Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cultural Identity And Mental Health Awareness, Natalie Cruz

Student Theses and Dissertations

Social functioning is intertwined with one’s culture (Abdullah & Brown, 2011). Culture is broadly defined as the individual’s perception of the complexity of norms and rituals shared by a group of people. As Phinney (1992) has long noted, it is apparent that cultural factors can have a great influence on our identities and how we perceive the world around us. In Phinney’s opinion, this is especially true for sensitive topics such as mental health or mental illness. But could we fully understand what the cultural risk factors are that would predispose people toward biased views of mental health and mental …