Behavior and experience are both contagious and are contingent upon the surroundings one resides in. This is evident after reading Watter’s essay on The Mega Marketing of Depression in Japan as well as after reading Gladwell’s essay on The Power of Context. Both of these works illustrate how behavior and experience could be amended. Specifically, how behavior and experience are contagious through the use of applying specific methods like the Broken Windows Theory, the Law of a Few, Stickiness Factor, and Mega Marketing in order to alter peoples behaviors and experiences.
In Gladwell’s essay, the crucial element that illustrates that human behavior is contagious is the Broken Windows theory. The Broken Windows Theory is the idea that
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Originally, Japan had a completely different emotional experience of depression before being heavily influenced by GlaxoSmithKline’s mega marketing campaign. For example, a word association experiment on depression was done by a Japanese researcher named Junko Tanaka-Matsumi, who compared Japanese college students to caucasian American students. In particular, the research concluded that Japanese students were looking outward whereas the American students were looking inward to describe depression. Specifically, the Japanese associated words such as Rain, and Dark to describe depression whereas the American students used words such as sad or lonely (521). This demonstrated a strong contrast and disparity in how depression was truly experienced in Japan versus in America. GlaxoSmithKline had a hill to climb to change the experience of depression in Japan due to the stark differences in the experience of depression. But, the mega marketing efforts in Japan by GlaxoSmithKline were successful. Particularly, it was successful by using tools that were actually discussed in Gladwell’s work like the Stickiness Factor and The Law of a Few to advance its agenda. The stickiness factor came into play with the terminology of depression. The accepted term in Japan for depression was Ustbuyo which …show more content…
The Tipping Point is the belief that “an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment” (155). In essence, its the idea that a seemingly minute altering of an environment could cause a drastic change in that environment. This could be applied to the Mega Marketing in Japan. Specifically, research was released in the Japan Times that “"90 percent of those who commit suicide are considered to suffer from one kind of mental illness or another, and 70 percent of suicides are attributable to depression” (526). At that time, there was a suicide epidemic in Japan so the article in the Japan Times greatly impacted it’s citizens since they were culturally affected by the suicide epidemic. This explanation of the cause of the high suicide rates lead to an understanding that treatment and medicine were the best options in combating depression and “tipped” the experience of depression in Japan into one that resembles the western ideology of
Depression is considered a mental disorder that can lead an individual to commit suicide, experiment fatal risk that can injure his or her life. Furthermore, an individual feeling depressed lacks motivation to do anything progressive with his or her life. With that said, these individuals sometime gives up interest in activities that were once enjoyable, gets in a phase were he or she loses appetite, begins to overeat, loses concentration on what he or she is trying to complete, and becomes indecisiveness. Moreover, depression is a condition that makes an individual feel miserable, have no motivation to any activity that can influence his or her views, actions, welfare. Furthermore, depressed individuals at times may feel sad, apprehensive, desperate, destitute, useless, awkward, short-tempered, and agitated. In addition, the melancholy of depression is categorized by a greater concentration and length that is attached to severe symptoms. According to Wedding & Corsini (2014) states, “Physical disease, severe and acute stress, and chronic stress area also precipitating factors” (Pp. 240) of an individu...
Turow wants to bring to light what happens behind the scenes, and why the benefits of technology also come with a cost that many are not aware of. He does this through a hypothetical that involves the lifestyle of a family. They eat fast food, are of lower income, and have issues with weight. Advertisers use this information to direct coupons to fast food restaurants to the family, show ads for used cars, and direct diet pills and gym advertisements to the females of the family (Turow 229). This is an effective illustration and lead in to the bulk of Turow’s essay and argument. Turow argues that while some might see this targeted campaign as beneficial, he goes a step further and extends the hypothetical. In this situation the members of this family talk with other members of society and find they have a different advertisement experience compared to them. This leads to a feeling of comparison, with directed advertisements dictating an individual’s place in society. The strategy behind using a hypothetical situation makes the information not only easier to digest, but it makes the impact feel more personal. This point addresses the sociological and emotional impact that such advertisements can have, and is a logical step from the information that is
Kitanaka introduced two ideas Endogenous Depression and typus melancholicus. Endogenous depression is a “crippling type of psychosis believed to be caused by a genetic abnormality” (Watters 520). It was compared to an internal ticking time bomb that would go off let depression run its course. Introduced by Hubert Tellenbach, Typus melancholicus was a personality type that fit the behavior of Japanese individuals. “Typus melancholicus mirrored a particularly respected personality style in Japan: those who were serious, diligent, and thoughtful and expressed great concern for the welfare of other individuals and the society as a whole” (Watters 520). It’s reasonable to believe that this personality type is one of the reasons for depression in Japan. Sadness or depression was viewed as a way of creating stronger connections with family and their community. Kirmayer noted that personal hardships build character and connected it to the “Buddhist belief that suffering is more enduring and more definitive of the human experience than transient happiness…” (Watters 522). Therefore the Japanese culture admired the melancholic personality type and saw sadness as an enlightened state. The reality of depression in their culture wasn’t as serious as the western culture because depression was seen as an inevitable characteristic of life. The
The essay, “The Problem with New Data”, is written by Jon Carroll. In this essay he talks about the human behavior and how humans react differently with others. He explains how humans change their decisions quickly because they are weak. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how humans change their behavior toward certain things. Carroll argues that people belief and government pressure are the main reasons why people do not change their psychology and the way they think. Carroll points out these key points because these are the major issues of our society and what most people are having a hard time dealing with. He argues on the thinking and weaknesses of people and why they do not want to change those things.
The dominant biomedical model of health does not take into consideration lay perspectives (SITE BOOK). Lay perspectives go into detail about ordinary people’s common sense and personal experiences. A cultural perspective, like the Hmong cultures perspective on health, is considered a lay perspective. Unlike the Hmong culture, where illness is viewed as the imbalance between the soul and the body, the dominant biomedical model of health views health in terms of pathology and disease (SITE THE BOOK). Although the Hmong culture considers spiritual and environmental factors, the dominant biomedical model of health only looks at health through a biological perspective, and neglects the environment and psychological factors that affect health. Depression in the U.S. is a medical illness caused by neurochemical or hormonal imbalance and certain styles of thinking. Depression is the result of unfortunate experiences that the brain has difficulties processing (SITE 7). Unlike the Hmong culture, where Hmong’s who are diagnosed with depression report the interaction between a spirit, people diagnosed with depression in the Western culture report themselves to having symptoms such as feeling tired, miserable and suicidal (SITE
Measuring depression in different culture is a complicated task, “there is a need for tools for multicultural mental health primary in order to promote communication and improve clinical diagnosis” (Lehti et al, 2009). This results indicated that there is still a need for a tool to accurately measure depression in patients from different countries/cultures. Each culture is unique in its very own, and certain abnormal behavior can only be found in certain culture. For instance, in western society we have the histrionic personality disorder, in which an individual desperately seek out attention, while in Japan, there is a phenomenon called “hikikomori” is an abnormal behavior where a person would go great length to avoid any social contract at any means. This abnormal behavior is similar to the avoidant personality disorder, however hikikomori is more severe. “Hikikomori is used to refer to group of young people who have withdrawn from social life and have had no relationships outside of family for a period in excess of six months.” (Furlong, 2008). The long period of time to be withdrawn from society is quite serious and will have many psychological damage. Another factor that is important when looking at abnormal behavior is the gender. The gender of an individual have play an important role in shaping the diagnosis and the diagnostic feature of these symptoms.
Everyone is in a consumer’s hypnosis, even if you think you are not. When you go to a store and pick one brand over the other, you are now under their spell. The spell/ hypnosis is how companies get you to buy there things over other companies and keep you hooked. Either through commercials or offering something that you think will make your life better by what they tell you. For example, you go to the store and you need to buy water, once you get to the lane and look, there is 10 different types of water you can buy. You go pick one either because the picture is better or you seen the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult You’re in” and Benoit Denizet-Lewis writer of “ The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. They both talk about similar topics that go hand and hand with each other, they talk about the consumers “Dream”, how companies recruit the consumers, who cult members really are, how people are forced to wear something they don’t want, and about slackers.
40 percent of the world’s population is suffering from depression and their disease can be traced back to a genetic link, the remaining 60 percent of the population that suffers is due to environmental factors.
Gladwell uses a wide variety of different examples that range from marriages to Law enforcement and everywhere in between. He seeks to revolutionize the way we attack problems
Antidepressants are a prescription drug now used by people of all ages. They have become a part of society, therefore, taking antidepressants is not frowned upon. Antidepressants are used to make people feel “happier” and not to feel sadness. This is shown in the dystopian society in the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932. In that society the people use soma, a well-known drug, to make them feel no pain and are conditioned to think soma fixes everything. Helmholtz and Bernard two main characters, do not take it because they want to be able to see the world for what it is. They also do not want soma to change how they feel; they want to appreciate nature. In addition Lenina and Henry love taking soma because then they cannot feel any pain, they are just happy all the time. In our society, people think that antidepressants will make them feel no pain and that these medications will fix all of their problems. Antidepressants have a negative impact on society today as well as in the book Brave New World.
America’s obesity rates and depression rates continue to proportionally rise every year compared to the rest of the world (3). Is a Western Diet, which is a diet that mainl...
This ameliorates the impact of unpleasant events and reduces the possibility of getting a mood disorder, diminishing the consumption of drugs. Gilbert explores some experience—failed marriages and lost jobs for example—that is able to trigger psychological defenses and shift the blame onto somebody else so as to make people feel better. “When experiences make us feel sufficiently unhappy, the psychological immune system cooks facts and shifts blame in order to offer us a more positive view” (Gilbert 136). The phrase “cook facts” means playing around with facts and fabricating evidence. Gilbert points out that it is not that case that the psychological defense is triggered whenever people have a sense of depression, resentment, vexation, or dissatisfaction; in other words, the psychological immune system falsifies facts for the purpose of delighting people only when there are large-scale assaults on their happiness. Likewise, Watters mentions that corporations utilize marketing strategies in order to alter and manipulate consumers’ attitude towards depression. Kirmayer’s presentation conveys that “cultural beliefs about depression and the self are malleable and responsive to messages that can be exported from one culture to another.” (Watters 519). With the expansion of cultural exchanges in the world, how people consider
Clinical depression is very common. Over nine million Americans are diagnosed with clinical depression at some point in their lives. Many more people suffer from clinical depression because they do not seek treatment. They may feel that depression is a personal weakness, or try to cope with their symptoms alone. On the other hand, some people are comfortable with admitting their symptoms and seeking help. Such a discrepancy may account for the differences in reported cases of depression between men and women, which indicate that more than twice the numbers of women than men are clinically depressed. According to the numbers of reported cases of depression, 25% of women and 10% of men will have one or more episodes of clinical depression during their lifetimes.
Depression is well known for its mental or emotional symptoms. Symptoms for depression include: persistently sad or unhappy mood, loss of interest or pleasure in previously enjoyable activities, difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions, anxiety, feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness, and thoughts of death or dying. “People who have endured a major depressive episode describe the experience as a descent into t...
Depression can affect anyone, being rich, poor, young, old, race, or religion (D-1). Because depression is a medical condition dealing with the functioning of brain chemicals and emotion, that make any person susceptible. Common causes for depression include death, romance divorce, or moving (D-2). Pain is caused from a displeasure from something that is important to the person suffering. Divorce rates are rising, making it no surprise that people are suffering due to a relationship problem. Being overweight can be a degrading trait, especially to teens and young adults because of them importance of appearance (D-3). Obesity in America is becoming more prevalent, therefore making the chance of depression and suicide much higher for many more pe...