Sociology: Sept. 11 Terrorism Continues To Impact Mental Health Of Americans

Another interesting article, summarized at sciencedaily.com, from a sociology journal:

Long after Sept. 11, 2001, Americans' terrorism-related thoughts and fears are associated with increased depression, anxiety, hostility, posttraumatic stress and drinking, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have found.

UIC researchers examined the extent to which the strength of people's post--Sept. 11 beliefs and fears, as assessed in 2003, predicted a range of psychological distress and alcohol abuse in 2005. Data were derived from a mail survey, which began before Sept. 11 and continued in 2005.

The study, led by Judith Richman, professor of epidemiology in psychiatry, is published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Public Health Association.

Richman and her colleagues measured the effect of larger, macro-level sociological stressors -- rather than personal or micro-level events, such as a death in the family or financial difficulties -- on mental health.

The terrorist events of Sept. 11 signaled a significant change in the socio-political outlook of many Americans and in their feelings of safety and well-being.

Richman and others have shown that the events of Sept. 11 have been associated with feelings of distress and anxiety, and these feelings have led to problematic drinking. However, previous research focused on distress at the time of the traumatic event, and predictions about future negative behaviors were hard to assess.

In the new study, 30 percent of participants reported feeling very or extremely more pessimistic about world peace, and 27.6 percent reported they had less faith in the government's ability to protect them.

"Our research showed that, four years after 9/11, terrorism fears and beliefs predicted distress and escape motives for drinking similarly in both men and women, with only men showing an increase in deleterious drinking levels," Richman said. She also indicated that macro socio-political events such as acts of terrorism and large-scale disasters and their effects on distress levels should be considered in future research.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Well, no shit. Of course it's still going to affect people's lives, was there really a need for a study on this? I mean, anything catastrophic that's happened in the past will of course affect the people for the next 20-30 years, and then eventually fade away. Look at any war in the past, this is nothing new.

They did the study to prove it with evidence. There's always a reason, D3V.

Yeahhhh, but what is to gain from the article? I just feel that sociologists are all crocks of shit, they're the same people that put together those stupid statistics on CNN that shows how many of what race votes for which candidate, and what religion they are, and why they would vote for them, etc. Who gives a fuck? Seriously, it boils down to the relevance of the article, which really isn't that big. There are so many variables after 9/11 that could also be tied into everything that is mentioned.

Let's remember, we have a shitty economy, we're AT WAR!, There are terrorists floating around the world that hate us, we have problems with our planet such as global warming and pollution, of course people are going to be stressed out, this article proves nothing other than some jackass sociologist believes that one certain event contributes to everything, in which it doesn't, there are strictly too many variables to factor in.

Well, in that case, why does the scientific process matter at all? Everything needs to be supported with evidence. Why does it matter? Education matters.

You're missing my point, home-brey. The scientific process always matters, but it's level of relevance to everyday lives is what is at stake. For example, if I had never read this article common sense could've explained to me that we're more stressed out after 9/11, but in my specific case maybe my girlfriend has been pissing me off, or any other of a million variables could be affecting my life. Just the world as a whole sucks right now, we all need to chill out.

You're missing my point, home-brey. The scientific process always matters, but it's level of relevance to everyday lives is what is at stake. For example, if I had never read this article common sense could've explained to me that we're more stressed out after 9/11, but in my specific case maybe my girlfriend has been pissing me off, or any other of a million variables could be affecting my life. Just the world as a whole sucks right now, we all need to chill out.

Sure, the results of this study panned out as expected. Exactly like the study my professor is performing (detailed in "The Language Gene" thread in the science forum) has expected results. Science isn't all about inducing astonishing paradigm shifts all the time. Sure, that's what gets hailed in the media, but in general, that is not what science is. It's a slow, gradual process. It's about confirming, and reconfirming what you already know until it's established beyond any doubt. This study does exactly that.

It's not as though there aren't unexpected results in sociology as well. For instance, you may be interested in the panic myth.

But nevertheless, I think sociology is an important field of study. It shows us how social forces shape individual attitudes and behaviors, it shows how societies are developed and maintained, allows us to see the bridge between the individual and society, allows us to better appreciate the diversity in the human populations, and, contrary to what you say, challenges our commonly held beliefs about society as a whole among other things.

This is pretty well a generally understood phenomenon. It was a strike below the belt and makes us feel a lot less safe.

That's where I was getting at, and MJ you're just reiterating my point. It's over-analyzed, we already have basic human instinctions and interactions down pat beyond any unreasonable circumstances, because we've already had almost everything happen to us.