Special fields of psychology
into agreement with how he has just acted toward its members.
Social Affiliation, Power, and Influence. The factors that govern
whether and with whom people will affiliate, as well as whether and how
they will attempt to influence or be influenced by others, have
received much attention by social psychologists. Researchers have
determined, for example, that if people are unsure of how they should
feel or behave in response to a new or unpleasant situation, they will
seek the company of others who may be able to provide the lacking
information. Social psychologists have also found that firstborn and
only children are generally more inclined to join groups throughout
their lives than are those born later.
Group Structure and Functioning. Social psychologists have studied many
issues related to questions of how the group and the individual affect
one another, including problems of leadership functions, styles, and
effectiveness. Social psychologists investigate the conditions under
which people or groups resolve their conflicts cooperatively or
competitively and the many consequences of those general modes of
conflict resolution. Research is conducted also to determine how the
group induces conformity and how it deals with deviant members.
Personality and Society. Some social psychologists are particularly
concerned with the development and consequences of stable individual
differences among people. Differences in the degree of achievement
motivation have been found to be measurable and to have important
consequences for how a person behaves in various social situations.
Systems of attitudes toward authority, such as the notion of the
authoritarian personality, have been found to relate to attitudes
toward ethnic minorities and to certain aspects of social behavior. A
personality syndrome known as Machiavellianism, named after the Italian
political philosopher Niccolт Machiavelli, has been used to predict the
social manipulativeness of people in interaction and their ability to
dominate certain interpersonal situations.
Investigative Techniques
Numerous kinds of research methods and techniques are being used in social
psychology. The tradition of theory-based investigation remains strong in
the discipline. In recent years rigorously exact mathematical models of
social behavior have been used increasingly in psychological studies. Such
models are projections, based on theory and in arithmetic detail, of social
behavior in a possible system of social relationships.
Other techniques include the questionnaire and the interview, both used
widely in public opinion polls and studies of consumer preferences. These
two methods pose a considerable challenge to investigators. The kind of
control of the environment that is possible in the laboratory is not
available in the field, and the effects of subtle variables that can be
observed in experiments are easily obscured by other variables that may
exist in natural environments.
Frequently, behavior in natural settings is systematically observed, or
computers are programmed to simulate social behavior. Special techniques
are used for analysis of statistics and other data and for attitude
measurement as well as measurement of social choice and interpersonal
attractiveness. Also important is psychophysiological measurement, that is,
the measurement of shared mental and physiological characteristics. Cross-
national and cross-cultural research is one of the modern techniques,
designed to provide comparisons of behavior between nations and cultures;
the same research study is carried out in several different countries in
order to determine the cross-cultural validity of the research.
In the study of social behavior in animals, a laboratory environment
facilitates controlled experimentation, that is, experimentation
considering the previous history of the animals as well as their present
environmental conditions. Simple behavioral acts, such as a pigeon pecking
at an object, can be isolated and schedules of reinforcement—that is,
repetition of stimuli—can be maintained. Social psychological research with
animals has led to important new techniques for their training.
Applied Social Psychology
The principles developed in laboratory and field research in social
psychology have been applied to many social situations and problems.
Applied researchers and consultants have worked to ameliorate problems
found in ethnic relations, international relations, industrial and labor
relations, political and economic behavior, education, advertising, and
community mental health. Industries, organizations, schools, and task
groups of many kinds regularly use the services of applied social
psychologists to improve interpersonal relations, to increase understanding
of relations between members of groups in conflict with one another, and to
diagnose and help correct problems in group and organizational
productivity.
10. Psychiatry and mental health
Psychiatry is the realm in which medical science and psychology join to
provide help for persons whose mind (as one says) is disturbed and whose
behavior does not conform to accept social patterns. Psychopathology and
clinical psychology are integral sub-fields of this branch of medical
psychology which, of necessity, also includes neurology, mental
deficiency or retardation, forensic psychology, certain aspects of
abnormal psychology, social psychology and psychotherapy. Mental illness
has been recognized as such since the days of Aristotle and Hippocrates,
and its long modern history has been able described by some scientists.
Mental Health, state characterized by psychological well-being and self-
acceptance. The term mental health usually implies the capacity to love
and relate to others, the ability to work productively, and the
willingness to behave in a way that brings personal satisfaction
without encroaching upon the rights of others. In a clinical sense,
mental health is the absence of mental illness.
The Mental Health Movement
Concern for the mentally ill has waxed and waned through the centuries, but
the development of modern-day approaches to the subject dates from the mid-
18th century, when reformers such as the French physician Philippe Pinel
and the American physician Benjamin Rush introduced humane “moral
treatment” to replace the often cruel treatment that then prevailed.
Despite these reforms, most of the mentally ill continued to live in jails
and poorhouses—a situation that continued until 1841, when the American
reformer Dorothea Dix campaigned to place the mentally ill in hospitals for
special treatment.
The modern mental health movement can be traced to the publication in 1908
of A Mind That Found Itself, an account of the experience of its author,
Clifford Whittingham Beers, as a mental patient. The book aroused a storm
of public concern for the mentally ill. In 1909 Beers founded the National
Committee for Mental Hygiene.
Public awareness of the need for greater governmental attention to mental
health services led to passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946.
This legislation authorized the establishment of the National Institute of
Mental Health to be operated as a part of the U.S. Public Health Service.
In 1950 the National Committee for Mental Hygiene was reorganized as the
National Association for Mental Health, better known as the Mental Health
Association.
In 1955 Congress established a Joint Commission on Mental Illness and
Health to survey the mental health needs of the nation and to recommend new
approaches. Based on the commission’s recommendations, legislation was
passed in 1963 authorizing funds for construction of facilities for
community-based treatment centers. A similar group, the President’s
Commission on Mental Health, reported its findings in 1978, citing
estimates of the cost of mental illness in the U.S. alone as being about
$17 billion a year.
Scope of the Problem
According to a common estimate, at any one time 10 percent of the American
population has mental health problems sufficiently serious to warrant care;
recent evidence suggests that this figure may be closer to 15 percent. Not
all the people who need help receive it, however; in 1975 only 3 percent of
the American population received mental health service. One major reason
for this is that people still fear the stigma attached to mental illness
and hence often fail to report it or to seek help.
Analysis of the figures on mental illness shows that schizophrenia afflicts
an estimated 2 million Americans, another 2 million suffer from profound
depressive disorders, and 1 million have organic psychoses or other
permanently disabling mental conditions. As much as 25 percent of the
population is estimated to suffer from mild or moderate depression,
anxiety, and other types of emotional problems. Some 10 million Americans
have problems related to alcohol abuse, and millions more are thought to
abuse drugs. Some 5 to 15 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 15
are the victims of persistent mental health problems, and at least 2
million are thought to have severe learning disabilities that can seriously
impair their mental health.
In addition, according to the President’s Commission, the list of mental
health problems should be extended beyond identifiable psychiatric
conditions to include the damage to mental health associated with
unrelenting poverty, unemployment, and discrimination on the basis of race,
sex, class, age, and mental or physical handicaps.
Prevention
Public health authorities customarily distinguish among three forms of
prevention. Primary prevention refers to attempts to prevent the occurrence
of mental disorder, as well as to promote positive mental health. Secondary
prevention is the early detection and treatment of a disorder, and tertiary
prevention refers to rehabilitative efforts that are directed at preventing
complications.
Two avenues of approach to the prevention of mental illness in adults were
suggested by the President’s Commission. One was to reduce the stressful
effects of such crises as unemployment, retirement, bereavement, and
marital disruption; the second was to create environments in which people
can achieve their full potential. The commission placed its heaviest
emphasis, however, on helping children. It recommended the following steps:
1) good care during pregnancy and childbirth, so that early treatment can
be instituted as needed;
2) early detection and correction of problems of physical, emotional, and
intellectual development;
3) developmental day-care programs focusing on emotional and intellectual
development;
4) support services for families, directed at preventing unnecessary and
inappropriate foster care or other out-of-home placements for children.
Treatment
Care of the mentally ill has changed dramatically in recent decades. Drugs
introduced in the mid-1950s, along with other improved treatment methods,
enabled many patients who would once have spent years in mental
institutions to be treated as outpatients in community facilities instead.
(A series of judicial decisions and legislative acts has promoted community
care by requiring that patients be treated in the least restrictive setting
available.) Between 1955 and 1980 the number of people in state mental
hospitals declined from more than 550,000 to fewer than 125,000. This trend
was due partly to improved community care and partly to the cost of
operating hospitals; in an effort to save public money, some large state
mental hospitals have been closed, forcing alternatives to be found for
patients. This is generally considered a progressive trend because when
patients spend extended periods in hospitals they tend to become overly
dependent and lose interest in taking care of themselves. In addition,
because the hospitals are often located long distances from the patients’
homes, families and friends can visit only infrequently, and the patients’
roles at home and at work are likely to be taken over by others.
The psychiatric wards of community general hospitals have assumed some of
the responsibility for caring for the mentally ill during the acute phases
of illness. Some of these hospitals function as the inpatient service for
community mental health centers. Typically, patients remain for a few days
or weeks until their symptoms have subsided, and they usually are given
some form of psychotropic drug to help relieve their symptoms. Following
the lead of Great Britain, American mental hospitals now also give some
patients complete freedom of buildings and grounds and, in some instances,
freedom to visit nearby communities. This move is based on the conclusion
that disturbed behavior is often the result of restraint rather than of
illness.
Treatment of patients with less severe mental disorders has also changed
markedly in recent decades. Previously, patients with mild depression,
anxiety disorders, and other neurotic conditions were treated individually
with psychotherapy. Although this form of treatment is still widely used,
alternative approaches are now available. In some instances, a group of
patients meets to work through problems with the assistance of a therapist;
in other cases, families are treated as a unit. Another form of treatment
that has proven especially effective in alleviating phobic disorders is
behavior therapy, which focuses on changing overt behavior rather than the
underlying causes of a disorder. As in the serious mental illnesses, the
treatment of milder forms of anxiety and depression has been furthered by
the introduction of new drugs that help alleviate symptoms.
Rehabilitation
The release of large numbers of patients from state mental hospitals,
however, has caused significant problems both for the patients and for the
communities that become their new homes. Adequate community services often
are unavailable to former mental patients, a large percentage of whom live
in nursing homes and other facilities that are not equipped to meet their
needs. Most of these patients have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia,
and only 15 to 40 percent of schizophrenics who live in the community
achieve an average level of adjustment. Those who do receive care typically
visit a clinic at periodic intervals for brief counseling and drug
monitoring.
In addition to such outpatient clinics, rehabilitation services include
sheltered workshops, day-treatment programs, and social clubs. Sheltered
workshops provide vocational guidance and an opportunity to brush up on an
old skill or learn a new one. In day-treatment programs, patients return
home at night and on weekends; during weekdays, the programs offer a range
of rehabilitative services, such as vocational training, group activities,
and help in the practical problems of living. Ex-patient social clubs
provide social contacts, group activities, and an opportunity for patients
to develop self-confidence in normal situations.
Another important rehabilitative facility is the halfway house for patients
whose families are not willing or able to accept them after discharge. It
serves as a temporary residence for ex-patients who are ready to form
outside community ties. A variant is the use of subsidized apartments for
recently discharged psychiatric patients.
Research
Many different sciences contribute to knowledge about mental health and
illness. In recent decades these sciences have begun to clarify basic
biological, psychological, and social processes, and they have refined the
application of such knowledge to mental health problems.
Some of the most promising leads have come from biological research. For
example, brain scientists who study neurotransmitters—chemicals that carry
messages from one nerve cell to another—are contributing to knowledge of
normal and abnormal brain functioning, and they may eventually discover
better treatment methods for mental illness. Other researchers are trying
to discover how the brain develops—they have learned, for example, that
even in adults some nerve cells partially regenerate after being
damaged—and such research adds to the understanding of mental retardation,
untreatable forms of brain damage, and other conditions.
Psychological research relevant to mental health includes the study of
perception, information processing, thinking, language, motivation,
emotion, abilities, attitudes, personality, and social behavior. For
example, researchers are studying stress and how to cope with it. One
application of this type of research may help to prevent mental disorders;
in the future, psychologists may be better able to match people (and their
coping skills) to work settings and job duties.
Research in the social sciences focuses on problems of individuals in
contexts such as the family, neighborhood, and work setting, as well as the
culture at large. One example of such work is epidemiological research,
which is the study of the occurrence of disease patterns, including mental
illness, in a society.
11. Forensic psychology and criminology
The study of abnormal behaviour often leads to special investigations
into the origins or causes of crime. This in turn will lead to the
psychological study of criminals and also of the victims of crime. The
literature on this topic is growing and there exist now a number of
useful indexing services to help with the retrieval of particular
contributions from many countries. While most of these indexes and
abstracts are orientated towards the work of, and happenings in, the
courts, all of them contain, references to the behaviour of criminals
or social deviants. Criminology and penology abstracts has been in
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
|