chapter 5 Flashcards
disability as a unique status group
- disability as unique because of its variability and diversity through:
1. elusiveness: disability can be permanent or temporary
2. visibility: disabilities are not always visible
3. variability of impact: stigma, cost, quality of life
disability in canada
~22% of Canadians report having a disability
most common forms of adult disability in canada
- pain
- mobility (walker, cane, wheelchair)
- flexibility (osteoarthritis)
- emotional/psychological
areas of concern for disability in canada
- diabetes (#’s have been rising since 2003)
- addiction
- dementia
- multiple sclerosis (canada has the highest MS rate in the world)
criticisms of diagnosing disabilities
- classifications of disabilities are based on the ideology of ‘normalcy’ meaning diagnosing someone involves looking at how far they are form the “norm”
- diagnoses may not always facilitate treatment because adequate treatment may be unavailable
- diagnosis may come harmful treatment (thalidomide &phocomelia)
- diagnoses can be costly, like causing stigma
frames of mind - howard gardner
- proposed 8 types of intelligence were introduced because people exhibit different levels of intelligence in different area
- intelligence is not just general
erving goffman - disability & stigma
- stigma is like a blemish on the character of the individual
- ‘stigma’ describes the ‘situation of the individual who is disqualified from full social acceptance’
- marginalization owing to one’s life circumstances or characteristics, excluding or ostracizing that person from full social acceptance
stigmatization
- the practice of diminishing a person’s status because of poorly regarded physical or social attribute
- someone who is stigmatized may experience disgrace/marginalization/feeling not fully accepted
courtesy stigma
- stigma that is attached to people who are close to the person who is stigmatized
- it may lead to less support for the person who is ill
- e.g. families of an individual with schizophrenia may feel stigma because of their relatedness/association to the individual
sources of stigma
- stigma is experienced when the disease is understood as caused by lifestyle
- media reports focus on the relationship between a disease/disorder & violent/negative behaviours
- disruptive symptoms
- nondisclosure of diagnoses due to fear of stigma
- societal assumption that people with a disorder/disease will always embody symptoms of their diagnoses (typically focusses on negatives)
- belief you can’t be an adequate parent if ill
- mental illness as associated with psychiatry which isn’t often a field taken seriously
- chronic underfunding of mental health
- ignorance or lack of exposure to a disorder
- illness as a consequence of deinstitutionalization
- anosognosia
- violent behaviour as a connection to being NCR
- belief in a just world
- fear of dependency
- fear of being exploited
- othering of well-intentioned education campaigns
empty seat study
“how would you feel sitting beside someone with schizophrenia on a plane”
sources of stigma - “as a consequence of deinstitutionalization”
hope that medication could control delusions and hallucinations would result in not having to keep people in hospitals
anosognosia
- lack of understanding leads to over-responsibilization
- don’t know your sick so why would you voluntarily take medication
- over-responsibilize them when they don’t stay on their medication
hooley (1998) - mental illness and culture
Euro Americans have high internal locus of control and because we believe we can control our own destiny we start to blame others who fail in manifesting their own lack of success
jenkins (1988) - mentall illness and culture
- “nervios” explanation - latin america → less stigma
- biochemical explanation - western society → more stigma
“nervios” explanation of mental illness
- view we all have nerves/experience nervousness
- everyone’s nerves manifest differently; sweating, migraines, etc
- someone who has nerves and develops psychosis; that is just the manifestation of their nerves
biochemical explanation of mental illness
damaged chromosomes and/or heightened or less hormones
social model of disability
- looks at the relationship between a person with impairment and the environment, including attitudes, beliefs, climate, architecture systems and services
- differentiates between impairment and disability
- society as disabling, not the impairment itself
impairment according to the social model of disability
impairment = body/brain
disability according to the social model of disability
- what does or doesn’t happen in the social world
- social repression of disabled people and the limitations disabled people face in society
criticism of the social model of disability
- sometimes it is the impairment itself which disables such as having chronic back pain
- denial of agency such as when people chose to continue activity such as running despite a knee/hip/back injury
stigma
- stigma is society and stigma disables
- stigma continues, and continues to disable because people with an illness who do well don’t want people to know or aren’t given the platform to share it because of the overwhelming amount of negativity
- stigma is so heavy surrounding some disorders that positive stories or narratives are rarely discussed
thomas szasz (1961)
- wrote the book “The Myth of Mental Illness”
- was quoted saying “If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia”
- he was critical of mental illness; no such thing as mental illness
robert laing (1960-61)
- believed mental illness was not real; diagnosis based on observed behaviour, not laboratory evidence
- said that schizophrenia is a “sane response to an insane world meaning that the world is crazy so we have to accept that a crazy world creates crazy people
erving golfman (1961)
- mental illness caused by institutionalization
- psychiatric hospitals and institutions make people mentally ill
