This is a survey of the current status of the field, and an explanation of terms and questions being considered.
Aneshensel & Phelan (hereafter A& P for this post) bring together different viewpoints, and point out that "it is intellectually more fashionable to call for multidisciplinary perspectives" when studying mental health and illness. I like this idea! I am certainly not ready to even select a primary perspective, much less to limit myself to only one. (If I ever will be! My style is definitely more eclectic, and I've enjoyed the benefits of enhancing one field with another such as learning and health.)
In considering the definition of mental health/illness, A & P point out that most people who display symptoms of mental illness do not consider themselves as mentally ill.
There is also a social component to defining what is mental illness. (This is the social constructionist perspective-also addressed in the Horwitz reading.) This idea is that behaviors that are socially accepted in one culture are considered aberrant in another, and labeled accordingly. Then there's the component that one's place in society influences the interpretation of the behavior. This is colloquially expressed as "the difference between eccentricity and insanity is financial."
The medical model assumes that, since medical treatment "fixes" things, "the remedy authenticates the disease", and justifies viewing aberrant behavior as a medical issue. Laing (1967) is cited as asserting that some deviant behaviors are "sane responses to an insane world". A&P also cite the argument that some clusters of symptoms occur in very different settings justifies an objective reality apart from their social/subjective interpretation, but point out that just because symptoms occur in various cultures does not mean that they are indicative of illness/disease.
One consequence of the medicalization of deviance cited by Conrad & Schneider (1980) is a lessening of personal responsibility for one's behavior. This is something that concerned me as a classroom teacher. I don't know how many times I heard a student tell me he or she couldn't (or didn't have to try) because of ____ labeled diagnosis. In such instances, I think the diagnosis aggravates the situation, rather than helping. Eventually, the student is going to have to make it in the real world, and there are limits to accommodation. Another concern included in the chapter is that the medical model "diverts attention away from the social sources of deviance". As a beginning sociologist with a strong belief that society influences individual behavior, I am uncomfortable with that loss of attention.
Anther topic A&P include is the "debate over diagnosis". (Refer back to my discomfort with lay diagnostics referred to in my grant proposal response.) This is a debate between checklists- displays this behavior or not-versus a continuum approach that considers matters of intensity and frequency (and may be more likely to consider social causes or triggers of the behavior). A& P point out that "each perspective takes as given that which is problematical in the other approach". How does that affect conversations between the two approaches?
A final quote that interested me is that "the unequal distribution of disorder across social strata cannot be accounted for by etiological factors that are uniformly distributed throughout society." In some ways this seems to be a "duh!" statement, but I'm sure it's also necessary. Obvious when pointed out, but invisible until brought to one's attention. . . One example that comes to mind is the difference in how Hurricane Katrina affected different (socio-economic & cultural) groups within the Gulf region.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Grant proposal response
Dr. Milkie's project focuses on the school factors affecting children's mental health and the school's role in ameliorating the effects of mental illness.
My first gut-clenching reaction to the proposal came early in the abstract with the sentence that begins "Although we know that children from lower socio-economic status (SES) and minority backgrounds exhibit more externalizing problems like hyperactivity, and internalizing behaviors like anxiety and depression. . ." How do we KNOW this???!!! It certainly doesn't fit with my experience as a classroom teacher. I saw many IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans) from students from a higher SES, and my impression is that they occurred with higher frequency in higher SES cohorts than they did in lower SES cohorts in the same schools.
I question the appropriateness of sociologists making what seem to me to be clinical diagnoses. This reaction probably comes from hours of in-service meetings where we, as teachers, we reminded NOT to attach medical labels to children's behaviors.
Stepping back from my reactions to that sentence, I did arrive at some questions:
How does SES influence the interpretation of behavior: medicate for hyperactivity or discipline for "bad behavior"? Is there a cultural difference in how behavior is interpreted? Does the family SES influence the diagnosis of a medical condition? I am inclined to believe that higher SES parents may be more aggressive in pursuing a medical "explanation" for behavior, rather than allowing their children to be labeled as behavior problems.
Dr. Milkie's research will look at factors in the school environment that aggravate or ameliorate mental health issues, and the access to treatment, particularly as they are affected by the SES of the community.
I wonder how much stress the difference between cultural expectations of appropriate behavior at home and at school places on children, particularly young ones. Behavioral and achievement standards in public education in America these days seem (to me) to be based on middle-class values and traditions, particularly white middle-class society. The structure of the institution itself harks back to the industrial era, when schools provided supervision of industrial workers' children while they were at work, and sought to provide them with the skills necessary to be good workers in industrial settings. (I could get into nuances of the history of education, but that's not my focus here. . .) Working class and poverty level families expect different behaviors and place a different value on education than do middle and upper class families. Yet the children are expected to conform to the school's standards of behavior and achievement, or their behaviors are considered aberrant and in need of discipline.
No, I am not advocating lower standards based on familial SES. But I would advocate a recognition of the need to help students-and parents!-bridge the cultural gap, and a recognition that these standards are cultural, not absolute.
I look forward to the class discussion on this one!
My first gut-clenching reaction to the proposal came early in the abstract with the sentence that begins "Although we know that children from lower socio-economic status (SES) and minority backgrounds exhibit more externalizing problems like hyperactivity, and internalizing behaviors like anxiety and depression. . ." How do we KNOW this???!!! It certainly doesn't fit with my experience as a classroom teacher. I saw many IEPs (Individualized Educational Plans) from students from a higher SES, and my impression is that they occurred with higher frequency in higher SES cohorts than they did in lower SES cohorts in the same schools.
I question the appropriateness of sociologists making what seem to me to be clinical diagnoses. This reaction probably comes from hours of in-service meetings where we, as teachers, we reminded NOT to attach medical labels to children's behaviors.
Stepping back from my reactions to that sentence, I did arrive at some questions:
How does SES influence the interpretation of behavior: medicate for hyperactivity or discipline for "bad behavior"? Is there a cultural difference in how behavior is interpreted? Does the family SES influence the diagnosis of a medical condition? I am inclined to believe that higher SES parents may be more aggressive in pursuing a medical "explanation" for behavior, rather than allowing their children to be labeled as behavior problems.
Dr. Milkie's research will look at factors in the school environment that aggravate or ameliorate mental health issues, and the access to treatment, particularly as they are affected by the SES of the community.
I wonder how much stress the difference between cultural expectations of appropriate behavior at home and at school places on children, particularly young ones. Behavioral and achievement standards in public education in America these days seem (to me) to be based on middle-class values and traditions, particularly white middle-class society. The structure of the institution itself harks back to the industrial era, when schools provided supervision of industrial workers' children while they were at work, and sought to provide them with the skills necessary to be good workers in industrial settings. (I could get into nuances of the history of education, but that's not my focus here. . .) Working class and poverty level families expect different behaviors and place a different value on education than do middle and upper class families. Yet the children are expected to conform to the school's standards of behavior and achievement, or their behaviors are considered aberrant and in need of discipline.
No, I am not advocating lower standards based on familial SES. But I would advocate a recognition of the need to help students-and parents!-bridge the cultural gap, and a recognition that these standards are cultural, not absolute.
I look forward to the class discussion on this one!
SOCY 642-The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness
Last week's discussion opened with class attempts to identify and define characteristics of mental health and illness. This week's readings include Dr. Milkie's grant proposal to study social factors in children's mental health and several articles/book chapters about the field in general.
I am reminded of the overwhelm I felt my first week in my advanced-level Spanish courses some years ago. I could pretty much identify the words being used, but I couldn't process the ideas and make the words meaningful as quickly as they were coming at me. I had that sensation again last weekend, as I attempted to plow through the readings-especially since I was simultaneously attempting to keep my niece and nephews alive in a house that is no longer little kid-friendly.
Rather than creating one macro-post for all the readings. . .138 pages of intense "sociologese", I'm going to break my thoughts into separate posts for each reading. I may change this format as the semester goes on, but this will do for now.
I am reminded of the overwhelm I felt my first week in my advanced-level Spanish courses some years ago. I could pretty much identify the words being used, but I couldn't process the ideas and make the words meaningful as quickly as they were coming at me. I had that sensation again last weekend, as I attempted to plow through the readings-especially since I was simultaneously attempting to keep my niece and nephews alive in a house that is no longer little kid-friendly.
Rather than creating one macro-post for all the readings. . .138 pages of intense "sociologese", I'm going to break my thoughts into separate posts for each reading. I may change this format as the semester goes on, but this will do for now.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Welcome!
I've decided that it's time for another blog, since I doubt my family really wants to hear about all the details of my musings related to my sociology studies, and I'm certain my colleagues won't want all the family stories!
Given my need to verbalize in order to figure out what I'm thinking, I figured I'd go ahead and blog thoughts and questions and reading responses. Please feel free to comment, even to challenge my thoughts. I'm just getting started in this PhD process, and have lots to learn. Getting other people's ideas can only help. I'll leave this set up with automatic posting unless I have trouble with spamming, in which case I'll switch to moderating.
I will be sorting posts by the classes I'm taking and teaching. This semester I'm a teaching assistant for Sociology 100-the basic introductory course, and I'm taking Socy 601-Statistics I (basic Social Science statistical methods-one of the courses that I was looking for when I decided to go the whole way and do the PhD program rather than just taking a "few" classes), 642-Sociology of Mental Health and Illness (where do I fit on that scale???), and 620-Classical Theory.
Given my need to verbalize in order to figure out what I'm thinking, I figured I'd go ahead and blog thoughts and questions and reading responses. Please feel free to comment, even to challenge my thoughts. I'm just getting started in this PhD process, and have lots to learn. Getting other people's ideas can only help. I'll leave this set up with automatic posting unless I have trouble with spamming, in which case I'll switch to moderating.
I will be sorting posts by the classes I'm taking and teaching. This semester I'm a teaching assistant for Sociology 100-the basic introductory course, and I'm taking Socy 601-Statistics I (basic Social Science statistical methods-one of the courses that I was looking for when I decided to go the whole way and do the PhD program rather than just taking a "few" classes), 642-Sociology of Mental Health and Illness (where do I fit on that scale???), and 620-Classical Theory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)