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Hypotheses relating family socio-cultural background to behavioral retardation of children are examined in this paper. Data obtained from a stratified-random sample of all Anglo and Mexican-American households in a southern California city of about 100,000 population are used in the research. Generally, the data support the existence of a relationship between family socio-cultural factors of ethnicity, social status, community of origin, and residential mobility and the behavioral retardation of children. When ethnic groups are considered separately, more variance is explained by socio-cultural factors for Mexican-Americans than for Anglos. For both Mexican-Americans and Anglos, the single most important variable explaining families with and without a behaviorally retarded child is mother's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates and describes methods for making psychiatric distinctions. It is by means of psychiatric distinctions that individuals are labeled mentally ill or mentally well. Within the mentally ill category, patients are differentially placed according to the severity and type of their mental illness. The placement of individuals into psychiatric categories is an essential prerequisite not only to the clinical treatment of patients but also to any research where the objective is to determine empirical regularities associated with mental illness. Until the patient is categorized, the practitioner has no logical guide for how to perform treatment or even whether he should treat the patient—i.e, the patient may not be a patient. Similarly, unless the psychiatric researcher has categorized his subjects according to some notion of mental illness he has no way of making comparisons or of assessing change, the two essential processes in research. Thus, the logical first step for arty discovery of new knowledge in the field of mental illness is to appraise the reliability and validity of methods for making psychiatric distinctions. No research findings can be more reliable or valid than the psychiatric distinctions used in carrying oat the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 22-item scale developed through the Midtown Manhattan Study is considered from methodological, substantive, and theoretical perspectives. This paper concludes that the instrument is, at best, a very incomplete measure of mental illness. A review of previous literature suggests a more reasonable interpretation is that it measures psychological stress and physical malaise, although even for these purposes it is a less than ideal measure. Use of the instrument examining the relationship between stressful life experiences and mental illness is further discouraged due to a conceptual confounding of the independent and dependent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper, published last month, argued that the convergence of a number of distinct intellectual and therapeutic mental health traditions produced a conception of non- professional, quasi-therapeutic communities that profoundly influenced contemporary American communes. The convergence of these various traditions led to an increasing emphasis on non- professional, on-going and continuous, multi-functional, quasi-therapeutic experiences for "normals" --for relatively healthy affluent upper middle class Americans-in transient, age-graded, sheltered workshops. This second part of our analysis argues that the structural blueprint of social organizational arrangements needed to provide the underlying pattern for concrete inter-personal relations in contemporary communes derives from the radical Christian branch of the Nineteenth Century American communal tradition. Furthermore, it suggests that the ideological model that provides an over-arching symbolic reality system that both guides and justifies the structure and content of concrete communal relations comes from utopian thought. More specifically, the ideological-intellectual model for today's communes comes from the post- Freudian-Darwinian psychological utopianism of Maslow and the Rogerian-Existentialist-Humanistic psychologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of a number of distinct intellectual and therapeutic traditions in the mental health field has produced a conception of non-professional, quasi-therapeutic communities that profoundly influences contemporary communes. One of these traditions started with Freudian psychoanalytic theory and the dynamic, individually-oriented psychotherapies built upon it. A second, initially-independent tradition that influences the contemporary situation is the social- community psychiatric tradition, particularly the concept of "therapeutic communities." Another tradition that impinges on contemporary communalism stems from the sensitivity training- encounter movement. This tradition has given rise to numerous quasi-communal Growth Centers and further accelerated the national trend toward mass "psychotherapeutic populism," currently reflected in the popularity of "leaderless encounter groups" and "marathon groups." A final, more derivative influence can be found in the Rogerian-Existential-Humanistic psychology associated with writers such as Rogers, May, and Maslow. The central working hypothesis of this paper is that these therapeutic traditions began to converge during the Post-World War II era. By the early 1960s the various originally independent traditions were increasingly indistinguishable and had, in effect, blended around certain common themes. A crucial common strand underlying the convergence of these various traditions was an emphasis on non-professional, on-going and continuous, multi-functional, quasi-therapeutic experiences for "normals" - for "relatively healthy" affluent upper-middle class Americans. From this perspective, present-day American communes are seen as transient, age-graded, quasi-therapeutic sheltered workshops. By providing a temporary psycho-social moratorium from competitive conventional society, contemporary communes facilitate individual-psychological re-orientation, growth, and re-integration into non-communal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do people see a doctor? At one extreme, blatant pathology and extreme pain will, with few exceptions, bring one to a doctor in those societies where doctors are available (with the possible exception of mental illness). At the other extreme, a small portion of the visits are accounted for by a preventive health orientation, where no symptoms have been perceived. But, as Zola points out (1966, 1968), "we find that the vast bulk [of a physician's load] is concerned with quite minor disorders." There is, on the other hand, he notes, a great body of data which show that there is much illness, defined as such both clinically and subjectively, which is not brought to the attention of the physician. What Zola is saying, then, is that the potential for entry into patienthood is extraordinarily widespread and continuous. One can be ill, clinically speaking, without going to the doctor; or one can go to the doctor, either without any particular change in one's clinical condition or even without any particular justification from the point of view of the physician. If variations among individuals, social subgroups, or societies in visiting rates cannot be explained, within limits, by variations in clinically-determinable morbidity, what are the factors that can predict such variations? It is the purpose of this paper to present a model which, though derived from the case of Israel, should be applicable to other societies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The patient's perspective of mental illness is a topic that has heretofore been accorded only passing concern by social scientists. In this paper, data from an investigation of mental patients' perceptions of the causes of their illness are presented and four paradigms developed for the interpretation of these data. The Taxonomic Method is a procedure for classifying the motley replies patients give into categories denoting problem areas. In the Medical Model emphasis is placed on the gamut of psychiatric symptoms patients call forth in their explanations. The defining categories of the Behavioral Model, rather than represent different types of problems or symptomatology, symbolize configurations of behavioral deviations from normative standards. A fourth means of interpreting patients' views is the Motivational Approach, whereby consideration is given to the motives or rationales behind the replies and categories consist of various linguistic devices. Methodological problems involved in the utilization of these models are discussed and several theoretical perspectives for empirical analysis are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correlation analysis was used to assess the similarity between mental health need priority systems set up under the Community Mental Health Centers Act, and priority systems developed using a simplified scheme of mental health indicators. Data came from Community Mental Health Centers State Plans for six Southern states. Results indicated that the simplified. scheme provides adequate replication of the priority systems. Hence, time and effort need not be expended on elaborate schemes for developing priority systems (or sets of mental health indicators for research) unless it can be demonstrated that they have superior validity. A second implication developed from the data concludes that sets of techniques, like other procedural systems may, if not evaluated, tend to be perpetuated when in fact they should be replaced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a preliminary report on relationships between changes in life events and changes in psychiatric symptomatology in a community sample of 720 adults in New Haven, Connecticut. Over a two-year period it was found that the greater the net change in life events the more likely was the individual's mental status to have changed. A net increase in life events was associated with a worsening of symptoms, while a net decrease resulted in improvement. Similar patterns were found for most of the 64 individual life events [or which information was gathered as well as for events categorized according to type of social activity, changes in the respondent's social field, and degree of desirability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In evaluating the importance of sampling definition in relation to consistency of epidemiological research results in schizophrenia, four samples of patients from various combinations of inpatient and outpatient facilities in Monroe County, New York, were selected for study. The purpose of the study was to provide empirical data which would specify degrees of representativeness and, hence, the limits of generalization that would probably be associated with specific sampling strategies. The results of distributions across and analyses within samples indicated that variations in sampling source can produce highly divergent research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of mental health status and social participation are examined to determine the extent to which each of these two factors contributes to the level of happiness which people experience. The findings indicate that happiness is contingent both on people's state of mental health and the extent to which they participate in social interaction with others. Each of these two factors exerts an independent influence on happiness, and the two relations are maintained under controls for age, social class position, and sex. The implications of these findings for psychiatric help-seeking are then briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social factors unrelated to psychopathological processes are hypothesized to influence the clinical assessment of "dangerousness" in prospective mental patients. Data support the hypothesis in that age, sex, marital status, history of treatment, and status of caller requesting professional intervention are all related to the attribution of "dangerousness." However, the association holds only when the prospective patient has demonstrated "disruptive and disorderly behavior" and, it is assumed, the possibility of dangerousness is being seriously considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study extends the Lowenthal-Haven thesis that the significant other is important for the mental health of the elderly. It examines the relationship between the number of significant others (SO) and psychological well-being (ABS). Further, it hypothesizes self-disclosure to interpret the relationship between SO and ABS. Findings indicate, however, that SO is directly related to ABS. regardless of levels of self-disclosure, role loss, or age, supporting the Lowenthal-Haven findings. Self-disclosure was not related to ABS, contrary to prediction. However, the degree of role loss was found to be an important specifying condition. Only under conditions of low role loss is self-disclosure significantly related to ABS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of the community mental health movement has evoked both praise and scorn. A major aim of many community mental health specialists is the reduction or elimination of mental illness through primary prevention. Crucial for primary prevention is the notion that mental illness is etiologically or sequentially associated with social conditions such as poverty and racism. An examination of the empirical evidence largely fails to support this notion. Instead, belief in the efficacy of primary prevention rests on ideological grounds. Some of the logical implications of these ideologies are examined and their significance for the future of community mental health programs are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from a sample of 1441 community-dwelling respondents were analyzed to determine whether there are age related differences in their responses to instruments used to measure mental health. Few differences were noted. The data support the position that measurement of mental health is a formidable task; responses and scores are affected by multiple factors, not age alone; and these factors interrelate. Varying degrees of correlation were found between the instruments used, confirming that the instruments measure similar but not identical aspects of mental health. Measurements must take into account various dimensions to avoid the pitfalls of a simple test or approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The findings of a study of the consumption of mood-modifying prescription drugs in a large Canadian city are presented and compared with data from the United States. The consistently higher prevalence of use of these drugs by women is examined. An explanatory model is proposed, suggesting that women are permitted greater freedom than men to express feelings. perceive their feelings more readily, and hence recognize emotional difficulties. This recognition enables the woman to define her difficulties within a medical model and thus bring them to the attention of her physician. The physician, representing the society that sanctions this freer expression, expects female patients to behave in this way, and thus expects them to require a higher proportion of mood-altering drugs than the less expressive male patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample survey using personal interviews was conducted in the Reno, Nevada, area to assess public conceptions of suicide and suicidal actions, attitudes toward the notion of suicide, attitudes toward people personally known to have committed or attempted suicide, and various degrees of familiarity with suicidal behaviors. Suicidal behavior by others was personally familiar to 74 percent of the respondents, and the general conceptions of suicide included shame and social disgrace, but not blame, to the family. Suicide generally was seen as something that happens to a person, rather than something he intentionally brings about. Public health implications of the data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from a mail-questionnaire study of adults in Alameda County, California, were used to replicate the essentials of Langner's analyses in the second volume of the Midtown Manhattan Study, but employing as a presumptive mental-health measure an eight-item Index of Psychological Well-Being. The results parallel the reported Midtown associations between selected stress factors and mental health as rated by psychiatrists from extensive interview evidence. The concordant findings suggest that both the Midtown psychiatrists' ratings and the Index of Psychological Well-Being may pertain to essentially the same psychological dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three studies that bear on the societal reaction explanation of mental illness are critically evaluated. The first study focuses on the relationship between the decision to institute commitment proceedings and the degree of psychiatric disturbance, the second on the effect of power on the decision-making process in a psychiatric hearing, and the third on the severity of the psychiatric disorder of patients who have been committed. It is shown that, contrary to the interpretations of the investigators, the data in these studies do not clearly support the societal reaction perspective and are, in fact, open to interpretations that run counter to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship for communities between extent of common culture and hospitalized mental disorders. Common culture is measured by indices of (1) political consensus, (2) homogeneity of income, and (3) racial and ethnic similarity. Homogeneous communities tend to have a higher incidence of hospitalized mental disorders than heterogeneous communities. Data on community psychopathology, measured independently of mental hospital statistics, suggest that propensity to hospitalize may account for the observed differences in hospital admission rates between communities. Data on the circumstances surrounding admissions further suggest that hospitalized mental illness is higher in culturally homogeneous communities because of greater consensus as to what constitutes normal and abnormal behavior rather than because of rejection of the mentally ill. The influence of community structure on institutionalization of the mentally ill appears to operate chiefly for the less debilitating forms of mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much concern has been voiced for the effects of overpopulation on the patterns and quality of contemporary life. However, little has been written or noted about the effects of overpopulation upon the development and expression of mental disorders. Through factor analysis of a symptom checklist administered to urban male Filipinos, three distinct symptom patterns are identified as being strongly associated with the number of people in the dwelling. One pattern is characterized by psychosomatic difficulties and alienation anxiety, another by arousal and withdrawal behaviors, and the third by anxiety and eruptive violence. Interpretations of the development of these patterns are offered and the importance of this type of research cited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the sequential changes in stigma expressed by psychiatric patients and those who share their stigma, and the patterns of convergences and divergences in stigmatizing attitudes held by these two classes of individuals. The experiences of the stigmatized were conceptualized as constituting a career, and a scale designed to assess stigma was administered to first-admission prepatients, inpatients, and postpatients, to their significant others, and to patients who had been rehospitalized. The propensity to stigmatize others of like situation was found to be greatest among inpatients of both first admission and readmission status. Postpatients showed significantly less stigma than did patients in any other phase of the career. Significant others were found to reject the mentally ill less than did patients, and were considerably more stable in their attitudes from phase to phase. Patients and their significant others showed the greatest degree of co-orientation during the postpatient phase of the patient career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An earlier article by Clarizio examined studies of the stability of deviant behavior. This issue is crucial in evaluating the claims of two competing theories of mental illness. Existing studies of psychiatric symptoms over time appear provisionally to suggest that unlabeled deviant behavior is transitory and labeled deviant behavior is stable. Although the studies are crude and inconclusive, the existing weight of evidence may be interpreted as supporting labeling theory rather than psychiatric theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of professional ideology is defined and discussed, and it is applied to psychiatrists' views about the cause and treatment of mental illness. Existing literature leads to the hypothesis of three orientations as ideologies: somatotherapeutic, psychotherapeutic, and sociotherapeutic. Using data from a sample of psychiatrists, only the first two are shown to satisfy the criteria of professional ideology. The data also reveal that these two treatment ideologies are systematically related to other activities and views of psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a replication of Phillips' study, we ask whether the pattern of rejection of the mentally ill he discovered for the public holds true for our sample of psychiatric nurses. Nurses' rejection patterns diverge from and in part reverse those reported for the public. It is proposed that nurses' rejection patterns emerge from the interplay of the public's "normative" and the "psychiatric" perspectives. We further suggest that, with increasing professional psychiatric training and experience, the crucial factor explaining the pattern of rejection is less the seriousness of an individual's mental illness than the "appropriateness" of the help he obtains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both clergymen and general practitioners are much more frequently initially consulted by persons with emotional problems than psychiatrists, the supposed treatment source. Despite their preference not to deal with mental disorders, however, neither of them make frequent referrals to mental specialists. An explanation for this paradox was sought in terms of psychiatrists infrequently reporting to the referring clergyman or GP about persons referred. Questionnaire data from a sample of metropolitan clergymen and GPs showed that reports and referrals were directly associated for clergymen: a curvilinear relationship obtained for GPs. Besides pragmatic utility, these findings have theoretical implications for studying reciprocity in a system of functionally autonomous parts engaged in unequal exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So-called "drug psychoses" can be interpreted as the anxiety reaction of a naive user occasioned by his fear that the temporary symptoms of drug use represent a permanent derangement of his mind. Participation in a drug-using subculture tends to minimize such Occurrences, because other users present the person with alternative explanations of his experience that minimize its lasting effects. A comparison of LSD and marihuana use suggests that the number of drug-induced psychoses varies historically, being a function of the historical development of a subculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a study of 1,045 state mental hospital patients released on leave of absence during the calendar year of 1956 to the Oakland California Bureau of Social Work, a large amount of evaluative information was collected on post-hospital adjustment. Data from case records, administrative files, and hospital records were reviewed. They clearly demonstrated that most ex-patients did not possess a sufficient number of social resources to allow them to adapt to the world outside the state hospital. On the basis of these findings, one can easily understand why seven out of ten of these patients returned to the hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire to undergo cosmetic surgery of the nose appears to have its roots in the social and cultural pressures to conform to the dominant culture. A study of 89 rhinoplastic patients revealed that eradication of ethnic visibility was the predominating motive for approximately half of the group, while the other half sought surgery to avoid undesirable personality characteristics ascribed to those with certain stereotypic noses. Implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for further research in the area of mental health are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores socio-cultural and social-psychological factors associated with the voluntary utilization of a psychiatric outpatient clinic among students on a large university campus. Students who sought psychiatric care as compared to those who did not were (1) more likely to come from groups who were less integrated into traditional social institutions in terms of role expectations, (2) more likely to belong to or identify with other students who were more cosmopolitan in value-orientation and less integrated into the general collegiate milieu, and (3) more likely to have friends with social-emotional problems and were more likely to discuss such problems with greater frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]