Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy

Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy PDF Author: Anthony J. Marsella
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401092206
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Get Book Here

Book Description
Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships, sociocultural factors have still not been incorporated into existing biological and psychological perspectives on mental disorder and therapy. Psychiatry, the Western medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, has for the most part continued to ignore socio-cultural factors in its theoretical and applied approaches to the problem. The major reason for this is psychiatry's continued commitment to a disease conception of mental disorder which assumes that mental disorders are largely biologically-caused illnesses which are universally represented in etiology and manifestation. Within this perspective, mental disorders are regarded as caused by universal processes which lead to discrete and recognizable symptoms regardless of the culture in which they occur. However, this perspective is now the subject of growing criticism and debate.

Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy

Cultural Conceptions of Mental Health and Therapy PDF Author: Anthony J. Marsella
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401092206
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Get Book Here

Book Description
Within the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culture and mental health relationships. This interest has extended across many academic and professional disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, public health and social work, and has resulted in many books and scientific papers emphasizing the role of sociocultural factors in the etiology, epidemiology, manifestation and treatment of mental disorders. It is now evident that sociocultural variables are inextricably linked to all aspects of both normal and abnormal human behavior. But, in spite of the massive accumulation of data regarding culture and mental health relationships, sociocultural factors have still not been incorporated into existing biological and psychological perspectives on mental disorder and therapy. Psychiatry, the Western medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, has for the most part continued to ignore socio-cultural factors in its theoretical and applied approaches to the problem. The major reason for this is psychiatry's continued commitment to a disease conception of mental disorder which assumes that mental disorders are largely biologically-caused illnesses which are universally represented in etiology and manifestation. Within this perspective, mental disorders are regarded as caused by universal processes which lead to discrete and recognizable symptoms regardless of the culture in which they occur. However, this perspective is now the subject of growing criticism and debate.

Cultural Conceptions

Cultural Conceptions PDF Author: Valerie Hartouni
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 0816626235
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examines the meaning of "life" in an era of emerging biotechnology. What happens to prevailing beliefs about the uniqueness of individual life when life can be cloned? Or to traditional understandings of family relationships when a child can have up to five parents? These are some of the questions addressed by Valerie Hartouni in her consideration of the cultural effects of new reproductive technologies as reflected in video images, popular journalism, scientific debates, legal briefs, and policy decisions. In Cultural Conceptions, Hartouni tracks the circulation and communication of various myths, images, and stories pertaining to new reproductive technologies and their effects, both imagined and real, during the past two decades. While addressing topics ranging from surrogacy and cloning to adoption, ultrasound imaging, and abortion, Hartouni looks to American popular culture for clues to what these new -- and not so new -- reproductive practices tell us about issues of personhood. Hartouni investigates the emergence of new anxieties about the nature of selfhood as well as the recurrence of age-old myths regarding individuality, sexuality, property, and family. She argues that both are being played out in cultural contests over the meaning and organization of women's reproductive capacity. In her discussion of provocative issues such as The Bell Curve controversy and the Baby M. case, Hartouni traces the dialectic of crisis and containment unleashed by reproductive technologies. Ultimately, however, Cultural Conceptions argues that the anxieties that surround new reproductive technologies provide openings for alternative understandings and practices of life to emerge andchallenge those currently in place. A thoughtful, daring, and original look at this complex set of issues, Cultural Conceptions provides an much-needed guide to our nation's psyche as we approach the new millennium.

Conceptions

Conceptions PDF Author: Aditya Bharadwaj
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785332317
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book Here

Book Description
Infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in India lie at the confluence of multiple cultural conceptions. These ‘conceptions’ are key to understanding the burgeoning spread of assisted reproductive technologies and the social implications of infertility and childlessness in India. This longitudinal study is situated in a number of diverse locales which, when taken together, unravel the complex nature of infertility and assisted conception in contemporary India.

Cultural Software

Cultural Software PDF Author: J. M. Balkin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300084504
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book J. M. Balkin offers a strikingly original theory of cultural evolution, a theory that explains shared understandings, disagreement, and diversity within cultures. Drawing on many fields of study--including anthropology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, political theory, philosophy, social psychology, and law--the author explores how cultures grow and spread, how shared understandings arise, and how people of different cultures can understand and evaluate each other's views. Cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how--cultural software--in human minds, Balkin says. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, the author contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and partly inadequate to the pursuit of justice. Balkin presents numerous examples that illuminate the sources of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews. He argues that cultural understanding presupposes transcendent ideals and shows how both ideological analysis of others and ideological self-criticism are possible.

Cross-Cultural Analysis

Cross-Cultural Analysis PDF Author: Michael Minkov
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412992281
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 505

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first comprehensive and statistically significant analysis of the predictive powers of each cross-cultural model, based on nation-level variables from a range of large-scale database sources such as the World Values Survey, the Pew Research Center, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the UN Statistics Division, UNDP, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, TIMSS, OECD PISA. Tables with scores for all culture-level dimensions in all major cross-cultural analyses (involving 20 countries or more) that have been published so far in academic journals or books. The book will be an invaluable resource to masters and PhD students taking advanced courses in cross-cultural research and analysis in Management, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, and related programs. It will also be a must-have reference for academics studying cross-cultural dimensions and differences across the social and behavioral sciences.

Revolutionary Conceptions

Revolutionary Conceptions PDF Author: Susan E. Klepp
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807838713
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the Age of Revolution, how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, Susan E. Klepp demonstrates that many women--rural and urban, free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood. They asserted, or attempted to assert, control over their bodies, their marriages, and their daughters' opportunities. Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty, equality, and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates, in advice to friends and kin, in portraits, and in a gradual, even reluctant, shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity, fertility, family, and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic, they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but, Klepp argues, there was a women's revolution nonetheless.

Exploring Cultural Conceptions of the Transitions to Adulthood

Exploring Cultural Conceptions of the Transitions to Adulthood PDF Author: Nancy L. Galambos
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 116

Get Book Here

Book Description
The transition to adulthood has been studied for decades in terms of transition events such as leaving home, finishing education, and entering marriage and parenthood, but only recently have studies examined the conceptions of young people themselves on what it means to become an adult. The goal of this volume is to extend the study of conceptions of adulthood to a wider range of cultures. The chapters in this volume examine conceptions of adulthood among Israelis, Argentines, American Mormons, Germans, Canadians, and three American ethnic minority groups. There is a widespread emphasis across cultures on individualistic criteria for adulthood, but each culture has been found to emphasize culturally distinctive criteria as well. This volume represents a beginning in research on cultural conceptions of the transition to adulthood and points the way to a broad range of opportunities for future investigation. This is the 100th issue of the quarterly report New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development.

Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts

Ethnolinguistics and Cultural Concepts PDF Author: James W. Underhill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107378583
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Get Book Here

Book Description
'Ethnolinguistics' is the study of how language relates to culture and ethnicity. This book offers an original approach to ethnolinguistics, discussing how abstract concepts such as truth, love, hate and war are expressed across cultures and ethnicities. James W. Underhill seeks to situate these key cultural concepts within four languages (English, French, Czech and German). Not only do these concepts differ from language to language, but they go on changing over time. The book explores issues such as how far meaning is politically and culturally influenced, how far language shapes the thought of ethnic groups and how far their thought shapes language, and the role of individuals in the consolidation of cultural concepts. It offers a clear and thought-provoking account of how concepts are understood and will be welcomed by those working in the fields of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, semantics and pragmatics.

Conceptions of Giftedness

Conceptions of Giftedness PDF Author: Shane N. Phillipson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000106284
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book Here

Book Description
The effective education of gifted children is one of the most significant challenges facing educational systems in many countries around the world, made particularly difficult by the forces of globalization. Conceptions of Giftedness describes the unique and varied ways cultures conceive of giftedness. As language influences perception, different ideas of giftedness may embody different ways of thinking, especially in the areas of creativity and problem solving. This important new volume in special education encourages the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of our “intellectual diversity.” Contributing authors to this book are authorities in the field of gifted education, and represent a range of languages and cultures, including Western, Chinese, Japanese, Australian Aboriginal and Malay cultures. Each chapter describes giftedness from one cultural perspective within the global context, resulting in both local and global educational implications. Conceptions of Giftedness appeals to an international audience, and will serve as a primary and/or secondary resource for scholars, teachers, and undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in gifted education. Its distinctive universal perspective will attract sociolinguists and anthropologists, as well as educators.

Manhood in the Making

Manhood in the Making PDF Author: David D. Gilmore
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300050769
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book Here

Book Description
Offers a cross-cultural study of manhood as an achieved status, and looks at two androgynous cultures that are exceptions to the manhood archetype