ARTIKELEN
Hoorcollege 1
De inferieure frontaalkwab van de inboorling tot culturele neurowetenschap, de Jong, 2010
Vier perspectieven over psychopathologie;
1. Dichotome perspectief – ofwel biologie ofwel cultuur wordt als verklarend model
gehanteerd.
Psychopathie is universeel, cultuurspecifieke uitingen zijn een gebrek aan intellectuele
ontwikkeling. De vanuit het westen bekende grote psychiatrie werd gezien als biologisch,
onbegrijpelijke gedagringen werden beschouwd als cultuurvariant.
2. Continuüm perspectief – een stoornis wordt in meerdere of mindere mate toegeschreven
aan biologische of sociaal-culturele factoren.
Gedragspatronen en psychopathologie passen op een continuüm met universele stoornissen
die verklaard kunnen worden vanuit biologie, en aan de andere kant cultuurgerelateerde
gedragsvarianten of die beter verklaarbaar zijn vanuit sociaal-psychologisch paradigma. Er
bestaat een genetische complexiteit waarbij verschillende genen en epigenetica samen een
stoornis kunnen veroorzaken.
- Bij een aandoening die verklaarbaar is vanuit een sociaal-psychologisch perspectief, is dit
vaak verbonden aan tijdperk, SES, culturele groep, of stressvolle situaties.
- Complexe interactie van biologische, sociaal-culturele, cognitieve, emotionele en
linguïstische aspecten van gedrag. Bij iedere psychopathologie spelen culturele en
universele elementen een rol.
3. Spectrum-perspectief – psychopathologie wordt uiteengehaald als een gebroken prisma,
cultuur en biologie staan op een spectrum.
Uiteenlopende vormen van psychopathologie worden door een “prisma gebroken” in
gedragspatronen, die beschreven worden vanuit verschillende invalshoeken en discplines.
In sommige culturen of contexten uiten klachten van psychopathologie zich anders. Er zijn
verschillende ziektebelevingen van één fenomeen.
- Belangrijk om rekening te houden met het groeps-superego van collectivistische
culturen. Deze is gericht op socialisatie en verbondenheid, de relatie met anderen, en
groeps- en sociale controle, tegenover het individualistische van een Westerse cultuur.
- Cultureel bepaalde belevingen moeten onderscheiden worden van echte hallucinaties en
wanen.
- Een biologische respons van psychopathologie kan psychologische en somatische
ervaringen tot gevolg hebben, die worden gezien door een culturlee lens en betekenis
krijgen vanuit een cultuurbepaald systeem.
4. Perspectief van culturele neurowetenschap – wederzijdse beïnvloeding van cultuur en
neurobiologie.
De invloed van culturele karakteristieken als waarden, opvattingen en praktijken op gedrag
en neurobiologie. Neurobiologische mechanismen kunnen als gentische en neurale
processen de transmisse van cultuur vergemakkelijken.
Er zijn een aantal genen betrokken bij psychiatrische aandoeningen, en deze zijn aspecifiek;
ze verklaren niet de stoornissen zelf, maar beïnvloeden biologische of mentale processen.
- Symptomen woren geizen als een brede, gemeenschappelijke, onderliggende
kwetsbaarheid.
- Er zijn lokale, culturele expressievromen van psychopathologie die overlappen met
symptoomclusters, maar grotendeels afwijken van formele diagnosen. -> idioms of
distress – culturele uitingen van onwelbevinden die voor iedereen herkenbaar zijn en
zich uiten in somatopsychische taal.
, Perceived need for mental health care among non-western labour migrants, Fasseart et al.
Hypothesis of the study; given a certain level of objective need (the presence of a disorder),
perceived need for mental health care would be lower among Turkish and Moroccan migrants. Also,
perceived needs among migrants were met to a lesser extent.
- Levels of education and health literacy are often much lower among non-western migrants,
which may result in determining personal risk as lower.
- Cultural factors affect the interpretation of symptoms.
The aims of the study; 1) examine possible ethnic differences in perceived need for mental health
care, and the extent to which needs are met. 2) provide potential explanations for these differences.
3) study potential differences in perceived barriers of care.
Data collection was done with a survey, and with interviews. Perceived need (need for mental health
care and the extent to which this need was met) was measured with a questionnaire. Five types of
interventions are distinguished; information, medication, counselling, social interventions and skill
training. Objective need was measured with SCL-90-R.
Results;
- The prevalence of a six-month diagnosis for a mood/anxiety disorder was much higher
among Turkish respondents, symptom levels were significantly higher compare to Dutch.
- Perceived need for mental health treatment was significantly higher among Turkish.
- Predominantly explained by a higher prevalence of common mental disorders and
differences in symptom level. After correction for this, Moroccans had a lower perceived
need for information, drugs, referral and counselling.
- Results are partially supportive for first hypothesis, in the case of similar mental morbidity,
the perceived need for care is lower among non-Western migrants. Results did not support
the second hypothesis, in case of similar mental distress, needs of migrants were less often
met than ethnic Dutch.
- Differences between Turkish and Moroccan population could possibly be explained due to
their levels of acculturation in Dutch society.
Conclusion; perceived need for mental care was higher among Turkish migrants than among ethnic
Dutch, the extent to which perceived needs were unmet was also higher for Turkish. There was
evidence to suggest that Moroccan migrants perceived less need for mental health care. Pessimism
and lack of knowledge were important barriers to health care that appear to be more specific to
migrants.
The weirdest people in the world? Henrich et al., 2010
In this article, it is reviewed how representative the typical WEIRD subjects are in light of the
available comparative database. -> Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. The
exploration is focused on those domains which have largely been assumed to be psychological
universals.
- It is expected that humans from all societies share basic aspects of cognition, motivation and
behaviour. But the aim of this article is to place knowledge on these universal features on a
firmer footing of population variability.
Two important points;
, 1. Database of behavioral science has a small view of human diversity. Sampling is often limited
to psychology undergraduates, 96% of samples come from 12% of the world’s population.
2. Behavioral scientists sometimes assume that their WEIRD-findings generalize to all. Much of
this generalization is implicit, which will describe a “human” process which is often limited to
WEIRD-population.
- You can only generalize a narrow sample to species if there are good empirical reasons to
believe that there is little variability across different populations, and as the sample is
representative for the average person.
Different contrasts are compared; population differences could arise from culture, environment or
genetics. In these contrast, there are 3 important considerations; processes can vary across
populations, American undergraduates and children are at the extreme end of the distribution, and
thus show significant difference from all the other populations, and population-level variation can be
useful for showing the nature of psychological processes.
People from modern industrialized societies vs. small-scale societies
- Example of a visual task that does not trick people from small-scale societies.
- People from industrialized societies take the extreme end of human distribution in a money
game.
- In rural environments, exposure to and interest in the natural world is more commonplace,
studying urban children only gives a distorted image because they are relatively later in this
development.
- WEIRD people make inferences based on similarity, populations with greater familiarity with
the natural world make inferences from folkbiological knowledge based on ecological
context.
- There are universal patterns between industrialized and small-scale societies in some
perceptual illusions, perceiving color, basic emotional expression, false belief tasks, analog
numeracy, psychological essentialism.
People from Western societies vs. non-Western industrialized societies
- Social decision making; Westerners are at the extreme end of behavioral distribution in a
money game.
- Independent vs. interdependent ; Westerners have independent views of themselves
(autonomous), non-Westerners interdependent (intertwined with social networks).
People with independent self-concepts are more likely to have more positive views
of themselves, a heightened valuation of personal choice, and an increased
motivation to stand out.
- Analytic vs. holistic reasoning; different cultures and experiences may opt for a holistic or
analytic thought system.
Holistic = orientation to the context and its relationships, an associative system
based on similarity and contiguity.
Analytic = detachment of objects from contexts, relies on abstract and symbolic
representations.
Based on these reasonings, habitual use of basic cognitive processes vary
systematically across populations.
- Moral reasoning – Kohlberg stages of reasoning are seen as universal, but research has
shown that this is not the case in non-Western populations.
- There are universal patterns between Western and non-Western populations in mate
preferences and personality structure.
American vs. people from other Western societies
