Ethnocentrism: The Correlation Between Culture And Mental Health

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How we perceive ourselves is, in a way, dictated to what our culture believes. But how could we know differently? Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to the preconceptions originating from the standards of the culture we grew up with. You might visit another country and judge their culture either positively or negatively based off of what you already believe is "normal" or "right." That is a great reason to go and explore our world and learn about other cultures. The world we live in is more than just our little universe that we know and are comfortable with. It's all perspective. Alright, now that I have reminded you that your way of life is not the same for others on the other side of the globe, can we agree that difference is ok and one is not necessarily better than another? Although, I think it's perfectly ok to compare cultures and beliefs and recognize flaws within your own culture and in others. Keeping an open mind is beneficial in life because after all, we all grew up with social norms and standards based off of our surroundings which is different for everyone.

Now what does any of that have to do with mental health?

If you think about it, the reason why culture and mental health have such a strong correlation makes so much sense. In individualistic cultures where personal best and personal achievements …show more content…

One more thing I would like to mention is depression. Depression affects such a large amount of our population and is not something to take lightly. But what I found particularly interesting is the idea of "luxury depression." America has high numbers of people with depression, and is a leading country with reports of depression. American's in general live comfortable lives and experience "luxury depression." While in other countries, depression is not as common simply because those people literally trying to survive. So who has time for

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