Does your neighbourhood cause schizophrenia?

1.

Does your neighbourhood cause schizophrenia?

Link: https://mindhacks.com/2007/07/05/does-your-neighbourhood-cause-schizophrenia/ (Links to an external site.)

I decided to read an article about psychosis and whether the neighborhood one lives in causes it. In this study, researchers used statistical data to determine if there was a relationship between living in a poverty-stricken, urban area and the development of either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The researchers took measures to ensure the random assignment of condition of their research including controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity. Interestingly, subjects living in these types of areas showed an increased chances of developing schizophrenia but not bipolar disorder. In fact, the results showed that the factors that most strongly  associated with the development of schizophrenia were poverty, ethnic fragmentation, and local election voter turnout.

The title to this title is misleading because, although there is a clear relationship between living in poorer urbanized areas and schizophrenia, there is not evidence for direct causation. The control measure the researchers used ensured external validity, but the research lacked internal validity. Other factors that are associated with poverty and urban environments could contribute to the development of this mental illness. For instance, other factors common to these areas are high stress, drug use, and crime. While urban areas have higher concentrations of these circumstances, we can find these same types of environments in other smaller cities like Midland/Odessa. Because schizophrenia occurs in rural areas as well, it can be deduced that living in an urban area may contribute to it’s development, but it is not the direct cause of it.

2

.People with Happy Spouses may Live Longer

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/happy-spouses-longer-lives.html?utm_source=APS+Emails&utm_campaign=439df5c3d9-PSU_042619&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2c7283f04-439df5c3d9-62638831  (Links to an external site.)

The experiment described in the article above is based on correlational evidence rather than causational. In this experiment at the end of the eight years 16% of the participants had passed away however these participants had more in common than just dissatisfaction with their spouses. Most of the individuals who died shared such traits as gender, economic status, lack of education, and activity level. This means that this study has low internal validity and that other variables could have affected the outcome. This expels the chance that one variable is causing the other instead the experiment points to a correlational relationship. The study used random assignment by conducting throughout the United States with about 4,400 volunteers all over the age of fifty. Ensuring that many different people with diverse characteristics were able to participate. The independent variable was whether the couples were satisfied with their marriage. The dependent variable was whether they died in the coming eight years. The experimenter manipulated the independent variable by categorizing the spouses who were satisfied with their marriage and spouses who were not. They were able to manipulate the independent variable by continually checking on the partners sense of spousal support and checking the activity level of the spouses (activity was used to measure contentment). In the end the spouses with less satisfaction in their marriages died more often than the participants who were satisfied with their marriages.

IN 5-6 LINES RESPOND TO THIS DISCUSSION BOARD. When responding to others it is best to add support to their claims or add evidence or logic that goes against their claims