Chinese clients' belief systems about psychological problems in Singapore

Assessment and Comparison of Culturally Based Explanations for Mental Disorder Among Singaporean Chinese Youth

“…This finding further validates an earlier study of an adult Singaporean Chinese population where Lee and Bishop (2001) noted that among better-educated Chinese, psychological explanations were most salient. The prevalence of a psychologically based explanation for mental disorder potentially highlights that such notions highlighted in the contemporary media and presented in psychology classes and public educational talks common in many institutions of higher education, have had some role in changing beliefs even for a religiously affiliated population.…”

“…The instrument also included subscales measuring socioeconomic and naïve beliefs, which represented the ideas of the layman. The original OPP had good content validity and high internal consistency (coefficient α of subscales = 0.73-0.89) and has been used twice with some modification in the Singaporean setting: first to examine a population of Chinese therapist and laypersons (Lee & Bishop, 2001) and recently to elicit the explanatory models of Christian clergymen (Mathew, 2007). The MDEMQ was based on earlier classifications of explanatory models by a number of researchers, Foster (1976), Young (1976) and Landy (1983), but most significantly Murdock et al (1978), and represents belief models that are more likely to be held in non-Western societies where superstitious and indigenous notions of mental disorder abound.…”

Ambivalence over emotional expression and symptom attribution are associated with self-reported somatic symptoms in Singaporean school adolescents

“…Although these attributions are common across cultures (Baumann, ; Kirmayer, Young & Robbins, ), causal beliefs in Asians are more complex. First, contemporary Asian health beliefs consist of both traditional and Western medical explanations (Lee & Bishop, ; Quah & Bishop, ). In Singapore, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which has been regulated since 2001 (Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board, ), is the most established alternative and complementary medicine (Lim, Sadarangani, Chan & Heng, ).…”

Cultural Explanations of Mental Health and Illness

“…Mental health depends on an internal state of well-being and a balanced spirit, soul, and body. Illness occurs when that internal state is out of balance due to strong emotions, thinking too much, jealousy or envy, organ state (each associated with an emotion) dysfunctions, personal transgressions, heredity, punishment by the gods or ancestors, or failure of leadership by the head of the family (Lee & Bishop, 2001;Magana et al, 2007;Morreim, 2002;Sanchez & Gaw, 2007;Saravanan et al, 2007). These beliefs may be shared to one extent or another by Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, South Indians, Thais, and Latinos.…”