Chapter 8: Mental Health and Illness

Question 1

Mental Disorder

Answer 1

Psychological, biological, or behavioral dysfunction that interferes with daily life

Question 2

Social Causation Hypothesis

Answer 2

More life stresses and fewer resources characterize the lives of the lower class, contributing to emergence of mental illness

Question 3

Strain Theory in terms of Mental Illness

Answer 3

Mental illness can emerge in response to the gap between institutionalized goals and the legitimate means for attaining those goals

Question 4

Retreatism

Answer 4

People give up pursuing the goals as well as legitimate means of achieving those goals
This can involve voluntary behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, and involuntary outcomes such as mental illness

Question 5

Social Selection Hypothesis

Answer 5

People with mental disorders can fall into lower economic strata because of difficulties in daily functioning

Question 6

Predictors of Mental Illness

Answer 6

Low socioeconomic status, age (more common in young people, symptoms usually emerge in childhood)

Question 7

Individual Cost of Mental Illness

Answer 7

Unemployment, underemployment

Question 8

Costs to Families of Mental Illness

Answer 8

Impaired parent-child bonding, financial costs

Question 9

Costs for Society of Mental Illness

Answer 9

Lost tax revenues, health care costs

Question 10

Reasons for not Receiving Treatment

Answer 10

Lack of services, being unable to financially afford treatment, perceptions of treatment as inadequate, discomfort with the level of disclosure necessary, stigmatization, neglect

Question 11

Self-Stigma

Answer 11

Lowered self-esteem and increased feelings of demoralization

Question 12

Stigmatization

Answer 12

Feeling like an outsider
People are framed as unpredictable, violent, dangerous, and criminal

Question 13

Evolution in Treatment for Mental Illness

Answer 13

Religious and Spiritual Rituals –> Prison and Madhouses –> Asylums –> Psychiatric Institutions –> Community Treatment

Question 14

Prisons

Answer 14

Built to house criminals and poor people with mental illness

Question 15

Madhouses

Answer 15

Created specially for mental illness
Warehousing the disordered people so normal people could feel safe

Question 16

Asylums

Answer 16

Replaced madhouses
Meant to train people to conform to society’s norms
Asylums later became mental hospitals

Question 17

Psychiatric Institutions

Answer 17

Included practices like lobotomies and fever therapies
Failure of these therapies combined with social concern led to these institutions being abandoned

Question 18

Deinstitutionalization

Answer 18

Social control of people with mental illness in community based programs rather than in institutions

Question 19

Requirements for Successful Deinstitutionalization

Answer 19

A supportive family network
An accepting community
Adequate community resources
A place to live

Question 20

Outcomes of Deinstitutionalization

Answer 20

Homelessness
Criminal activity - more likely to be victims than perpetrators

Question 21

Disease Paradigm

Answer 21

Emphasizes symptoms that distress and impair individuals functioning

Question 22

Discrimination Paradigm

Answer 22

Emphasizes the role that stigmatization plays in the daily experiences of people with mental illness

Question 23

Resisting Stigmatization

Answer 23

Discrimination paradigm
Fighting back against the external stigmatizing forces
Confrontation and education about mental illness
There is legislation prohibiting discrimination, some policies are broad and some are specific in targeting people with mental illness
Self-help and advocacy groups help educate, communicate, and spread media information

Question 24

Stigma Management Techniques

Answer 24

Try to pass - hide their disorders
Divide social worlds - managing who is and who is not permitted to know about their illness
Deflecting
Challenging

Question 25

Resisting Inadequate and Insufficient Care

Answer 25

Disease paradigm
Health care community engages in new research on treatments for disorders
Lobbying the government for better funding and services for people with mental disorders
Mental health services for immigrants, refugees, and racialized groups (Indigenous people)
Removing labels

Question 26

Criticizing the DSM

Answer 26

Inclusion of particular disorders
Ex. homosexuality was once in the DSM
The role played by power as to what is and is not included in the list of mental disorders and influence of the pharmaceutical companies

Question 27

Being Sane in Insane Places

Answer 27

Are characteristics leading to diagnosis lie within the individual or the environment
Eight people admit themselves to psychiatric hospitals claiming they heard voices
If sanity was not detected, it indicates that characteristics leading to diagnosis are in the environment
They were discharged with diagnoses of schizophrenia in remission
Conclusion was that characteristics leading to diagnosis lie more in the environment

Question 28

Criticism of Being Sane in Insane Places

Answer 28

Illustrated that people who did not have mental disorders could be kept in hospitals led to concerns about patients committed involuntarily
This led to legislation about who can be admitted against their will
Described the dehumanizing treatment of people in these institutions