ABSTRACT
Social judgement (or moral evaluation) has been widely discussed in a large number of works (Roth 1972, Kelly and May 1982, English and Morse 1988). However, during my work as a participant observer in this medical ward, the concept assumed an importance I could not ignore. As the data make clear, the expression of evaluations of social worth was widespread on the ward, whether in terms of ‘good and bad patients’ (Kelly and May 1982) or ‘popular and unpopular’ ones (Stockwell 1972).
