The perception of psychological conditions varies across cultures. Culture, therefore, has a significant influence on the treatment of psychological conditions. For instance, some cultures are likely to be more predisposed to a particular psychological condition than others. In the learning resources, I came across somatization, which is common in Chinese culture.
Somatization is described as the expression of psychological distress in the form of physical symptoms. Individuals tend to develop somatic symptoms that communicate or express the underlying psychological distress (Davoodi, Wen, Dobson, Noorbala, Mohammadi, & Farahmand, 2018) . The experience of the distress, therefore, involves the body, and psychological symptoms are excluded. Somatic individuals primarily present physical symptoms when assessed, concealing the psychological symptoms. This means that the symptoms may be attributed to physical rather than psychological causes. Somatization may affect the treatment of psychological symptoms. This is because patients respond to the somatic symptoms and conceal the psychological symptoms.
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Cross-cultural research findings indicate that Chinese culture is more susceptible to somatization. This can be attributed to the cultural values and beliefs of the Chinese culture. For instance, the Chinese culture is more reserved in terms of expression of feelings. Individuals avoid open emotional display as this is culturally considered a sign of weakness (Ryder, Yang, & Heine, 2002) . People, therefore, conceal their emotions to conform to cultural dictates. This leads to the suppression of real feelings, which may result in somatization. The psychological symptoms are hidden or suppressed, and the psychological distress is expressed in the form of somatic symptoms.
Also, Chinese culture tends to stigmatize individuals with psychological disorders (Koh, 2018) . Mental illness and overt behavioral pathology are particularly not tolerated in the culture. This poses a challenge to the treatment of psychological disorders in the culture and also influence somatization. Individuals tend to conceal psychological symptoms and express their distress using physical symptoms. The concealing of psychological symptoms through somatization significantly affects the successful treatment of psychological disorders.
References
Davoodi, E., Wen, A., Dobson, K. S., Noorbala, A. A., Mohammadi, A., & Farahmand, Z. (2018). Early maladaptive schemas in depression and somatization disorder. Journal of affective disorders , 235 , 82-89.
Koh, K. B. (2018). Psychosociocultural Mechanisms of Somatization. In Stress and Somatic Symptoms (pp. 105-114). Springer, Cham.
Ryder, A. G., Yang, J., & Heine, S. J. (2002). Somatization vs. psychologization of emotional distress: A paradigmatic example for cultural psychopathology. Online readings in psychology and culture , 10 (2), 3.
