09-03-2014, 01:27 AM
INTRODUCTION
Contents:
In this paper we analyze the concept according to which mental illness is as much a socially constructed disease as it is a physiological one and especially the example of schizophrenia, one of the oldest, most documented, and least understood of all the behaviors that fall under society’s category of mental illness. One of the most influential theoretical positions evident in the sociology of health and illness over the past 30 years has been social constructivism.
A central assumption within this broad approach is that reality is not self-evident, stable and waiting to be discovered, but instead it is a product of human activity. In this broad sense all versions of social constructivism can be identified as a reaction against positivism and naive realism. There are multiple intellectual roots of a social constructionist approach to illness. Some of the basic building blocks are evident in the writings of early sociological thinkers (Durkheim, Mannheim, Thomas), but one of the most important intellectual foundations of the social construction of illness is social problems theory and research from the 1960s and 1970s. Distancing themselves from positivist interpretations, scholars in this tradition asserted that what comes to be identified as deviant behavior or a social problem is not given, but rather is conferred within a particular social context and in response to successful “claims-making” and “moral entrepreneurialism” by social groups (Becker 1963).
A central assumption within this broad approach is that reality is not self-evident, stable and waiting to be discovered, but instead it is a product of human activity. In this broad sense all versions of social constructivism can be identified as a reaction against positivism and naive realism. There are multiple intellectual roots of a social constructionist approach to illness. Some of the basic building blocks are evident in the writings of early sociological thinkers (Durkheim, Mannheim, Thomas), but one of the most important intellectual foundations of the social construction of illness is social problems theory and research from the 1960s and 1970s. Distancing themselves from positivist interpretations, scholars in this tradition asserted that what comes to be identified as deviant behavior or a social problem is not given, but rather is conferred within a particular social context and in response to successful “claims-making” and “moral entrepreneurialism” by social groups (Becker 1963).
Contents:
1 INTRODUCTION 3
2 Social constructivist perspective of schizophrenia 4
3 CONCLUSION 7
REFERENCES 8
2 Social constructivist perspective of schizophrenia 4
3 CONCLUSION 7
REFERENCES 8