Understanding Depression: Feminist Social Constructionist ApproachesPsychology Press, 2000 - 239 pages Women are particularly vulnerable to depression. Understanding Depression provides an in-depth critical examination of mainstream approaches to understanding and treating depression from a feminist perspective. Janet Stoppard argues that current approaches give only partial accounts of womens' experiences of depression and concludes that a better understanding will only be achieved when womens' experiences and lived realities are considered in relation to the material and social conditions in which their everyday lives are embedded. The impact of this change in approach for modes of treatment are discussed and solutions are suggested. |
Contents
Depression a gendered problem | 3 |
What does the term depression mean? | 6 |
A terminological note | 9 |
How has depression among women been explained? | 10 |
epistemological and methodological issues | 14 |
What is left out when research on depression is conducted according to the positivist scientific method? | 17 |
Depression in women in context | 21 |
What is depression? Definitional debates | 24 |
A Materialdiscursive framework for understanding depression in women | 108 |
Embodied lives understanding depression in women in context | 111 |
Depression in adolescence negotiating identities in a girlpoisoning culture | 113 |
an historically specific life stage | 115 |
Mainstream theories and research on depression in adolescent girls | 118 |
Understanding adolescence from the perspective of girls lived experiences | 125 |
A materialdiscursive framework for understanding depression in adolescent girls | 133 |
Womens lives and depression marriage and motherhood | 137 |
Diagnosing depressive disorder | 25 |
format and content | 26 |
Science and the DSM | 32 |
Assessing depressive symptoms | 35 |
Exploring womens depressive experiences | 36 |
Can definitional debates be resolved? | 39 |
Explaining depression in women mainstream frameworks | 41 |
Looking for sources of depression within personenvironment interactions diathesisstress models | 43 |
How diathesisstress models explain depression in women | 48 |
Empirical evaluations of diathesisstress models | 50 |
A feminist and social constructionist analysis of diathesisstress models | 51 |
Concluding comments | 58 |
Depression and womens psychology susceptibility or specificity? | 59 |
Evaluating psychological susceptibility approaches to explaining depression in women | 61 |
the relational self | 63 |
Evaluating psychological specificity approaches to understanding depression in women | 64 |
A feminist and social constructionist analysis of psychological accounts of depression in women | 67 |
Concluding comments | 72 |
Social models of depression sources of adversity and stress in womens lives | 74 |
adversity and stress | 75 |
Adversity and stress in womens lives as a source of depression | 79 |
A feminist and social constructionist analysis of social models of depression | 83 |
Concluding comments | 88 |
Womens bodies womens lives and depression exploring materialdiscursive approaches | 90 |
The biological body and depression in women | 93 |
The medicalization of womens bodies and womens distress | 97 |
Exploring materialdiscursive approaches to depression in women | 102 |
Toward a materialdiscursive framework for understanding depression in women | 139 |
Young womens experiences in relation to marriage and motherhood | 140 |
The meanings of marriage and motherhood | 142 |
the practises of wives and mothers | 145 |
Discourses of femininity and the social construction of the good mother | 149 |
Depression and womens lived experiences as wives and mothers | 153 |
Women and aging depression in midlife and old age | 161 |
socially constructed and produced categories | 162 |
Research on depression in midlife and older women | 166 |
Womens experiences at midlife | 168 |
possibilities for aging disgracefully | 175 |
Implications for theory and practise feminist social constructionist approaches | 183 |
Women overcoming depression coping treatment and politics | 185 |
Women coping with depression on their own | 188 |
treatment alternatives | 192 |
Exploring links between the personal and the political | 199 |
toward a materialdiscursive framework | 202 |
Why new perspectives are needed for understanding depression in women | 205 |
Material themes | 208 |
Discursive themes | 209 |
Materialdiscursive conditions and depression in women | 211 |
Womens depressive experiences and discourses of depression | 213 |
216 | |
231 | |
235 | |
Other editions - View all
Understanding Depression: Feminist Social Constructionist Approaches Janet Mary Stoppard Limited preview - 2000 |
Understanding Depression: Feminist Social Constructionist Approaches Janet Stoppard Limited preview - 2014 |
Understanding Depression: Feminist Social Constructionist Approaches Janet Stoppard Limited preview - 2014 |