Cultural Bias for Behavioral Diagnoses - Allen

Question 1

What is the working definition of culture according to Dr. Allen?

Answer 1

Culture is a set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses art, literature, lifestyles, values, traditions, and beliefs.

Question 2

How does culture effect one’s life?

Answer 2

Culture is a historically transmitted pattern of meanings from symbols that communicate, perpetuate, and develop knowledge about attitudes toward life.

Question 3

What two terms describe the psychopathology of mental disorder?

(Hint: one is a value term, one is a scientific term)

Answer 3

• Harmful
  
  • value term based on social norms
• Dysfunction
  
  • scientific term referring to the failure of a mental mechanism, to perform a natural function, or for which it was designed by evolution

Question 4

When does disorder exist?

Answer 4

the failure of a person’s internal mechanisms to perform their functions as designed by nature impinges harmfully on the person’s well being, as defined by social values and meanings

Question 5

What two orders are disturbed when one has a disorder?

Answer 5

Biological & Social

(neither alone is sufficent to justify the label disorder)

Question 6

What is the role of explanatory models in personal understandings of etiology, illness beliefs, symptom expression, and effective treatment?

Answer 6

• How patients understand an illness
  
  • what they think caused it based on beliefs (religious, cultural, etc.)
  • how they express symptoms
  • what they think will treat/cure it

Question 7

What is an example of a biological model for the etiology of depression?

Answer 7

Major depressive disorder is the result of biochemical imbalance, which results from interaction of psychic trauma and physiological mechanisms

Question 8

What is an example of an alternative model of the etiology of depression?

Answer 8

Catholic Pentecostalists - Depression as God’s retribution for moral transgression

OR

Haitian Blacks - Depression follows supernatural intervention

Question 9

What do American Indians believe are the precipitating circumstances of depression (i.e. what causes it)?

Answer 9

• Ignoring social obligations
• Failure to observe religious dictums

Question 10

What are four causal agents of depression described in DSM-IV/ICD-10?

Answer 10

1. Job loss
2. Divorce
3. Family conflict
4. Chronic illness

Question 11

What characteristics help a person decide whether depression is viewed as a symptom or a disorder?

Answer 11

Illness beliefs - Psychological Processes

(ex. Hmong - year-long period of grief after loss of loved one)

Question 12

What is the biomedical model of effective treatment for depression?

Answer 12

Antidepressants & Psychotherapy

Question 13

What are some alternative models of effective treatment for depression?

Answer 13

• Asians: acupuncture & herbal treatments
• Western Europeans: homeopathic and naturopathic medicines
• Christian fundamentalists: faith healing

Question 14

In what three ways do key people serve as gatekeepers to treatment across cultures?

Answer 14

1. Validate symptoms expression
2. Encourage specific help-seeking behavior
3. Direct person to treatment

Question 15

Much of global mortality and disease has what two significant components?

Answer 15

Lifestyle & Behavioral