Statement of Authorship
I certify that this assignment is my own work and contains no material which has been submitted as part of an assignment in any institute, college or university. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the assignment.
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- Introduction
Depression is defined in Webster dictionary as a medical condition of serious nature in which the affected person feels extremely hopeless, sad, and insignificant and is unable to live a normal life like other people . There may be various negative effects in a depressed person’s life that could be the result of depression. These negative effects may be physical as well as psychological based on various factors. The psychological effects may include reduced social activity, low temperament, and emotional instability in the depressed person’s behavior. The negative effects of depression in people’s social life will be discussed in the research paper through adopting appropriate methodology.
- Study Background and Study Area
Depression has been a health as well as psychological issue for humans for centuries. Historical documents in the past authored by philosophers, healers, and writers point to the existence of this issue as a health problem throughout the ages. They also record the struggle and efforts made by humans to effectively treat this health problem.
The results of depression are disturbing for the affected person and for the ones around them. These results may vary depending on the type or level of depression and may also depend on the psychology of the individual. This brings the question of identifying the effects of depression on a person’s life including the social aspects of his/her life. The study area of this research will be to analyze the effects of depression on people’s social life. It does not include the effects casted on to the social life of people around the person who is affected by depression; however, the people around such person will be considered in the research to establish the effects on the affected person’s social life since these people can best describe such effects.
- Research Questions/Hypothesis
This study has been chosen due to the increased social activity of mankind due to the advent of modern technologies including social media networks. The general approach chosen for the project will be through surveying sample population of identified individuals with depression problems. People interacting with the affected persons will also be surveyed for confirmation of results. This study includes finding out the negative effects of depression in people’s social life through adopting appropriate methodology. Following is the main research question / hypothesis of this research: -
What are the negative effects of depression on people’s social life?
- Research Objectives
The objective of this research is to establish the negative effects of depression on people’s social life. The objective also includes finding out the negative effects on the individual who is affected by depression directly and on those who are around the affected individual. The study also has the objective of studying the solution to the negative effects through variety of techniques depending on the type of effect.
- Literature Review
According to a research study, there is low tendency of teens considering themselves to become more depressed while using social networks than before. Around 5% of the social network using teens have been reported to consider themselves more depressed after using social network as contrary to the 10% teens who feel less depressed after doing the same. So the resultant of the two cases brings around 5% favor of teens to use social network for reducing their depression. This study indicates higher level of social activity in people who feel depressed as contrary to conventional beliefs that depressed people reduce their social activities .
According to a report, the following characteristics are observed or reported in children as well as adults who face depression in their lives : -
• Irritable mood with persistent sadness
• Losing interest in the activities that were well enjoyable once
• Reduced appetite along with changes in body weight
• Sleeping disorders especially facing difficulties in sleeping or oversleeping normal time of sleep
• Loss of physical and mental energy along with physical agitation signs and extreme lethargic feelings
• Feeling inappropriate guilt or worthlessness of one’s life
• Feeling great difficulty in concentrating one’s focus on important matters
• Thinking over and over about dying or committing suicide
The abovementioned symptoms or characteristics of a depressed person may vary depending on the age of the individual. The symptoms pertaining to children as well as adolescents include following : -
• Non-specified physical complaint that are frequent but vague such as muscle aches, headache etc.
• High level of absenteeism from school or lower level of academic performance
• Irrational crying, shouting, complaining and other forms of out bursting
• Consistent boredom in almost every sphere of life
• Low level of interest for playing even with people of same age group
• High tendency towards use of alcohol or other drugs
• Poor level of communication along with social isolation practiced by the individual
• Extreme fear of dying from unknown cause
• High level of fear of getting failed or rejected without any specific reason
• High level of anger, irritability and / or hostility towards persons around
• Higher tendency of reckless behavior
• Feeling difficulty in maintaining harmonious relationships
According to a study by Miech et Al., the results of the study highlight a unique set of instruments that underlie the depression with an association to the late adulthood stage of life in three manners. First one includes, among the social and economic indicators, the household income as well as educational attainment, is considered the strongest indicator of a depressive symptom with specific set of standard controls. Secondly, in the late adulthood age, the physical health related problems are one of the most influential amongst the mediating factors; in fact, an addition of such a variable greatly increases the explained alteration of a model. Once such a measure is included within a baseline model, the association that is present between depressive symptoms and socioeconomic indicators became insignificant in terms of statistics. Thirdly, the social support that is played with a significant role for the reduction of all the depressive symptoms, the influence that is not observed during the age of early and middle adulthood. Therefore, in the later adulthood, the physical health related problems as well as the social support comprise of much of the association between the household income and the depressive symptoms .
A research study by Shittu et al. concluded that all of the study’s respondents having depression were taken into the study with the age in between 36 to 40 years, showed the highest level of respondents at around 29.4%. The female respondents comprising of 81.8% outnumbered the male respondents with 18.2% that resulted in male to female ratio of around 1:45. Predominantly, the respondents with depression symptoms consisted of 81.8% Muslims, 17.6% Christians, and 0.6% traditional believers who were married and same ratio was observed in the single respondents. Around 68.3% of the respondents included separated/ divorced people whereas 15.3% included widow/widower. The respondents who were depressed consisted of 32.9% having no formal education while 32.4% with only primary education and 24.7% having secondary level education. The results also showed that there was decreased ratio of depression in increased level of education among the respondents of the study. Around 53 % people under depression were traders while only 8% were unemployed .
- Relevance
- Justification of the Study
The study is required to be carried out to identify the relationship between social activeness and depression. The existing studies indicate the characteristics of depression that tell that social activities of people under depression are reduced but the evidence from the point of view of people around the depression patients is lacking. This study not only identifies the relationship between social activeness and depression through surveying the depression affected persons but also undertakes the opinion of people around the patients. There exists a gap in the existing literature in which the social life of people around the person who is under depression are not studied. This study aims to fill the gap along with identifying the negative impact of depression of people’s social life. The proposed study is based on not only studying the social life of the person who is suffering from depression but verifying the results through surveying the people around them. The people suffering from depressive disorders would benefit through both direct and indirect means from this study. The direct means include suggesting measures for the depressed people while the indirect means would be suggestive interventions to the people around the sufferers.
- Limitations
The study will be limited by the approachability of the patients of depression and their willingness to take the surveys of the study. The study will also be limited by the budget constraints to reach larger region which will be countered by including surveys of people through online sources. There will be around 10$ per person of expense that will incur on each survey. The study will be limited by the fact that most of the patients of depression do not realize that they are suffering from it so there exists acceptability issue among the affected persons for taking surveys. A person undergoing depressive phase may not be willing to accept that the depression is reducing his/her social activities. This accuracy of results will be confirmed through conducting survey of similar questions from the relatives of the affected person.
- Data and Methods
The data would be acquired through carrying out surveys of two categories. First category of surveys will be based on the questions that would be directly asked from the people suffering from depression. This type of surveys will be based on questions related to reasons of depression, social activities of the sample population. Privacy of each individual will be ensured in this category of surveys. The results obtained from this category of surveys will be analyzed using qualitative analysis due to the subjective nature of the questions and responses. Following is the questionnaire that will be used in these surveys: -
- Is there any incident in your life that is quite depressing for you?
- Yes. Please specify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Yes, I’d rather not specify
- No
- How often do you find yourself thinking about the depressing event?
- All the time
- Most of the time
- Some of the time
- Never
- How much your social activities have reduced/increased after the depressing event?
- I am no more a social person
- My social activities have been greatly reduced
- My social activities have been somewhat reduced
- My social activities have somewhat increased
- My social activities have increased greatly
- Can you tell the number of friends you had before the event and at present?
I had . . . . . . friends before the event and have . . . . . . . . friends at present.
- What do you do when you want to get out of your depression phase?
Please specify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The second category of surveys will be conducted on the people around the affected person. The primary focus will be placed on the close family members and friends who were not directly affected by the same event for depression and have close relationship with the affected person. The results obtained from this category of surveys will be analyzed through quantitative analysis. Following are the questions that will be included in the second category of surveys: -
- Please rate the social activities of the affected person (Mr. XYZ) before and after the depressing event.
- How often do you find the affected person (Mr. XYZ) sitting alone and thinking in a depressive manner?
- All the time
- Most of the time
- Some of the time
- Never
- How much socially active / de-active he has become after the depressing event with you?
- He is does not talk to me at all
- He talks to me only at critical requirements
- He seldom talks to me socially
- I talks and gets social at the same rate as before
- He has been talking to me and socially interacting with me more as compared to before
- How many friends has he added / deleted from his social circle before and after the event?
He has . . . . . . friends deleted and . . . . . . . friends added in his social circle
- Do you help Mr. XYZ during his depression phase in order to get him out of the state of depression through interacting with him socially?
- Yes
- No
- He does not allow
The data acquired through the method of surveying the affected persons is limited by the fact that the people who are in the depression phase and are not socially active, do not agree to take such surveys or might not be able to properly answer all the questions. This will be mitigated by the results obtained from surveying the relatives or friends of the affected persons.
References
Cash, R. E. (n.d.). Depression in Children. SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1-4.
Common Sense Media. (2012). Social Media, Social Life: How teens view their lives.
Miech, R. A., Shanahan, M. J., & Glen H. Elder, J. (n.d.). Socioeconomic Status and Depression in Life Course Perspective. CDE Working Paper.
Shittu, R. O., Issa, B. A., Olanrewaju, G. T., Mahmoud, A. O., Odeigah, L. O., & Sule, A. G. (2014). Social Determinants of Depression: Social Cohesion, Negative Life Events, and Depression Among People Living with HIV/Aids in Nigeria, West Africa. International Journal of MCH and AIDS, 174-181.
Webster. (n.d.). depression. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/depression
