Socio-Cultural Model Of Abnormality

A therapist will face problems, issues and client troubles everyday. The professional must understand how their client relates to the world around them. These feelings and ideas affect how the client sees the problem and how they respond to their situation. Their actions, in turn, have bearing on individual thoughts, needs, and emotions. The therapist must be aware of the client's history, values, and culture in order to provide effective therapy. This paper will outline and provide information as to the importance of cultural competence and diversity in family therapy.

Have you ever wondered why do we do things that we do? Why do we act in a certain way? What compels us to follow a path or formulate habits? One perspective among many others is the sociocultural perspective. A sociocultural perspective is an approach to understand why humans behave the way they do. It seeks to understand human behavior and personality development by examining the influence of rules of social groups on individuals who are members of those social groups. Sociocultural approach is an emerging topic that looks at the important contributions that society makes to an individual. The sociocultural approach is based on the assumption that our personalities, beliefs, attitudes and skills are learned from others. It refers to a point of view that is built upon the idea that society and culture are major factors that influence personalities. This approach believes that people are heavily influenced by their social environment. What makes and defines us as individuals is the application of sociocultural approach. For example, if you look outside the window and see a man talking to a tree, what conclusions will you draw? You may think the man is a lunatic and needs some kind of medication. But would your opinion change if you knew that the man was Native American and Native Americans believe in a spiritual philosophy that trees can speak if you listen to them. So you see, the context of culture makes a huge difference in how you ascertain someone’s behavior and that’s

The importance of a cross-cultural understanding in Psychology is imperative to successful care and assistance of mental health. Understanding and acknowledging the complexities of different cultures is the beginning of a more informed approach to mental health. Cultural factors and questions play a fundamental role, however, simply acknowledging cultural differences does not necessarily provide the best individual help. Thus, a combination of cultural, demographic and individual factors are crucial initial steps to specific individual assistance. Treating individuals in context can help discern deviations from cultural factors and norms. Therefore an approach which recognises that both culture and specificity to the client is most effective. Knowing someone’s background can be fundamental to clinical help but could also reinforce cultural stereotypes, this overly simplistic view could be detrimental to treatment. Throughout this essay the impact of culture on mental health will be examined, and how the health care provider and client mediate a relationship to produce the most effective results.

According to sociologist Edwin Lemert, the majority of sociological theories for deviance fall under the concept of primary deviance. However, Lemert considered secondary deviance to be more important. Everyone is guilty of primary deviance. However, this does not mean that they perceive themselves to be a bad person. This is perception is where secondary deviance comes in. With secondary deviance, the individual, is labeled by the act of deviance that they committed, whether it is by themselves or by others. Eventually, this label is accepted by the individual, as a part of their identity. While primary deviance consists of an act that takes up a small amount of time in a person’s existence, secondary deviance is something that sticks with the individual for the long term. Potentially, this type of deviance can stick with an individual for the rest of their lives. There are two different theories that can compare and contrast how a concept such as secondary deviance can gain a foothold in an individual’s life. These two theories are the differential association theory and the control theory.

“There’s a cultural practice of dealing with distress and feelings on your own before burdening others with them,” clinical psychologist and Palo Alto University assistant professor Joyce Chu explains. “By the time [Asian-American women] seek professional help, the severity of their mental health problems are much higher than compared to every other group,” (Mu 1). Within my household, feelings of deep sorrow and despair have never been discussed between the members of my family. It is important to keep up the appearance that there is nothing out of place so, even though I sometimes confide in my friends, the act of confessing my sadness is kept to a minimal because of how unusual it feels. Losing face is a well-known concept among other Asian culture:

The Portokalos family appears to have a cultural component that attributes to their behavior and interactions in the system. The family comes from a collectivist perspective; therefore, separation and boundaries may be difficult to establish. Therefore, for the Portokalos family, to enact change, the treatment must work within a collectivist perspective. Utilizing elements of SFT for treatment may be appropriate because SFT has a natural inclination to structure and hierarchies, similar to collectivist societies. The purpose of this section is to address some of the SFT techniques, that I as a therapist, would utilize on the Portokalos family and conclude with a discussion on potential changes that can occur if the techniques are successful.

The purpose of this paper is to prepare an annotated bibliography on family therapy with emphasis on ethnicity and sociocultural influences on the problems of communication. This research includes twelve resources on authors with the following annotations: Delineation of the main focus or purpose of each author 's work; Background and credibility of each author; Intended audience for the work; Any unique feature of the work; Theoretical understandings; Family therapy strategies or techniques; and a Conclusion or observations presented in the work.

In the Korean-America culture, chae-myun is a concept that safeguards the clients “dignity, honor, and self-respect” (Kim & Ryu, 2005, p. 356). By providing unconditional positive regard the therapist is able to demonstrate that the information that the client is telling the therapist does not affect the therapist’s perception of the client as a human being and that the therapist still accepts the client (Rogers, 1961b). Additionally, through protecting the client’s chae-myun and reassuring the client that the therapist will both respect and accept them regardless of what they say, the therapist is able to lessen the fear within the client that they could loss their chae-myun or that they could offend the therapist’s chae-myun in therapy (Kim & Ryu, 2005). This reduction in the risk of losing their chae-myun and feeling shameful is a gift that the therapist can give during the first session (Sue & Zane, 2009). The gift allows the Korean-American client to be open about sharing potentially embarrassing information about their life (Kim & Ryu, 2005). Furthermore, in conjunction with the non-directive and non-authoritative approach of the therapist, the protection of chae-myun, allows the client to alert and correct the therapist when they are not in congruence—making for a better therapeutic alliance (Kim & Ryu, 2005). Therefore, person-centered psychotherapy is a good match for Korean-American clients because it respects the Korean-American

Still, the counselor must realize that his or her intuitive assumptions are based in a particular cultural worldview. This does not negate his or her ability to counsel persons from different cultures, but it does demand the ability of the counselor to step back and to view his words with an objective perspective. For example, when counseling an Asian family, the counselor may have to contextualize the parent's demand for obedience as a cultural product, and not simply see it as a neurotic instrument of control. The relationship of parent to child may be different from what the counselor has personally experienced in his or her own life and also what conventional

There are several factors deriving from sociocultural issues that shape the individual’s personal experience, which in therapy they are important to be recognised when addressing a person’s fear and sadness (Barker, 2010). Counselling supports the individual to promote change, resolve and overcome problems arising from the social context in which the client is embedded (McLeod 2003). In this paper I will focus mainly on sociocultural problems concerning race, gender, class and culture of a fictitious character. The case study represents Patrick who is married with a new born baby. He is suffering anxiety and depression deriving from an unstable marital relationship. The techniques used in therapy were systemic approaches and person-centred counselling.

Y-Chun is a 35-year-old biracial (White and Asian American) female presenting to counseling per recommendation of her physician. Y-Chun has been experiencing headaches, upset stomach, and difficulties falling and staying asleep. Additionally, Y-Chun has noticed that she is generally short tempered and on edge. The psychodynamic theory of individual psychology, typically referred to as Adlerian therapy, can be applied to the case of Y-Chun in order to understand her presenting concerns and how these problems may have developed. There are several important concepts of individual psychology that should be addressed in order to appropriately conceptualize Y-Chun’s case from an Adlerian framework. These concepts include family constellation,

Attitudes of psychotherapy differ from culture to culture. There are over 60,000 psychologists in Argentina (Stevens, Gielen, 2007). Therapy is widely accepted among the people in Argentina especially in amongst the middle class. Many feel this is due to the violent past of unrest in the country and search for identity (Tango and Analysis, 2008). On the other hand in Japan the Japanese people in general are not familiar or relate to the concepts of psychotherapy (Nippoda, 2002). The image of counseling in Japan is advice or answers to given to a particular problem and mental illness is treated by more of a medical model (Nippoda, 2002). The attitudes are quite different yet the goals of psychotherapy are similar. In Argentina the goals of psychotherapy seem to be a quest for identity and a sense of self. For the Japanese the result of psychotherapy is the sense of independence, discovering equality in relationships and finding authority within themselves (Nippoda, 2002). A sense of self seems to be the theme for both cultures yet those from Argentina may continue the process longer since finding meaning of life is a part of the culture.

Additionally, she highlights the importance of continuing to assess trauma and use culture to inform to inform treatment. It is extremely important to be a cultural competence psychotherapist as it will help to avoid unintentionally inflicted secondary traumas. It will also help the healing process by connecting trauma survivors to their own resources and honoring the inner and outer realities informing trauma and its meanings. How a client translate his or her inner biological states of posttraumatic disequilibrium into outward expressions of distress are strongly affected by culture and context. I aim to be a psychotherapist who possesses the ability to understand how a trauma survivor’s multiple identities and social contexts lend meaning to his or her trauma experience and promote recovery that includes their cultural

The purpose of this paper is to examine oneself by taking the Multicultural-Self Assessment and gain an understanding about the “Other” of oneself based on previous experience. This paper will also cover a type of human development this writer identifies with and how they to relate to the field of mental health counseling. These topics will assist one in connecting with clients from different cultures.

Over the past twenty years, gang related activity in the Caribbean has increased steadily. This increase in gang related activity has been a result of the formation and migration of new gangs in the Caribbean as well as, the extension of existing gangs. The recruitment of members for these gangs usually targets young persons as they are more susceptible to joining. Juvenile gang involvement is a growing problem in the region and especially in Trinidad and Tobago. This paper will look at the Cultural Deviance Theory of crime to explain this growing phenomenon. This theory will include Albert Cohen’s Delinquent Sub Cultural theory as well as Cloward and Ohlin’s Theory of Differential Opportunity. A plan to divert juveniles away from becoming involved in these gangs will also be given at the end of this paper along with the perceived problems of its operationalization.