How to Study the Processes of Construction of Categories of Mental Health, Disorder, and Illness in Contemporary Society? Presentation of a Research Model.

Frackowiak-Sochanska, Monika

This presentation demonstrates the research model utilized in the study on the social construction of mental health, illness, and disorder categories in contemporary Polish society. These processes engage diverse social actors: society representatives, people who experience(d) mental health crises and people related to them, and experts on mental health (these categories are not disjoint). Therefore, the research model implies constructionist assumptions and employs mixed methods.

The model consists of:

Analysis of premises addressing mental health issues in leading sociological paradigms (structural-functional, critical, interpretative) and late modernity theories. The juxtaposition of these perspectives allows for obtaining a complex picture. Sociological theories are treated as data—cultural outputs that may reproduce particular meanings—subjected to analysis and interpretation.
A representative survey - to determine whether the boundaries between health, disorder, and illness categories are perceived as sharp or blurring and to construct mental maps of the categories of mental health and illness.
Qualitative analyses of published biographical narratives of:

people who experienced mental health crises
family members of people with mental illness

IDIs with experts (psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists)

The methods listed in points 2-4 aimed to identify how the meanings attributed to the categories of mental health, disorder, and illness emerge from specific experiences and to see to what extent the themes identified in the analysis of theoretical approaches and mechanisms determined in the representative survey are reflected in the narratives.

The model can have numerous applications, ranging from the purely cognitive to the pragmatic (in health promotion, prevention, education, social work, and psychotherapy). It can be used holistically or piecemeal in further theoretical and empirical analysis and practical solutions in mental health care.

The presentation will demonstrate arguments for methodological choices and main ideas addressing research tools, conduct, and analysis of research material.