TY - JOUR
T1 - Persuasion in a self-help group
T2 - Processes and Consequences
AU - Jurik, Nancy
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1987/8
Y1 - 1987/8
N2 - This research utilizes observational and interview data to examine the techniques of persuasion utilized m a self-help organization for persons with mental problems. Successful affiliation with the group is conceptualized as a type of conversion process. The interplay between recruit background and group interactional dynamics convinces recruits to accept the group's ideology and define its method as a necessary treatment for their mental problems. A member's conversion has important long-run implications. In particular, although acceptance of the organizational ideology may facilitate the “recovery” of the individual, it simultaneously reinforces an understanding of mental problems as caused by individual inadequacies. The social structural context of such individual problems is then largely ignored.
AB - This research utilizes observational and interview data to examine the techniques of persuasion utilized m a self-help organization for persons with mental problems. Successful affiliation with the group is conceptualized as a type of conversion process. The interplay between recruit background and group interactional dynamics convinces recruits to accept the group's ideology and define its method as a necessary treatment for their mental problems. A member's conversion has important long-run implications. In particular, although acceptance of the organizational ideology may facilitate the “recovery” of the individual, it simultaneously reinforces an understanding of mental problems as caused by individual inadequacies. The social structural context of such individual problems is then largely ignored.
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U2 - 10.1177/104649648701800305
DO - 10.1177/104649648701800305
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84970698100
SN - 1046-4964
VL - 18
SP - 368
EP - 397
JO - Small Group Research
JF - Small Group Research
IS - 3
ER -