key question

• key question?

  how do attitudes towards mental health disorders vary cross culturally?
• planned intro?

  state kq, this is a significant issue in society as there are differences in how attitudes to mental health disorders vary cross culturally due to stigma, explanation of causes and differences in how symptoms are experienced.
• stigma?

  this affects whether a person seeks treatment. stigma refers to negative attitudes toward mental illness, and can differ between cultures.

  • Cheon (2012) found Asian Americans show stronger negative implicit attitudes toward mental illness than Caucasian Americans do.

  This is important because in certain cultures a person may experience prejudice and discriminating behaviour directly toward them, so they're less likely to seek treatment as they don't want to be seen as mentally ill
• beliefs of cause of mental health?

  depending on cultural context, individuals believe in biological, social or supernatural causes for mental health disorder.

  • Stefanovics (2016) compared attitudes of health care professionals to mental illnesses in 5 countries (US, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, China) finding people from Ghana/Nigeria had highest level of belief in supernatural causes.

  A persons suffering (Buddhists) is due to previous misdeeds so they may not want to disclose information to others, avoiding contact with others and medical professionals who can provide appropriate support
• differences in symptoms experienced?

  this can change the prognosis.

  • Luhrmann (2015) found auditory hallucinations for Americans with schizophrenia to be violent and aggressive, but Indians heard an ancestral/playful voice.
  • IPSS (2016) found in developing countries people were likely to have 1 episode of schiz compared with developed countries where continuous schizophrenia is more likely