SOC 383 - Sociology of Mental Health and Illness

Units: 4 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-4; Diversity
The sociological study of mental health, mental illness and mental health care. Topics may include social construction; life course perspective; mental health by race, class, and gender; the stress process model; stigma and labeling; and the criminal justice system.

Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-4 - Upper Division Social and Behavioral Sciences, Overlay -Diversity
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas 1A, 1B, 1C and GE-2 with grade C- (CR) or better (GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 for students on the 2024-25 or earlier catalogs).
Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division GE Area 4 requirements (Area D1-2 requirements for students on the 2024-25 or earlier catalogs), SOC 100.
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground, or Hybrid, or Online-Asynchronous, or Online-Synchronous.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Explain how sociology contributes to understandings of mental health and illness
Critically examine how our conceptions of mental health and illness are shaped by power, history, culture, and institutions
Learn how various social factors contribute to the rates, experience, and treatment of mental illness. Social factors might include race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, immigration, age and their intersections.
Communicate the above outcomes in oral and written forms
Apply insights and concepts from course materials to better understand personal experiences and current events related to mental health and illness

GE-UD-4. Upper-division Social and Behavioral Sciences Learning Outcomes

Analyze how power and social identity affect social outcomes for different cultural and economic groups using methods of social science inquiry and vocabulary appropriate to those methods;
Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply accurately disciplinary concepts of the social or behavioral sciences; and
Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to effectively plan or conduct research using an appropriate method of the social or behavioral sciences.

Diversity Overlay Learning Outcomes

Describe the histories and/or experiences of one or more U. S. cultural groups and the resilience and agency of group members;
Identify structures of oppression and the diverse efforts and strategies used by groups to combat the effects of oppressive structures;
Analyze the intersection of the categories of race and gender as they affect cultural group members’ lived realities and/or as they are embodied in personal and collective identities;
Recognize the way that multiple differences (including, for example, gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, immigration status, gender expression, color/phenotype, racial mixture, linguistic expression, and/or age) within cultural groups complicate individual and group identities.