Deck 7: The Sociology of Mental Illness

Question 1

The history of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) suggests that

A) those working in mental health generally agree on the causes of mental illness.
B) our system of psychiatric diagnoses has resulted in part from a series of political fights.
C) those working in the mental health field generally agree on how to treat the different mental illnesses.
D) psychiatrists generally agree on how to treat homosexuality.
E) the DSM is now highly valid.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A person who thinks he is Napoleon

A) breaks cognitive norms.
B) has an organic illness.
C) breaks feeling norms.
D) should be treated with psychoactive drugs.
E) probably has end-stage syphilis.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Once an individual seeks treatment for psychiatric problems, doctors typically

A) remedicalize the journals they use.
B) assume that the individual has a mental illness.
C) work to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
D) work to identify the individuals' cultural background and its impact on treatment.
E) seek to understand the social context in which the individual's symptoms or problems emerged.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The sociological model of mental illness assumes that

A) psychiatrists label any behavior that breaks social norms as mental illness.
B) anyone who breaks social norms is equally likely to be labeled mentally ill.
C) behavior becomes labeled as mental illness when powerful persons consider it both unacceptable and incomprehensible.
D) treatment for mental illness may not help, but it cannot hurt.
E) sociologists can treat mental illness better than psychologists can.

Question 5

By the end of the nineteenth century,

A) custodial care had largely replaced moral treatment.
B) psychoanalysis had largely replaced moral treatment.
C) moral treatment had become the dominant form of therapy in mental hospitals.
D) care of the mentally ill had shifted from large mental hospitals to small ones.
E) almshouses had become the most common sites for care of the mentally ill.

Question 6

Research using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) suggests that

A) the DSM has a high degree of reliability.
B) clinicians are able to arrive at consistent diagnoses.
C) different clinicians may diagnose the same patient differently.
D) politics are not involved in the construction of diagnostic categories.
E) diagnostic categories are stable over time.

Question 7

Social stress is most likely to lead to mental illness if the stress

A) is chronic.
B) is an acute trauma.
C) is linked to a life event, rather than an ongoing situation.
D) is treated with antidepressants.
E) is treated with antipsychotics.

Question 8

Most psychiatrists now primarily treat patients with

A) drugs.
B) psychotherapy.
C) psychoanalysis.
D) electroshock therapy.
E) none of the above

Question 9

Which of the following played a main role in deinstitutionalization?

A) the development of new psychoactive drugs for treating mental illness
B) public horror at the maltreatment of mentally ill persons
C) financial changes in insurance and in federal funding
D) the overcrowding of state mental hospitals
E) the feminization of aging

Question 10

The medical model of mental illness assumes that

A) objectively measurable conditions define mental illness.
B) mental illness stems largely or solely from something within individual psychology or biology.
C) treatment sometimes can pose serious risks.
D) all of the above
E) a and b only

Question 11

According to Goffman, persons who are treated in large mental hospitals typically experience

A) cure.
B) remission.
C) recurrences of their illness.
D) mortification.
E) deinstitutionalization.

Question 12

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Definitions of what constitutes mental illness have changed over time.
B) Definitions of what constitutes mental illness vary from social group to social group.
C) Socially powerful groups are more able to enforce their definitions of what constitutes mental illness than are socially powerless groups.
D) all of the above
E) a and b only

Question 13

Which of the following are total institutions?

A) public elementary schools
B) police departments
C) prisons
D) colleges
E) churches

Question 14

Approximately what percent of U.S. adults experience a diagnosable mental illness in a typical year?

A) 5 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 30 percent
D) 50 percent
E) 70 percent

Question 15

Freud's ideas about human nature and mental illness

A) continue to permeate American culture.
B) have received strong support from recent research.
C) reflected a belief in the inherent superiority of females.
D) reflected his support for the nascent feminist movement.
E) have been repudiated by those who take a biological approach to psychiatry.

Question 16

The Rosenhan study suggests that

A) mental health workers cannot always tell whether someone needs psychiatric care.
B) definitions of mental illness vary cross-culturally.
C) mental illness is primarily caused by organic problems.
D) homosexuality should not be considered a mental illness.
E) psychiatrists are less well trained than psychologists.

Question 17

Moral treatment referred to

A) giving moral instruction to mentally ill persons.
B) teaching the Bible to mentally ill persons.
C) the treatment of mentally ill persons by ministers.
D) treating mentally ill persons through kindness and through giving them opportunities for both work and play.
E) the treatment of mentally ill persons by moralists and philosophers.

Question 18

Individuals who experience psychiatric problems often initially

A) define themselves as mentally healthy.
B) accept others' definitions of their condition.
C) agree with the diagnosis of mental health professionals.
D) perceive their situation as illness rather than as "problems."
E) trust doctors' ability to diagnose and treat them.

Question 19

Pre-modern societies were better able than modern societies to cope informally with individuals who acted in unacceptable and incomprehensible ways because pre-modern societies

A) could offer those individuals acceptable, low-level roles.
B) could often cure illness through prayer.
C) generated little stress.
D) killed such individuals before puberty.
E) developed religious institutions to control such individuals.

Question 20

The "social drift" theory argues that

A) lower class life causes mental illness.
B) those who suffer from mental illness over time move downward in social class.
C) gender does not affect rates of mental illness.
D) social class does not affect rates of mental illness.
E) mentally ill persons often become more religious.

Question 21

Typically, persons who exhibit behavior that suggests mental illness

A) are quickly labeled as mentally ill by their families.
B) seek treatment within one year.
C) become homeless within one year.
D) are only reluctantly labeled mentally ill by their families.
E) should be classified as schizophrenic.

Question 22

Critique the medical model of mental illness, using evidence from the textbook.

Question 23

A sociologist who studies how being labeled as mentally ill affects individuals' views of themselves is using

A) functionalist theory.
B) role theory.
C) life events theory.
D) symbolic interactionism theory.
E) aligning theory.

Question 24

Explain the link between stress and mental illness, and then use that explanation to explain class, gender, and race differences in mental illness.

Question 25

How are residential colleges similar to and different from total institutions?

Question 26

A person who drinks alcohol to blot out socially unacceptable feelings of anger is engaging in

A) snowballing.
B) symbolic interactionism.
C) feeling work.
D) labeling.
E) accommodation.

Question 27

Which of the following is true?

A) Research strongly indicates that most mental illness stems from biological causes.
B) Research strongly indicates that depression stems from biological causes.
C) Psychiatrists typically believe that mental illness stems from biological causes.
D) Concern about liability has led some television stations to refuse to run advertisements for drugs for depression.
E) Concern about liability has led some pharmaceutical companies to stop promoting drugs for treating mental illness.

Question 28

How do society's views on, and responses to, mental illness resemble those of past centuries? How do they differ?

Question 29

Following the development of capitalism,

A) religious control over persons we might now label mentally ill declined.
B) family networks strengthened and so families became better able to care at home for those labelled mentally ill.
C) the market broadened, making it easier for those we might label mentally ill to find productive work.
D) the rise of Christianity led to more people being labelled as mentally ill.
E) none of the above