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Biomedical subjects

R Cochrane

Publications and source records attributed to R Cochrane.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Public attitudes towards mental illness--the effects of behaviour, roles and psychiatric labels.

A questionnaire to assess various elements of public attitudes towards the mentally ill was given to 108 subjects. 5 hypotheses were tested. Public attitudes towards mental illness are more rejecting than accepting. Social rejection increases with increasing severity of disturbance in behaviour. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are related to social class as measured by occupational status and to age of the respondent. Rejection of the mentally ill is decreased by the availability of a non-deviant alternative label. Attitudes of the general population towards the mentally ill will be influenced by the label of mental illness as well as by behaviour indicative of mental illness. All the hypotheses were confirmed with one exception - negative public attitudes were not found to be related to social class as measured by occupational status. Public attitudes towards the mentally ill are more diverse than previous research would imply. Possible future research directions are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Psychological symptom levels in Indian immigrants to England--a comparison with native English.

A national community survey of psychological symptom levels among samples of Indian immigrants and natives is reported. Using a quasi-random sampling procedure, a sample of 200 Indian-born residents of large towns in England was selected to match the age and sex structure of the total Indian immigrant population. An indigenous population, selected in the same way, was matched with the immigrants for comparison purposes. Psychological disturbance was measured with the Langner 22-Item Scale which has previously been specifically validated for use in this context. Other indices were constructed to test specific hypotheses. The pattern revealed by mental hospital admission statistics was strongly supported by the survey. Indian immigrants as a group experience far less psychological disorder than natives, despite the experiences of migration and of being an immigrant. On other measures Indians also manifested an adjustment superior to that of natives. Among the Indian sample stable psychological adjustment was related to being young at migration, being acculturated to life in England and being socially integrated. A subgroup of higher social status, Indian females who had been upwardly socially mobile, emerged as the only group with a higher than average symptom level. However, even this group was at least as well adjusted as its English counterpart.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1981

Stereotypes of mental illness. A test of the labelling hypothesis.

A questionnaire to discover the existence of stereotypes of mental illness was given to 133 subjects. Three hypotheses were tested: 1. that a stereotype of mental illness exists, and is an accurate impression of the behaviour of the mentally ill. Both aspects were clearly confirmed, in that a stereotype was shown to exist which closely resembled the behaviour of psychiatric patients described in objective studies. 2. stereotypes of mental illness are sex differentiated. This was not clearly supported, and some of the differences perceived between mentally ill women and men might be attributable to 'normal' sex role differentiation. 3. the stereotype of a 'normal' woman more closely approximates that of a mentally ill woman than do the corresponding male stereotypes. Strong confirmation was found that the two female stereotypes correlate quite closely, but the male stereotypes do not. The conclusion is that the data are supportive of certain central labelling hypotheses.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Social class and psychological disorder in natives and immigrants to Britain.

An examination is made of various hypotheses which have been developed to account for the frequently observed inverse relationship between social class and psychological disturbance. Two of these explanations--the social selection and social causation hypotheses--are tested in a study designed to enable an assessment of their relative power to be made. Quasi-random samples of 200 Indian-born, 200 Pakistani-born and 240 native-born residents of England were interviewed and measures of social class, psychological symptoms and other relevant variables made. The results failed to support either of the two hypotheses as the expected social class gradient in psychological disorder only emerged in the native group. Indian immigrants in fact showed a reversal with higher status individuals, especially women, having higher symptom levels. Overall Indian immigrants had significantly fewer symptoms than either of the other groups. The findings are discussed in terms of differential selection for migration and the varying experiences of immigrants after arrival in Britain.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Women, marriage, employment and mental health.

This paper reviews explanations of sex differences in mental hospital admission rates, taking account of age and marital status effects. Six propositions derived from the review are tested on data from a nationwide community survey of 259 respondents, using a standardized symptom check list. Women report more psychological symptoms than men, but this is unrelated to marital status. It is suggested that being married acts to keep a potential patient out of hospital rather than to reduce symptoms. Whether or not a woman is in paid employment outside the home is a major predictor of symptom levels, especially in depression. Women with unemployed husbands are also particularly likely to report high levels of depression. However, there is no reciprocal effect of wives' employment status on the psychological well-being of their husbands.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

A comparative evaluation of the Symptom Rating Test and the Langner 22-item Index for use in epidemiological surveys.

A systematic evaluation was made of the reliability, validity and psychometric properties of the Symptom Rating Test and Langner 22-Item Scale in order to determine whether they are suitable for use in community surveys of psychiatric epidemiology. On the basis of studies on several samples (total N = 846), both scales were shown to be suitable for this purpose. Although the subscale structure of the Symptom Rating Test was not confirmed, it appeared superior in most respects to the Langner Scale.

Epidemiologic Methods↗
PubMed1980

Factors affecting the distribution of psychological symptoms in urban areas of England.

A study is reported in which a number of sociodemographic variables are examined separately for their influence on psychological symptom levels in a sample of 232 people living in English cities. Sex, employment, education and social class are clearly related to symptom levels while age, marital status, social mobility and household crowding are not. Interactions between sex and unemployment of the spouse are also noted. The variables studied are also combined in a multiple regression analysis which resulted in a multiple correlation of 0.409. The implications of these findings for various hypotheses concerning the aetiology of variations in rates of psychological disturbance are considered.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Psychological and behavioural disturbance in West Indians, Indians and Pakistanis in Britain: a comparison of rates among children and adults.

Data are presented from four studies which compare rates of psychological disturbance for three groups of immigrants to Britain and natives respectively. Children of West Indian and Asian parents are compared to native British children on the Rutter Teachers' Questionnaire and on rates of admission to psychiatric hospitals. Asian children have lower rates of behavioural deviance and mental hospital admissions than do British children. Children of West Indian immigrants show no more behavioural deviance in schools than do British children, but have considerably higher rates of admission to mental hospitals. The pattern for adults is remarkably similar to that shown by children, even though different definitions of psychological disturbance are used. The findings are discussed in the context of previous studies of immigrants to Britain and contemporary theories of immigrant adjustment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗