4.2.3.4 Mental illness and its social distribution Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. Which sociologist argued that mental illness is a label applied to people who break social rules, and that the label itself can cause further deviance?

   • Michel Foucault, who argued that psychiatry classifies and controls people through medical knowledge
   • Talcott Parsons, who argued that illness gives a temporary exemption from normal social roles
   • Ivan Illich, who argued that medicalisation extends professional control over everyday life
   • Thomas Scheff, in his labelling theory of mental illness

2. Which sociologist argued that mental illness is a myth, and that psychiatry uses the label to control behaviour that breaks social norms?

   • Erving Goffman, who studied the experience of patients inside total institutions such as asylums
   • Richard Titmuss, who studied the role of altruism and commercial markets in the blood donation system
   • Thomas Szasz
   • Mike Oliver, who developed the social model of disability to explain the barriers faced by disabled people

3. In Erving Goffman's work, what is a 'total institution'?

   • A closed setting, such as an asylum, in which residents are controlled and their identities reshaped by the institution
   • A community organisation that offers support to people with mental illness while they continue to live at home
   • A large hospital that provides every type of treatment for all patients, regardless of their condition or need
   • A national health system in which every service is delivered by one central body with no private providers

4. Which social group has been found in UK surveys to report higher rates of common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety than men?

   • Women
   • People living in the most affluent areas, who report higher levels of common mental disorder than poorer groups
   • Children under five, who are most often recorded as having common mental disorders of all age groups
   • Men aged over 80, who are found to report depression and anxiety more than any other group in the population

5. Which pattern is consistently found in the social distribution of suicide in the UK, even though women report more common mental disorders?

   • Suicide is most common among children under ten, who are more likely than adults to end their own lives
   • Suicide rates are the same for men and women, because mental illness affects both sexes in equal measure
   • Women have higher suicide rates than men at every age, which is the reverse of the pattern in common disorders
   • Men have higher suicide rates than women

6. In the context of mental illness, what is the 'drift hypothesis' associated with social class?

   • The idea that people with serious mental illness drift down the social class scale because their illness reduces their income and status
   • The idea that mental health services gradually move from the city centres to the suburbs over the course of a century
   • The idea that mental illness is caused by a drift of genetic traits across generations within the same social class
   • The idea that people from affluent backgrounds are more likely to drift into mental illness because of the stresses of wealth

7. Which sociological approach to the causes of depression emphasises life events, a lack of a confiding relationship and childhood adversity, rather than purely biological causes?

   • The functionalist approach, which holds that depression is a sign of a temporary breakdown in social consensus
   • The social causation approach, as shown in the work of George Brown and Tirril Harris
   • The biological determinist approach, which holds that depression is caused by inherited chemical imbalances alone
   • The rational choice approach, which holds that depression is a conscious decision made by the individual patient

8. Which finding is commonly reported about ethnic minority groups and the use of the Mental Health Act in the UK?

   • People from Asian backgrounds are detained at much higher rates than any other group, which is the most common finding
   • People from Black Caribbean and other Black ethnic backgrounds are more likely than white people to be detained under the Act
   • People from white British backgrounds are most often detained under the Act, which shows that detention is linked to ethnic majority status
   • Ethnicity has no relationship with detention under the Act, because the law is applied identically to all ethnic groups

9. What is meant by 'social causation' of mental illness, as opposed to 'social selection'?

   • Social causation means that people choose their own mental illness, whereas social selection means the state chooses diagnoses
   • Social causation means that doctors cause mental illness through treatment, whereas social selection means patients choose doctors
   • Social causation means social conditions produce illness; social selection means illness moves people down the social scale
   • Social causation means that mental illness is entirely biological, whereas social selection means it is entirely environmental

10. Why might the recorded social distribution of mental illness be affected by how diagnosis is carried out?

    • Diagnosis is decided only by the patient's family, so clinicians have no role in how illness is recorded or classified
    • Diagnosis is fixed by the patient's genetic profile alone, so social factors can never change how it is recorded
    • Diagnosis is always made by a computer that gives identical results for every patient regardless of their background
    • Diagnosis depends on clinicians' judgements, which can be influenced by a patient's class, gender or ethnicity

11. In Erving Goffman's analysis of asylums, what is meant by the 'mortification of the self'?

    • The formal process by which a resident's diagnosis is confirmed by a panel of psychiatrists before any admission
    • The gradual return of a resident's independence after release from the institution into supported community housing
    • The physical decline of residents caused by poor diet, lack of exercise and an absence of medical treatment in the asylum
    • The stripping away of a resident's identity, autonomy and personal possessions through the routines and rules of the institution

12. A sociologist argues that a person's ability to recover from mental illness depends on access to stable housing, work and supportive relationships. Which concept is this an example of?

    • A structural or material explanation of mental health outcomes
    • A labelling explanation, which locates recovery entirely within the reactions of others to a patient's identity
    • A purely biological explanation, which locates recovery entirely within the chemistry of the patient's brain
    • A rational choice explanation, which locates recovery entirely within the individual's decisions about treatment

13. Which factor is identified in Brown and Harris's work as increasing vulnerability to depression in working-class women?

    • Having three or more children under 14 living at home
    • Living in a household of only older adults, which is the most common risk factor for depression in any group
    • Being employed full time in a professional job, which is the main factor associated with depression in women
    • Having no children at all, which removes the daily caring pressures that are linked to depression in women

14. Which concept describes a person's behaviour being shaped by the identity that others have given them after a psychiatric diagnosis?

    • Secularisation, in which religious institutions lose their influence over the moral and social life of a society
    • Ideology, in which ruling-class ideas are presented as natural and accepted by the population as a whole
    • Labelling, in which a diagnosis can shape a person's self-image and their subsequent behaviour
    • Embodiment, in which the body is shaped and given meaning by social and cultural processes over time

15. Why might the social distribution of mental illness appear different in a clinic than in a community survey?

    • Clinics see only people who seek help, while surveys can include people who are ill but do not use services
    • Community surveys are always less accurate than clinic records, because surveys rely on interviewers who lie to respondents
    • Clinics record only the most affluent patients, while surveys record only the most deprived people in each region
    • Clinics never record social class, so their data cannot be compared with any community survey at all

16. Which explanation for higher diagnosis of some ethnic groups as having psychosis is most consistent with sociological research?

    • Patients from some ethnic groups choose to be diagnosed with psychosis, so clinicians have no role in the process
    • Ethnic groups are biologically more susceptible to psychosis, so social factors such as racism and poverty play no role in diagnosis
    • Diagnosis is identical across all ethnic groups, so any differences in recorded rates are simply statistical noise
    • Diagnosis may be shaped by cultural differences in communication, clinicians' assumptions and the social stresses faced by minorities

17. Evaluate the argument that mental illness is entirely a social construct.

    • The argument is fully proven, because all mental distress is a product of labels given by psychiatrists and no other factor
    • The argument underplays the distress and biological factors involved, even though definitions and treatment are socially shaped
    • The argument is confirmed by the fact that mental illness rates are identical in every society and every historical period
    • The argument is irrelevant, because mental illness is measured only by the number of hospital beds allocated to it

18. Which conclusion best follows from the finding that common mental disorders are more prevalent among lower social classes?

    • Social class has no link to mental health, so the pattern must be caused entirely by differences in diagnostic labels
    • Lower class groups are more mentally resilient by nature, so they require fewer mental health services than others
    • Wealth directly causes mental illness, so policies to increase income would increase mental illness rates overall
    • Social conditions such as poverty and insecurity may contribute to mental illness, but selection effects may also operate

19. Which concept describes the way a mental health diagnosis can change a person's social position, such as losing a job or relationships?

    • Social solidarity, in which members of a community provide mutual support in times of need through shared norms
    • Social drift or downward social mobility following illness
    • Social closure, in which dominant groups restrict access to valued resources such as jobs and professions
    • Social cohesion, in which shared values and institutions bind a society together and reduce conflict

20. Which concept describes detention for psychiatric treatment against a person's will, under a legal framework such as the Mental Health Act?

    • Compulsory detention, in which a patient is admitted and treated under legal powers without their consent
    • Day care, in which a patient attends a centre during the day and returns home each evening to their family
    • Community care, in which a patient receives support in their own home from local services and their family
    • Voluntary admission, in which a patient agrees to a hospital stay and can choose to leave at any point they wish

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