When you say “Psychology”, the first image that probably springs to mind are of WEIRD men in plush flats across America; you undoubtedly see Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic men, which in 2018, doesn’t represent our diverse world. Similarly, the clinical method for treating depression is biased to westernised cultures; it utilises clinical based approaches, when research shows community based approaches would better suit populations such as refugees (Stovall, 2005).

The rise in depression in westernised cultures is often pinned to social media usage and higher income (Mentzakis & Moro, 2009; Lin et al. 2016). But for the 92,196 refugees who sought asylum into Europe from Africa and Asia in 2018 (so far) (UNHC, 2018), their reasoning for developing depression is diverse. Refugees display high rates of depression for grief, violence, torture and forced migration (Munz & Melcop 2018), but even with this recognised, research in this population is sparse (Kokou-Kpolou, Mbassa Menick, Moukouta, Baugnet, & Kpelly, 2017).

Consequently, I think it’s important for more exploration in under researched and economically undeveloped populations, like; Africaan’s and Syrian’s. This allows clinicians to enhance understanding of stressors refugees experience, to avoid treating them in a clinical way developed for westernised cultures, which ignores cross-cultural differences, ecological and sociocultural variables. Participant observation methodologies would be beneficial as this would allow a more indigenous psychological perspective, whereby each culture would be understood within its own context, drawn from being immersed in the target culture rather than being squeezed to fit the westernised mould.

References:

Kokou-Kpolou, K., Mbassa Menick, D., Moukouta, C. S., Baugnet, L., & Kpelly, D. E. (2017). A cross-cultural approach to complicated grief reactions among Togo–Western African immigrants in Europe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(8), 1247–1262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117721972

Lin, L. yi, Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., … Primack, B. A. (2016). Association between social media use and depression among US young adults. Depression and Anxiety, 33(4), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22466

Mentzakis, E., & Moro, M. (2009). The poor, the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(1), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2008.07.010

Munz, D., & Melcop, N. (2018). The psychotherapeutic care of refugees in Europe: Treatment needs, delivery reality and recommendations for action. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1476436

Stovall, J. (2005). The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation. Psychiatric Services, 56(6), 765-765. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.56.6.765

UNHC, (2018, October 15) Mediterranean SituationRetrieved from http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean