Mental health
Essay Question.
What are some of the challenges and complexities involved in caring for a family member with a mental illness? Be sure to employ several sociological concepts in your discussion (e.g. narrative reconstruction, family roles, role distress, and disenfranchised grief).
Word count 2000
Essay addresses the topic sociologically, and demonstrates a clear understanding of key sociological concepts appropriate to the chosen topic (i.e. focuses on “the social”, not the biological or the psychological realms)
You will need to use sociological language and ideas in your essay — remember that this essay focuses on “the social” – it is not focused on symptoms and medical explanations (though these might be mentioned if relevant to your discussion)
*** Examples of sociological explanations – see Sandell & Bornas: neoliberal subjectivity – social environment shapes selfhood; Eckersley’s discussion of cultural change > qualitatively different pressures on younger generations because of rapid social, economic and cultural changes >>> contributes to increased rates of mental health problems
- Critical thinking – 10%
Essay engages with rather than simply re-states ideas and arguments in the reading
Expectations:
- Evidence is appropriate
- Reasoning is coherent
- (Where applicable) the essay questions assumptions of others
- Inquiry/research – 10%
Essay shows adequate use of relevant research material,
Reference list (a minimum of 12 references from this list must be used)
2 of the 3 references in red must be included.
Richardson et al. (2013), Bui et al. (2018), Young et al. (2004), and Harden (2005) are also worth reading early in your research
Diminic et al. (2018) is useful for statistical information on mental health carers, and Wyder et al. (2018)
Karp, D 2001, The burden of sympathy: how families cope with mental illness, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York. Chapter-3: ‘Managing Emotions’, pp. 71-108.
Karp, D 2001, The burden of sympathy: how families cope with mental illness, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York. Chapter-4: ‘Family Ties’, pp. 109-149.
Karp, D 2001, The burden of sympathy: how families cope with mental illness, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York. Chapter-4: ‘The Four Cs’, pp. 151-191.
William Cockerham, Robert Dingall, & Stella Quah (eds), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. [Online access from the library]
Scull, A (ed.) 2014, Cultural Sociology of Mental Illness: An A-Z Guide, Sage, Thousand Oaks. [Online access from the library]
Aneshensel, CS et al. (eds), Handbook of the sociology of mental health (2nd ed.), Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht. E-book
Rogers, A & Pilgrim, D 2014, A sociology of mental health and illness, McGraw- Hill Education, Maidenhead. E-book
Scheid, TL & Brown, TN (eds), A handbook for the study of mental health, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. E-book
Sociology of Health & Illness Social Science & Medicine Health Sociology Review Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Health, Risk and Society
Journal of Health and Social Behaviour Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology Quarterly Qualitative Health Research
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Journal of Mental Health
Issues in Mental Health Nursing
Australian Social Work
British Journal of Social Work
Advances in Mental Health
Australasian Psychiatry
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing World Psychiatry
