One of the most shocking facts I read today is that mental health issues affect 1 in 4 people worldwide. Mental health is a person's emotional, psychological, and social well-being that affects how they think, feel, and act. As someone who suffers from a severe anxiety disorder, a mental illness, it is both comforting and terrifying that the numbers are that high. It is comforting to know I am not alone in this awful illness, but also scary that so many people suffer from an illness that has such a stigma that no one talks about it. Mental health is a social issue because social factors shape it and affect various social groups differently. I strongly feel that if more people would talk about the different mental illnesses and the different …show more content…
There are three main sociological perspectives: Structural Functional, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interaction, Let's look into how they view mental health. Structural Functional believes that social structures, like family and work, help society function, but mental or ill health impairs people's ability to perform their societal roles. Conflict Theory views society as a competition with limited resources and is interested in inequalities that exist based on race, ethnicity, gender, and age. They believe people with fewer resources are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health illnesses. Symbolic Interaction focuses on how people act and the meaning they assign to their actions and symbols. They focus on the specific meanings and causes people attribute to mental illness, like self-stigma, fear of rejection, and feeling the need to hide their condition. Each social perspective reflects the work of major theorists and their contributions to the field. Structural functionalism is the framework for building the theory that views society as a complex system of interrelated parts that work together to promote stability and solidity. The work of several theorists has contributed to structural functionalism, including Emile Durkheim, who said the human mind's systems of mental classification are from the existing social structures. Robert Merton pointed
Many people suffer with mental illness in today’s society. Mental illness comes in many forms and different levels of severity. In this essay, I will discuss my own personal experience with mental illness and how it relates to socialization, sociological theories, social determinants of health, trauma and perceptions of mental illness in the media. Throughout my short life, I have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. I was first
Understanding health and illness through the lenses of cure, healing, disease, and illness reveals the complexity of these concepts beyond mere biological definitions. The interplay between the biomedical and sociological perspectives provides a comprehensive view of health that acknowledges both the physiological and experiential aspects of being unwell. Cure and Disease: The Biomedical Perspective From a biomedical perspective, disease is defined as a pathological condition diagnosed based on
former troubled teen learns to come to terms with her past, she works as a supervisor and acts as a guide for troubled teens at an at-risk group home. Furthermore, in analyzing this film from a medical sociological perspective, I will focus on the characters and their experience of being a mental patient. Given there were many characters who were deemed as mentally ill, I will focus my character analyzation on Jayden. In discussing Jayden, I will also compare her experience and the experience of
Mental Illness Analysis in: Call Me Crazy: A Five Film Movies portray mental illness in multitude of ways, most of the films portray it subtly but some portray a mental illness so explicitly, in order to entertain and simultaneously educate the audience on the illness. One of the films that explicitly highlights different mental illnesses is Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (Call Me Crazy). This movie showcases the lives of five people dealing with mental illness or having a close relative dealing with
Sociological study creates a certain sociological perspective which is used for analysis and developing an understanding on important health issues in contemporary society. This is achieved as the study encapsulates both the biomedical and sociological approaches to health, which are analysed comparatively. The biomedical approach is a conceptual model that only includes biological and technological factors and focuses on diagnosis and treatment of individual body parts, i.e. the body is a ‘machine’
This essay will include definitions and concepts of how theorists perceive sociology. Sociological thinking will be explained and discussed as to why it is important and how it can contribute to certain questions within society. In addition, this essay will look at the debate of whether Sociology and other social sciences should be considered as a notable and valuable recognition of academic discipline. According to Giddens & Sutton 7th edn. (2013), Sociology is ‘defined as the scientific study
Introduction to Understanding Health and Illness from a Sociological Perspective The ideas of health and sickness are complex and go beyond whether a disease is present or not. The sociological approach places emphasis on the social experiences and institutions that impact health, whereas the biological model concentrates on identifying and treating sickness. In order to comprehend the wider implications of the many yet related notions of cure, healing, sickness, and illness, this research applies social viewpoints
National Institute of Mental Health defines mental illness as a disruption in neural circuits. Mental illness is a social phenomenon which has been around since the prehistoric times. It is unequally distributed across social, ethnic and gender groups in the UK. The explanations for these differences rest upon biological, economic, cultural and institutional factors. Despite these, many medical advancements have made to treat mental illnesses. Looking at the history of mental illness, it was a widespread
which social structure and institutions affect our everyday life. Sociological imagination was founded by C. Wright mills in the 1950`s it is an overall understanding of that some of the things that happen in society may lead to a particular outcome. Mills said it is “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and wider society.” sociological imagination can also be defined as the ability to look at how sociological situations can unfold due to how everyone is different. The way we
The biological, psychological, and sociological influences on the life and killings of Jeffrey Dahmer will be discussed into details under this topic. I will be elaborating on all three and try to cover all the relevant issues under this topic. I will adopt a slogan nature versus nurture in my discussion on how this affected Jeffrey in his dealings. Therefore the nature, nurture, nativist, environmentalist aspect will be handled into details. I will be discussing this in argumentative form to bring
Mental Health Equality People with serious socio-emotional and emotional disturbances are challenged in many aspects of life. Historically people of color with serious mental health related issues had little assistance and chances to having their needs met equally to Whites. In order to properly or adequately address the emotional and mental wellbeing of everyone on an equal basis, the stigma association must be removed from people of color. Mental Health Perspective In order to function well
Sociologists are mainly concerned with the social production of diseases rather than focusing on the biological causes of diseases. According to sociologist, illness can be sociologically explained by focusing on political, social, cultural and economic environment. Hence, from a sociological perspective social, cultural and economic conditions are the root cause of development of diseases rather than biological factor. At the same time, there is always a situation of conflict between
standardised system of mental health classification forms an essential role in conceptualising a patient’s problem, predicting the treatments which are most likely to be effective, and in conducting valid scientific research in order to help others who have similar problems. On the other hand, many others consider psychiatric diagnoses to be no more than a label, which lacks scientific and predictive legitimacy and serves only to stigmatise and trivialise those who suffer from mental disorders. Medicalisation
Mental health describes a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of a mental disorder. From the perspective of 'positive psychology' or 'holism', mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life, and create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Mental health can also be defined as an expression of emotions, and as signifying a successful adaptation to a range of demands. Positive mental health is more than the absence of a mental
At any one time, one in four people experience mental health problems, it is one of the biggest social issues in the UK today, affecting how we think, act and feel, determining how situations such as stress are handled, the choices we make and the way in which we relate to others (Mind, 2013). Mental health issues can have high costs for the individuals, their families and can also impact on national prosperity and well-being. Mental health issues account for an increasing share of the proportion