An Ethological Analysis of Long Stay Hospitalized Psychiatric Patients

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Abstract
Ethological methods were employed to monitor social interaction among 24 long-stay male patients on a psychiatric ward. Most were diagnosed as schizophrenic. Analysis was made using 4 molar behavioral groupings: assertive, altruistic, cigarette and verbal. Within each grouping social behavior was divided into 2 categories: sending and receiving. Patients were ranked in an interactional scale and divided into 3 groups on the basis of the amount of social interaction: top, middle and bottom third. Individuals in the top third tended to be senders of social behavior, whereas individuals in the middle and bottom thirds tended to be receivers. Individuals in the middle received relatively large amounts of assertive behavior. Correlative relationships indicated positive associations between send and receive verbal and send and receive cigarette. No association existed between send and receive altruism or send and receive assertive. Sending and receiving profiles characteristic of each third of the interactional scale were discussed, along with the value of dividing social behavior into components of sending and receiving, and the role assertive behavior plays in the social organization of hospitalized groups.

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