Sociocultural Factors Evaluation

Question 1

Urbanicity validation

Answer 1

S- contradictory evidence as to whether urban living increases social stress of an individual
E- krabbendam and Os identified a range of factors that may increase social stress (poverty, pollution and overcrowding) and cause SZ. McKenzie et al proposed that higher levels of social capital in urban living actually protect individuals from stress
E- additionally research suggests that city dwellers actually tend to be healthier than those who live in a rural area due to easy access to healthcare, better education and higher employment rates, adding further confusion
W- therefore it is unclear exactly how the mechanisms that underlies Urbanicity seems to work; it may just be social stress or it may be more complex interplay of other possible environmental risk factors, such as pollution

Question 2

Cause and effect

Answer 2

S- social isolation may be questioned as a cause or an effect.
E-Jim vans Os claimed that single people who lived in neighbourhoods with few other single people were at greater risk of developing schizophrenia.
E- arguably because this increased the individuals isolation and loneliness.
C- however one weakness of this is that we cannot ascertain if the apparent social isolation is the cause of schizophrenia or if it’s just an early indicator of psychosis.
W- therefore suggesting that social isolation is a valid explanation as a cause of schizophrenia

Question 3

Provides a link

Answer 3

S- there isn’t a need to consider the cause and effect issue with regards to the sociocultural explanation of schizophrenia. It’s unclear whether living in an urban environment leads to greater risk of schizophrenia or of having schizophrenia means you are more likely to live in an urban area.
E- the social drift hypothesis proposes that once diagnosed with a mental condition like schizophrenia, individuals experience a decline in their socioeconomic status and so may move to worse areas which tend to be in the inner city. This give a false impression of Urbanicity being a cause of schizophrenia, whereas it may equally be an effect.
E- pendersen and Mortensen (2001) report that those individuals who had a high risk of psychotic disorders reduced the likelihood of developing schizophrenia if they moved to a rural area.
W- this therefore implies that we may not be able to say with any certainty that living in an urban environment causes schizophrenia, but that does seem to be enough research in place that there’s a least a link between ergodicity and schizophrenia