A sociological perspective on mental health : what is at stake ? The primary prevention of mental illness: a sociological perspective. To date, researchers have not given sufficient attention to how race, ethnicity, and culture are linked to one another and to mental health. 2003. 4th ed. J Health and Soc Behav 13:195–203, 1972. Discuss the functionalist perspective on illness in society, specifically the role the sick play in a specific society and how that role affects others.
13.1 Sociological Perspectives on Health and Health Care Learning Objective.
Sociological Perspectives of Health and Illness 3 actual health situation of migrants in Greece is presented as well as human rights framework related to the health issue of immigrants. Medicine The social institution that seeks to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness and to promote health in its various dimensions. This perspective asserts that mental health problems are caused by exposure to social stress (based on social statuses and earlier life experiences), as well as vulnerability to stress (a limited ability to cope because of low levels of social support, self-esteem, or mastery). Learning Objectives. The culmination of this perspective on the sociological study of mental illness came with the publication in 1939 of Faris and Dunham’s monograph on Mental Disorders in Urban Areas, a volume which, its title notwithstanding, focused primarily on Chicago See Faris and Dunham 1939; and for an attempt to generalize their findings to other cities, Schroeder 1942). An Overview of Sociological Perspectives on the Definitions, Causes, and Responses to Mental Health and Illness; By Allan V. Horwitz; Edited by Teresa L. Scheid, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; Book: A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health; Online publication: 05 June 2012 CrossRef Google Scholar. Table 15-2 summarizes four major sociological perspectives on health and illness. The Functionalist Perspective. There is clear evidence of mental health differences between social groups. Watt D, Buglass D. The effects of clinical and social factors on the discharge of psychiatric patients. Mental illness, as the eminent historian of psychiatry Michael MacDonald once aptly remarked, “is the most solitary of afflictions to the people who experience it; but it is the most social of maladies to those who observe its effects.” It is precisely the many social and cultural dimensions of mental illness, of course, that have made the subject of such compelling interest to sociologists. The growing racial and ethnic heterogeneity of the U.S. population will require mental health researchers to think more seriously about socioculural variation.