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.
