Health & Mental Health Lecture Notes SOC100 PDF

 Not on the Where We Are Now test. We’re Here Debate Paper 1 Due Friday! *Remember that this is optional but a good idea if you want time to re-submit...

 Not on the Where We Are Now test. We’re Here Debate Paper 1 Due Friday! *Remember that this is optional but a good idea if you want time to re-submit another paper for a better grade. *Please also remember that everyone has a no- questions-asked grace period of 7 days from the deadline to submit without penalty. Tutorial 3 runs next week 2  Not on the External Requests to Share Info test. PARTICIPATE IN ECONOMIC EXPERIMENTS & EARN MONEY!!! Join TEEL – The Toronto Experimental Economics Laboratory: We are looking for students to participate in various economic experiments. All University of Toronto students are welcome to participate and no special knowledge is required! TEEL is based in the Department of Economics, Max Gluskin House on 150 St. George Street. The payment for participation includes a show-up payment and a payment that is based on participants’ decisions. SIGN UP: http://teel.economics.utoronto.ca We hope to see you at one of these sessions! Please Note: I’m sharing this because the economics department asked me to. I have no affiliation or knowledge of the lab or their experiments. 3  House Keeping Make-Up Midterm application form and practice tests will be released early next week. We were unable to get approval for past essays to be used as essay examples. For this reason, we are unable to provide examples of past papers. Remember that we have a paper template, 18 pages of instructions and FAQS, a writing guide that goes over plagiarism, in-text citations, and writing tips, the grading rubric we use to grade the papers, etc. You have over 30 pages of single-spaced resources to do a 3.5 page double spaced paper. You also have the opportunity to do another paper if the first paper grade is not to your liking. I mention these because we are getting overwhelmed with paper questions through email and discussion board and it’s likely responses will start being delayed, just reminding you to please check those resources before asking questions, this will help us keep response times quick. 4  House Keeping The release of AM Quiz #5 and AM Material for lecture 5 is going to be delayed until tomorrow morning. We apologize for any inconvenience. 5  Office Hours Not on the test. No students left behind! You got a friend in me! If you have a question or concern you are always welcome to come to office hours (link on home page). 6  Finishing The Sociology of Education- Part 2 SOC100: Intro to Sociology Dr. Mitch McIvor 7  Race, Ethnicity, & Education Like Feminism, Critical Race Theory takes both macro and micro approaches (in other words, it borrows from Symbolic Interactionism) Remember that Symbolic Interactionism focuses on the micro-level such as understanding the meanings people associate with their social circumstances. Can anyone think of why the meaning of education and succeeding in education may mean something different to a child in an immigrant family? This is a good opportunity to practice what Max Weber called Verstehen (i.e. an “empathetic understanding of human behavior” (Oxford, 2021). In other words, putting yourself in another’s shoes or imagining a different social location if this does not apply to you. 8  Symbolic Interactionism & Education Parents who immigrate to a new country often do so to provide more opportunities and a better life for their children. And many sacrifices are made in the process as any new immigrants often must: ▪ adapt to a new culture and often a new language; ▪ lose fundamental social network connections such as immediate family who often remain in their home country. ▪ experience a lack of credential recognition. ▪ face racism and other types of discrimination related to anti-immigration. ▪ And much more. 9  Symbolic Interactionism & Education Children in immigrant families have been found to want to honor their parent’s sacrifice by succeeding in education. This results in them placing more pressure on themselves to succeed (as well as parents often also putting more pressure on them). 10  Race, Ethnicity, & Education One group that underperforms in education within Canada is the Indigenous community. Non-Indigenous Population Indigenous Population High School Graduation Rate 90% 70% off-reserve, 40% on-reserve Trades Degree 12.0% 14.4% College Degree 21.3% 20.6% University below BA Degree 4.9% 3.5% Bachelor’s Degree 26.5% 9.8% Source: Statistics Canada, 2011, Population aged 25-64 Education attainment rates are significantly lower for the indigenous population. This then has employment and income repercussions. For example, a BA earns $14,000 more per year than college/trades and $29,000 more than high school on average in Canada. 11  Race, Ethnicity, & Education Lower education attainment in the indigenous community is a direct result of the legacy of residential schools in Canada. The residential school system for indigenous children was in operation from the early 1830’s to 1996 when the last school closed in Saskatchewan. The goal of the schools was cultural genocide. To forcibly take Indigenous children and assimilate them to white Canadian culture. Students were taken from their families, lived in the schools, were beaten for speaking their Indigenous language, stripped of their Indigenous clothes and names, and forced into Christianity. 12  Race, Ethnicity, & Education This was an overt form of systemic discrimination and it has long lasting systemic effects. Sexual and physical abuse was common at the schools and the mortality rate was exceptionally high. For example, the odds of an indigenous child dying in a residential school was 1 in 25. Comparatively, the odds of a Canadian soldier dying while serving in WWII was 1 in 26 (CBC, 2021). Residential school survivors have been found to have significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, depression, anxiety, PTSD, homelessness, lower income and education rates, more physical health ailments, and many other severe negative consequences that have influenced their lives and the lives of their children. 13 Symbolic Interactionism & Education Residential schools, by essentially kidnapping and abusing entire generations of indigenous children, have led to severe disadvantages in the economic, social, and cultural capital of indigenous peoples and indigenous communities. A large part of the legacy of residential schools is the association of education systems with cultural genocide in the indigenous community. 14 Symbolic Interactionism & Education We discussed how children of immigrants associate the meaning of education with an opportunity their parents sacrificed for. Indigenous children, on the other hand, associate education with the intentional attempt by Canada to eliminate their culture and way of life. This association lowers the educational performance and aspirations of indigenous youth, which means that it represents a continuing form of systemic disadvantage. 15 Symbolic Interactionism & Education If you wish to learn more about the legacy of residential schools and the meaning indigenous communities associate with education, the following video provides a brief glimpse and I encourage you to watch it in your own time (please be advised this is a heavy topic though): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOkcqFQNGrs 16  Health & Mental Health  Health & Globalization Do you remember what globalization is? Globalization: “the growing economic, political, and social interconnectedness among societies throughout the world. It has eroded boundaries that separate societies, creating a ‘global village’ ” (Mooney et al, 2018) Global communications make it easier to monitor and control disease and share scientific knowledge and research findings, which are positives. Globalization also presents 3 new challenges or negatives to health as well though…. 19  Health & Globalization: Challenge 1 1) Increased travel means greater risk of communicable diseases being spread across regions. For example, the Rio Olympics and fear of Zika Virus infection. Or, perhaps more fitting, the Corona Virus we are currently still dealing with. Another example, is antibiotic resistant STI’s being spread throughout the world (Ducharme, 2018).I.e., prostitution in other countries effects Canadians & Canada. Disease can be spread due to different factors (climate, living conditions, quality and access to health care, etc.), different diseases develop in different parts of the world. People are travelling more than ever before and can do so more quickly than ever before, which means there is greater risk of spreading disease between nations. o This has historically been a problem as well. For example, people bringing plague back from wars abroad, but it is worse today due to speed and scope of people travelling. 20  Health & Globalization: Challenge 2 2) Reduces power of government to tax corporations and the wealthy. As it became easier and cheaper to ship goods around the world (transportation technology), it also became easier to send information around the world (communication technology). This means corporations can operate almost anywhere in the world with ease. Whereas a corporation used to need to operate in the country they sold goods in, they now do not and if governments raise their taxes, they can threaten to leave to countries offering a better rate (you are familiar with all of this from prior lectures). o For example, Ireland used low taxes as an incentive to lure Apple headquarters from the US. The US loses jobs and tax revenue, and Ireland does not gain in tax revenue from Apple but does gain high quality jobs (and the taxes that come from individual incomes). 21  Health & Globalization: Challenge 2 2) Reduces power of government to tax corporations and the wealthy (cont). This is problematic from a national standpoint as it means nations are in greater competition with each other to lower taxes. o For example, the US government under then President Trump lowered the corporate tax rate in the US from 35% to 21% in 2018, lowered individual tax rates, and passed a plan that removes inheritance tax. o And it is not just corporations as individuals have the ability to change countries as well, which means wealthy citizens can move to countries with lower taxes to save money. Lower taxes means less revenue for governments and that means they have greater difficulty paying for healthcare and social services important to ensuring health. Governments can’t keep tax rates too high due to international competition and the fear that it will drive business/the rich away. 22  Health & Globalization: Challenge 3 3) Reduces working conditions in poor countries In wealthy nations increased competition globally means less ability to collect tax revenue from businesses and the wealthy. In poor nations increased competition globally has meant reduced work conditions. o In order to secure jobs many poor nations offer reduced environmental and labor laws to corporations to produce their goods in the country. Further, workers in these countries accept poverty wages because having any income is seen as better than no income (these processes are referred to as the ‘race to the bottom’) o For example, many nations offer Free Trade Zones, which essentially create a piece of land that is not subject to national laws (such an environmental or labor laws) and taxes. 23  Health & Globalization: Challenge 3 Let’s work backwards and consider these 3 consequences of globalization as they apply to the Corona Virus Epidemic we are living through now: 3) Globalization reduces working conditions in poor countries When people live in extreme poverty as a result of their jobs not providing a sufficient income for living, it leads to practices that harm health but that saves the person money. So what do you do when you’re poor, you just make enough to meet BARE essentials (let alone escape poverty), and you want a better life? You do what anyone would, you find ways to save costs. For example, a common way of saving costs is consuming animals that are undesirable to eat but are cheap because they are undesirable to eat. 24  Health & Globalization: Challenge 3 Let’s consider these 3 consequences of globalization as they apply to the Corona Virus Epidemic we are living through now: 3) Globalization reduces working conditions in poor countries I saw this in the US where people would not only hunt, but hunt animals most of us would turn our nose up to like squirrels, possums, and other similar animals. It also happens in other countries where people are desperate for affordable meat, and it leads to eating animals like bats. Animals, especially wild animals and, even more especially, small animals lower on the food chain, carry illness at greater rates and these can spread from animal to humans during the hunting, butchering and consumption process. Once a virus spreads to humans it can then spread between humans and lead to an epidemic depending on its severity. All academic evidence suggests that this is the cause of the Corona virus (it is thought to have originated in a seafood and animal market where people were selling and consuming meat from a variety of animals). 25  Health & Globalization: Challenge 2 Let’s consider these 3 consequences of globalization as they apply to the Corona Virus Epidemic we are living through now: 2) Reduces power of government to tax corporations and the wealthy Tax dollars are what the government uses to fund its budget. This budget is stretched between providing essential services like roads, infrastructure, healthcare, education, social assistance, emergency services, prisons, the military, and so on. Governments have increasingly less tax dollars from business and corporations 26  Health & Globalization: Challenge 2 Let’s consider these 3 consequences of globalization as they apply to the Corona Virus Epidemic we are living through now: 2) Reduces power of government to tax corporations and the wealthy Not surprisingly, governments have relied on borrowing money as a response to having less tax dollars from corporations. Hence the deficit grows (this is a loan that younger generations, will be paying off with interest). The current Canadian national debt is 2.2 trillion (your share of this is $57,894) And, while this doesn’t cause the pandemic, it affects the government’s ability to respond and provide resources to needed areas. We see this realized when Canadian hospitals and other health providers are not properly prepared for a pandemic with protective equipment and supplies (a direct result of lack of adequate funding) 27  Health & Globalization: Challenge 1 Let’s consider these 3 consequences of globalization as they apply to the Corona Virus Epidemic we are living through now: 1) Increased travel means greater risk of communicable diseases being spread across regions. I doubt this needs much elaboration if you’ve been following the news. The rate at which people travel around the world for business, pleasure, and personal reasons is much higher today then it used to be due to better transportation technologies and more international business. Goods are also made and shipped across the world (if the disease can survive on surfaces). Thus, the spread of a highly infectious diseases between countries happens quickly and is virtually unstoppable. In the debate on whether Canada should assist other countries. One of the arguments that gets made is that problems in other countries don’t stay in their borders and will spread. The Corona virus may be the clearest example of this that we’ve seen in modern history (9/11 would be another where the consequences of poverty in another country affected the US, that time through the growth of extremism). 28  Health & Globalization All of this to say, we discussed a ton of concepts in this class and a bunch of different areas like the economy, global warming, globalization, ascriptive inequality, and more. As structural functionalism emphasizes to us though, all parts of society are interconnected so what we learned in one area applies beyond (for example, globalization and health). Further, you’ve seen how concepts from other sections of class apply again to recent sections. This is because the concepts we’ve taught you have wide applicability (for example, Weber’s Instrumental & value rationality). It’s important to see these interconnections and to be aware of them. What we’re doing is building your sociological imagination, and our hope is that we’ve built it to the point that you are starting to analyze issues we didn’t cover using the same Sociological approach and concepts. 29 Take 5 Mins 30  The Start of Universal Medical Care 1. Saskatchewan was the first province to adopt universal and free healthcare. Why do you think healthcare started in Saskatchewan versus other regions? o Tommy Douglas was the founder of free medical care in Canada. He was a preacher in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada when he did. o So to give you a hint why it started there, Weyburn is a huge farming community. Does that help you guess why socialized medical care started there? o The American dream, or meritocracy as it is formally known, is the idea that hard work will bring success. Thus, if you work hard, you will be prosperous. The slightly less talked about, but equally present idea that goes with this notion is that if you are not prosperous it is your own fault. In other words, if you do not have money, it is because you lack talent, hard work or some trait that is mostly your responsibility. Meritocracy is essentially the idea that you get what you deserve. 32  The Start of Universal Medical Care Why did free medical care start in Canada? o Pure meritocracy is not real. Children born to rich families have a very large advantage over those that are born to poor families. For example, going to a private school like an ivy league school is associated with earning 40% more in annual income, people can inherit wealth (not technically meritocratic), and the VAST majority of gang members come from poor families where resources were scarce. o But in some places people hold beliefs in meritocracy more than others. 33  The Start of Universal Medical Care o Meritocracy was not a strongly held belief in Saskatchewan because meritocracy does not fit the life of a farmer very well. This is why healthcare as a universal guarantee was so popular there. o As a farmer, you could work extremely hard and have all the farming talent in the world, but if it didn’t rain in your area, if you got bad weather or not enough sunshine, if a tornado or hail storm came and destroyed your crop, your area flooded or any other number of uncontrollable events occurred, you could end up destitute/poor and desperate. o For this reason, Saskatchewan had a long tradition of seeing basic necessities such as health care as a right instead of a personal responsibility because poverty and hard times could happen to anyone and not be their fault. The people of Saskatchewan supported socialized healthcare because of this. 34  ASIDE: The Role of Framing o Meritocracy and responsibility continue to be a part of healthcare debates today. o You probably remember health scares like SARS, the bird flu, the swine flu, or different food contamination outbreaks that occur and are discussed at length in the media (for example, food poisoning cases, which cause 240 deaths per year in Canada). Coronavirus is another great example of this as it has gotten tremendous news coverage. o In contrast, between 2016-2019 there were 12,800 opioid related overdose deaths (roughly 12 deaths per day) in Canada (Canadian Institute of Health Information, 2021). o So why is the Opioid Crisis different? Why don’t we talk about the Opioid crisis as much or demand that more actions are taken to stop this crisis? Why isn’t it constantly on the news as much? 35  ASIDE: The Role of Framing o It has a lot to do with drug addiction being seen as a personal flaw or vice. In other words, why should we help drug addicts, they did it to themselves? o One thing to keep in mind, however, is that 75% of opioid addicts became addicted because they were prescribed the medication originally from a doctor. In other words, they didn’t start out wanting to be addicts, their doctor recommended these drugs to them, and they became physiologically and psychologically dependent. 36  The State of Canadian Care o Due to increases in medical technology and care, the cost of providing free healthcare has been rising. o This has led to some discussion over whether a free healthcare model is sustainable. Or whether private care is a more affordable option. o The push for private healthcare is also tied to decreasing tax revenue as discussed earlier. 37  The State of Canadian Care o In considering the push for privatization, we need to acknowledge a few things: 1) The United States is the only wealthy nation that operates without free or universal healthcare. 38  The State of Canadian Care o In considering the push for privatization, we need to acknowledge a few things: 2) Data on the cost of healthcare in the US indicates that it has the highest spending on healthcare among developed countries. o The US government spends more than Canada on healthcare per person, and individual citizens in the US spend significantly more than Canadians on health care. 39  The State of Canadian Care o In considering the push for privatization, we need to acknowledge a few things: 3) OVERALL quality of care is worse in the US then universal healthcare systems in Canada and Europe. o However, if you look at healthcare by socio- economic status: high SES individuals receive better healthcare in the US than Canada, but low SES individuals (particularly those without insurance) fair MUCH worse. This is why healthcare quality in the US is lower overall (including lower life expectancy). 40  The State of Canadian Care o Why are costs higher in the US? Universal Private Citizen Citizen Government Insurance Companies (not-for-profit) (for-profit) Health Care Health Care US health insurance companies earned an estimated 35.7 billion in revenue in 2019. That is money that goes to CEO’s and shareholders in the US versus staying in the healthcare system. 41  The State of Canadian Care o Why are costs higher in the US? Further, private healthcare results in healthcare costs being subject to free market economics and the principle of supply and demand. o For free markets to work the consumer needs to be able to shop around for different options and to be able to walk away. o For example, if you want to buy a TV you can go to different stores, check prices online, and then choose the TV and store that you feel give you the best value. It is important that you can also just walk away and decide that the cost of TVs right now are too high and not worth it. o The problem with a free market with healthcare is that the consumer does not have the same power. 42  The State of Canadian Care The consumer lacks power in a healthcare free market for two main reasons: 1. Time. If you are bleeding to death or have a health emergency shopping around is typically not an option. You will have to pay whatever price is given or face death, long- term disability, and so on. 2. Valuation. The ability to decide something is too costly and walk away is how the cost of a good is controlled within supply & demand. This is an integral part of any free market. If TV’s are so expensive that people won’t buy them then stores will lower the price. But what is the value of healthcare? If someone you love is having a heart attack and the hospital wants $100,000 to treat them, are you willing to walk away and let them die? If you have a broken arm and you feel treatment is too expensive, are you willing to walk away and try to fix it yourself? The ability to walk away is significantly reduced with health care because the value of your life or the life of those you love is to most of us infinite, which means people are willing to pay almost any price. This makes a free market with healthcare extremely problematic as you’re relying on healthcare providers to not take advantage of you even though they can. 43  The State of Canadian Care In most countries, because there is universal healthcare, the government is more involved in restricting the free market and the prices of health services and related industries like pharmaceuticals. The idea being that the government needs to restrict companies from placing really high prices on pharmaceuticals because people will be willing to pay high prices for their health. This results in the prices of drugs being much lower in countries with universal healthcare versus private healthcare. For example, consider the drug Tecfidera that is used to treat MS and its costs in the US versus elsewhere. And this is just one of many examples as Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than any other developed nation because medicine is privatized and more resembles a free market. 44 The Challenges for Private Healthcare 45 The Challenges for Private Healthcare 46 The Challenges for Private Healthcare 47  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Mental health refers to the successful performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships with other people, and the ability to adapt to change and to cope with adversity. Mental Illness refers collectively to all mental disorders which are characterized by sustained patterns of abnormal thinking, mood, or behaviors that are accompanied by significant distress and/or impairment in daily functioning. It is a “hidden epidemic” because the shame and embarrassment associated with mental problems discourage people from acknowledging and talking about them. 49  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Extent and Impact of Mental Illness Untreated mental disorders can lead to: poor educational achievement lost productivity (ie. inability to work) unsuccessful relationships significant distress violence and abuse incarceration poverty death The point being that this is not just an individual problem, it is a societal problem. 50  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Extent and Impact of Mental Illness “Explaining my depression to Buzzfeed video my mother” –Sabrina Benaim The effects of mental illness is It impacts individuals but also felt by many. families, friends, and loved ones. 51  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Problems with Fixing the Problem There are three significant challenges with trying to understand and deal with the mental illness epidemic. 1) Mental Illness is socially defined ▪ Is mental health worse today than it was 75 years ago? ▪ Impossible to say given that how people define mental illness has changed. o Mental illness is less stigmatized meaning more people will report it today than in the past. o Mental illness is more publicized meaning people will define their feelings differently (for example, WWI and WWII vets certainly suffered from PTSD and depression but most would not have understood or acknowledged their symptoms as mental health disorders because they weren’t well-known or accepted then). o More insurance benefits cover mental illness now, which gives more incentive to disclose and define as ill. 52  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Problems with Fixing the Problem 2) Mental Illness is tied to Culture ▪ How a mental illness presents itself and whether it is defined as mental illness differs by culture. o For example, Japanese culture did not incorporate depression as a concept on a wide scale until the late 1990s and workaholism is a much more common trend there (not considered a mental illness here and is often admired as work ethic). For example, check out this video on the Karoshi Problem in Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH1_px17utk o In North America we see beauty standards lead to mental illness such as eating disorders. In many South American and Asian countries bleaching your skin to look whiter is a common trend but not considered a mental illness. ▪ Therefore, how a mental illness manifests or presents itself depends greatly on context (for example, alcohol and drug use in Canada versus Koroshi in Japan) 53  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Problem with Fixing the Problem 3) Often strongly tied to conceptions of morality. Definition again: Mental Illness refers collectively to all mental disorders which are characterized by sustained patterns of abnormal thinking, mood, or behaviors that are accompanied by significant distress and/or impairment in daily functioning. o How do we define what is normal? o For example, can you suffer from depression if you have a good reason to be depressed? o If my family dies in a car accident and I’m really sad about it, am I depressed or is it normal grieving? When should I seek medication for it, and should I be able to be diagnosed? o How long can I be depressed and it be considered normal or OK? Is it still normal if it lasts a year? Two years? Ten years? o As discussed, what is normal changes over time and differs by culture (for example, homosexuality was once considered a mental illness). Also differs by framing. o A good example today is serial killers. Are all serial killers mentally ill or is it possible to kill and not be considered ill (ex: the TV show Dexter, the movie Boondock Saints, other examples?) 54  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Problem with Fixing the Problem Tell me whether the following are mentally ill? A Suicide Bomber. An air force bomber What about Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombers (129,000 to 226,000 thousand civilian deaths)? 55  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Problem with Fixing the Problem Tell me whether the following are mentally ill? A Suicide Bomber. An air force bomber A Nazi concentration A US lethal injection camp prison guard. prison guard. What determines whether we think they are mentally ill or not? Is there a difference in the action? Is it simply whether the society considers it moral? What about the nuclear bombs? 56  3 Key Points: 1. How you define something is extremely important, which is why academics focus on definitions so much and why we make you memorize definitions (using the word abnormal in the definition of mental illness makes what is and is not considered a mental illness debatable). 2. How mental illness is defined is therefore often based on consensus versus testable biology, which is what makes it different than medicine. 3. Sometimes consensus is strong (example: schizophrenia- seeing and hearing things that are not there is abnormal) and sometimes consensus is not strong (example: at what point does pursuit of beauty standards go too far, when is killing wrong, at what point is someone officially depressed after suffering a tragedy?). 57  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ One of the main considerations regarding mental illness is the persistent stigmatization that is associated with mental illness. How can we understand this? ▪ In 1959 Erving Goffman (a famous Canadian Sociologist) developed the Dramaturgical Perspective. ▪ Goffman compared societal interactions to a theater to understand how people behave and represent themselves. In this theory, people are actors, they follow norms in the form of roles, scripts, and props (expected ways of acting, speaking and using expected meanings of different objects). ▪ For example, we know what is polite and impolite conversation (scripts) and we know how to communicate meaning through clothes (props). We also know how the expectations of scripts and props differ by our position in different contexts (roles). 59  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ Goffman argued that everyone has a front stage and backstage self. ▪ The front stage is the self that we show the world. On the front stage we manage impressions by following the behaviors, scripts, and norms that we are socialized to know and expect. ▪ The backstage represents our true selves, it is the aspects of self which we reserve for private areas or places where we are comfortable. In these places we do not feel the need to (or if alone simply do not need to) manage impressions. 60  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ Many people are fearful of the mentally ill for 3 main reasons and the dramaturgical approach helps us understand this: 1) Those with mental illness are less likely to follow norms. ▪ Norms are socially defined rules of behavior. They serve as a guideline for our behavior and for our expectations of the behavior of others. In other words, these are the expected scripts, props, and roles. o Those who are mentally ill often do not follow norms and, for this reason, their behavior is perceived to be erratic, irregular, or illogical. o This creates anxiety for those that have to interact with them and can lead to minor or major misunderstandings (minor like feeling awkward or worried, major like it leading to violence). o For example, walking past someone talking to themselves on the street. 61  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ Many people are fearful of the mentally ill for 3 main reasons: 2) Many that suffer severely from mental illness end up in prison ▪ There are two types of norms: 1. Folkways: customs, habits, and manners of society (for example, apologizing when you bump into someone). 2. Laws: formal norms backed by authority (for example, wearing a seatbelt or not stealing) o Because those suffering from severe mental illness are less likely to follow folkways, they are also more likely to end up in trouble with police. o For example, many of those with untreated or self-treated (e.g. drugs & alcohol) mental illness experience homelessness. This leads to run-ins with police due to loitering calls. Then in those interactions with police, issues like not cooperating or resisting/assaulting police officers when they try to restrain them leads to arrest and prosecution. 62  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill 3) We associate almost all illegitimate violence with Mental Illness ▪ Take gun violence as an example. When we hear of gun violence, especially mass and school shootings, a common response is to point to poor mental health of the perpetrator as the cause. ▪ This is a tricky issue though because the reason we consider most of these shooters to be mentally ill is simply because they carried out a shooting. After all, what sane person would do such a thing, this is clearly abnormal. ▪ This again illustrates how it is hard to define mental illness. Take someone like the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock. Until the shooting he would not have been considered mentally ill, but the primary motive discussed for the shooting now is that he had mental health issues. Las Vegas Shooter 63  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ This creates a dangerous association between mental illness and violence leading people to become fearful of the mentally ill. ▪ Mental illness is defined as abnormal behavior and killing another person is abnormal behavior. This ensures that all killers are deemed mentally ill. ▪ But it DOES NOT mean that those who are diagnosed as mentally ill are more dangerous or more likely to commit such atrocities. ▪ The same goes for serial killers. Being mentally ill does not mean someone will become a serial killer, but all serial killers are considered to be mentally ill BECAUSE they are serial killers even if not having been considered mentally ill prior to their crimes. 64  Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Fear of the Mentally Ill ▪ These 3 factors (not following norms, incarceration of those suffering mental illness, and associating all violent acts with mental illness) are three primary reasons why mental health stigma still remains in society. 65  The Problem with Corporate Influence Competition as a coercive force (Marx): o The fundamental and unchangeable goal of any company is to make as much money as possible, companies that prioritize anything other than profit will be taken over or driven out of business by those that prioritize profit better. Corporations are not evil, because they are not people. They are an organization designed to prioritize and make profit. What protects profit? Weber’s Principle of bureaucracy: o Bureaucracy ensures people do their job within the confines of its roles and responsibilities. If a banker started giving out loans based on who they feel deserves a loan versus financial factors then their manager will fire them, if the manager goes along with it then the district manager will fire both of them. In other words, people do not use judgement or morality, they have a job to do and must do it within the rules of the position or be replaced. This is why Sociologist Max Weber described bureaucracy as making people “like cogs in machines.” 67  The Problem with Corporate Influence Who holds corporations responsible? o 1) The government is the main body we expect to hold corporations responsible, but government is influenced by political donations and lobbying. Corporations also play a primary role in the economy, which is consistently a primary issue in elections. o 2) Consumers can hold corporations responsible, but the reality is that the vast majority of us don’t and corporations know this. Most people care about the price of goods, not the ethics of the companies making them (for example, the use of sweatshops). o 3) Justice/Court System can also hold corporations responsible but in any legal fight it is either the government or private citizens paying the legal bills to fight multinational corporations with vast amounts of money and legal teams on staff. Legal battles are expensive, so the odds are greatly in corporations favor to win. o Further, even when companies are sued, their ability to fund science makes it very difficult to prove that they intentionally did anything wrong (i.e. playing dumb). 68  Corporate Funding of Science “As it relates to diabetes there is science that shows sugar does not contribute to it” - Andy Briscore, President & CEO of The Sugar Association A good example is how Dr. James Rippe was paid $500,000 a year to argue on TV and at conferences that there was no connection between sugar and diabetes (Last Week Tonight) 69  Cost of Doing Business Even when corporations are held responsible, the penalties are, more often than not, significantly less than the rewards for cheating. Lance Armstrong example o Lance Armstrong was at one time the most famous cyclist and one of the most famous athletes in the world. It was revealed later, however, that he had been using performance enhancing drugs (i.e. doping) to win. o Once it was found out, Armstrong had to deal with the embarrassment of being caught cheating and being stripped of titles. o When you ask whether him cheating was worth it though, consider that Armstrong has a net worth of 50 million. He is doing fantastic overall and it’s hard to argue that the act of cheating was not worth it for him at least financially. 70  Cost of Doing Business Similarly, even when corporations are held responsible, the penalties are, more often than not, significantly less than the rewards for cheating. o For example, the Opioid crisis kills roughly 65,000 Americans a year. o 75% of heroin addicts started on prescription opioids. o And problems like heroin costs taxpayer dollars for police, treatment, social services, prison, and so on. The war on drugs, for example, is estimated to cost 79 billion per year. o The Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharama, paid 270 million in court settlements for misleading the public and doctors about the addiction dangers of OxyContin, which played a major role in the current epidemic. o But the Sackler family have personally earned more than 4 billion off the sale of oxycontin (not the company, but the family personally). Their net worth is over 15 billion. o So ask yourself, was it worth it for them to mislead the public and doctors when they made 4 billion and only had to pay 270 million in fines? 71  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Bad science is a problem in all areas (we will discuss false beliefs as part of our environmental lecture), but it is especially problematic in the field of health and nutrition. Many industries fund their own scientific studies, and this is especially true of food products (for example, in 2018 the food industry spent 20.7 billion on research in the US). These studies mislead the public and also create doubt in science. For example, the rhetoric of how can we trust science if there are so many conflicting studies and when the studies constantly prove then disprove the same idea. For example, one day something is a superfood and the next it’s being reported that it is actually bad for you or vice versa. This idea neglects the difference between academic and private industry science. 72  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Academic Science Private Industry Science Studies conducted by Professors or other Studies conducted by individuals who rely on the individuals employed by the University. company funding their research for their salary. University employment ensures accreditation. Credentials vary. Job security tied to publishing scientific articles Job security tied to the value of the research to (what the findings are is irrelevant). the company paying for it. Studies undergo peer-review process: any Self-published and no peer-review process. article submitted for publication undergoes an Media also does not require studies to have anonymous review (of content and undergone peer review. methodology) by at least 3 other experts in the field. Studies are not published unless the These factors represent the reason reviewers deem it to be of high quality. why some science is higher quality and more trustworthy than others. 73  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Private industry science includes the examples we’ve already discussed (Opioids are safe, sugar is not related to health issues) as well as things like global warming isn’t real and cigarettes don’t cause cancer. Going beyond building distrust in science, once beliefs are spread, they can be hard to stop even when science disproves it or finds it spurious. Spurious: when a causal argument (for example, X causes Y) is found to be false. A good example of this, is the fears that vaccines cause autism. *Please note: this is a conversation about the safety of vaccines ONLY. It is NOT a conversation about vaccine mandates or whether vaccines should be mandatory. That is a different conversation with different variables in play like the balancing of the social or public good versus individual freedom. This is just about science and vaccine safety. 74  Vaccines & Autism The only scientific study to find that vaccines cause autism was a study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in a journal called the Lancet. The scientific community quickly proved that the study was wrong and found that Dr. Wakefield falsified the results to make a name for himself. He was stripped of his medical license as a result and numerous large studies were subsequently done and continuously find no link between vaccines and autism. Yet beliefs that vaccines cause autism are widespread and there are numerous non- scientific sources on the web and numerous celebrities that continue to perpetuate and spread this belief. 75  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Now roughly 0.003% of vaccine cases will experience an adverse effect that ranges from a fever, allergic reaction, lingering pain at the vaccination site, or other more serious issues that can lead to hospitalization. Even a small rate of adverse effects when applied to a large population, however, does mean there are quite a few cases of adverse effects. For example, there are 74 million children (under 18) in the US which means roughly 222,000 of them will have had an adverse reaction to vaccines. So even though 99.97% of children have no adverse effect some do, and this fuels the debate by providing evidence of vaccine dangers. To be clear though, we are not talking about adverse effects like Autism (which has never been proven in the 70 year history of mass vaccinations). We are talking temporary, often non-permanent adverse reactions. 76  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Because of the beliefs that vaccines are unsafe, we see an increasing number of people rejecting vaccination. This has resulted in numerous outbreaks of diseases that were once incredibly uncommon due to high vaccination rates like measles. *Again, I respect that whether or not to be vaccinated or to vaccinate one’s children is a personal decision AND a very hard decision. I am making no comment on that here. 77  When Science is Dismissed for Opinion Thus, it’s important to be able to determine good versus bad science when making decisions. Who did the research is a great question to ask. But even better is being able to determine the quality of research yourself. Hence, why almost any discipline you major in will require you to learn research methods. 78 The End 79