Special fields of psychology

into agreement with how he has just acted toward its members.

Social Affiliation, Power, and Influence. The factors that govern

whether and with whom people will affiliate, as well as whether and how

they will attempt to influence or be influenced by others, have

received much attention by social psychologists. Researchers have

determined, for example, that if people are unsure of how they should

feel or behave in response to a new or unpleasant situation, they will

seek the company of others who may be able to provide the lacking

information. Social psychologists have also found that firstborn and

only children are generally more inclined to join groups throughout

their lives than are those born later.

Group Structure and Functioning. Social psychologists have studied many

issues related to questions of how the group and the individual affect

one another, including problems of leadership functions, styles, and

effectiveness. Social psychologists investigate the conditions under

which people or groups resolve their conflicts cooperatively or

competitively and the many consequences of those general modes of

conflict resolution. Research is conducted also to determine how the

group induces conformity and how it deals with deviant members.

Personality and Society. Some social psychologists are particularly

concerned with the development and consequences of stable individual

differences among people. Differences in the degree of achievement

motivation have been found to be measurable and to have important

consequences for how a person behaves in various social situations.

Systems of attitudes toward authority, such as the notion of the

authoritarian personality, have been found to relate to attitudes

toward ethnic minorities and to certain aspects of social behavior. A

personality syndrome known as Machiavellianism, named after the Italian

political philosopher Niccolт Machiavelli, has been used to predict the

social manipulativeness of people in interaction and their ability to

dominate certain interpersonal situations.

Investigative Techniques

Numerous kinds of research methods and techniques are being used in social

psychology. The tradition of theory-based investigation remains strong in

the discipline. In recent years rigorously exact mathematical models of

social behavior have been used increasingly in psychological studies. Such

models are projections, based on theory and in arithmetic detail, of social

behavior in a possible system of social relationships.

Other techniques include the questionnaire and the interview, both used

widely in public opinion polls and studies of consumer preferences. These

two methods pose a considerable challenge to investigators. The kind of

control of the environment that is possible in the laboratory is not

available in the field, and the effects of subtle variables that can be

observed in experiments are easily obscured by other variables that may

exist in natural environments.

Frequently, behavior in natural settings is systematically observed, or

computers are programmed to simulate social behavior. Special techniques

are used for analysis of statistics and other data and for attitude

measurement as well as measurement of social choice and interpersonal

attractiveness. Also important is psychophysiological measurement, that is,

the measurement of shared mental and physiological characteristics. Cross-

national and cross-cultural research is one of the modern techniques,

designed to provide comparisons of behavior between nations and cultures;

the same research study is carried out in several different countries in

order to determine the cross-cultural validity of the research.

In the study of social behavior in animals, a laboratory environment

facilitates controlled experimentation, that is, experimentation

considering the previous history of the animals as well as their present

environmental conditions. Simple behavioral acts, such as a pigeon pecking

at an object, can be isolated and schedules of reinforcement—that is,

repetition of stimuli—can be maintained. Social psychological research with

animals has led to important new techniques for their training.

Applied Social Psychology

The principles developed in laboratory and field research in social

psychology have been applied to many social situations and problems.

Applied researchers and consultants have worked to ameliorate problems

found in ethnic relations, international relations, industrial and labor

relations, political and economic behavior, education, advertising, and

community mental health. Industries, organizations, schools, and task

groups of many kinds regularly use the services of applied social

psychologists to improve interpersonal relations, to increase understanding

of relations between members of groups in conflict with one another, and to

diagnose and help correct problems in group and organizational

productivity.

10. Psychiatry and mental health

Psychiatry is the realm in which medical science and psychology join to

provide help for persons whose mind (as one says) is disturbed and whose

behavior does not conform to accept social patterns. Psychopathology and

clinical psychology are integral sub-fields of this branch of medical

psychology which, of necessity, also includes neurology, mental

deficiency or retardation, forensic psychology, certain aspects of

abnormal psychology, social psychology and psychotherapy. Mental illness

has been recognized as such since the days of Aristotle and Hippocrates,

and its long modern history has been able described by some scientists.

Mental Health, state characterized by psychological well-being and self-

acceptance. The term mental health usually implies the capacity to love

and relate to others, the ability to work productively, and the

willingness to behave in a way that brings personal satisfaction

without encroaching upon the rights of others. In a clinical sense,

mental health is the absence of mental illness.

The Mental Health Movement

Concern for the mentally ill has waxed and waned through the centuries, but

the development of modern-day approaches to the subject dates from the mid-

18th century, when reformers such as the French physician Philippe Pinel

and the American physician Benjamin Rush introduced humane “moral

treatment” to replace the often cruel treatment that then prevailed.

Despite these reforms, most of the mentally ill continued to live in jails

and poorhouses—a situation that continued until 1841, when the American

reformer Dorothea Dix campaigned to place the mentally ill in hospitals for

special treatment.

The modern mental health movement can be traced to the publication in 1908

of A Mind That Found Itself, an account of the experience of its author,

Clifford Whittingham Beers, as a mental patient. The book aroused a storm

of public concern for the mentally ill. In 1909 Beers founded the National

Committee for Mental Hygiene.

Public awareness of the need for greater governmental attention to mental

health services led to passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946.

This legislation authorized the establishment of the National Institute of

Mental Health to be operated as a part of the U.S. Public Health Service.

In 1950 the National Committee for Mental Hygiene was reorganized as the

National Association for Mental Health, better known as the Mental Health

Association.

In 1955 Congress established a Joint Commission on Mental Illness and

Health to survey the mental health needs of the nation and to recommend new

approaches. Based on the commission’s recommendations, legislation was

passed in 1963 authorizing funds for construction of facilities for

community-based treatment centers. A similar group, the President’s

Commission on Mental Health, reported its findings in 1978, citing

estimates of the cost of mental illness in the U.S. alone as being about

$17 billion a year.

Scope of the Problem

According to a common estimate, at any one time 10 percent of the American

population has mental health problems sufficiently serious to warrant care;

recent evidence suggests that this figure may be closer to 15 percent. Not

all the people who need help receive it, however; in 1975 only 3 percent of

the American population received mental health service. One major reason

for this is that people still fear the stigma attached to mental illness

and hence often fail to report it or to seek help.

Analysis of the figures on mental illness shows that schizophrenia afflicts

an estimated 2 million Americans, another 2 million suffer from profound

depressive disorders, and 1 million have organic psychoses or other

permanently disabling mental conditions. As much as 25 percent of the

population is estimated to suffer from mild or moderate depression,

anxiety, and other types of emotional problems. Some 10 million Americans

have problems related to alcohol abuse, and millions more are thought to

abuse drugs. Some 5 to 15 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 15

are the victims of persistent mental health problems, and at least 2

million are thought to have severe learning disabilities that can seriously

impair their mental health.

In addition, according to the President’s Commission, the list of mental

health problems should be extended beyond identifiable psychiatric

conditions to include the damage to mental health associated with

unrelenting poverty, unemployment, and discrimination on the basis of race,

sex, class, age, and mental or physical handicaps.

Prevention

Public health authorities customarily distinguish among three forms of

prevention. Primary prevention refers to attempts to prevent the occurrence

of mental disorder, as well as to promote positive mental health. Secondary

prevention is the early detection and treatment of a disorder, and tertiary

prevention refers to rehabilitative efforts that are directed at preventing

complications.

Two avenues of approach to the prevention of mental illness in adults were

suggested by the President’s Commission. One was to reduce the stressful

effects of such crises as unemployment, retirement, bereavement, and

marital disruption; the second was to create environments in which people

can achieve their full potential. The commission placed its heaviest

emphasis, however, on helping children. It recommended the following steps:

1) good care during pregnancy and childbirth, so that early treatment can

be instituted as needed;

2) early detection and correction of problems of physical, emotional, and

intellectual development;

3) developmental day-care programs focusing on emotional and intellectual

development;

4) support services for families, directed at preventing unnecessary and

inappropriate foster care or other out-of-home placements for children.

Treatment

Care of the mentally ill has changed dramatically in recent decades. Drugs

introduced in the mid-1950s, along with other improved treatment methods,

enabled many patients who would once have spent years in mental

institutions to be treated as outpatients in community facilities instead.

(A series of judicial decisions and legislative acts has promoted community

care by requiring that patients be treated in the least restrictive setting

available.) Between 1955 and 1980 the number of people in state mental

hospitals declined from more than 550,000 to fewer than 125,000. This trend

was due partly to improved community care and partly to the cost of

operating hospitals; in an effort to save public money, some large state

mental hospitals have been closed, forcing alternatives to be found for

patients. This is generally considered a progressive trend because when

patients spend extended periods in hospitals they tend to become overly

dependent and lose interest in taking care of themselves. In addition,

because the hospitals are often located long distances from the patients’

homes, families and friends can visit only infrequently, and the patients’

roles at home and at work are likely to be taken over by others.

The psychiatric wards of community general hospitals have assumed some of

the responsibility for caring for the mentally ill during the acute phases

of illness. Some of these hospitals function as the inpatient service for

community mental health centers. Typically, patients remain for a few days

or weeks until their symptoms have subsided, and they usually are given

some form of psychotropic drug to help relieve their symptoms. Following

the lead of Great Britain, American mental hospitals now also give some

patients complete freedom of buildings and grounds and, in some instances,

freedom to visit nearby communities. This move is based on the conclusion

that disturbed behavior is often the result of restraint rather than of

illness.

Treatment of patients with less severe mental disorders has also changed

markedly in recent decades. Previously, patients with mild depression,

anxiety disorders, and other neurotic conditions were treated individually

with psychotherapy. Although this form of treatment is still widely used,

alternative approaches are now available. In some instances, a group of

patients meets to work through problems with the assistance of a therapist;

in other cases, families are treated as a unit. Another form of treatment

that has proven especially effective in alleviating phobic disorders is

behavior therapy, which focuses on changing overt behavior rather than the

underlying causes of a disorder. As in the serious mental illnesses, the

treatment of milder forms of anxiety and depression has been furthered by

the introduction of new drugs that help alleviate symptoms.

Rehabilitation

The release of large numbers of patients from state mental hospitals,

however, has caused significant problems both for the patients and for the

communities that become their new homes. Adequate community services often

are unavailable to former mental patients, a large percentage of whom live

in nursing homes and other facilities that are not equipped to meet their

needs. Most of these patients have been diagnosed as having schizophrenia,

and only 15 to 40 percent of schizophrenics who live in the community

achieve an average level of adjustment. Those who do receive care typically

visit a clinic at periodic intervals for brief counseling and drug

monitoring.

In addition to such outpatient clinics, rehabilitation services include

sheltered workshops, day-treatment programs, and social clubs. Sheltered

workshops provide vocational guidance and an opportunity to brush up on an

old skill or learn a new one. In day-treatment programs, patients return

home at night and on weekends; during weekdays, the programs offer a range

of rehabilitative services, such as vocational training, group activities,

and help in the practical problems of living. Ex-patient social clubs

provide social contacts, group activities, and an opportunity for patients

to develop self-confidence in normal situations.

Another important rehabilitative facility is the halfway house for patients

whose families are not willing or able to accept them after discharge. It

serves as a temporary residence for ex-patients who are ready to form

outside community ties. A variant is the use of subsidized apartments for

recently discharged psychiatric patients.

Research

Many different sciences contribute to knowledge about mental health and

illness. In recent decades these sciences have begun to clarify basic

biological, psychological, and social processes, and they have refined the

application of such knowledge to mental health problems.

Some of the most promising leads have come from biological research. For

example, brain scientists who study neurotransmitters—chemicals that carry

messages from one nerve cell to another—are contributing to knowledge of

normal and abnormal brain functioning, and they may eventually discover

better treatment methods for mental illness. Other researchers are trying

to discover how the brain develops—they have learned, for example, that

even in adults some nerve cells partially regenerate after being

damaged—and such research adds to the understanding of mental retardation,

untreatable forms of brain damage, and other conditions.

Psychological research relevant to mental health includes the study of

perception, information processing, thinking, language, motivation,

emotion, abilities, attitudes, personality, and social behavior. For

example, researchers are studying stress and how to cope with it. One

application of this type of research may help to prevent mental disorders;

in the future, psychologists may be better able to match people (and their

coping skills) to work settings and job duties.

Research in the social sciences focuses on problems of individuals in

contexts such as the family, neighborhood, and work setting, as well as the

culture at large. One example of such work is epidemiological research,

which is the study of the occurrence of disease patterns, including mental

illness, in a society.

11. Forensic psychology and criminology

The study of abnormal behaviour often leads to special investigations

into the origins or causes of crime. This in turn will lead to the

psychological study of criminals and also of the victims of crime. The

literature on this topic is growing and there exist now a number of

useful indexing services to help with the retrieval of particular

contributions from many countries. While most of these indexes and

abstracts are orientated towards the work of, and happenings in, the

courts, all of them contain, references to the behaviour of criminals

or social deviants. Criminology and penology abstracts has been in

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