Suchergebnisse

Background: The present study was conducted to compare the influence of culture and immediate environment on the phenomenology of schizophrenic symptoms by examining the actual content of delusions and hallucinations in three groups of schizophrenic patients. Method: Pakistanis living in Britain (BP; N = 53), Pakistanis in Pakistan (PP; N = 98) and British White (BW; N = 50). The content of the patients' delusions and hallucinations was obtained from medical records and key-workers' reports from All-Saints Hospital, Birmingham and two psychiatric units in Lahore. All references to delusions and hallucinations were coded in accordance with the classification scheme developed for the Present State Examination (Wing et al., 1974). Results: Comparisons indicated greater differences in phenomenology of delusions and hallucinations between the Pakistani pair (BP vs. PP) than between the British groups (BP vs. BW). The findings suggested a stronger influence of the immediate environment on the pathogenesis of delusions and hallucinations. Conclusions: The results are discussed with reference to the cultural and religious values of the ethnic groups.

A questionnaire to assess various elements of public attitudes towards the mentally ill was given to 108 subjects. 5 hypotheses were tested. 1. Public attitudes towards mental illness are more rejecting than accepting. 2. Social rejection increases with increasing severity of disturbance in behaviour. 3. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are related to social class as measured by occupational status and to age of the respondent. 4. Rejection of the mentally ill is decreased by the availability of a non-deviant alternative label. 5. Attitudes of the general population towards the mentally ill will be influenced by the label of mental illness as well as by behaviour indicative of mental illness. All the hypotheses were confirmed with one exception — negative public attitudes were not found to be related to social class as measured by occupational status. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are more diverse than previous research would imply. Possible future research directions are discussed.

Monitoring ofpatient records has shown that, over the last decade in Edinburgh, there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of attempted suicide among men aged under 25; whereas among men aged over 40, the rates have remained stable. This trend is paralleled in other parts of the U.K. The research described in this paper was based on the assumption that a change has occurred in the world-view of young people, and that this has been responsible for the differential increase in attempted suicide. The elements of this change were seen as: (a) an emphasis on the importance of "self-fulfillment"; (b) a belief that society, rather than the individual, should be responsible for providing the means to personal fulfillment; (c) a resulting tendency to regard social and material deprivations as obstacles to self-fulfillment. It was postulated that individuals who possess these values, and who live in objectively deprived circumstances, would be less willing to tolerate stresses than would their older counterparts, who were seen as placing less emphasis on personal fulfillment, and more on personal responsibility. A set of hypotheses, derivedfrom this model, were tested in a study of 100 male attempted suicides and 100 controls. Findings support the view that changes of the type suggested have taken place in the consciousness of young people; but these do not seem to relate to the trend in attempted suicide among the young.

The Asian British and the indigenous British have different underlying attitudes to family living and family structure and to the rights and obligations of individuals within the family. The data presented here were part of a survey covering many aspects of the experiences and attitudes of Asian parents born in the country of origin, and their young people now aged 18 - 21 years and resident for at least 10 years in Britain (120 families). A British control group was used where comparisons were relevant, as on this issue. Differences in traditionalism or 'old-fashioned attitude' were hypothesized between generations and between ethnic groups and were found. Quotes from respondents themselves are used to discuss and to illustrate the differences.

An examination is made of various hypotheses which have been developed to account for the frequently observed inverse relationship between social class and psychological disturbance. Two of these explanations — the social selection and social causation hypotheses — are tested in a study designed to enable an assessment of their relative power to be made. Quasi-random samples of 200 Indian-born, 200 Pakistani-born and 240 native-born residents of England were interviewed and measures of social class, psychological symptoms and other relevant variables made. The results failed to support either of the two hypotheses as the expected social class gradient in psychological disorder only emerged in the native group. Indian immigrants in fact showed a reversal with higher status individuals, especially women, having higher symptom levels. Overall Indian immigrants had significantly fewer symptoms than either of the other groups. The findings are discussed in terms of differential selection for migration and the varying experiences of immigrants after arrival in Britain.