Cultural Settings: How They Influence Mental Health
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Understanding the Influence of Different Cultural Settings
Cultural settings are those diverse contexts in which we live our lives.
There are many different cultural settings throughout the World with each having their own unique way of living and making sense of the reality that surounds them.
Although it is obvious that we all exist within the same reality, the fact is that different cultures make sense of and experience this reality in very different ways.
It is argued that the most significant factors affecting our experience of reality are the cultural settings in which we grow-up and live.
Many of us (including myself) live in a Westernised cultural context including countries and regions such as Europe, America and Australia.
However, many more people live in the Eastern cultural settings that are associated with countries and regions such as Asia, India, Japan and so on.
Eastern & Western Cultural Settings
The scientific literature argues that cultures exert a powerful influence on psychological well-being, specifically in those cultures which promote individualism and materialism.
Individualism places the individual self at the centre of the social system so that the quality of life is determined by one’s own actions, choices and decisions.
It emphasises personal achievement (for example wealth and property) over the achievement of society as a whole and is personified by the well-known phrase ‘dog-eat-dog’ in which it is assumed that everybody else is trying to climb the ladder of success in a type of ‘social competition’.
Materialism emphasises the importance of money and possessions so that the more money one has, the more possessions may be purchased and, theoretically, the more satisfied one can become as a result.
Eastern cultures, such as that found in Japan, have a fundamentally different understanding of the social fabric than western counterparts.
Whereas we might seek to gain independence for ourselves (individualism and autonomy) Japanese people seek out collectivism and inter-dependence in and between its citizens.
Cultural Settings and Mental Health
Researchers looking into the cross-cultural prevalence of mental health problems estimate that the likelihood of experiencing anxiety over a lifetime for people living in westernised countries is 30% whilst for those living in eastern cultural countries, it is just 5%.
Adtionally, the likelihood of suffering major depression is estimated at 20% and just 2% respectively.
One of the main ideas put forward to explain these (rather significant) differences in prevalence rates is because of the way that the ‘self’ is modelled within these two cultural settings, what we now refer to as the ‘independent self’ (West) and the ‘inter-dependent self’ (East).
Adverse Childhood Experiences: Influences on Later Life
Adverse childhood experiences, often referred to as ACEs, encompass a range of traumatic events that can profoundly shape an individual’s emotional and psychological landscape.
These experiences, which include neglect, abuse, and exposure to dysfunction within the family, can hinder healthy development and….
When the Solution is the Problem: Maladaptive Coping
The solution IS the problem describes how ‘safety-seeking’ or ‘avoidance behaviours’ that people commonly ‘create’ in order to make themselves feel ‘safe’ from their particular problem almost always creates more problems rather than making them feel ‘safer’.
This is a well known paradox – in other words, the ‘way’ that….
Coping Skills for Mental Wellness
Having good coping skills can help you to ‘tolerate’ problems or difficult situations without them having any significant negative impact on your life, or on your ability to ‘function normally’.
People with effective coping skills may be described as having resilience to challenges.