Cultural Impact On Mental Health Flashcards
What is an individual difference?
An individual difference refers to variables that make one person different from another.
What did Bhurga et al 1999 find in reference to cultural impact on mental health?
Found that there are differences between Asians and whites. Asians were more likely to neglect activities, lose appetite and commit suicide where as more white people reported auditory hallucinations.
Why was it thought Black British people were more likely to suffer from sz than any other ethnic group?
It was blamed on migrants suffering stress and confusion in an unfamiliar culture but the increase risk is still present in second generation Black British people.
What did The British Institute of Psychiatry 2000 say about Black British people and sz?
They were 6x more likely to develop sz than average. (Only 1% of the general population is affected by sz).
What did McCabe and Priebe 2004 find in relation to cultural impact on mental health?
They compared the different explanatory models of illness among people with sz from 4 cultural backgrounds and found white people cited biological causes more than Caribbeans, West Africans and Bangladeshis as they were more likely to give a supernatural or religious reason.
Why are ethnic minorities diagnosed with sz when they aren’t really suffering from it? - Social Explanation.
Social Explanation is that ethnic minorities experience racism and discrimination and are more likely to experience poverty and they are all risk factors for sz.
Why are ethnic minorities diagnosed with sz when they aren’t really suffering from it? - Cognitive Explanation.
The cognitive explanation is that some ethnic minorities (notably Africans and African-Caribbean’s) express their thoughts and feelings differently from white patients, making them more likely to get a diagnosis of a sever mental health disorder from a doctor.
Why are ethnic minorities diagnosed with sz when they aren’t really suffering from it? - Biological Explanation.
Biological explanation is that some ethnic minorities might have a genetic predisposition to sz. However, sz rates in Africa and the Caribbean are normal (around 1%) so that doesn’t explain why the children of immigrants from those countries are more likely to develop sz.
