Sociology 2nd Midterm

Rosenhan- On Being Sane In Insane Places

8 Sane people get admitted to psych hospital and stop symptoms when admitted. All discharged with in remission schizophrenia. Leads to depersonalization

The two origins of depersonalization

1) Negative attitudes held toward the mentally ill 2) the hierarchical structure of hospitals facilitates it

Socialized healthcare (Canada, Britain, Sweden)

Gov controls finances, gov pays providers, and gov owns facilities

Decentralized healthcare (Japan, Germany, Mexico)

Gov indirectly controls financing, and gov regulates provider payment

Socialist Healthcare (North Korea, Cuba)

Free universal care, gov owns all facilities

Szasz- The Myth Of Mental Illness

Argues mental illness diagnosis comes from judgement of behavior. Diagnosises are made by 1) establishing deviance in behavior and 2) a physician making a judgement on it

Pescolido- The Public Stigma Of Mental illness

Labeling mental illness can lead to prejudice and discrimination for patients and their families

Total Institutions

One central authority who enforces rules and stripping processes

What makes something a total institution (HOSLN)

House rules, One central authority, Stripping, Limiting contact, Nonexistent work-life separation

Willowbrook

NY state owned psych hospital that demonstrates abuses of system- intentionally infected kids with hepatitis A.

Labeling theory

If you give someone a mental illness label, whether or not it’s true they will act that way.

Modified labeling theory

Focuses on consequences of being labeled and how people internalize the societal stigma that comes with it

Stigma, three types (BAT)

A mark or attribute reducing a person from whole to tainted. Three types: 1) Blemishes of individual character, like being weak willed 2) Abominations of the body, so physically stigmatizing attributes 3) Tribal, so identity, race, and religion

The six dimensions of stigma (ACCDOP)

1) Aesthetics: extent elicits institutional disgust from others 2) Concealability: extent a condition is noticeable 3) Course: extent a condition is curable 4) Disruptiveness: extent condition strains interpersonal relations 5) Origin: whether or not person is viewed as responsible 6) Peril: extent condition is viewed as dangerous

Lagos- Hearing Gender

Implications of voice-based gender discrimination over the phone. Trans men and women misclassified are more likely to report poor self-rated health than those classified correctly.

Female penalty

Misclassified trans women have better health since women often have worse outcomes or treatment in the medical system

Gender essentialism

Gender is a biological and permanent 2-category system

Social construction

Gender is learned through socialization and is inconsistent across cultures

Gender role socialization (occurs 3 places, SMH)

Lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine, occurs at school, in the media, and at home

Ricker & Bird- Rethinking Gender Differences In Health

Men have more life threatening diseases (at younger ages) and die younger, whereas women live longer but have more chronic conditions (like CVD)

Frost et. al.- Couple-Level Minority Stress (with four broad ones)

Conducts relationship timeline interviews with 120 same sex couples in Atlanta and San Fransisco. identified 17 unique couple-level minority stressors in 9 different social contexts. Four major stressors include 1) Experiences of discrimination 2) Stigma or expectations of rejection 3) Concealment of stigmatized identity 4) Internalization of negative social beliefs about one’s social group and identity.

Constrained choice

Social conditions impacting women’s ability to make decisions about their health

Nagging spouse hypothesis

Marriage benefits men specifically because women encourage self care, ex. doctor visits and diet

Positive marriage mechanisms for health (3 ESP)

1) Economic resources 2) Social integration 3) Providing a sense of meaning

Second shift

Additional labor women are expected to do after coming home from work

The glass ceiling

Invisible barrier to women’s upward mobility in organizations

The glass escalator

Men in female-dominated fields are promoted at an accelerated rate disproportionately

Cottom- I Was Pregnant And In Crisis

Black woman goes into labor and is told she is fine, layer loses child as a result. Health system often doesn’t view black women as competent, so they’re more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth.

Geronimus et. al.- Weathering and Age Patterns Of Allostatic Load Scores Among Blacks and Whites

Examined allostatic load scores in adults 18-64 estimating high score probability by age, race gender, and poverty status. Black people had higher scores and a greater probability of high scores at all ages. Found racial inequalities in health exist across systems and are not explained by poverty

Weathering Hypothesis

Black people experience premature aging from higher allostatic load and a disciminatory society

Allostatic load

Cummulative wear and tear on body from repeated adaptation to stressors

Genetic Determinism

Erronous, biologically-based explanation for why racial and ethnic health differences persist.

Discrimination

The behaviors that harm an individual on the basis of their group membership

Prejudice

Negative beliefs and stereotypes that exist about a group

Holland and Palaniappan- Problems With Collection and Interpretation of Asian-American Health Data

Asian americans are often grouped together and labeled as one subgroup in studies. Argues solution is to disagregate data and surveys need to be offered in more languages by collaborating with community centers to include asian americans in research.

Tavernise and Goodnoush- A Grim Measure Of Covid’s Toll

Covid hit black people harder, with life expctancy falling 2.7 years and the gap between black and white people widening to 6 years. Black mortality was double white mortality, and black and hispanic americans who died from covid were more likely to be younger

3 Problems with data collection for asian americans (AOE)

1) Aggregation: Grouping all data into one group. 2) Omision: Not including them all together. 3) Extrapolation: taking findings from one subgroup and projecting them onto another.

Tuskegee syphilis study

Black sharecroppers in Alabama were told they were participating in a blood study, but it was really to see what happened when syphilis when untreated. Weren’t given the vaccine even when researchers had access to it.

Reasons hispanic people have longest life expectancy (4, SSHD)

1) Social integration: Larger support networks, families, and perceived support. 2) Healthy Immigrant hypothesis: healthier people are more likely to immigrate. 3) Data artifact: Less data for hispanic records due to coroner misidentification or hispanic not even being an option on death certificates. 4) Salmon bias hypothesis: Immigrants who become sick earlier are more likely to return to their country or origin.

Reasons health expectancy of 2nd or 3rd gen latinos is worse than immigrants (2, AS)

1) Acculturation hypothesis: Worse food, less family, and worse overall culture. 2) Segmented Assimilation: Less similar people in the area to offer community support and economic opportunity.

Fitzgerald- Crack Baby Study

224 babies studied to see if cocaine exposure in the womb impacted development. All were from low income families. The study found no significant difference between crack babies and control, and instead found poverty was a more powerful influence on inner-city children and their development than cocaine.

Link and Phelan- Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease

Argues 1) individual risk factors must be contextualized 2) social factors like SES and social support are fundamental causes of disease

Social class

Stratification system based on access to wealth, power, property, and prestige.

Income

Payment in the form of wages or salary, measured annually

Wealth

All of the assets a person possesses, such as property, stocks, and savings.

Status

Prestige or social standing ascribed to someone. Markers include job, degrees, and clothes.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Income, wealth, occupational status, and educational attainment

The working poor

People who work but still don’t make enough to escape poverty

Distal factors

Circumstances that set everything off (like low SES)

Proximal factors

Causes leading to worse health that go along with distal factors. Ex. worse food, superfund sites, worse medical treatment

Lutfey and Freese- Towards Some Fundamentals of Fundamental Causality

Ethnographic study of two diabetes clinics, Park (private) and County (public). Park patients had higher SES, continuity of care, and advanced technology. County patients had lower SES, no continuity of care, and face more barriers like transportation and job difficulties that make access difficult.

Aspects of a fundamental cause (MMRR)

1) influences Multiple diseases 2) operates across Multiple pathways 3) Reproduced over time 4) implies access to Resources that Reduce Risk of disease and consequences

Compensatory inversion

People who need more resources have less access to them

Spillovers

Experiencing the effects of others who care about health around you by living in a better place, ex. better schools, safer living

Habitus

Engrained habits and preferences influenced by social class

Cultural capital

Tastes, skills, and wants that show higher status

Social institutions

Things like medical systems

Counterveiling mechanism

Purposefully being unhealthy to get what you want, ex. skipping meals. Occurs as a result of knowledge that comes from having higher SES.

Risk factors of being low income (4, CEPP)

1) Chemical risk (superfund sites) 2) Economic risk 3) Physical risk (like less access to good food for you physical health) 4) Psychological risk (like drug use or unemployment that can lead to poor mental health)