Psychology Research Paper

Making a Difference

Culture, ethnicity, and emotionality and experiencing emotions are the areas of focus in the first quarter of the essay. In the video clips, some issues come out clearly, the environmental setting of the film gives the contextual aspects of culture and ethnicity. Emotionality and experiencing emotions are clearly brought out by different characters in the movie. The main characters in the clips are Yesterday, John Khumalo, Yesterday’s husband, and their daughter Beauty. These people portray the situation of desolation, hopelessness, and anxiety. The reality of the matter, however, have not dampened the spirits of Yesterday who has stood out to be the pillar of her family undertaking everything for her daughter and her ailing husband. She goes around performing her duties happily as if nothing whatsoever is wrong with her family. However, her husband is sick and had to be put on bed; and their neighbors would not have known that they are suffering from HIV. In this case, culture is depicted by how the community reacts to the news of Yesterday family’s predicament. The height of HIV stigma in the neighborhood does no harm Yesterday since she resolves on living a normal life. According to the lecture, women experience worse depressions than men. A gossip by women in the borehole when they were fetching water seems to dampen Yesterday’s spirits about her friends, women neighbors, whom she has lived together with for a very long time without any verbal altercation.

Being an environmental component, culture is to a large extent the cause of depression. Yesterday’s situation does not seem to depict the position of the text. Cultural dictates in the film portray the level of knowledge that Yesterday’s neighbors possess concerning the virus. The way they react to the news of Yesterday’s confession gives an impression that the disease is a taboo in the community. They even resolved to chase the duo, Yesterday and her husband John, from the neighborhood. Additionally, due to their little knowledge of how the illness is spread, they vow to bar their children from playing with Beauty or even going near their home. This form of stigma is what Yesterday had to contend with and live by.

According to the research, Yesterday’s situation would have automatically resulted in a depression because she is a woman. The research shows that any stressing situation that a woman is exposed to is most likely developed into depression (Crawford, 2012). Yesterday’s situation was not just a stressing one by her personal guilt, but it would have been worse because she had nothing to do with the presence of the HIV in the family. Rooihoek neighborhood shows little tolerance to Yesterday and her family. Thus, every time the members of the community meet in a social place, such as is the case when women come together to fetch water, they discuss events and people. Severally, in the film, Yesterday and her husband are frequent topics of discussion. Research indicates that ethnicity and culture go hand in hand, perceptions and misconceptions are high when a new thing that has never been seen before emerges in society. Beauty’s teacher takes a considerable amount of time trying to shed light on how is HIV transmitted and perhaps dispel the misconception about the virus.

The emotion is depicted by Yesterday’s friend who comes to her in the night to enquire about her husband and if it is true that he’s suffering from the virus. This emotional display, however, is one of the affections (Crawford, 2012). In other instances in the film, the negative emotion towards Yesterday and her entire family engulfs the whole neighborhood, and it reaches intolerable levels when the women ask her to relocate to a different place because of their fear that they will contract the disease if they continue living among them. The whole situation automatically presents the emotional experience. At some point, when women came to Yesterday’s home, she experienced emotional surge when they came and eavesdropped at her house. When Yesterday found out about the women outside, verbal exchange ensued and one of the women asks Yesterday about her anger. In this case, the situation that Yesterday stayed within was an emotional one. Research findings of emotions and relationship conflict indicate that emotion is caused by environmental components as well as personal feelings and experiences. In the first instance, emotion is a reaction to the events that happen in the surrounding, and the reaction can be either positive or negative.

In most cases, the relationship is a construct of the cultural construct. When Yesterday visits her husband in Johannesburg, the first impression that depicts the situation when they meet is the one of hostility and inquisition, a beating is followed soon afterwards. An official occupying the next room is aware of the beatings going on, but he does nothing to intervene in the situation. Here, Yesterday’s relationship with her husband is characterized by negative emotions. Such emotions depicted appear perhaps due to the cultural background where they come from where it allows assault or battering of women. Yesterday’s relationship with her daughter, however, is the one characterized by positive emotions and is displayed through their closeness and love for each other. Non-verbal or body language is unyielding in the cultural setting depicted in the film. In both situations that Yesterday is exposed to, communication has not been all verbal, but more of sign language has been used through the two cases in the film.

Yesterday’s use of body language in some conversations in the movie makes the message strong and capable while making communication in itself efficient. Culturally, body language is widely based on beliefs and communication norms of a caring society. Yesterday’s conversation with the doctor, John’s communication with Yesterday, and Yesterday’s communication with the witch doctor portray just a few scenarios where essential non-verbal communication techniques are employed. According to the research, non-verbal communication techniques used in one community, such as the use of sign language and some facial expressions, may not be passing the same message to another community.

Motherhood

According to Crawford, Motherhood varies depending on the nature of a person, the type upbringing, the environment that they are brought up in, and the family influence. Due to the diversity, type motherhood cannot be entirely distinctive since some features cut across different kinds of motherhood. The three kinds of motherhood that is discussed by Crawford includes: natural motherhood, historical mothers, and relationship driven mothers (Crawford, 2012). Natural motherhood is the most frequent type of motherhood, and it is a form of motherhood where a mother is not under any control or direction from any quarters to act in a certain way. Natural parents are unconditional; they view their children as a part and a complement of a relationship. By natural extension, mothers consider job, house, and other possessions in the context of a stable relationship. Additionally, natural mothers term pregnancies outside relationship as unintended. Historical mothers come from large families; to them, pregnancies is a regular occurrence since they were brought up in such an environment where mothers give birth to many children. Historical mothers often follow their parents as examples, if their mothers had children in their early years, they would also be likely to have children in their early years. Further, historical mothers view pregnancy as a natural phenomenon that has to occur in every woman’s life.

The third type of mothers is the relationship driven parents. This kind of mothers put their relationship as the driving force behind their getting pregnant. These mothers differ from the natural parents since they want their pregnancies to be planned before conception. They view children as a part of relationship’s development and, therefore, an important component of any woman’s life. Yesterday’s motherhood is irrefutably in the category of historical mothers. IN spite of the fact that she does not have many children, her perseverance even when her husband abuses her confirms it all. To Yesterday, family and children ought to be respected no matter what comes along the way; hence, her child Beauty comes first in everything.  Some facts about black motherhood have been established in the book. The hard work and persistence in motherhood are mentioned among many features. According to Crawford, black mothers are exposed to deplorable environmental conditions which are contrary other mothers from other regions in the world. Despite the challenges of the environment, they still manage to raise their children and support them in school. In some cases, black mothers undergo abuse and mistreatments from their husbands in front of their children. Despite all the myriad challenges, black parents are unbowed. Moreover, they develop resilience of forward-looking through their experience. To some black mothers, motherhood is not an option, it is a must, and they must raise their kids regardless of the cost and the conditions. According to the research published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (BJOG) based on the study conducted in Africa, maternal health prevalence is still high in Sub-Sahara Africa (Hill, 2004). Further, BJOG indicates that transmission of HIV from mother to child is still very high during the postnatal care.

The report published some means by which mothers transfer the virus unintentionally to their children. This may be done through sharp objects and saliva given they have wounds in their mouths. When a person shares a sharp object such as a razor or a knife with another individual and it happens that their blood comes in contact when they cut each other accidentally, a virus will likely be transferred to the other party. In the case of Yesterday and her daughter Beauty, the chances of a child getting infected exist. Additionally, Beauty finds her mother touching a vein which was used to remove blood for testing. From the face of Beauty, she was a bit dejected when she saw that her mother might have been feeling pain. This act affected Beauty emotionally as she could be seen thereafter questioning her mother about the same. Yesterday, however, is very concerned about her daughter’s happiness, which translates to her emotional well-being. Also, she can be seen going extra miles to provide a smile for her daughter at the same time no matter what distance she has to cover in order to achieve this.

Psychological Disorders, Therapy, and Wellbeing

Female depression will differ from the male one in that a woman’s chance of getting depressed over small things are higher than that of men over the same things. According to Crawford, one out of every eight women gets depressed in her life as compared to one out of 18 in terms of men. Women’s psychological disorders mostly stem from emotional factors; they also do experience naturally induced depression in the case of a premenstrual syndrome being a condition that is caused by hormones in their bodies. Emotional issues discussed in the lecture that leads to depression in ladies include: relationship issues, job issues, and college/school issues. According to Crawford, emotions affect psychological stability of a person impairing the inhibiting normal operation of the senses.

An individual who has a mental disorder exhibits abnormal behaviors such as excessive anger, verbal diarrhea, abuse, sleeping and drinking all the time, and many other manifestations. Such habits can be noticed by those people that are known by the person since such people begin to exhibit themselves out of nothing, and yet they have never behaved in such a manner before. In the entire film, Yesterday never showed any sign of psychological disorder in all her interactions and correspondence. This indicates that she did not become a victim of mental disorder. It is, however, obvious that she is stressed up, and she feels drained due to the diseases. At some point of the film, she cannot even fetch water from the borehole by rotating the pulley. Largely, causes of depression in both men and women are the same, but the responses and reactions from both men and women are very different. Women who feel sad, guilty, tired, molested, mistreated, and abused may be more likely depressed according to National Mental Health Association (NMHA). Any form of psychological disorder in women such as a slight stress or misunderstanding has a high chance of resulting into a depression. NMHA states that a female’s response to depression is directly opposite to a man’s response (Filippi et al., 2006). Women who are stressed confide in their friends, and they speak about their situation, they sleep more or lesser than required, they lack energy and/or are fatigued, they feel guilt, worthlessness, and suicidal issues. These responses, however, are taken from the feedback observed among women of all kinds and under different settings. It is therefore very imperative to Yesterday’s response and how she dealt with stress. Yesterday’s response did not portray the findings of depression in women discussed in the text. Instead, to a large extent, her reaction showed an entirely different response being almost similar to a response of a man.

Psychotherapy, antidepressant therapy, and a combination of the two are three main formal treatments (therapies) that proved to be effective in use. Psychotherapy is a procedural treatment where a woman takes a series of procedures; it involves some bit of hypnotization where a patient is made to talk about the situation and reveal more about his/her conditions. In doing so, the cause of the depression can be established. Psychotherapy is the most efficient form of treatment for the depressed men and women both in application and in procedure. Antidepressant therapy may be applied in a situation where a person is deeply depressed. In this case, psychotherapeutic procedure will not be useful for deep depression. Antidepressants, therefore, can only be used when psychotherapy has failed. However, both psychotherapy and antidepressants can be used at the same time.The latter involves the use of antidepressant pills which gives depressed patient a moment of ease and relaxation over time. The tablets can be used over a period, and a depressed patient will be under a scrutiny of a psychiatrist.

Unlike men, women can be easily cured of depression when they talk about their loved ones or trusted friends about their situation because women usually talk about their problems. In this case, stress that would have escalated into a depression is curbed before it becomes a depression itself. Regulation of sleep is another therapy that is applied to a depressed patient. Too much sleep ends up with depression, not enough sleeping (less than 8 hours a day) repeatedly over considerable period of time again results into depression (Harold, Shelton, Goeke‐Morey, & Cummings, 2004). Sleep regulation is, therefore, paramount in keeping depression at bay. Such regulation, unlike antidepressants and psychotherapy, is a preventive measure while the latter ones are curative measures. Another preventive measure that has been discussed is the sharing of problems be they social, personal, or family ones. Yesterday’s experience would have led her to depression, but contrary to the expectation of the medical research expectations, she did not become depressed.

Although, at some moments in the film, when the community rejected her husband, she looked angry and stressed that she could get over her situation easily by confiding in her friends, drawing strength for her daughter’s future (hope), and talking to the doctor among other people. Through these measures, she was able to overcome depression in its developmental stage. Sleep regulation, talking and sharing, and premenstrual syndrome (PMS) therapy are the most effective feminist cures. Premenstrual syndrome therapy is the condition caused by hormonal imbalance in a woman’s body as it prepares to receive the periods. The PMS is treated through medical means by giving a woman is hormone stabilizing drugs. Yesterday’s well-being is mainly attributed to the fact that she shared her situation with whoever asked her. Additionally, she could not hide the reality, and she accepted her position the moment she became aware of her condition. The acceptance alone gave her the strengths both mentally and physically in order to live positively.

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