ABSTRACT

In the previous chapter we saw that Jahoda (1982) considers that employment provides a number of categories of psychological experience important for wellbeing as an unintended by-product of its organization. Jahoda (1979) also claims that the psychological impact required to gain these five ‘latent consequences’ of employment on a regular basis and entirely under one’s own steam is colossal. She states (Jahoda, 1981) that ‘leisure activities from television to sports to self improvement are fine in themselves as a complement to employment but are not functional alternatives to work, since they lack its compelling manifest function’ (i.e. earning a living). In other words, the wage relation is considered to impel people into situations which provide important categories of experience. Where people cope well with unemployment, as in a sample studied by Fryer and Payne (1984), Jahoda (1984) makes two points. The first is that Fryer and Payne’s sample demonstrates that access to the five categories of experience, and hence satisfaction of the corresponding needs, are met in work, even if this is not in employment. The second point is that this work is located in informal institutions, though no evidence is given for this claim.