AFFECTIVE
DISORDERS–
CONTINUED
Perez | LPA | February 23
Sociocultural
level of
analysis:
Social and
Cultural
Factors in
depression
• Brown and Harris (1978): Social Origins of Depression–
Conducted with women, found 29 of 32 women make
depressed when a severe life event occurred.
• Life events that resemble previous experiences are
more likely to lead to depression.
• Life events that are considered “severe,” according to
Brown and Harris:
– Lacking employment away from home.
– Absence of social support
– Having several young children at home
– Loss of mother at an early age
– History of childhood abuse
Sociocultural
level of
analysis:
Social and
Cultural
Factors in
depression
• Diathesis-Stress Model: Interactionist approach to
explaining psychological disorders. Claims that depression
may be the result of a hereditary predisposition.
• WHO looked into cultural symptomology:
– Sad
– Affect
– Loss of enjoyment
– Anxiety
– Tension
– Lack of energy
– Loss of interest
– Inability to concentrate
– Ideas of insufficiency, inadequateness, and worthlessness.
• Common symptoms across Iran, Japan, Canada, and
Switzerland.
Sociocultural
level of
analysis:
Social and
Cultural
Factors in
depression
• Kleinman: Somatization is a typical form of expression
in China the bodily symptoms of psychological
dysfunction are impossible to compare cross-culturally
because it may be experienced with substantially
different symptoms or behaviors in another culture.
– China: Lower back pain
– Western Culture: Feelings of pain or guilt
• Somatization Disorder is a mental disorder
characterized by recurring, multiple, and current,
clinically significant complaints about somatic
symptoms.
• Chinese rarely complain of feeling sad or depressed.
• Marsella: affective symptoms are typical of
individualistic cultures.
EATING
DISORDER
Eating
Disorders:
Bulimia
Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa: An eating disorder characterized by the
undertaking of binge-eating and then use compensatory
methods to prevent weight gain.
• National Institute of Mental Health: Between 2 & 3% of
women and .02-.03% of men in the US have been
diagnosed with Bulimia.
• Frude (1998): Female to Male Ratio of Bulimia sufferers is
approximately 10 Females to 1 Male.
• More than 5 million people are believed to experience an
eating disorder in the U.S. alone.
• Symptomology of Bulimia:
– Isolated episodes of binge-eating & purging
– Preoccupation with eating
– Idealization of thinness
– Fear of becoming fat
 Body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin is high in Iranian
Culture.
ABCS
SYMPTOMOLOGY
• A: Feelings of inadequacy, guilt, or shame
• B: recurrent episodes of binge eating; use of vomiting,
laxatives, exercise, or dieting to control weight.
• C: negative self-image; poor body image, tendency to
perceive events as more stressful than most people
would; perfectionism.
• S: Swollen salivary glands; erosion of tooth enamel;
stomach or intestinal problems and, in some cases,
heart problems.
ETIOLOGY
OF BULIMIA
Biological
• Strober (2000): found that first degree relatives of
women with bulimia nervosa are ten times more likely
than average to develop the disorder.
• Serotonin: Increased levels of serotonin stimulate the
medial hypothalamus and decrease food intake.
Smith(1990) found that when serotonin levels were
reduced in recovered bulimic patients engaged in
cognitive patterns that were related to eating disorders
(i.e., feeling fat).
Cognitive
• Body-Image distortion hypothesis (Bruch 1962): eating
disorder patients suffer from the delusion that they are
fat.
– Patients reflect their emotional appraisal rather than
their perceptual experience.
– Slade & Brodie (1994): those who suffer from an eating
disorder are in fact uncertain about the size and shape
of their own body.
• Gender Difference: Men generally select very similar
figures to their own sex, whereas women choose ideal
and attractive body shapes.
• Cognitive Disinhibition (Polivy and Herman): occurs
due to dichotomous thinking.
Sociocultural
• ”Perfect Body Figure” has changed over the years.
– 1950’s: Female sex symbols had much larger bodies
compared to present day
• A more rounded figure has been considered ideal in other
cultures, which suggests that the current position might
be open to change.
• People are constantly comparing themselves with
others Which leads to, standards of beauty becoming
increasingly unattainable-- particularly for women.
• Eating disorders can lead to depression, and begin with
the need for [women] to go on a diet.
• There is a worldwide cultural emphasis on thinness as the
ideal body shape.
• Sanders and Bazalgette (1993) study on dolls  Dolls
body types were transformed into human measurements
and found that the dolls had tiny hips and waists, with
greatly exaggerated inside leg measurements.