Question

What role does Culture play in defining Psychological disorder?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) It is essential for any counsellor to conduct research from the case study of their patient in advance. Doing so would ensure that the counsellor would deal carefully with the sensitive subjects and not easily worry or scare the patient with topics that are particularly hard for them to handle.

If the patient is of a different cultural background, it becomes even more essential to have foreknowledge about the patient and the cultural connotations of their convictions. A piece of advice given to a Chinese patient could be different from that of an American patient. Considering the cultural background of the patient, their views on community living, family, individualistic culture, religion etc. the patient should have a session befitting to their beliefs.

Let us assume that there is a Chinese student and an American student whose parents want her to be a doctor. Here, we can assume that the cultural background of the subjects is able to influence their identity. The parents of both these students would prefer their child to neurotic and careful about details, schedules and perhaps even take their career a little seriously.

On the other hand, it would be preferable for a normal individual to be less anxious, calm, secure and satisfied with the way life is. This is why; the findings may be different across situations that might affect a person’s personal identity. Behaviour that is considered normal to one culture might be outrageous in another.

Even though there might be differences in diagnosis based on the ethnic background of the subject, there are still certain universal ethics that must influence personality traits. For instance, it is beneficial for an individual of any ethnic background to not have anxiety issues. Since this might lead to problems with blood pressure, stress and other problems. In such cases, it would be unwise to accommodate one’s cultural background and rather consider the fact that anxiety is bad for a human being of any culture.

Therefore, culture is a part of the “nurture” sociological factor that is responsible for half of the influence on one’s behavioural traits. This is why it is an essential component in defining a psychological disorder.