Environment and Social Psychology

The mental health needs of displaced persons have traditionally taken the backstage in the conceptualization of the overall medical treatment needs of this population. Despite the intuitive understanding that the trauma experienced by these individuals makes them particularly predisposed to mental illness and substance use disorders, there remains a dearth of scientific data to shed light on this all-important subject. Epidemiologic literature and data consistently fall short in describing the extent of this problem and in particular the attendant alcohol and substance abuse that not only afflict people in humanitarian contexts but also aid workers who attempt to lend a helping hand to these communities. There is little or no documentation on effective, and efficient ways to predict, diagnose and treat alcohol and substance use disorders among displaced persons living in humanitarian regions of the world. This paper describes themultidirectional nature of mental illness and substance abuse, the gaps in knowledge, as well as emerging trends particularly in diagnosis and treatment.

Many well-established sociological studies pertaining to the salubrious link between social relations and mental health have been published. In particular, numerous researchers address the issue of how social isolation and lack of family support and social ties can adversely affect one’s mental well-being. In this paper, we seek to identify and explore the relationships between people who were clinically diagnosed with depression and the aspects of their social environment, namely their social and family circumstances in the UK adult population. One hundred and ten blogs mentioning depression as their main condition were selected from a mental health support website, Time to Change, for analysis. As not many studies have analyzed such narratives, we expected the analysis to provide a fresher and deeper understanding of the experiences of those afflicted with depression. We observed that there is a consistent discourse emphasizing the importance of social support from close loved ones, in particular friends and family members. There is evidence that social circumstances can be mediating factors in depression.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of jail inmates participating in the Paws and Stripes College program. The Paws and Stripes College program involves incarcerated inmates training local humane shelter canines’ obedience training techniques using the canine good citizen model as well as teaching the canines skills in which to participate as comfort/emotional support dogs. Using secondary data from self-report questionnaires completed by the inmates, this study sought to explore how the inmates felt before and after their exposure to the Paws and Stripes College program. Specifically, if the inmates felt that participation in the program was beneficial to them or not, and if so, how.

Facing the digital age, mankind is facing new nodes in the social and psychological fields. The emergence of Internet addiction, depression associated with excessive use of equipment and the loss of real space conducive to increasing virtuality, coupled with the depletion of natural resources, have warned about health and lifestyle in society. Fast and direct life seems to place people in new spaces, and the impact of these spaces is still beyond the knowledge of social science. It is here that humanistic psychology, which officially appeared in 1961, can give us a more humanized face. Returning to human experience, emotion, personal values and sense of self-realization can lay a foundation for new thinking to reveal current problems. That is why the purpose of this work is to point out some problems in the digital age and then teach them the views provided by humanistic psychology in order to revitalize efforts to achieve a healthier life among individuals and in the environment.

Based on the dynamic monitoring survey data of floating population in 2017, this paper analyzes the regional differences and influencing factors of psychological integration of urban floating population in China. The results show that: (1) The psychological integration of floating population is at a high level; (2) there are significant regional differences in the psychological integration of floating population. The psychological integration of Southeast coastal and a few Western cities is lower than the national average level, and the psychological integration of Northeast, Shandong, Sichuan and Chongqing is higher than the national average level; (3) the psychological integration of floating population has spatial agglomeration effect. In addition to Sichuan and Chongqing, hot spots are concentrated in the North and cold spots are concentrated in the Southeast. (4) Factors like owning real estate, employer status and high education level accelerate the psychological integration of floating population; the increase of income is not conducive to psychological integration, which is related to the sense of relative deprivation; participation in the “new rural cooperative medical system” has a restrictive effect on the psychological integration of floating population; The equalization of temporary residence permit/residence permit and basic public services is an important way to realize psychological integration. The rapid development of urban economy is conducive to the psychological integration of floating population. Inter provincial mobility has an inhibitory effect, and the effects of economic development level, family size and local residence time are not significant.

After 2020, the strategic focus of rural poverty reduction will shift from absolute poverty to relative poverty. How to accurately identify the root causes of rural relative poverty and alleviate the problem of rural relative poverty has become the key factor to realize rural revitalization. Using the binary logistic regression model and the comprehensive survey data of Chinese society, it is found that the lack of feasible ability of farmers has an obvious poverty effect. Among them, the lack of basic feasible ability such as physical health and mental health and feasible development ability such as education are important factors leading to farmers’ relative poverty; however, the poverty causing effect of farmers’ willingness to work is not obvious, and the state of relative poverty will stimulate farmers’ willingness to work to a certain extent; increasing the supply of basic public services in rural areas is an important way to alleviate rural relative poverty; increasing rural social development opportunities also has an important effect on poverty alleviation, which can significantly reduce the probability of farmers’ relative poverty.

In this work, we examined the situation of international migration and highlighted the unique psychological and social dimensions of this complex phenomenon. From the perspective of positive view of immigration (entrepreneurial, proactive, etc.), we describe some background and personal factors that expose these people to psychosocial risks. For each factor, we put forward some intervention strategies from psychological theory.

Over the past three decades, American welfare policy has moved towards ever more restrictive eligibility criteria, reflecting a growing belief that generous benefits encourage dependence. In this essay, I argue that harsher welfare rules actually make it more difficult for low income families to support their children, transition to work and maintain long term financial independence. In some cases such as drug testing, these rules represent an unconstitional intrusion into the lives of citizens and are ultimately a waste of government resources. Moving towards a model of support rather than punishment for families in need would be an ultimately more effective method of poverty alleviation.