Sociocultural factors Flashcards
Is there a higher prevalence of schizophrenia in people living in urban or rural areas?
Urban.
What did Faris and Dunham report in relation to the city and schizophrenia?
A greater incidence of the disorder when comparing the densely populated inner city areas of Chicago with the less populated outskirts of the city.
What did Jim van Os et al report?
Higher incidence of schizophrenia in people born and raised in urban areas (approximately 0.5%).
What is one potential reason for higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas?
Specific environmental features of urban life.
What factors did Krabbendam and Jim van Os identify that may explain the higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas?
Greater socioeconomic adversity for urban dwellers.
Environmental pollution.
Overcrowding.
Drug abuse.
Exposure to toxins and infectious agents.
Social stress that occurs from living in a densely populated area.
How much of the world’s population is estimated to be living in urban areas by 2050 according the UN?
66%.
What do individuals with schizophrenia tend to report in relation to their social life?
Solitary backgrounds.
Fewer friends.
Limited social networks.
What did Faris suggest in relation to individuals with schizophrenia and socialising with others?
People with schizophrenia find contact with others to be stressful, so they withdraw.
What does Faris’ research suggest in relation to urbanicity and schizophrenia?
Urbanicity and overcrowding can lead to social isolation.
This self-imposed isolation cuts the individual off from feedback about what behaviours and thoughts are inappropriate.
What did Jones et al report findings of? What was the sample?
Longitudinal study.
5,362 people born in a specific week in March 1946.
Childhood data was gathered prospectively.
What was found in the longitudinal study reported by Jones et al?
Between the ages of 16 and 43, 30 cases of schizophrenia were diagnosed.
Researchers found that those individuals diagnosed were more likely to show solitary play preference at ages 4-6 and at 13 more likely to rate themselves as less socially confident.
This suggests that isolation starts early.
Since the 1970s what have statistics shown about Afro-Caribbeans and schizophrenia?
There have been higher than expected numbers of individuals of Afro-Caribbean descent are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
They’re also more likely to be compulsorily admitted as opposed to voluntarily admitted to the psychiatric hospital.
What’s a reasonable explanation to support the point that Afro-Caribbeans are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia?
The additional stress induced through migration to a different culture.
What did Harrison et al find about Afro-Caribbeans and schizophrenia?
The increased risk and diagnosis rates were not only found in first generation migrants, but higher rates of schizophrenia were also being noted in the children of Afro-Caribbean migrants in the UK.
What conclusion could be drawn from Harrison et al’s research?
Discrimination in society and in psychiatry are likely explanations for the higher incidence of diagnosis of schizophrenia of Afro-Caribbean individuals in the UK.
What can’t we be sure about in relation to living in an urban environment?
Living in an urban environment actually increases the social stress of the individual, as compared to living in a rural environment.
Is general health considered to be better in urban or rural areas? Why?
Urban.
Easier access to healthcare, higher employment rates and better educational levels.
What is social capital?
Features of social life and environment that enable people to act effectively with each other.
What did McKenzie et al propose about social capacity and stress?
Higher levels of social capacity may actually protect us from stress.
What conclusion could be drawn based on Mckenzie et al’s research?
It’s unclear exactly how the mechanism that underlies urbancity seems to work.
It may just be social stress or it may be a more complex interplay of other possible environmental risk factors, such as pollution.
What does the social drift hypothesis suggest?
Once diagnosed with a mental disorder, like schizophrenia, individuals demonstrate a decline in their socioeconomic status (because they find it less easy to maintain employment) and as such may move to less salubrious areas, which tend to be in the inner city.
What did Pedersen and Mortensen report?
Those who had a higher risk of psychotic disorders reduced the likelihood of developing schizophrenia if they moved to a more rural environment.
What did Pedersen and Mortensen’s research suggest?
Although it cannot definitely be inferred that living in an urban environment causes schizophrenia, this evidence does suggest a link.
What did Jim van Os claim in relation to single people? What does this suggest?
Single people who lived in neighbourhoods with few other single people were at greater risk of developing schizophrenia.
This is because this increased the individual’s isolation and loneliness.
This suggests that social isolation is a valid explanation as a cause of schizophrenia.
