Friday, November 30, 2007
Is My Mental Health Better Than Yours?
Cruising through Blog World, I came across this Gallup Poll survey, Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others.
Of course, self-report of excellent mental health doesn't necessarily indicate excellent mental health. But, it may be a good indicator at the least. The vast majority of adults receiving mental health treatment do so voluntarily which means the first step in the real world psychological evaluation is a self-evaluation.
During my ten years in social service/mental health, I found it extremely rare (as in I can't ever remember a case) that someone considered their mental health to be worse than it was. This indicates that Democrats and independents probably do have lower rates of excellent mental health and more "only fair/poor" mental health.
Personally, I concur with the results of the study. Almost every Democrat I know is nuttier than almost every Republican I know. :-) Maybe this is the root of the behavior that lead Glenn Reynolds to write, "So much of "progressive" politics looks like the behavior of spoiled adolescents."
More: Michael Savage wrote a book, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions. I've never read it but maybe there is more truth in it than I thought.
Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.This flies in the face of some other studies, in particular some reported by DrHelen, more HERE. Of course, it would be typical of someone with poorer mental health to try and tear down someone with better mental health as do the researchers in these studies.
But the key finding of the analyses presented here is that being a Republican appears to have an independent relationship on positive mental health above and beyond what can be explained by these types of demographic and lifestyle variables. The exact explanation for this persistent relationship -- as noted -- is unclear.
Of course, self-report of excellent mental health doesn't necessarily indicate excellent mental health. But, it may be a good indicator at the least. The vast majority of adults receiving mental health treatment do so voluntarily which means the first step in the real world psychological evaluation is a self-evaluation.
During my ten years in social service/mental health, I found it extremely rare (as in I can't ever remember a case) that someone considered their mental health to be worse than it was. This indicates that Democrats and independents probably do have lower rates of excellent mental health and more "only fair/poor" mental health.
Personally, I concur with the results of the study. Almost every Democrat I know is nuttier than almost every Republican I know. :-) Maybe this is the root of the behavior that lead Glenn Reynolds to write, "So much of "progressive" politics looks like the behavior of spoiled adolescents."
More: Michael Savage wrote a book, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder: Savage Solutions. I've never read it but maybe there is more truth in it than I thought.
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