Stress Beneath White Coats

Reviews the book, Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School by Howard S. Becker, Blanche Geer, Everett C. Hughes, and Anselm L. Strauss (1961). This book reports a study of the way in which medical students see and solve the immediate problems of dealing with their teachers and the tasks they assign. The authors take special pains to describe explicitly their modes of qualitative analysis, including the modes of proof and disproof upon which thev rely. The problem of learning overload continues into the clinical years. Grades and examinations are somewhat less important, but faculty precept and faculty example continue divergent. The students are under strain as a result, but have little power to better their situation. This reviewer was impressed by four conclusions, each warranted by the material presented: 1) The sociological approach to the material provides challenging data for medical faculty and for other students of education. 2) Interview data cannot be relied upon to furnish dependable information about the matters considered. 3) Faculty disappointment in medical students is common. 4) The medical instructional process seems to depend upon verbal goals that are not related to any theory of education. The observations presented are in no way unique to this medical school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)