Elliott: Social Factors and Mental Illness

Question 1

focuses on social factors that account for the distribution, causes, and consequences of the same, such as social inequalities according to education, income, and gender

Answer 1

social epidemiology

Question 2

the study of social factors that account for group differences in the distribution of symptoms and cases of mental illnesses, as well as their causes and consequences

Answer 2

psychiatric social epidemiology

Question 3

How do we estimate the social distribution of mental illness?

Answer 3

trained clinicians diagnose individuals who have actively sought treatment or have been mandated by the court to seek treatment;
estimates are only based on people who have received mental health treatment;

also, population-based studies in which non-clinicians conduct standard interviews of a sample of people selected and use probability-based sampling to represent the population;
estimates include people who have never sought treatment

Question 4

What are the advantages of clinical studies in estimating the distribution of mental illness? Disadvantages?

Answer 4

advantages: clinicians have specialized training and can better ascertain mental status;
their methods are not standardized and only diagnose those who see them in clinic

Question 5

What are the advantages of population-based studies in estimating the distribution of mental illness? Disadvantages?

Answer 5

survey interviewers ask the same questions of everyone, so the diagnostic process is transparent and their results may be generalized to a larger population; however, they don’t have the option to ask specific questions when evaluating mental illness

Question 6

Mental illness (or mental health) predicts the social class position a young adult is able to achieve

ex: mental illness can cause a person to drift down the social ladder

Answer 6

social selection

Question 7

Evidence supports social selection with respect to (blank), but not the other major mental illnesses

Answer 7

schizophrenia

Question 8

Social conditions associated with social class position affect mental health status

ex: your social class determines whether or not you will develop a mental illness

Answer 8

social causation

Question 9

The social causation model of social inequality and mental illness posits that the key predictor variable in models that attempt to explain group differences in the odds of being mentally ill is (blank), as defined by education, income, and occupational prestige

Answer 9

social class position

Question 10

What are the key mediators in predicting if a person will develop mental illness?

Answer 10

aspects of daily life that are determined by social class position

Question 11

In regards to education and mental illness, those with less education are (blank) likely to develop a mental illness

Answer 11

more

Question 12

In what three ways does education protect against mental illness?

Answer 12

1. education teaches PERSONAL CONTROL, which equips individuals with the capacity to cope with life challenges
2. education assists people in establishing a protective, diverse SOCIAL NETWORK
3. education enables people to develop MEANINGFUL CAREERS that pay enough to allow for comfortable living and increase the odds of enjoying a meaningful career that makes use of one’s talents, etc

Question 13

In regards to income and mental illness, those with (blank) income have less prevalence of mental illness

Answer 13

higher

Question 14

Four ways that higher income is protective against mental illness?

Answer 14

1. helps secure housing and food and the standard of living
2. protects against periodic crises, like being laid off or divorced
3. allows people to enjoy leisure time to recoup
4. allows people to afford mental illness treatment

Question 15

a qualitative (e.g., sex, race, class) or quantitative (e.g., level of reward) variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relation between an independent or predictor variable and a dependent or criterion variable

Answer 15

moderator

Question 16

One powerful moderator that modifies the influence of social factors on mental health is (blank)

Answer 16

GENDER

Question 17

Who is more likely to get the following, males or females?

major depression
panic attack
generalized anxiety disorder
alcohol abuse
conduct disorder

Answer 17

F; F; F; M; M

Question 18

Women are socialized to express sadness and anxiety and concern about other people whereas men are socialized to express anger and ambition

Answer 18

emotional socialization

Question 19

Women learn to favor others over themselves, such as being highly involved in helping out other members of their families and their close personal network, whereas men learn to put themselves first

Answer 19

Self-salience

Question 20

Women tend to react emotionally more strongly to stressors in the private sphere whereas men tend to react emotionally more strongly to stressors in the public sphere

Answer 20

gender specific stressors

Question 21

Women have lower socioeconomic status than men in terms of earnings and occupational status, which means they are exposed to more emotionally taxing stressors in their daily lives than men, especially financial strain and stressors associated with single parenthood

Answer 21

gender stratification

Question 22

The American public continues to (blank) individuals with mental illness, viewing them as relatively more dangerous, less competent, and more child-like than the general public

Answer 22

stigmatize

Question 23

T/F: The increasing emphasis on the notion that mental illnesses are biologically based has greatly reduced the stigma

Answer 23

False; it has NOT reduced the stigma

Question 24

People diagnosed with mental illnesses (vs. individuals with symptoms of mental illness who have not sought treatment) who anticipate (blank) are relatively more likely to experience income loss and unemployment

Answer 24

social rejection

Question 25

While being labeled as mentally ill brings some benefits in terms of the healing results of effective mental health treatment, it also leads to the counter-effect of being (blank), which is associated with self-defeating behaviors including reductions in human capital investment

Answer 25

stigmatized

Question 26

T/F: Being revealed as an individual with mental illness
Increases exposure to prejudice and discrimination
Increases centrality of mental illness to one’s personal identity
Increases social identification with other individual who also have mental illnesses

Answer 26

True

Question 27

(blank) of prejudice and discrimination toward oneself on the basis of having a mental illness
Increase personal identity, alienation, and INCREASE social identity

Answer 27

experiences

Question 28

(blank) of prejudice and discrimination towards people in general who have mental illnesses
Increase personal identity, increase alienation, DECREASE social identification

Answer 28

perceptions

Question 29

**How does PERSONAL identity as an individual with a mental illness affect well-being? How does SOCIAL identity as an individual with mental illness affect in-group social support?

Answer 29

reduces it; increases it

Question 30

T/F: Keeping one’s mental illness a secret protects against prejudice and discrimination, but revealing it increases one’s odds of socially identifying with others who also have mental illness, from whom one may derive psychologically enhancing social support

Answer 30

True

Question 31

T/F: Social patterns of mental illness may be explained via mediators (conditions of daily life determined by income and education) and moderators (gender)

Answer 31

True

Question 32

The (blank) of mental illness detracts from emotional well-being and investment in human capital of individuals with mental illnesses, thus compounding the influence of social factors on mental illness

Answer 32

stigma

Question 33

A given variable may be said to function as a (blank) to the extent that it accounts for the relation between the predictor and the criterion

Answer 33

mediator