Doctoral Dissertation Grant: Sociocultural Context of Mental Illness in Prisions

研究生约瑟夫·加拉内克在阿特伍德·d·盖恩斯博士的指导下，将通过系统地探索被诊断患有精神疾病的囚犯的经历，对心理学和文化之间的关系进行创新研究。人类学家已经证明，社会和文化因素影响许多疾病的发病、病程和结果。研究人员将在这些发现的基础上，在监狱的微观环境中仔细研究社会和文化因素与个人心理健康之间的关系。这项研究将在美国的一所州立监狱进行。研究人员将采用定性和定量两种方法。他将与囚犯和工作人员进行定性访谈，以确定可能在监狱环境中介导精神疾病的突出社会和文化因素。需要探讨的社会和文化因素包括家庭支持、与工作人员的关系、参与就业以及机构对精神疾病及其治疗的理解。对监狱环境的直接观察也将用于了解被监禁的研究参与者的生活经历。将进行统计分析，以确定从定性访谈中得出的特定主题是否与不同的机构关系和疾病轨迹有关。这项研究有助于社会和文化因素与疾病的发生、过程和结果之间关系的社会科学理论。这项研究的发现将有助于为目前被监禁的精神疾病患者制定适当的治疗和干预措施。研究经费也支持社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Joseph Galanek, under the direction of Dr. Atwood D. Gaines, will undertake innovative research on the relationship between psychology and culture by systematically exploring the experience of prisoners who have mental illness diagnoses. Anthropologists have demonstrated that social and cultural factors influence the onset, course, and outcome for many illnesses. The researcher will build on these findings by examining closely the relationship beween the social and cultural factors and individual mental health in the micro-scale environment of a prison.The research will be conducted at a state penitentiary in the United States. The researcher will employ both qualitative and quantitative methods. He will conduct qualitative interviews with inmates and staff to identify salient social and cultural factors that may mediate mental illness within the prison setting. The social and cultural factors to be explored include family support, relationships with staff, participation in employment, and institutional understandings of mental illness and its treatment. Direct observation of the prison environment will also be utilized to understand the lived experience of the incarcerated research participants. Statistical analyses will be conducted to determine whether particular themes derived from the qualitative interviews are associated with diffent institutional relationships and illness trajectories.This research contributes to social science theories of the relationship between social and cultural factors and the onset, course, and outcome of illness. The findings of this study will contribute to developing appropriate treatments and interventions for individuals with mental illness who are currently incarcerated. The research funding also supports the education of a social scientist.