The politics of mental illness are considered, including decarceration, issues surrounding sex roles and mental illness, patients' rights, and the prediction of dangerousness. Other topics covered include cross-cultural comparisons in diagnosis and treatment, training of clinicians, and mental health as a social movement. Relation to stratification and social control. Teaching as a religious occupation and as an emergent profession. Definition of social policy research and the various roles social scientists can adopt for policy-relevant work.
Students are responsible for critiquing the readings and for preparing a substantial research paper.
The logic, inferential strength, and potential bias of the various methodologies for studying social behavior. Experimental and nonexperimental designs, the social-psychological aspects of laboratory and field research, the nature of artifacts, etc. Emphasis is on research design rather than statistical analysis, but graduate-level sophistication in statistics is assumed. Students are expected to read and evaluate selected empirical research. Social Stress and Health Focuses on social stress processes and their relation to physical and mental health.