Social Constructionist Approach
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 5.4.3
Social Constructionist Approaches to Mental Illness
Broadly, social constructionist approaches to mental health view mental illness as a social, rather than biological, construction.
Social approach
- Mental illness varies between cultures and is dependent on cultural interpretations of symptoms.
- In addition, many theorists (e.g. Szasz, Foucault) insist that mental illness is a form of social control.
Arguments for the social approach
- Diagnoses of mental illness aren’t made on the basis of scientific methods but are simply a label applied to others who fail to behave in a ‘normal’ socially accepted manner.
- Diagnoses vary over time, for example, homosexuality was once seen as a mental illness that could be cured.
Cultural support
- Diagnoses vary between societies, for example, some cultures view hearing voices as an acceptable behaviour, while some suggest that Western ideas of mental illness label normal human behaviour (e.g. sadness) as a abnormal.
Political contention
- Psychiatric disorders are a political tool to help control those who deviate from socially acceptable modes of behaviour; those who act differently are see as being afflicted by some malady.
The Unreliability of Diagnoses
Broadly, social constructionist approaches to mental health view mental illness as a social, rather than biological, construction.
The myth of mental illness
- Thomas Szasz argues that mental illness is a label applied by powerful or influential people to control those seen as socially disruptive or who challenge the dominant ideology.
- What we define as madness or mental illness cannot be cured because the problem is not within the individual but in the attitudes of other people.
- Mental illness does not, therefore, exist.
Experiment
- David Rosenhan conducted an experiment in the 1970’s to investigate how well health professional could diagnose mental illness.
- He arranged for healthy volunteers (including himself) to visit different psychiatric hospitals in the United States and lie to staff about hearing voices.
Findings
- All were diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted to hospital where they spent between 7 and 52 days.
Experiment 2
- When the hospitals discovered that they had been tricked, they challenged Rosenhan to repeat the experiment and assured him that they would identify all of his ‘pseudo-patients’.
Findings 2
- When the hospitals declared that they had found forty-one fake patients, Rosenhan admitted that he hadn’t actually sent any.
Criticism of Social Constructionist Approaches
Broadly, social constructionist approaches to mental health view mental illness as a social, rather than biological, construction. This view is not free from criticism.
Representation
- Studies such as Rosenhan’s were conducted on a small scale and are unlikely to be representative.
Real experience
- The view that mental illness doesn’t exist ignores that how it affects many people, causing them and those around them a great deal of distress.
Material factors
- It ignores material factors that affect people’s mental health, such as poverty, ethnicity and gender.
Test yourself on Social Constructionist Approach
Which of the following is NOT a social constructionist theorist?
Who conducted an experiment in the 1970’s to investigate how well health professional could diagnose mental illness?
Rosenhan's Investigation into Diagnosis of Mental Illness