Racial Discrimination and Mental Health

Introduction:

Unfair treatment that results from the racial, ethnic, gender and sexual discrimination acts as the predicator of mental health outcomes. Several researches highlight the strongest as well as most consistent association between eth mental health and discrimination. Wellbeing and psychological distress ate the two most important mental health outcomes. This report will represent the two researches study regarding two mental health topics. The two research articles that are selected are ‘Perceived Racial Discrimination and Mental Health in Low-income Urban-dwelling Whites’ and ‘Racial Discrimination and Psychological Distress: The Impact of Ethnic Identity and Age Among Immigrant and United States–Born Asian Adults’.

This report highlights the overall view of the first article, in which researchers have conducted the meta-analysis for expressing the relationship between eth psychological distress and racial discrimination. Moreover, this report also highlights that how the researches in first article have conducted eth primary research study for highlighting the impact of racial discrimination on the bio-psychosocial factors such as biological health, psychology and behavioural aspects.

On the other hand, this report will highlight the usefulness of the second article in describing eth impacts of ethnic and racial discrimination on the mental health of Asian immigrants in US. This article will focus on the fact that how the racial discrimination in case of eth Asian immigrants in US can affect their psychological health and wellbeing.

Moreover, this report will discuss different relevant theories such as Psychodynamic Theory, Behaviourism Theory, Cognitive Theory and Humanistic Theory, for representing eth justification of the researches in the selected articles. Moreover, this report will also represent the Behavioural Theory and Developmental Theory for representing tye critical discussion regarding the research outcomes of eth each topic.

Empirical details of and discussion on the selected research papers:

Type of research:

In case of the first article, ‘Perceived Racial Discrimination and Mental Health in Low-income Urban-dwelling Whites’, researchers have conducted primary quantitative research method. In this research method, researchers have included 573 low-income whites in US for conducting a survey collect database regarding the relationship between the racial discrimination and mental destructions as well as psychological stress (Bower, Thorpe & LaVeist, 2013).

In the second article, ‘Racial Discrimination and Psychological Distress: The Impact of Ethnic Identity and Age Among Immigrant and United States–Born Asian Adults’, researchers have also conducted the primary quantitative research method. In this research, researchers have selected 2,047 Asians in America to examine the impact of ethnic and racial discrimination on their psychological status and wellbeing (Tiffany, Gilbert & David, 2008).

Research methods used for data collection:

In case of first research article, researcher has conducted the cross-sectional survey of the low-income urban dwelling whites who are residing in the inner city of mid-Atlantic US. Researcher has reselected 573 participants for collecting their valuable opinion regarding the effects of racial discrimination on developing psychological distress and trauma. Quantitative research method has been conducted for this study in which researcher have collected the database only by conducting the survey by applying the random sampling technique. Researcher randomly selects the entire sample population of 573 whites, among which 39% participants have reported to experience perceived racial discrimination (Bower, Thorpe & LaVeist, 2013). For maintaining the authentication of the database Likert 5 point Evaluation scale has been used by the researcher. By applying this scale researchers in this has easily understand eth probability value and accuracy of these database in terms of meeting eth research objectives.

In the second research, researchers have conducted primary quantitative data collection method, in which they conducted the survey for entire 2047 Asians living in the US. This survey has been conducted on the Latin and Asian American people. In this second research papers, researcher have used Stratified-Sampling method for collecting the proper database. In this sampling method, researchers have stratified the sample population by age in years such as 18 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 and 51 to 75 (Tiffany, Gilbert & David, 2008). By applying the Likert 5-point Evaluation scale, researcher has shown that the entire database collected from the respondents is able to meet the research objectives.

Comparison and contrast of pros and cons of selected research papers:

The first research paper represents the evidence of strong association between the racial discrimination and psychological distress such as anxiety and depression. In these aspects, Bio psychosocial model is based on the interrelationship among the socio-demographic, psychological and behavioural factors and on the ways in which these factors affect the mental health of people (Friedman, 2018). This research paper is able to highlight the fact that inequality as well as discrimination based on racism poses negative stimulation on the mental health thereby leading to the depression, anxiety, dilemmas and dementia. However, some drawbacks are associated with this research. First, this research is based on the database on database collected from limited number of respondents than that of eth second research papers (Bower, Thorpe & LaVeist, 2013). Second, researchers in this research process focuses on the socio economic inequalities and its effect on mental health of poor people, rather than emphasizing on relationship between the social, emotional and behavioural discrimination and mental status. Third, researcher has prioritised the discussion on mental illness, perceived discrimination and socio-demographic variables rather than evaluating the possible ways through which the discrimination affect the mental health of people.

On the contrary second research paper is not confined into the racial discrimination, rather it describe the ethnic, sexual and cultural discrimination that affect the mental strength of people. In this aspect Hoy-Ellis (2015) stated that , Cognitive Theory and Psychoanalytic Model is based on the fact that different types of discrimination in the society regarding eth body colour, culture, ethnicity and race, affect eth development of brain and decision making ability of people. In comparison to the first research paper, this research article highlights the possible ways in which different types of discrimination affect the overall psychological health of people. However, there are some loopholes in this research. As compared to eth first research this research methods is conducted by selecting large sample population. Due to use-stratified sampling based on different age group, research has faced some complication regarding data analysis. Second, although this research paper highlights the different types of discrimination in the community, it is unable to highlight the important negative effects of these discriminations on eth psychological and behavioural expression of eth people.

Summary of the overall findings:

Although there are some differences and dissimilarities in the research outcomes of the two selected articles, this provides proper knowledge discrimination and its effect on the mental health. As stated by Santiago et al. (2015), Behaviourism Theory highlights the effect of social and environment influences on the behavioural expression. On the other hand, Humanistic Theory represents the effect on sociological and behavioural factors on the personality management and mental as well as emotional strength. Both the selected research papers highlight the influence of ethnic identity on association between the mental health and discrimination. From the analysis of the database in these two researches, it can be stated that, ethnicity, racism and socio economic differences in the community can exacerbate the influence of discrimination on psychological health thereby developing different mental disorders. According to Stetson (2016), Developmental Theory and Behavioural Theory emphasize on the fact that development of behavioural, emotional and psychological maturation is based on the interaction of mind and body with external environment. From these two research papers, it is clear that social inequalities, biases, ethnicity and racism affect the smooth interrelationship between the body and mind, thereby developing different mental disorders such as Dementia, short time memory loss, anxiety and depression. The experience of perceived discrimination affects the decision-making ability, attitudes, beliefs and institutional arrangement of people.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, there is strong association between the perceived discrimination and psychological stress. Sociological factors and environmental aspects are associated with interrelationship of body and mind,. Inequality and discrimination affect eth sensitive feelings, thoughts and mental strengths of eth people. Ethnicity, racism, gender biases in the community exacerbates the influence of discrimination in the mental health. Therefore, discrimination is strong factors that affect pose potential negative impact on eth psychology and wellbeing of people.

Reflective account:

During the preparation of this report, I am able to learn comprehensive knowledge about the subject area, the relationship between discrimination and the psychological al distress. This report assists me to identify the different types of discrimination present in the community. Moreover, through collecting the relevant information for this report, I have gathered enough knowledge about eth impact of racial, ethnic, sexual, social and mental discrimination on the psychology of people. For preparing this report, I have searched different articles and journals for collecting eth proper information regarding eth relationship between eth discrimination and psychological distress. For this purpose, I have read different primary and secondary article related to the topic. This improves my professional knowledge about the mental health, psychological and socio logical aspects, environmental impacts on the human psychology and applied sociology. Through this report, I am not only able to gather authentic knowledge about the impact of eth sociological factors on eth psychology but also about the relationship between the applied sociology and psychology. Through selection of the relevant primary research papers, I have gathered the comprehensive as well as huge knowledge about what are the perceived racial discrimination and the way through which it affects the mental health of the people. Moreover, through preparing this report, I am able to gather knowledge about different sociological and behavioural theories such as Cognitive theory, Psychodynamic Theory, Behaviourism Theory and Humanistic Theory. By relating these theories to the subject area, I am able to understand the underlying information of the each aspect in sociological as well as psychological field. Therefore, this report assists me to gather the knowledge about the impact of socio-economic and demographic aspects on developing discrimination in the community and it leads to enhancement of psychological distress in the minor community.

This report also assists me to get proper knowledge about the entire research process. Through using the database of the two primary research articles that I have selected, I am able to gather knowledge about the each step of eth primary research method. Through this process, I can get the proper idea regarding setting of aims, objectives and purpose of research. Moreover, this report assists me to aware about the research method, design, research onions and research outline. During the preparation of this report, I gathered knowledge about the data collection process, primary and secondary data collection process and data analysis. This report assists me to know more about qualitative and quantitative data analysis process. Due to study of different journals for selecting two articles, I am able to get enough knowledge about secondary and primary research process. This research assists me to understand the usefulness of Likert 5-point scale and the way researchers use it to collect the probability value of applied database. By reading eth selected research papers, I get proper knowledge about collection of primary database through conducting survey and interview. I also get detailed information about ethical considerations and limitations of the research. Moreover, this research assists me to gather proper knowledge and understand about the entire research method.

Reference list:

Bower KM , Thorpe R,J, & LaVeist T, A. (2013), Perceived Racial Discrimination and Mental Health in Lowincome Urban-dwelling Whites, 11(2), 23-34,

Friedman, S. R. (2018). Examining Colorectal Cancer Screening and Gender in Latinos in the Community Health Setting (Doctoral dissertation, San Diego State University).

Hoy-Ellis, C. P. (2015). The Mental Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Older Adults: Do Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Play Differential Roles?(Doctoral dissertation).

March, D., Williams, J., Wells, S., Eimicke, J. P., Teresi, J. A., Almonte, C., ... & Luchsinger, J. A. (2015). Discrimination and depression among urban Hispanics with poorly controlled diabetes. Ethnicity & disease, 25(2), 130.

Santiago, C. D., Distel, L. M., Ros, A. M., Brewer, S. K., Torres, S. A., Papadakis, J. L., ... & Bustos, Y. (2018). Mental health among Mexican-origin immigrant families: The roles of cumulative sociodemographic risk and immigrant-related stress. Race and Social Problems, 1-13.

Stetson, R. (2016). Exploring the association between perceived safety of household children in the neigborhood and levels of depressive symptoms among Spanish speaking Latina adults living in a high crime, low income neigbhorhood. State University of New York at Albany.

Tiffany Y, Gilbert C. G & David T,T. (2008), Racial Discrimination and Psychological Distress: The Impact of Ethnic Identity and Age Among Immigrant and United States–Born Asian Adults, 32(2), 23-43

Williams, N. J., Grandner, M. A., Snipes, S. A., Rogers, A., Williams, O., Airhihenbuwa, C., & Jean-Louis, G. (2015). Racial/ethnic disparities in sleep health and health care: importance of the sociocultural context. Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, 1(1), 28-35.

Williams, N. J., Grandner, M. A., Snipes, S. A., Rogers, A., Williams, O., Airhihenbuwa, C., & Jean-Louis, G. (2015). Racial/ethnic disparities in sleep health and health care: importance of the sociocultural context. Sleep Health: Journal of the National Sleep Foundation, 1(1), 28-35.

Zink, D., Lee, B., & Allen, D. (2015). Structured and semistructured clinical interviews available for use among African American clients: Cultural considerations in the diagnostic interview process. In Guide to psychological assessment with African Americans (pp. 19-42). Springer, New York, NY.