Social Class, Expectations, and Performance of Mental Patients

Abstract

The influence of social class and expectations on the posthospital performance of sixty-two married female mental patients is examined here. Both class and expectations were posited as interrelated determinants of performance. The results indicate that this thesis is highly questionable. Social class did not correlate significantly with performance; patient expectations, on the other hand, were related to such performance in the working class but not in the middle class. These finding suggest that for these cases, disease manifestations are more significant than class and expectations as criteria of posthospital adjustment.