Culture has a significant influence on how depression manifests, is perceived, and is treated. Cultures vary in their conceptualization of mental health, the symptoms they recognize as signs of depression, and their openness towards discussing feelings of depression.
Culture can influence how people describe and feel about their symptoms. It can affect whether someone chooses to recognize and talk about only physical symptoms, only emotional symptoms or both. Community Support.
There's no single cause of depression. It can occur for a variety of reasons and it has many different triggers. For some people, an upsetting or stressful life event, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, redundancy and job or money worries, can be the cause.
Depression has no exact equivalent in non-Western cultures, not least because these do not share a Western ethnopsychology that defines 'emotion' as internal, often biological, unintentioned, distinct from cognition, and a feature of individuals rather than situations.
Culture has a significant influence on how depression manifests, is perceived, and is treated. Cultures vary in their conceptualization of mental health, the symptoms they recognize as signs of depression, and their openness towards discussing feelings of depression.
In some cultures, mental health problems are seen as a sign of weakness, and people may be reluctant to seek help for fear of stigma or discrimination. In other cultures, Mental health problems may be seen as a normal part of life, and people may be more likely to seek help from family, friends, or community members.
Dysfunctional social behavior has been implicated in the experience of depression. People with greater depressive symptoms report more frequent negative social interactions and react more strongly to them.
It can be argued that depression also fulfils the criteria for a culture-bound syndrome, in westernised societies.
For some people, a negative, stressful, or unhappy family life can lead to depression. Other high-stress living situations — like poverty, homelessness, or violence — can lead to it, too. Dealing with bullying, harassment, or peer pressure also leaves some people feeling alone or anxious.
Depression results from a complex interaction of social, psychological, and biological factors. People who have gone through adverse life events (unemployment, bereavement, traumatic events) are more likely to develop depression.
The theory of the social construction of mental illness sheds light on the fact that our ideas of mental health and illness, deviance, and normalcy are not fixed - they are dependent on many factors, including society, culture, and time.
Culture influences psychological processes. Individual thoughts and actions influence cultural norms and practices as they evolve over time, and these cultural norms and practices influence the thoughts and actions of individuals.
If culture fosters a more extroverted personality style, we can expect more need for social interaction. Additionally, Individualistic cultures foster more assertive and outspoken behavior. When the general population encourages these gregarious behaviors, more ideas are exchanged and self-esteem increases.
There are many social determinants linked to depression, such as sociodemographics, social support, adverse childhood experiences. Determinants can be at the individual, social network, community, and societal levels.
Effects of Social Isolation and Loneliness
Mental and physical health are interconnected. Social isolation's adverse health consequences range from sleeplessness to reduced immune function. Loneliness is associated with higher anxiety, depression, and suicide rates.
One of the main differences seen across cultures is the way anxiety and depression is expressed. Someone from a culture where it is common to know psychological terms, could easily describe anxiety and depression using those specific words.
Lifetime prevalence estimates of MDE ranged from 1.5% (Taiwan) to 19.0% (Beirut) in these studies, with the midpoints at 9.2% (West Germany) and 9.6% (Edmonton, Canada). Twelve-month prevalence estimates ranged from 0.8% (Taiwan) to 5.8% (Christchurch, New Zealand), with the midpoints at 3.0% (US) and 4.5% (Paris).
It can influence what you eat, who you spend time with and what you do for fun. It also shapes your values and your views on health and wellbeing. This isn't always defined by the country that you're born in. It can be a part of your lived experience with migration, or it could reflect your family's migration.
The consequences of losing that connection to culture were also clear; the sense of dislocation and loneliness that can descend when a person feels uprooted and without deep connection to any place or any people.
First, the cultural context shapes the types of stressors that an individual is likely to experience. Second, culture may also affect the appraisal of the stressfulness of a given event. Third, cultures affect the choice of coping strategies that an individual utilizes in any given situation.