NATHANIEL CHIA
SENIOR PORTFOLIO
Rigorous Thinking
The piece that shows me demonstrating the most rigorous thinking is my Junior Research Project, where I researched the the causes, impact and solution to the Stigmatization of Mental Illnesses and Disabilities in America. Over six weeks of vigorous research and writing, I learned a lot about mental health, its history, societal problems around mental health, and what is being done today to change those problems. Here are two passages from my essay in which I feel like I was able to demonstrate rigorous thinking.
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Claim: Media and the news in our society associate mental illnesses with violence, when in reality, very few mentally challenged people are violent, perpetuating the stigmatization of the mentally disabled.
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“In reality, many people with mental illnesses do not have violent tendencies. The most common disorders, anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder, which collectively affect 30.6% of people with mental illnesses do not typically include violent behaviors (Hardy). Mental illnesses that are associated with violent tendencies are disorders like borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder which together make up 2.6% of people with mental illnesses. These people still can have control over themselves, given the right treatment (Hardy).”
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“Media likes to explain violence by linking a violent incident with mental illness, like the case of Seung-Hui Cho, who shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Within hours of the shootings, media reported that Seung-Hui “had been a loner with a history of bizarre behavior who frightened some of his teachers and fellow students. He apparently had a history of psychiatric illness and had once been hospitalized” (Friedman). Although Seung-Hui Cho’s actions were atrocious, other underlying reasons, such as self-stigmatization, or social struggles, also contributed to his actions, not just the fact that he had a psychiatric illness. By focusing solely on Seung-Hui Cho’s mental illness, the media creates an idea that people with mental illnesses are dangerous, and that mental illness alone is the key factor to whether a person will harm others or not, without ever taking into account the other factors that Seung-Hui was likely dealing with, such as the lack of treatment, and self-stigmatization.
Even though I am very proud of the work I did on my Junior Research Paper, I feel like there were many opportunities of rigorous thinking that I could have taken, which I did not. For example, after writing the paper, I had many thoughts about how the stigmatization of mental illnesses differs between races and age groups. An elderly African American who suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder would suffer much more discrimination and stigmatization than a young, caucasian who suffers from the same mental disorder. "Latinos interviewed in English also experienced higher levels of self-stigma (with respect to feeling embarrassed, ashamed, and not being understood because of a mental health problem) and were more likely to say that they would conceal a potential mental health problem from coworkers or classmates than whites" (Wong). I think by adding these more original thoughts and ideas, I would have been able to add a lot more thoughtful content into many paper, making it a lot better.
Sources
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Friedman, Richard A. “Stigma: What Hollywood and The Media Teach Us About Mental Illness” <http://www.alternet.org/story/92401/stigma%3A_what_hollywood_and_the_media_teach_us_about_mental_illness>. Alternet. August 08, 2008.
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Hardy, Aimi. “Mental Illness in the Media
<https://www.theodysseyonline.com/mental-illness-media>
Odyssey Media Group Inc. October 17, 2016.
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Wong, Eunice C., et al. Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of
Medicine, Jan. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5568160/.
In this passage, my use of evidence has a direct relationship to the my claim, which is that although mental illnesses are associated with violence, the truth is that mental health seldom involves violence. I explain that even though mental illnesses are associated with unjustified aggression and violence, only 2.6% of people with mental illnesses have a mental illnesses that might warrant violent behavior. By using evidence that involve statistics, I am able to clearly connect my claim and my evidence with a straightforward and simple analysis, and further prove my main claim of the paragraph, which is how media has associated violence with mental health, perpetuating the stigmatization of mental health.
In this section of my paragraph, I am able to use an example of how the media perpetuates the stigmatization of mental illnesses in our society. By using evidence surrounding a historical event, I am able to reinforce my claim with a real world example. Even though the evidence just talks about the actions of the media, and how they reported Seung-Hui Cho, my analysis focused on how exactly the actions of the media were performed in a way in which Seung-Hui Cho’s mental illnesses are singled out. When describing someone who commits a crime, media tends to focus more on the mental illness, even though there are many other underlying causes as to why Seung-Hui Cho might have shot someone. This creates a skewed public perception of people with mental illnesses, and further perpetuates this stigmatization and discrimination.