SOC363H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reductionism, Social Stratification, Anxiety
Document Summary
Main question: is mental illness a social construction, and is it due to psychiatry: we know there are strange behaviours in all human cultures and historical periods. Medicalization model: employed by sociology, views mental illness as medicalizing aspects of everyday life. Sadness after losing a spouse or something may be categorized as depression but is a normal response. We can only know what is abnormal/a mental disorder when we know what is normal. Therefore: mental disorders are present when we are not adapted properly to our environment. Constructionist view: mental illness does not materially exist, it is only an abstract concept that is inferred using subjective and arbitrary standards. Psychiatrists: you either have the disease or you don"t. Sociologists: you(cid:859)(cid:396)e o(cid:374) a (cid:272)o(cid:374)ti(cid:374)uu(cid:373: sociologists prefer the dimensional approach. Medicalization of deviance: dimensional models assume that something is wrong with the individual. Main sociology rejection: nothing is wrong with the individual.
