SOCI3577: Sociology of Mental Health and Illness

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• To introduce Level 3 students to the sociological approach and studies that enrich their understanding of the social sources, factors, and reactions to mental health and mental disorders.
• To help students learn to develop abilities to carry out academic research on mental health (including specific mental disorders), potentially as a focus of their dissertations.

• Introduction to mental health and, more specifically mental health disorders and illness as a medical, psychological and a sociological problem.
• History of the treatment and understanding of mental health.
• The biomedical approach to understanding and treating mental disorders.
• The psychological approach to understanding and treating mental disorders.
• The sociological approach to studying mental disorders.
• Challenges to integrating the bio-psycho-social approaches.
• Social epidemiology of mental health, mental health disorders and mental health inequalities.
• Stigma and mental disorders.
• Mental health and mental health disorders in different cultures.
• Review, reflections and advice on assessment.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Have a working knowledge of the basic categories of mental disorders, as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
• Knowledge of the range of cultural, political and social meanings attached to concepts and types of mental health issues and challenges.
• Understanding of how mental disorders (and mental health in general) intersect with health inequalities, stigma, social epidemiology, etc.
• Be able to identify different approaches and therapeutic treatments of mental health issues and, more specifically mental health disorders, including the biological, psychological, and sociological.
• Be familiar with specific theoretical and empirical studies in sociology which have had a central concern with issues of mental health and mental disorders in different social and cultural contexts.
• Be able to apply sociological theories and methods learnt in other modules to the study of mental health issues.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence.
• Use abstract sociological concepts with confidence.
• Undertake and present sociological work in a scholarly manner.
• Apply theoretical and /or empirical knowledge to an appropriate sociological question.
• Convey in writing the meaning of abstract theoretical concepts in ways that are understandable to others

Key Skills:

• Demonstrate a range of communication skills including the ability to: evaluate and synthesize information obtained from a variety of written sources; communicate relevant information in different ways.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources, including the ability to word-process, use and interpret basic statistical tables and graphs, and use web-based resources (Blackboard Learn Ultra).
• Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance, including the specific ability to manage time effectively, work to prescribed deadlines, engage in different ways of learning including both independent and directed forms of learning, gather necessary information from a range of bibliographic sources.

• Lectures provide students with substantive information, indicate the main issues to be considered and introduce the main themes, interpretations and arguments of the subject material. They encourage students to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and an appreciation of how information may be structured and presented to others.
• Seminars will be organised around themes for discussion and will have designated reading. They provide the opportunity for students to present and develop their own understanding of relevant materials, encourage them to develop transferable skills (e.g. oral communication, group work skills, information retrieval skills), subject-specific skills (e.g. competence in using theoretical perspectives and concepts in Sociology, the ability to formulate sociologically-informed questions) and general skills (e.g. judging and evaluating evidence, assessing the merits of competing arguments and explanations, making reasoned arguments).
• Students will also spend time in self-directed study as they prepare for specific seminar and essay assignments.
• A formative essay requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of module topics. The feedback provided on formative essays enables students to reflect on their knowledge and understanding, and to improve their performance where appropriate.
• A summative essay requires students to demonstrate more detailed and extended knowledge of module topics. It also provides an opportunity for feedback.

Students will have the option of submitting an outline of the summative essay (up to 500 words) to obtain guidance and feedbacks from the module conveners.

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