume because the book must reference SRV, though I have not read the book. Have any of you? Let us know.
From the blog post:
According to Elspeth Stirling, who is the author of Valuing Older People, failure to respect the aged is more complicated than mere decadence. In fact, it’s the result of Social Role Valorization (SRV). SRV is a theory, which states that society devalues certain groups of people. These groups – for one reason or another – are identified as ‘different.’
Unfortunately, the reference to SRV is written a bit clumsily, and seems to imply, the way it is currently written, that failure to respect the aged is the result of SRV! Ah well, at least bad press is still press!
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Is hearing about someone or meeting them more powerful?
An article in the 17 May 2010 issue of The New Yorker, entitled The Poverty Lab, reports on an economist/professor at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US). Esther Duflo studies poverty and poor people. The article mentions an ongoing study in India that Dr. Duflo is conducting, in which she looks at what influences public perceptions of women political leaders. She is comparing perceptions of women in Indian villages that have had a woman political leader and villages that have not. Part of the study involves playing audio recordings of the same political speech, some versions delivered by a woman, other by a man. This is a recent study so the article did not report on any definite conclusions. A couple preliminary conclusions they have reached however:
Duflo found that, in villages that had never experienced women leaders, the hypothetical women speechmakers were judged to be less competent.
A related experiment involved interviewing villagers in multiple villages to ascertain their attitudes towards woman politicians. Some of the villagers would have watched a play about women and politics; others would not.
“If it (i.e., the play) has a positive effect, it means we can educate people,” Duflo said. “If it has no effect, then it will be interesting, too, because it will show that you have to get them to experience women in action.”
These ideas resonate with some of what we teach in Social Role Valorization, such as:
• what factors influence how one person or group perceives another person or group
• role communicators
• the SRV theme of interpersonal identification
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Role theory in the business world
This article refers to a specific formulation of role theory which tries to understand and predict the behavior of individuals within an organization. The post mentions role conflict and role ambiguity, points raised in SRV workshops. It also refers to ‘role sender’ as someone who holds the defining expectations about what a role entails. So, a boss or supervisor is a role sender, defining the role of employee in that particular organization. This idea overlaps with role expectations, and role imposition (pp. 28-29 in the SRV monograph by Wolfensberger).
Might be worth studying this formulation of role theory, to see for example what it could teach us about the role of employee but also roles more generally. Any takers? Let us know what you find.
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Role of prison guard
I ran across this reference to an article about the social roles and self-perceptions of prison guards. If anyone can access the full article and let us know about it, it could be quite interesting.
Abstract
Penal institutions determine their expectations of their own guards’ social role. The adequate performance of this social role, however, is dependent on the self-perceptions of the guards and the extent to which their own expectations are associated with those of the institutions. The following research was conducted to find out the influence of self-perceptions of prison guards on their social role. Results indicated self-perceived variables in the guard’s social role were: integration, personal, social distance, knowledge, rehabilitation-coerciveness, and custodial care. Such expectations of the occupational role might be expected to delimit role performance and thus to increase or decrease role conflict with the institution.
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