Ideal Mental Health Flashcards
Name the psychologist who suggested there were several criteria required to have ideal mental health.
Marie Jahoda
State 5 characteristics required for ideal mental health. (SPEAR)
Self Actualisation
Personal Autonomy
Environmental Mastery
Accurate Perception of Reality
Resistance to Stress
Define self actualisation.
High self esteem, feeling like you have reached your full potential.
Define personal autonomy.
Independence and self reliance. The ability to make your own desicions.
Define accurate perception of reality.
Viewing the world in a way that is realistic.
Define environmental mastery.
You are confidently able to adapt to any new situations.
Define resistance to stress.
You rarely feel stressed. If you do feel stress then you are successfully able to cope with it.
Explain the strength of the mental health criterion being highly comprehensive.
The criterion helps us to distinguish ideal mental health from disorder and covers reasons why we seek help for mental health issues. This means that an individuals mental health can be discussed meaningfully with a range of healthcare professionals who might have different theoretical views. This means that ideal mental health provides a checklist against which we can assess ourselves against, allowing us to know when to discuss any psychological issues with a professional.
Explain the limitation of the ideal mental health criterion being culture bound, using the example of self actualisation.
For example, the idea of self actualisation is very western, where we have an individualist culture. Even in Europe, there is lots of variation in the value placed on personal interdependence. What defines our success in our working an social lives is different across cultures. This means that its difficult to apply the concept of ideal mental health from one culture to another.
Explain the limitation of the criterion having extremely high standards using the example of self actualisation. Explain the counterpoint of people understanding how to improve their mental health.
Very few people will ever attain to Jahoda’s criteria for ideal mental health and maintain it for a long time. For individuals with poor mental health, seeing this criterion may be disheartening. On the other hand, seeing the criteria may allow a person to know what they need to work on to improve their mental health. This means that this definition of abnormality should be used with caution, as people might respond differently to it.
