The relativist view of psychological disorders asserts that cultural setting shapes the way normality and pathology are defined, the number and duration of symptoms necessary for the condition to qualify to be impairment, and phenomenology of the illness, as well as how the patient respond to treatment (Canino " Alegría, 2008). Therefore, individuals from different cultural backgrounds are expected to perceive mental illnesses differently, and the variations should be significant. Relativist psychologists believe that culture has a significant influence on how people develop and thus, psychopathology ought to be understood within the context in which it manifest (Winders, 2013).
On the other hand, the universalist perspective suggests that people share many common features such as attitudes, values, and behavioral responses despite coming from different cultures. Universalist psychologists believe that mental illnesses and syndromes are not only universal but also have core symptoms that are grouped into universal patterns of syndromes (Canino " Alegría, 2008). Therefore, mental health must be understood the same across the world. Proponents of the universalist view perceive the common human physiology as adequate proof of the same psychological unfolding (Winders, 2013). The way symptoms of psychiatric disorders unfold or the limit to which behavior is perceived to be normal versus pathological are the only things that vary across cultures or subgroups (Canino " Alegría, 2008).
The relativist most closely matches my own. The first fact that support this claim is that research has documented empirical evidence supporting the impact of cultural setting on mental illness (Winders, 2013). Schizophrenia presents a good example to justify this point. Initially, psychologists believed that this disorder was a universal disorder but Thakker and Ward (1998) found out that the illnesses vary across cultures in many dimensions, including onset, course, symptoms, and recovery (Winders, 2013). The findings of this study provide evidence of cultural influence. Second, universalist classifications of mental illnesses (e.g. DSM-IV) are increasingly acknowledging the cultural influence. DSM-IV, for instance, recognizes that exposure to maladaptive cultural settings may cause psychiatric conditions. The scale has a section on Specific Culture, Age and Gender Features on the DSM-IV for guiding clinicians on variations of each condition that may be explained by the culture, sex, and development stage of the patient (Canino " Alegría, 2008).
Types of Biases
Self-serving bias, unassuming bias, and group-serving bias are major types of attribution errors. Self-serving biases are an example of self-serving attributions which describe the tendency to take credit for one’s success and avert responsibility for one’s failures (Jhangiani " Stangor, 2015). In this type of bias, people simply attribute their success to themselves, and their failures to other individuals and situations. In light of this bias, an individual may tend to attribute positive events to his or her own character but attribute negative outcomes to external factors. A good example of this common cognitive bias is where I score an A (positive event) in my end-year exam and I attribute my success to my intelligence but when I score a D (negative event) in the next assessment and I explain it as a result of my instructor’s poor instruction delivery or peer students’ distractions during the exams.
Unassuming biases are the complete opposite of self-serving biases as they describe the human tendency to attribute individual success to external factors, and one’s failures to personal mistakes or shortcomings (Jhangiani " Stangor, 2015). Instead of taking credit for their successes, people attribute them to external factors (e.g. luck or help from their family and friends). For example, if I get promoted to a competitive position in my organization, I would explain the advancement as a result of help from a colleague or manager. Conversely, if I fail to turn in my class assignment in time, I would blame the late submission to my failure to observe the prescribed deadline.
Group-serving bias is like self-serving bias but occurs at the group level. Group-serving biases refer to people’s tendency to consistently attribute the success their group makes to its own efforts, and attribute limitations or negative outcomes to external interference (Jhangiani " Stangor, 2015). In this type of bias, members of a certain group will take credit for the group’s success and avoid responsibility for its shortcomings by attributing the failures to others or outside situations. An example of a group-serving bias is where my family takes credit for bringing up our daughter morally upright but we attribute our son’s delinquent behavior to negative peer pressure at school and other social places.
Conformity
Conformity refers to change in one’s behavior with the aim to “fit in” or go along with individuals around the person. This social influence often entails a person agreeing with or emulating the behavior of the majority in a given group. The change in behavior is caused by another person or group who influenced the person (Hayes, 2004). Conformity would an effective behavioral response is where a drug addict is influenced by his or her friends to quite the behavior. Another example is where a patient chooses to adhere to his or her treatment plan as per the psychotherapist’s instructions. Both examples involve social influence and a positive change in behavior.
References
Canino, G., " Alegría, M. (2008). Psychiatric diagnosis–is it universal or relative to culture?. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(3), 237-250.
Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies. Behavior therapy, 35(4), 639-665.
Jhangiani, R., Tarry, H., " Stangor, C. (2015). Principles of social psychology-1st international edition.
Winders, S. J. (2013). Culture and Mental Health: A Symbiotic Relationship. Student Psychology Journal, 1-14.
