Social Psychology:
Sociological Perspectives
David E. Rohall
Melissa A. Milkie
Jeffrey W. Lucas
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Social Psychology:
Sociological Perspectives
Chapter 8: Mental Health and
Illness
The Sociology of Mental Health
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The sociology of mental health is the
study of the social arrangements that
affect mental illness and its consequences
Psychologists typically emphasize internal
processes
Biologists focus on the role of
physiological aspects of mental illness
Sociologists do not discount biology and
psychology in studying mental illness but
they believe a social lens is critical to
gaining the whole picture of mental illness
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: The Social Construction of Mental
Health
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Some sociologists focus on the socially
constructed nature of what we call “mental
illness”
They emphasize historical changes that
have led to a redefinition of mental illness
or current-day examples of how groups
work together to create new labels for
mental illnesses
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Madness and Civilization
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Michel Foucault (1965) was a French
social philosopher who studied the
meaning of mental illness through history
1656 was an important date in the history
of madness because that is the year that
the “Hôpital General” opened in Paris
In the age of reason, people who thought
or acted unreasonable needed to be
separated from the masses
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: The Medicalization of Deviance
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Researchers with a constructionist
perspective focus on the medicalization
of deviance, ways in which mental health
problems have come boundaries of
medicine
Historically, three forces have driven what
aspects of social life become medicalized:
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The power and authority of the medical
profession
Activities of social movements and interest
groups
Directed organizational on professional
activities
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Modern Forces of Medicalization
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Modern interest groups influencing the
medicalization process are more economic
than social in nature, including:
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Health maintenance organizations (HMOs)
The pharmaceutical industry
Consumers
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: The Social Control of Deviance
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Thomas Szasz argued that mental illness
is a myth, that it is socially constructed like
any other aspect of social life
Psychoanalysis is a moral rather than a
medical endeavor
Mental illness differs from criminal
deviance in two ways:
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Rather than being fined or punished for deviant
behavior, mental-health deviants are “treated”
Mental-health deviance is more controlled by
the client whereas criminal deviance is
controlled by the state
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SI: Labeling Theory and Deviance
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Labeling theory emphasizes the processes
by which an individual comes to accept a
negative characteristic as part of her
identity
In the case of medical deviance, this
process may include accepting the labels
associated with mental illnesses (e.g., an
alcoholic or someone with ADHD)
As applied to mental health, labeling
theory emphasizes different agents of
social control employed to segregate and
label criminal versus ill groups
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: The Social Causes of Stress
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Those using the social structure and
personality approach have identified a
number of patterns related to stress
The stress process model attempts to
help us understand the social connections
among stressful events and strains, the
resources people bring to deal with
problems, and the outcomes they
experience
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Stressors and Outcomes
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Stressors can come in at least two forms:
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Negative life events
Chronic strains
Negative life events and chronic strains
produce poor mental health
Typical outcomes include emotional
disorders like depression and behavioral
disorders like alcohol or drug abuse
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Mediating and Moderating
Conditions
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People have different resources with which
to manage stressful events:
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Personal resources
Social support or social resources
Personal and social resources can act as
moderators or mediators in the stress
process
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Gender and Social Support
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Social support and other resources are not
distributed evenly across the population
Research shows that men have larger,
less close networks of relationships than
women; women have closer relationships
with fewer people
These differences may reflect structural
differences in men’s and women’s lives
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: The Epidemiology of Mental
Health
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The last component of the stress-process
model involves individuals’ socioeconomic
characteristics
The epidemiology of mental health
emphasizes the distribution of mental
health conditions in society
Different socioeconomic characteristics are
associated with different levels of mental
health problems
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Race, Class, and Mental Health
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The prevalence of mental health disorders
is inversely related to economic status
Some research shows that African
Americans are more prone to mental
illness than European Americans and
Latino Americans
These differences may be due to stresses
associated with racism in society
The differences may also be due to the
higher concentration of Blacks in poverty
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Gender, Family, and Well-Being
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Married people are generally happier,
healthier, and financially better off than
single, divorced, and widowed people
The positive effects of marriage on health
and well-being may reflect access to social
support or the committed nature of marital
relationships
Women report higher levels of depression
and other emotional disorders than men
Men are more likely to exhibit behavioral
disorders such as alcoholism
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Community and Neighborhood
Contexts
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Communities and neighborhoods
represent environmental and/or social
conditions that affect most or all their
residents
There is some evidence that there is a
malaise or psychological state of
unhappiness associated with particularly
rural or urban areas reflecting lack of
stimulation or poor living conditions
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
SSP: Urban Malaise and Ambient
Hazards
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Poor economic conditions produce poor
mental health through exposure to
ambient hazards, exposure to crime, poor
living conditions, and lack of services
Ambient hazards associated with urban life
reflect both negative life events and
chronic strains
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Mental Health as a Status
Characteristic
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According to the group processes
perspective, people set up different
expectations of individuals’ performance
depending on their status characteristics
Mental health can represent a status that
influences group interactions
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Mental Illness as a Diffuse Status
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Wagner (1993) argued that mental illness
can act as a diffuse status characteristic
under three conditions:
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The illness must be considered something that
is unwanted or less desirable than other states
Mental illness must also be associated with
other characteristics that are tied to the illness
There must be general expectations
associated with a person’s ability to perform in
a group
Under these conditions, mentally illness
can have a negative impact on interactions
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Mental Health and Stigma
People labeled with mental illness
can react by using techniques such
as passing and covering
 Passing and covering are ways in
which individuals manage their selfconcepts in public venues
 From this perspective, many mental
illnesses can be covered quite well
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Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: The Career of the Mental Patient
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Ervin Goffman (1961) studied the ways
that mentally-ill patients managed stigma
in asylums
He described mental institutions as total
institutions, places where individuals are
required to isolate themselves from the
rest of society
The goal of the asylum is to force the
patient to adjust her senses of self
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
GP: Coping with Confinement
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Goffman showed that patients coped with
confinement in many different ways:
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Conversion
Intransigence
Withdrawal
Colonization
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007
Chapter 8: Bringing It All Together
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Mental health can be treated as a form of
deviance from the norms of society
Symbolic interactionists examine how
mental illness has changed meaning in
society over time
Social structure and personality scholars
focus on the societal sources of stress and
access to resources to cope with stresses
Group processes scholars emphasize the
way that mental health can serve as a
status characteristic
Copyright (c) Allyn Bacon 2007