Ethnocentrism And Mental Attractiveness

Improved Essays
Mental Illness and Ethnocentrism
As a psychology major, I have been very curious to see what conclusions we can make about the human mind when looking through an anthropological lens. Naturally, when presented with the opportunity to look at anthropological research of my own choosing, I looked for something with strong psychological implications. I chose to examine an article written by Susan Abbott and Ruben Klein titled Depression and Anxiety among Rural Kikuyu in Kenya. Although it was a very interesting read, the conclusions Abbott and Klein made about depression and anxiety were based on comparisons between Western and Kikuyu cultural standards, which is ethnocentric and does not allow us to form legitimate claims unless additional information is given. The article began by giving the reader information about depression based research in Africa, of which there has been very little. This set precedence for the study itself, explaining why it was important. The people of Kangongo, a rural Kikuyu community, made up the study sample. In Kangongo, the people live on homesteads and many engage in horticultural activity as their main source of income. Men and women have very different day-to-day lives and are not extremely socially connected, even in marriages. There are very few opposite-sex friendships or interactions past young childhood. Men are considered to be deservedly superior to women. Wife-beatings are common and women are very dependent on their husbands. It is a very hierarchical society in terms of both age and gender- this we will discuss later. The article goes on to explain the different depression and anxiety inventories that were used to examine the prevalence of the disorders in Kangongo (the Beck inventory being the most commonly mentioned).
…show more content…
All of the inventories were of western origin. The researchers used the Beck inventory to create an anxiety and depression self-report test to administer to the people of Kangongo.
After examining the test results researchers discovered that the men of the community were more likely to report symptoms of anxiety, and the women were more likely to report symptoms of depression. When discussing the implications of this, Abbott and Klein suggest that women in Kangango are more likely to be depressed because they are seen as subservient to the men of the community. They say that since the women have little control over their lives, they are more likely to be depressed. This is where things got really iffy for me. I think the first question I have in response to this research is how we can use western definitions of depression and anxiety to identify these disorders in a very different society? A disorder can be defined as a group of symptoms that causes thoughts, actions, and behavior that is deviant to what is culturally accepted. In this case, we
…show more content…
The subservience of women to men in Kangongo is described as being just and expected by the community. To say that women would be depressed under these circumstances seems to be condemning this norm and suggesting that the Western idea of (relative) gender equality is universally desired and is the only circumstance under which a woman should or could be happy. It also ignores the fact that in Western societies women are still more likely than men to be depressed! Harvard Health Publications reported that women are twice as likely as men to experience depression. You think that this would be considered in a thorough analysis of the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Musarrat Lamia ANTH 101.00-CN1/Schindler Final #4: The Anthropology of Ethnographic Fieldwork In anthropology, and with all sorts of research and studies, there are set guidelines that must be followed in order for the research to be considered accurate. In fact, how research is conducted can be studied anthropologically. Why do we feel that a finding needs to meet certain standards in order for it to be considered truthful?…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Stepheny Saavedra Anthropology 340 Dec. 1, 2016 “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” is one of the many cases that exemplify the barriers and obstacles people from distinct cultures encounter due to their ethnocentrism and lack of cultural relativism. After escaping to the U.S., a place completely different from what they called home, the Lees had to adapt and place their trust on strangers (to save their daughter) who viewed a condition with spiritual origin to the Hmong as a neurological disorder that had to be stopped rather than controlled. As a result, treating Lia’s epilepsy caused contradictory approaches between Lia’s parents and the Western doctors as to how to treat the Hmong child. Anne Fadiman, author of the book, takes an…

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Pride of Providing Gender inequality is an unfortunate and all too common aspect of society in many portions of the world. This can range from unequal pay and hiring, to engrained cultural beliefs about the roles of men and women in a given culture. These biases have often been explored through the use of literature which have provided many examples of the effects they can have on ones role in a relationship. From close examination of these works it can be established that deviation from these established roles can have drastic effects on a given relationship.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Buck A Memoir Essay

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mental illness is handled differently from different cultures, namely African, European, Asian, Hispanic, American, Caribbean and others. Mental illnesses are not seen as serious from the standpoint of persons who are descended from African cultures (including African American), because persons are trained and taught to be strong and fight through the illness. They also tend to say that the persons that have can “just get over it” or “it’s just a phase”, or the…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Brigid's Hope Case Study

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Brigid’s Hope is an arm of agency program developed by the Cathedral Health and Outreach Ministries. It is an umbrella of non-profit organization organized by Christ Church Cathedral to operate several health social services outreach programs. Brigid’s Hope mission goal is to “providing services that help restore dignity, self- respect, and hope to Houston poor and homelessness”. This is carried out by providing support and assisting incarcerated women from age thirty-five and older that are out of imprisonment and chronically homelessness in transition out of homelessness into a self-sufficiency by providing housing, mentoring, individual therapy, life skills development, group therapy, transition planning to the community, spiritual support.…

    • 1721 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Hmong Gender Roles

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The roles of gender have long shaped the society as a whole. Commonly, women recognized as dependent, weak and passive. On the other hand, men perceived as independent, strong and dominant. These traits define the roles of gender, but it impacts one culture more than others. The majority of the Hmong populations are people who lived in the hills of Laos.…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    "Unpleasant experiences with the opposite sex seem to be unavoidable. " This is one of Karen Horney 's first statements when she speaks directly about sexual matters and what she sees as male anxieties. She describes the distinct conflict areas between men and women and how it is from psychologically originated in her piece called The Distrust Between Sexes. Karen Horney was a psychiatrist whose career was developed independently when influenced by Sigmund Freud according to a biography published in American Decades by Judith S. Baughman. The research Horney spent most of her time was centered on the question of female psychology.…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “Why Looks Are The Last Bastion of Discrimination”, the author Deborah L. Rhode tells how many people in America have been discriminated against in various ways. In addition, she discusses how discrimination exists today based on; race, sex, religion, weight and ethnicity. In the first paragraph Rhode said, “In the nineteenth century, many American cities banned public appearances by unsightly individuals.” Unsightly referred to individuals who were considered deformed or diseased. Although the government stopped enforcing anti-discrimination, many schools, jobs and businesses still indulged in discrimination (against others.)…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Mental Health Of Men Essay

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Mental Health of Men Introduction Throughout history, men have been seen as superior in all ways to women, and this harmful stereotype still plays a role in today’s society. However, it wasn’t until recent times that the idea of mental disorders and health has been feminized and men’s mental health has largely been ignored (1). When referring to mental disorders and health, this is an encompassing term that refers to both affective and behavioral disorders that are patterned in both men and women (1). Although there has been some debate throughout history about empirical mental differences between men and women, it is proven that both sexes are capable of being diagnosed with the same mental disorders. Male and female victims…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is African American psychology? African American psychology is defined as “the body of knowledge that is concerned with the understanding of African American life and culture. African American psychology recognizes the commonality of experiences of African people throughout the world” (Fairchild, pg. 93). There are two perspectives in which African American psychology can be presented.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Differences between Female’s & Male Prisons The statistically there are more male inmates in the United States than females. Due to these facts there are more male prisons than female prison and more services geared toward male inmates. There are key differences between male’s and female’s prisons. In United States there are about 4,500 prisons; out of the 4,500 prisons there are only around 170 female prisons.…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Women In The Girl Effect

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How does the world see women? The unfortunate answer is that not everywhere, but in numerous different countries women are seen as inferior and not seen as equals to men, including the U.S. Women are not paid as much as men, they experience more violent and sexual harassment, and in other countries, having a son is actually seen as better than having a daughter. In "The Girl Effect," written by Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn, the couple addresses the issues of discrimination and that women face in countries like China and how there is this issue of “gendercide” where women around the world are disappearing and it is going overlooked. We do not see or treat women appropriately — people have habituated the idea that women are…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Utero Beyonce once said that girls run the world, and Beyonce is never wrong. What Beyonce is saying is that females play important roles in society that are generally looked down on or are covered up by the patriarchy. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart and in Igbo culture, being a women is not necessarily the best gender to be. Often times in Things Fall Apart, one sees that females and femininity in general are associated with weakness, and they are lesser than men.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Men's Rights Activists

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages

    or in other words women are more likely to suffer from a form of mental illness, later resulting in…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Gender Preferences Men are very different from women in many aspects of life. For example, men's social status is often higher than women’s. Men also have a greater self-esteem and more confidence than women. However, women have less pressures of social expectations than men.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays