Ronald W. Smith

Alzheimer's Disease Victims: The “Unbecoming” of Self and the Normalization of Competence:

This study examines the importance of routinized practices for the self Alzheimers disease victims are observed in their daily lives. The deterioration of self is discussed, followed by a discussion of routinized actions and normalization practices by caregivers that allow the patients to be seen as competent selves. Finally, the last remnants of the self in Alzhiemers patients are discussed. The authors conclude that when the individual self undergoes an “unbecoming” process, due to the mental deterioration caused by the disease, it is largely social practices that allow the self to continue to exist in the eyes of others.

Vocabularies of Motives for Gambling Behavior

In an examination of the verbal explanations ordinary gamblers provide for their conduct, it was found that the motive of “play, leisure, and recreation” was most often given to explain their behavior, with the related motive of “relieving boredom and generating excitement” ranking a distant second. Significant variations in these responses were found according to sex and social class. Explanations of why other people gamble differed markedly from explanations of ones own gambling behavior. Regarding this finding, we suggest that respondents were providing socially acceptable vocabularies of motives to defend self by neutralizing the social stigma attached to gambling and/or by justifying ones monetary gains and losses.

Delabeling and relabeling in Gamblers Anonymous: Problems with transferring the Alcoholics Anonymous paradigm

Exploratory data from both structured and unstructured interviews with members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous, as well as additional data from previous observations, suggest that the recovery rate of A.A. is higher than that of G.A.. Since the programs are virtually the same an examination of the social context of the labeling process reveals that the more readily available use of the medical model for both the alcoholic and the significant others of the alcoholic are likely significant differences between the compulsive gambler and the compulsive drinker.

The Changing Face of the Suburbs, Barry Schwartz, ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. 355 pp.

This anthology, which consists of 13 original papers, attempts to answer three sets of questions. First, why did suburbs come about? What are the underlying conditions of suburbanization, and what kinds of people have been affected by them? Second, what are some of the problem areas confronting suburbs? And, third, is suburbia a mere spatial extension of existing cultural modes or do suburbs transform