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What Questions Arise When Studying Cultural Universals In Depression? Lessons From Abnormal Psychology Textbooks, Junko Tanaka-Matsumi, Robert Chang

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

We examined 70 abnormal psychology textbooks published from 1920s to the present to identify consistent cross-cultural themes with regard to human depressive experiences over time and across regions of the world. The cultural and cross-cultural literature on abnormality and depression, in particular, has contributed to widening the scope of abnormal psychology textbooks over time. However, the texts are almost entirely dependent on Western diagnostic categories, particularly with regard to definitions of depression. Within the Western classification framework, authors of abnormal psychology textbooks have increasingly recognized the role of culture in depressive experiences and their communication. On the basis of our …