They can rely on what the individual says about himself or on documentary evidence he provides as to who and what he is. They can also assume from past experience that only individuals of a par ticular kind are likely to be found in a given social setting. If unacquainted with the individual, observers can glean clues from his conduct and appearance which allow them to apply their previ ous experience with individuals roughly similar to the one before them or, more important, to apply untested stereotypes to him. For those present, many sources of information become accessible and many carriers (or “signvehicles”) become available for conveying this information. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his concep tion of self, his attitude toward them, his compe tence, his trustworthiness, etc. She also analyses the experience of unemployment in the context of the experience of employment and argues that one of the socially destructive consequences of large-scale unemployment is that it detracts from the need to humanise employment.read more read lessĪbstract: hen an individual enters the presence of oth ers, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. Professor Jahoda shows that the psychological impact is hugely destructive, throwing doubt on the popular diagnosis that the work ethic is disappearing. The book is an accessible and nontechnical account of the contribution which social psychology can make to understanding unemployment and clearly reveals the limitations of an exclusive concentration on its economic aspects. In this book Marie Jahoda looks beyond the obvious economic consequences, to explore the psychological meaning of employment and unemployment. In economic terms the cost of unemployment, both to the individual and to the collective, is extremely high. Unemployment is perhaps one of the most serious social problems. Abstract: This book was first published in 1982.

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