Social factors and mental illness Flashcards
Engel’s model of biopsychosocial approach
-biopsychosocial approach to psychiatry
Social causation theory
- according to this concept, mental illnesses are caused by social deprivation
- most psychiatric disorders are seen in lower socio-economic class as a mental disorder is seen as directly due to the poverty and social conditions
Social drift or Social selection theory
- schizophrenia results in a downward drift of economic status rather than poverty being a cause of schizophrenia
- suggested by Faris and Dunham in their Chicago study
Chicago study
- Faris and Dunham
- social organization increased with distance from the epicentre of Chicago
- inner urban zones had the most disorganised and unstable communities
- least socially organised inner zones had the highest rates of schizophrenia
- Faris and Dunham argued that this effect was due to the downward drift in economic status after developing illness
Rutter
- 6 inter-related risk factors in the family environment that correlated significantly with childhood mental disturbances
1. severe marital discord
2. low social class
3. large family size
4. maternal mental health disorder
5. paternal criminality
6. foster placement - combination impair development
Great Smokey mountains study
- looked at groups of white american and american indian children grouped into ‘poor’, ‘never poor’ and ‘ex-poor’ (when a casino was built near them)
- poor and ex-poor groups had more psychiatric issues but when the ex-poor became richer their incidence dropped
- conduct and oppositional defiant disorders improved but depression and anxiety remained the same
Mental illness as deviance
- society tends to see odd and abnormal behaviour to be against acceptable norms and values and some of these are grouped as mental illnesses
- Lemert developed the idea of primary and secondary deviance to explain process of labeling
Primary deviance
- minor rule breaking in society
- Lemert
- general deviation from the norm before the person showing such deviation is identified as a ‘deviant’
- with repeated instances of primary deviance the subject gets labelled and institutions react leading to one becoming secondary deviant
Secondary deviance
- Lemert
- actions carried out by a person identified as a ‘deviant’ by instututions such as a society or the justice system
- refers to the maintenance of primary deviance as a repercussion of the label given
Formal deviance
-breaking written law or code of constitution as in a criminal act
Informal deviance
-breaking the unspoken social rules of living
Social construct theory
- variations in human experience have become classed as illness categories
- reality of illness is socially constructed
- discourse analysis uncovers this
e. g agoraphobia- developed at the time social emancipation of women occurred - patient is labeled as psychotic when he hears a voice, when he asks why he hears a voice he is told it is because he is psychotic- description constructed by society
Social labelling or societal reaction theory
- labelling theory orginiated from the concept of symbolic interactionism
- we all play different social roles sanctioned by society
- Scheff
- social routine is made of numerous uncategorisable residual rules
- residual deviance occurs when these rules are broken but are often unnoticed unless a certrain specific circumstance arises. In some circumstances rule breaking is accepted, ignored or normalised but labelled as deviant in other occasions
- once labelled as mentally ill the person takes up the role of being a mentally ill indivdual in the society
Durkheim sociological model of suicide
Altruistic suicide- individual is overly attached to social norms and dies for the sake of society e.g self- immolation among buddhist monks in Tibet
Egoistic suicide- excessive individualism but low social integration. No cohesive group attachment
Fatalistic suicide- society’s cntrol on the individual is very strong and such it interferes with moral vallues and personal goals
Anomic suicide- individual feels that they have no guidance or regulartions from the societal system; feels disillusioned
Altruistic suicide
- Durkheim
- individual is overly attached to social norms and dies for the sake of society
- self-immolation among buddhist monks
