Elliott: Social Factors and Mental Illness Flashcards
focuses on social factors that account for the distribution, causes, and consequences of the same, such as social inequalities according to education, income, and gender
social epidemiology
the study of social factors that account for group differences in the distribution of symptoms and cases of mental illnesses, as well as their causes and consequences
psychiatric social epidemiology
How do we estimate the social distribution of mental illness?
trained clinicians diagnose individuals who have actively sought treatment or have been mandated by the court to seek treatment;
estimates are only based on people who have received mental health treatment;
also, population-based studies in which non-clinicians conduct standard interviews of a sample of people selected and use probability-based sampling to represent the population;
estimates include people who have never sought treatment
What are the advantages of clinical studies in estimating the distribution of mental illness? Disadvantages?
advantages: clinicians have specialized training and can better ascertain mental status;
their methods are not standardized and only diagnose those who see them in clinic
What are the advantages of population-based studies in estimating the distribution of mental illness? Disadvantages?
survey interviewers ask the same questions of everyone, so the diagnostic process is transparent and their results may be generalized to a larger population; however, they don’t have the option to ask specific questions when evaluating mental illness
Mental illness (or mental health) predicts the social class position a young adult is able to achieve
ex: mental illness can cause a person to drift down the social ladder
social selection
Evidence supports social selection with respect to (blank), but not the other major mental illnesses
schizophrenia
Social conditions associated with social class position affect mental health status
ex: your social class determines whether or not you will develop a mental illness
social causation
The social causation model of social inequality and mental illness posits that the key predictor variable in models that attempt to explain group differences in the odds of being mentally ill is (blank), as defined by education, income, and occupational prestige
social class position
What are the key mediators in predicting if a person will develop mental illness?
aspects of daily life that are determined by social class position
In regards to education and mental illness, those with less education are (blank) likely to develop a mental illness
more
In what three ways does education protect against mental illness?
- education teaches PERSONAL CONTROL, which equips individuals with the capacity to cope with life challenges
- education assists people in establishing a protective, diverse SOCIAL NETWORK
- education enables people to develop MEANINGFUL CAREERS that pay enough to allow for comfortable living and increase the odds of enjoying a meaningful career that makes use of one’s talents, etc
In regards to income and mental illness, those with (blank) income have less prevalence of mental illness
higher
Four ways that higher income is protective against mental illness?
- helps secure housing and food and the standard of living
- protects against periodic crises, like being laid off or divorced
- allows people to enjoy leisure time to recoup
- allows people to afford mental illness treatment
a qualitative (e.g., sex, race, class) or quantitative (e.g., level of reward) variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent or criterion variable
moderator
One powerful moderator that modifies the influence of social factors on mental health is (blank)
GENDER
Who is more likely to get the following, males or females?
major depression panic attack generalized anxiety disorder alcohol abuse conduct disorder
F; F; F; M; M
Women are socialized to express sadness and anxiety and concern about other people whereas men are socialized to express anger and ambition
emotional socialization
Women learn to favor others over themselves, such as being highly involved in helping out other members of their families and their close personal network, whereas men learn to put themselves first
Self-salience
Women tend to react emotionally more strongly to stressors in the private sphere whereas men tend to react emotionally more strongly to stressors in the public sphere
gender specific stressors
Women have lower socioeconomic status than men in terms of earnings and occupational status, which means they are exposed to more emotionally taxing stressors in their daily lives than men, especially financial strain and stressors associated with single parenthood
gender stratification
The American public continues to (blank) individuals with mental illness, viewing them as relatively more dangerous, less competent, and more child-like than the general public
stigmatize
T/F: The increasing emphasis on the notion that mental illnesses are biologically based has greatly reduced the stigma
False; it has NOT reduced the stigma
People diagnosed with mental illnesses (vs. individuals with symptoms of mental illness who have not sought treatment) who anticipate (blank) are relatively more likely to experience income loss and unemployment
social rejection
While being labeled as mentally ill brings some benefits in terms of the healing results of effective mental health treatment, it also leads to the counter-effect of being (blank), which is associated with self-defeating behaviors including reductions in human capital investment
stigmatized
T/F: Being revealed as an individual with mental illness
Increases exposure to prejudice and discrimination
Increases centrality of mental illness to one’s personal identity
Increases social identification with other individual who also have mental illnesses
True
(blank) of prejudice and discrimination toward oneself on the basis of having a mental illness
Increase personal identity, alienation, and INCREASE social identity
experiences
(blank) of prejudice and discrimination towards people in general who have mental illnesses
Increase personal identity, increase alienation, DECREASE social identification
perceptions
**How does PERSONAL identity as an individual with a mental illness affect well-being? How does SOCIAL identity as an individual with mental illness affect in-group social support?
reduces it; increases it
T/F: Keeping one’s mental illness a secret protects against prejudice and discrimination, but revealing it increases one’s odds of socially identifying with others who also have mental illness, from whom one may derive psychologically enhancing social support
True
T/F: Social patterns of mental illness may be explained via mediators (conditions of daily life determined by income and education) and moderators (gender)
True
The (blank) of mental illness detracts from emotional well-being and investment in human capital of individuals with mental illnesses, thus compounding the influence of social factors on mental illness
stigma
A given variable may be said to function as a (blank) to the extent that it accounts for the relation between the predictor and the criterion
mediator
