Mental Illness Flashcards
What is a favoured view by sociologists on the causes of mental illness?
That there is a social basis for mental illness.
What are 3 social inequalities of the distribution of mental illness in the UK?
1) Working-class people statistically more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness than middle-class.
2) Women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression/stress than men, and more likely to be on drug treatments for mental illness (e.g SSRIs)
3) African-Caribbean people more likely to be sectioned under the Mental Health act and are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia - despite being less likely to suffer from common mental health problems.
What does the biomedical approach to mental illness say?
- Focuses on abnormal individual rather than environment that the individual lives in.
- Concentrates on physical symptoms of mental illness
- Biomedical approach to schizophrenia says it’s caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.
What does the biomedical approach focus on?
- Cure-orientated, emphasises the importance of treatments involving drugs or surgery for depression
What does the biomedical approach suggest about treatment?
Best carried out in the medical environment and should always be carried out by the medical elite
What are 4 treatments of mental health?
1) 1930s - mental disturbances treated surgically through lobotomies (severing neural connections between certain parts of the brain). Often had unwanted side effects on intellect.
2) 1940s- ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) used to treat depression, still sometimes used to treat very severe depression. Uses electric current to pass through the brain.
3) Drugs used to treat mental illnesses, some have severe side effects.
4) Psychotherapy used to treat mental illness by correcting thinking patterns.
How is poverty and low social class linked to mental illness?
1) Structural explanations - unemployment, social exclusion, poverty, and stress make mental disorders more likely.
2) Vicious cycle - poor mental heath can lead to unemployment/social exclusion, which may make mental health worse
What does Busfield (2001) say about Women’s Mental Illness?
- Women might be diagnosed with more mental health problems because of sexism in the male-dominated medical elite.
- Doctors label and interpret behaviour differently depending on whether it’s a man or woman doing it.
- Angry, upset woman might be labelled mentally ill but angry, upset man might just be “overworked”
What are 2 feminist views of mental illness?
1) Marxist feminists - female mental illness is caused by “dual oppression” as housewife and worker.
2) Radical feminists - mental illness in women is a consequence of patriarchal society in which women have low social status, stress of housework, and childcare and the stress of social isolation.
Why may there be a difference in gender healthcare statistics?
Women are more likely to seek medical help than men which may account for differences in statistics.
What explanations are used to explain inequalities in ethnicity and mental health?
Interactionist and structural explanations
What did Littlewood and Lipsedge (1982) find?
- Psychiatric doctors and nurses more likely to use sedatives with black patients
- Suggested this was because medical staff were mostly white and did not understand how to speak to patients who were culturally different.
- Psychiatric staff looked to drugs as an easy solution
What did Nazroo (1997) find?
Ill health in ethnic minorities in general was linked to
- Poor housing
- Stress
- Low status
- Poverty
and mental health differences could be part of the same pattern
What do interactionists see mental health as?
A social construct
What did Ssasz (1971) say about mental illness?
Mental illness doesn’t exist.
1) What is labelled as a mental illness is just a “social construct” - a label society uses to control non-conformist behaviours. People who behave in a way not accepted by society are defined as “mentally ill”
2) Compared sectioning to the persecution of witches in the Middle Ages.
3) Prefers a system where individuals are free to get psychotherapy if they want to - says it’s important that there’s no threat of force or loss of liberty
