Katie Andrade
HSB4M
Mr. Nichols
22/11/2012
Case Study pg. 262:
An Anthropologist Studies the Tie Between Social Factors and Emotional WellBeing.
1. From a psychologist point of view using the school of thought,
behaviourism, the primary cause of Simin’s feelings is that she never
learned English and now she can't continue her work as a hairdresser in
Canada. Back in her home country, Simin’s was the executive director of
a hairdressing and beauty salon (Transitions in Society, pg. 264). She was
the director of a women’s association where she sat in parliament
(Transitions in Society, pg. 264). She was always very busy traveling with
work (Transitions in Society, pg. 264). She regrets not knowing English
because she could have continued her work as a hairdresser in Canada
and she feels like a nobody now (Transitions in Society, pg. 264.) The
theory of Behaviourism explains that identifying the factors that motivate
human behaviour, if psychologists can predict and control it, they can
learn to treat patients with behaviour problem (Transitions in Society, pg.
19). Simin’s feels like she can’t achieve anything in Canada and when she
says “now I feel like a nobody. My life is useless. I feel tired” (Transitions in
Society, pg. 264), the DSM-IV mapping of mental health would
automatically think she needed therapy (Transitions in Society, pg. 262).
But therapy is not what Simin’s needs; she just needs to feel included in
Canadian society to allow her to achieve what she wants. Using the
theory of Behaviourism, it would allow physiologists to look at Simin’s
behaviour and identify that the reason she feels like a nobody in
Canadian society is because she doesn’t know English which
automatically excludes her from our culture. Health literacy is a term used
that shows that patients must have significant reading and
comprehension skills to be able to understand what doctors tell them
(Transitions in Society, pg. 261.) Simin’s lacks health literacy because she
doesn’t speak English which creates a significant barrier for her to get the
proper health care she needs. Behaviourism is definitely the way to
approach Simin’s behaviours because it will allow psychologist’s to
understand Simin’s feelings better and that will allow them to help her
Katie Andrade
HSB4M
Mr. Nichols
22/11/2012
more instead of automatically concluding that she is a patient for mental
health.
2. As an Anthropologist using the school of thought functionalism as my point
of view, what Dossa means when she says there is a little chance that
Iranian immigrant women will become a part of the “Canadian
landscape” is that she believes based on their immigrant background,
they will never be a functional member of the Canadian society. She
supports this by saying that “their structural and social exclusion is intense”
(Transitions in Society, pg. 263) and Simin’s case supports this because
now that she lives in Canada, she can no longer be a hairdresser because
she can’t speak English which isolates her from Canadian society
(Transitions in Society, pg. 264). The school of thought Functionalism
explains that for one to understand a culture it is necessary to investigate
the social functions of institutions and to see if these institutions contribute
to the overall stability of a society (Transitions in Society, pg. 13.) Let’s take
the Canadian health care system as an example of an institution. Tommy
Douglas, a Canadian citizen, says “that it is a value in Canada for doctors
to help everyone” (SICKO.) Since our healthcare is free at the point of
purchase that shows that any Canadian citizen can afford health care.
However, the main barrier for immigrant woman is health literacy and this
barrier goes against Tommy Douglas’s statement. Health literacy means
that patients need strong comprehension skills to get the help they need
from doctors (Transitions in Society, pg. 261.) However, these immigrant
women don’t speak English so they can’t understand Canadian doctors
when they are trying to prescribe something to them or when they are
reading a label on medication which isolates them from getting the help
they need. Taking a functionalist point of view, I would say that the
Canadian health care institution is not meeting the needs of the whole
society because of the barrier, health literacy. For Tommy Douglas’s
statement about the values of Canada’s health care to be true, the
Canadian health care system needs to make sure that all of their patients
can understand what they are telling them about treatment and
medication. However, the health care institution isn’t the only institution
setting up barriers for these immigrant women; it’s every institution in
Katie Andrade
HSB4M
Mr. Nichols
22/11/2012
Canada. Simin’s, one of the Iranian women, can’t speak English which
limits her from getting a job as a hairdresser which isolates her from the
“Canadian landscape” because that is our 1st language and she
wouldn’t be able to understand her clients. This is why it is so hard for these
women to feel a part of the “Canadian landscape” because they are
excluded every day from social institutions because they don’t speak the
language we speak and they have a different background.
3. As an Anthropologist using the school of thought functionalism as my
point of view, the Anthropologists goal in presenting the stories of
immigrant Iranian woman is to show that the structural factors of exclusion
are partly to blame for the barriers these immigrant women face in
achieving mental health (Transitions in Society, pg. 262) The school of
thought Functionalism explains that the only way we can understand a
culture, it is necessary to investigate the social functions of institutions and
to see if these institutions contribute to the overall stability of a society
(Transitions in Society, pg. 13) The theory of functionalism supports the
anthropologists goal because it explains that the institutions in Canadian
culture are not meeting the needs of the immigrant woman and are
excluding them from becoming a functional member of society. The
Anthropologists goal is to show that not all Canadian citizens feel
accepted in Canadian structural institution’s which is mostly due to the
fact that they can’t speak our 1st language, English. An example of an
institution excluding immigrant women is the health care system because
of the barrier Health literacy which is when patients can comprehend
what doctors tell them (Transitions in Society, pg. 261). However, since
these women can’t understand English, they are unable to comprehend
what doctors are telling them or what medication says. That is why the
Anthropologist is trying to raise awareness that something needs to be
done to make these women feel more included in Canadian society
instead of automatically saying they are a patient for mental health.
4. As an Anthropologist using the school of thought functionalism as my
point of view, I see that the reason the participants of Dossa’s studies
Katie Andrade
HSB4M
Mr. Nichols
22/11/2012
rejected the label of “mental illness” as a form of treatment that the
Canadian medical system offered them is because they aren’t actually
mentally ill for the reasons doctors think they are. These Iranian immigrant
woman don’t actually have a mental disease, they are just isolated from
Canadian society which is what makes them act “depressed.” For
example, Simin’s used to be a popular hairdresser back in Iran and when
she moved to Canada, she was no longer able to be a hairdresser
because she didn’t know how to speak our 1st language, English which
isolated her from getting a job (Transitions in Society, pg. 264.) This made
Simin’s feel isolated in Canadian society and made her feel, as she
quotes, “like a nobody” (Transitions in Society, pg. 264.) When the
Canadian medical system tells these Iranian woman that they have a
“mental illness” and need treatment for it, they just walk away because
that is not the problem they are facing. The school of thought
Functionalism explains that the only way we can understand a culture, it is
necessary to investigate the social functions of institutions and to see if
these institutions contribute to the overall stability of a society (Transitions
in Society, pg. 13) Using the theory of functionalism, I would say that the
health care system is not meeting the needs of society because they
don’t know how to go about treating these immigrant woman and by just
assuming they are mentally ill, it creates a barrier in the system. Like Dossa
pointed out, the medical system doesn’t recognize the larger social
realities face by immigrant woman (Transitions in Society, pg. 262) and
functionalism would support this to show that Canadian institutions, like
the medical system, aren’t facing the needs of these immigrant women
which then create a barrier. The medical system needs to understand and
recognize that social things these woman face in Canada, like not being
able to speak English so they can’t find a reasonable job, and learn to
help them out in those ways instead of automatically concluding they are
mentally ill. Using functionalism, I can see that in this case that Canadian
institutions doesn’t contribute to the overall stability of Canadian society
which is why things need to change within these institutions to help these
immigrant woman feel more included in Canadian culture.
Bibliography
Bain, Colin M.. Transitions in society: the challenge of change. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Sicko. Dir. Michael Moore. Perf. Michael Moore. Wide Pictures :, 2009. DVD.
Katie Andrade
HSB4M
Mr. Nichols
22/11/2012