The role of the psychologist in institutions for the care of delinquent and dependent children

Abstract

One of the distinctive features of modern society is the growth of the institution as an organised group functioning within the social structure. It is necessary here to distinguish between the two definitions of "institution". There is the institution in the sense in which we speak of the "institution" of the family", "the institution of religion"; i.e. denoting a group organisation conceptualized over and above its individual constituents, and in this sense impersonal. Floyd H. Allport ("Institution Behaviour" Chapel Hill Press 1933) objects to this abstract conceptualisation maintaining that the study of institutions has no meaning apart from the study of the behaviour patterns actually existing in individuals. The abstraction is, however, made and this is the broader concept of "institution". The second meaning is that of an organized group of individuals living together as a community for a common aim or purpose, or at least bound together by some element of homogeneity. This is what is meant by the term "institution" in the following pages. An organisation of this type combines in a unique way the functions of the primary family group, with its specific function as an institution, and ultimately with a social function: i.e. the institution has a significance not only in the lives of its individual members, but it has a significance for society as a whole. It satisfies a need in the lives of its members and it satisfies a need in the society of which it is a part. For example, a Borstal or reformative institution may be regarded from two points of view - that of a reformative or therapeutic centre, or that of a safeguard for society against a potential menace.