By the beginning of the 20 th century, sociology and anthropology had emerged as independent scientific disciplines and were making rapid strides toward understanding the role of socio-cultural factors in human development and behavior. Early socio-cultural theorists included such notables such as Ruth Benedict, Ralph Linton, Abram Kardiner, Margaret Mead and Franz Boas. Their investigations and writings showed that individual personality development reflected the larger society its institutions, norms, values, ideas and as well as the immediate family and other groups. Studies also made clear the relationship between socio-cultural conditions and mental disorders— between the particular stressors in a society and the types of mental disorders that typically occur in it. Further studies showed that the patterns of both physical and mental disorders in a given society could change over time as socio-cultural conditions changed.
Social psychiatry and the beginning of community care: Uncovering socio-cultural factors through cross-cultural studies:
The socio-cultural viewpoint is concerned with the impact of the social environment on mental disorders, but the relationship between the maladaptive behavior and socio-cultural factors such as poverty, discrimination or illiteracy is complex. It is one thing to observe that a person with a psychological disorder has come from a harsh environment and is another thing, however, to show empirically that these circumstances were either necessary or sufficient conditions for producing the disorder.
Groups of individuals have been exposed to different environments, from the arctic to the tropics to the desert. These societies have developed different means of economic subsistence and different types of family structures. Accordingly, highly diverse social and political systems have developed. Several researchers have suggested that cross-cultural research can enhance our knowledge about the range of variation that is possible in human behavioral and emotional development, as well as being a way of generating ideas about what causes normal and abnormal behavior.
Research supports the view that many psychological disturbances in both adults and children are universal, appearing in most cultures. Fir instance, although the incidences and symptoms vary, the pattern of behaviors we call schizophrenia can be found among almost all peoples, from the most primitive to the most technologically advanced.
Nevertheless, although some universal symptoms appear, cultural factors do influence abnormal behavior. Human biology does not operate in a vacuum. Cultural demands serve as causal factors and modifying influences in psychopathology.
