Socio etiology

Question 1

Social cultural explanations for depression

Answer 1

focus on the environmental factors that may increase an individuals susceptibility to depression

Question 2

Social vulnerability factors

Answer 2

• Brown & Harris outlines social vulnerability factors that may increase the risk of developing depression
  
  • these are grouped into 3 types
    
    1. protective factors
    2. vulnerability factors
    3. provoking agents

Question 3

protective factors

Answer 3

found to protect against the development of depression in spite of stressors, e.g. high levels of intimacy with one’s husband. These factors lead to higher levels of self-esteem & the possibility of finding other sources of meaning in life.

Question 4

vulnerability factors

Answer 4

found to increase the risk of depression in combination with particularly stressful life events - called provoking agents in the study. The most significant vulnerability factors were (1) Loss of one’s mother before the age of 11, (2) lack of a confiding relationship, (3) more than three children under the age of 14 at home and (4) unemployment.

Question 5

provoking agents

Answer 5

found to contribute to acute & ongoing stress. These stressors could result in grief and hopelessness in vulnerable women with no social support.

these claims were supported in other independent research studies w the overall conclusion that social factors are involved in the development of depression along w personal factors

Question 6

Spreading of symptoms in a social network

Answer 6

• apart from identifying social vulnerability factors, researchers also investigate how depression may be affected by the structure of an individual’s social network
  
  • the major finding in this area is that symptoms of depression may spread from person to person, affecting ppl up to 3 degrees of separation away

Question 7

Effects of culture

Answer 7

• although culture cannot cause depression & in this sense is not a factor of etiology
• cultural variables play a role in development & expression of depressive symptoms
  
  • e.g. depression in many societies are stigmatised which may cause ppl to misinterpret their symptoms & either fail to report them or report them as symptoms of physical illness

Question 8

Evaluation of sociocultural arguments for depression

Strengths

Answer 8

• Modern biological research on the role of stress in depression appears to support vulnerability models.
• Vulnerability models acknowledge the interaction of biological & environmental factors.
• Sociocultural approaches explain gender & cultural differences in the prevalence and symptomology of depression.

Question 9

Evaluation of sociocultural arguments for depression

limitations

Answer 9

• Vulnerability models are based on measuring “stressful life events.”
• It is questionable whether this is a valid measure of stress.
• Cultural theories are descriptive in nature & do not adequately explain the origin of the disorder.
• Cross-cultural research is problematic.
• Etic approaches are criticized for being too ethnocentric.
• Emic approaches make a comparison of the disorders difficult.As with other approaches, research is primarily correlational in nature, meaning that cause and effect relationships cannot be established.

Question 10

Rosenquist evaluation

Answer 10

+ Person-to-person spread suggests if someone close to you is experiencing MDD, you may too. It is also possible that friends often experience similar social and economic environments
+ Longitudinal with a large sample size
+ Holistic approach when considering the social network (eg. neighbours, family… different types of relationships)
- Person-to-person spread: correlation does not equal causation
- It does not consider the idea that individuals may attract others with depressive symptoms, possibly for a community and to relate to each other
- Questionnaires are unreliable. Eg. participant bias

Question 11

Rosenquist aim

Answer 11

to investigate if depressive symptoms can spread from person to person (like an infectious disease)

Question 12

Rosenquist method

Answer 12

statistical analysis of social networks, longitudinal data

Question 13

Rosenquist procedure

Answer 13

• data was taken from an earlier Framingham Heart study, a longitudinal study of risk factors for heart disease initiated in 1948 & involving 12, 067 participants
• to keep track of p, researchers collected info that would help them locate p later: names of their friends, neighbours, coworkers, & relatives
• since fermingham was a small town, many of these nominated contacts also participated in the study
• a questionnaire for measuring depression was administered 3 times between 1983 & 2001 to 1 of the cohorts
• researchers computerised all data, w a focus on levels of depression in each individual as well as friends, relatives, neighbours & co-workers
• data was analysed using statistical methods of social network analysis

Question 14

Rosenquist results

Answer 14

• there was a significant correlation in depressive symptoms between ppl up to 3 degrees of separation away
• participants were
  
  • 93% more likely to be depressed if a person they were directly connected to (such as a friend) was depressed
  • 43% more likely to be depressed if a person within 2 degrees of separation (such as a friend’s friend) was depressed
  • 37% more likely to be depressed if a person within 3 degrees separation (such as a friend’s friend’s friend) was depressed
• changes in social ties (e.g acquiring new friends) predicted changes in depressive symptoms but not vice versa

Question 15

Rosenquist conclusion

Answer 15

• depression in 1 person may cause depression in ppl the individual is socially connected to
• in this sense, symptoms of depression may spread along the network of social connections somewhat like an infectious disease

Question 16

Brown & Harris aim

Answer 16

to investigate how depression could be linked to social factors and stressful life-events in a sample of women

Question 17

Brown & Harris method

Answer 17

a classic study

Question 18

Brown & Harris participants

Answer 18

458 women in South London were surveyed on their daily life and depressive episodes

Question 19

Brown & Harris procedure

Answer 19

• 458 women in SL were surveyed on their daily life and depressive episodes.
• researchers focused on important biographical details → particular life events or particular difficulties faced by the women.
• These events were later rated in severity by independent researchers.

Question 20

Brown & Harris results

Answer 20

• 37 (8%) of all the women had become clinically depressed in the previous year.
• 33 of these women (~ 90%) had experienced an adverse life event (e.g. loss of loved one) or a serious difficulty (e.g. being in an abusive relationship).
• Only 30% of the women who did not become depressed suffered from such an adversity.
• Only 4 of 37 women who became depressed had not experienced any adversity.
• Social class - measured by the occupation of the husband - played a significant role in the development of depression in women w children.
  
  • working class women w children were x4 more likely to develop depression than middle-class women w kids.
• The researchers identified 3 major factors that affected the development of depression.

Question 21

Brown & Harris conclusion

Answer 21

• social factors in the form of life-stress (or serious life-events) could be linked to depression.
• since working-class mothers were more likely to develop depression than middle-class mothers showed risk factors associated w social class.
• According to Brown & Harris, low social status leads to increased exposure to vulnerability factors & provoking agents, whereas high social status was associated w increased exposure to protective factors & decreased exposure to provoking agents.

Question 22

Brown & Harris evaluation

Answer 22

• study used semi-structured interviews to get an in-depth understanding of the participants’ situation as they see it themselves - increases credibility of the results.
• sample sizeof original study was relatively large, making the results potentially more reliable.
• only females were interviewed so the results may not be generalised to men, but the relationship between stressful events & onset of depression might be applicable to men as well
• study is based onself-reportingof depressive episodes. - it is impossible to accurately determine the actual extent of depression for each of the women interviewed.
• correlational research
  Although there appears to be a relationship between stressful events & depression, we cannot determine that it is a cause and effect relationship. As other variables are not controlled for, it is possible that biological vulnerability may also play a role in this study. This is what modern research appears to indicate.