ABSTRACT
There has been sustained interest in the intersection between social constructs and mental health from diverse disciplines including psychiatry, sociology and public health. However, no systematic attempt has been made to catalogue what is meant by 'social' by different researchers, how variables deemed 'social' constructs are linked to mental health, nor whether these patterns differ by academic discipline. Understanding interdisciplinary differences and commonalities may reveal opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration to enhance our understanding of how social factors relate to mental health. This article presents a prospectively registered systematic map of social approaches to mental health using an innovative synthesis methodology (coding all sentences from a random selection of N = 287 articles). Results indicated that although approaches are diverse, disciplinary overlap is substantial. Psychology and psychiatry led articles tend to focus on social skills or emotions as features of mental (ill-)health, while public health and social sciences led articles tend to focus on social relationships, status or context as determinants of mental (ill-)health. Medicine led articles were most likely to focus on social outcomes of mental (ill-)health. Potential growth areas are noted, particularly the relative dearth of intervention research drawing upon social approaches. The findings are discussed with a view towards enabling more effective interdisciplinary collaboration.
Subject(s)
Mental Health , Psychiatry , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Sociology , Social SciencesABSTRACT
This article presents a methodology designed to study what is considered "social" in research on the topic of mental health. Examining a sample of 289 academic publications, we coded the meanings attributed to "social" and their linkage to mental health. Reflecting on this methodology offers a way to discuss the various uses of the adjective "social," and highlights the significance of its (often lacking) definition in the construction of research objects.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders , Mental Health , HumansABSTRACT
Why do some mental illnesses emerge in certain times and places and later disappear? Because it integrates a wide array of social processes and relies on a strong epistemological position, Hacking's theory of ecological niches constitutes the most comprehensive and ambitious attempt to answer this question. However, this theory lacks a convincing definition of its research object ("transient mental illnesses"), a conceptualization of how individuals would "fall ill" as well as a solid methodological framework to form case studies. This article addresses these issues in order to propose an extended theory of ecological niches.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/etiology , Culture , Ecosystem , Humans , Mental Disorders/psychology , Psychological Theory , Remission, Spontaneous , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
Contemporary research into health and mental health treats diagnosis as a central step in understanding illness management and trajectory; consequently, in the last two decades, sociology of diagnosis has attained increasing influence within medical sociology. Deeply embedded in social constructionism, the set of research divides between those who focus on the social and historical construction of diagnoses as categories, and those who see diagnosis as a process. Regarding the latter, this approach explores the constitution of the medical production, highlighting how it constitutes a starting point for entering a 'sick role', for being labelled, for naming one's problem and by extension, for framing one's illness narrative.
Subject(s)
Caregivers/psychology , Dementia/diagnosis , Dementia/psychology , Family , Female , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Male , Sick Role , Socioeconomic Factors , SociologyABSTRACT
How do residents' previous social positions influence the ways in which they deal with social life in nursing home? Based on observations and interviews in a private nursing home in France, this article describes daily life in the facility, the disability-based distinctions observed among residents, the strategies they use to "find their place," and the references they make about their former social position in collective encounters. It shows that sociability in nursing homes is structured by the intertwining of "levels of disability" among residents, the social composition of the institution and its local surroundings, and the relative value attributed to each type of capital (in the sense of Bourdieu) in this context. The author proposes some assumptions that aim to generalize these specific findings.
