Chapter 8

Question 1

mental illness definition

Answer 1

alterations in thinking, mood, or behaviour, and is associated with significant distress and impaired functioning
-reflects a process of social construction

Question 2

what is the biggest predictor of mental illness

Answer 2

socioeconomic status

Question 3

social causation

Answer 3

more vulnerable to development of mental illness as one experiences more life stressors and ways to cope with that
-a product of one’s social position

Question 4

social selection

Answer 4

because of their mental illness, it becomes difficult to maintain status
-social drift (drift to a lower status)

Question 5

mental illness is most likely to emerge during _______ because this is the most vital stage for development

Answer 5

adolescence (childhood to adolescence)

Question 6

factors for mental illness

Answer 6

-biological
-pychological factors
-social stressors
-marginalized youth
-sex differences

Question 7

mental illness is associated with lower _____, ______, _____

Answer 7

employment, education, and income
-family instability and physical illnesses is also correlated

Question 8

societal costs of mental illness

Answer 8

health care expenses, absenteesism/lowered productivity, lost tax revenues

Question 9

treatment issues of mental illnesses

Answer 9

many remain untreated due to lack of services, perceptions of inadequecy,
-discomfort and fear with self-disclosure, stigmatization, and neglect

Question 10

stigmatization of mental illness

Answer 10

experience of exlusion as a result of being labelled as deviant
-attitudes towards people with mental illness is that they are unstable, unpredictable, and dangerous

Question 11

prejudice and stigmatization of mental illness continue to exist because of ________ as they are seen to be a threat

Answer 11

media, employment, housing, healthcare, and professionals

Question 12

self stigmatization

Answer 12

people stigmatize themselves and internalize stereotypes
-result of powerful stigma in some cultures

Question 13

medicalization

Answer 13

process by which life and experiences get framed as a medical issue
-began with asylums

Question 14

de-instilutionalization

Answer 14

release/movement of patients from mental hospitals back into the community/family

Question 15

3 factors of desinstutionalization
________=shift to emphasis on treatment, restrict to those who actually need it
________=more effective treament
________=insitutions were large and expensive so goct decided to close down mental hospitals (biggest motivator)

Answer 15

change in madates, development of drug therapy, money saving efforts

Question 16

trans-institutionalization

Answer 16

inmates released from one therapeutic community move into other institutions (sometimes criminal), either as planned move or as an unforeseen consequence

Question 17

disease paradigm

Answer 17

focus on lessoning symptoms (individual dimension)

Question 18

discrimination paradigm

Answer 18

focus on lessoning stigmatization (social dimension)

Question 19

how do you resist stigmatization through stigma management at the individual level?

Answer 19

-trying to pass as “normal”
-dividing their social worlds and select who should and shouldn’t know about illness
-deflecting/distancing oneself from the label of being mentally ill
-challenge (actively fight back stigma)

Question 20

How do you resist inadequate and insufficient care (social level)?

Answer 20

-legislation, institutional policies and programs
-self help and advocacy groups
-health care community

Question 21

resisting medicalization
1. ______=who assume medicalization is best for everyone
2. _______=advocate for medicalization (ie AA groups) in order for medical treatment to me more humane effective
3. _______=more opportunities to sell more products
4. _______= may support or oppose medicalization based on interest

Answer 21

physicians, consumers/consumer groups, pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies

Question 22

positive consequences for medicalization

Answer 22

-legitmation/validiation
-societal awareness/stigma reduction
-development of beneficial therapies

Question 23

negative consequences of medicalization

Answer 23

-disempower patients and give power to physicians
-denial of social, economic, and political factors and only focus on individual biology

Question 24

critiques of the DSM

Answer 24

-some argue that the inclusion of certain disorders is up for debate
-more political than medical or scientific
-controlled by doctors, pharma +insurance companies
-tends to pathologize normal behaviours and ignore contextual issues
-diagnosis is ambiguous and subjective

Question 25

critique of mental health practitioners

Answer 25

-“Being sane in insane places”-revealed the influence of social factors/subjectivity on psych diagnosis and the dehumanization of patients
-Minority individuals with the same histories and case studies are more likely to be described as dangerous than white individuals
-eurocentric

Question 26

critique of mental illness itself

Answer 26

-acknowledge that it is the real thing but it has gone too far
-some believe there’s no such thing