Rodriguez 1

Neftali Rodriguez
Wilson
Writing 2
7 November 2016
WP2
When walking the streets of big cities such as Los Angeles, it is not uncommon to see
many homeless people. Over the years, the amount of homeless people has increased and if
nothing is done to fix this issue, homelessness will continue to grow and can possibly cause an
increase in crime rates, affect public health, and impose financial costs on cities. As
homelessness has become a greater issue within the United States and other countries, many
academic disciplines have taken an interest. Sociologists try to find the underlying problem from
a social perspective, taking a look at individual social relationships to see what the differences
are between those who are homeless and those who are not. Psychiatrists, on the other hand,
approach this issue differently, looking at how the chances of being mentally ill increase if an
individual is homeless. These different disciplines write down their findings in academic journals
and monographs, each with varying conventions unique to that discipline. Combining the
important studies of both sociology and psychiatric disciplines allow for a fuller understanding
of the causes of homelessness.
Each disciple takes an approach unique to their discipline when conducting a study.
When doing studies on any topic a sociologist will presumably take a social approach, including
the topic of homelessness. For example, in Social Capital, Homeless Young People and the
Family, an academic journal by Justin D. Barker, Barker argues that homeless youth did not

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have a stable family structure prior to being homeless and that this fact contributed to the
individuals homeless situation. The individuals family is a major focus within the journal.
Family is described in the journal to be a social capital and Barker, as a sociologist is
interested in seeing how the interaction between a young person and their family affects their
living situations, arguing that the lack of family as a source of social capital for homeless youth
is a central factor that contributes to young peoples homelessness (730). The family serves as
an independent variable within the study and limits the possible causes of homelessness to a
single possibility: familial interactions. This is effective because it facilitates Barkers ability to
make clear observations. A resulting disadvantage to this strategy of only focusing on one social
relationship is the loss of the other possible causes having to do with the other social
relationships. However, it is still a productive way to execute the study. The same way this study
focuses on family, similarly another study may choose to focus on interactions between friends,
classmates, lovers, or any other social interaction.
Sociology is a discipline that can be relevant to many people because it studies social
relationships and human behavior within society. This leads to sociologists writings to be
directed towards a broader audience. In Barkers journal, he introduces terms such as social
capital. Not all readers may be familiarized with that term, which can essentially be a problem
because it is a critical part of the argument. Barker fixes this by dedicating a couple of
paragraphs towards explaining social capital and how family functions as a social capital. He
states that at the most broad level social capital refers to, and signals the importance of
participation in groups, sociality, family, and relationships in the analysis of culture and
society (731). By including this definition, Barker invites a larger audience to interact with his

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work and does not restrict his writing to those who are familiar with the term. The inclusion of a
larger audience benefits the homeless epidemic because after reading the journal the audience
will be aware of a possible cause. Once knowing the cause, the audience can work towards fixing
the issue. Sociologists understand the importance of a large audience and make sure to open up
their work to many.
A sociologist does not look into the human brain or any other tactile, physical part of the
human body. This does not allow them to have concrete materials to conduct experiments on or
get back scientifically proven evidence. This discipline must use other methods for gathering
data. These methods include interviews, focus groups, genealogies, life histories and, most
significantly participant observation ( Barker 733). These methods make up for the lack of
physical methods. Observation is perhaps the most used method among sociologists along with
interviews. It is these two methods that played the most important roles within Barkers study.
Through his observations and the interviews, Barker was able to form his conclusion that the
dynamics of family life shape the lives and expectations of homeless youth, affecting how they
access and use social networks outside of their family (740). The observations and the
interviews were essential to forming a conclusion, not only within Barkers study but also within
other sociology studies. From his conclusion, other sociologists can expand on his research and
incorporate their own observations and interviews for their studies. This allows for a large
variety of academic input from various reliable sources.
Psychiatrists have a somewhat similar approach to homelessness as sociologists do. Like
sociologists, they take interest in human behavior, but have a medical point of view.. They focus
on medical problems that affect the mind and how these problems are related to homelessness. In

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respects to the issue of homelessness, psychiatrists are interested in how the possibility of having
a mental illness increases if an individual does not have a living space. In the monograph
Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness by Russell K. Schutt and Stephen M. Goldfinger
assess this question. They examine it from a medical perspective stating that neurological
deficits are associated with the symptoms of severe mental illness (144) while also conducting
an experiment to see how these symptoms increase or decrease when homeless people suffering
from mental illness are provided with housing. This takes into consideration how the social
relationships developed in the temporary housing help improve the mental stability of the
participants while also considering how the improvement can benefit the participants in the long
run.
Journal or books written by psychiatrists typically are not meant to be read by a large
audience. The psychiatrists writes to his fellow companions within his discipline. This is evident
through the tone, word choice, and terms used in their writing. For example, in the monograph
Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness by Russell K. Schutt and Stephen M. Goldfinger the
tone throughout the entire monograph is a formal one. This formal tone is established with the
use of elevated language. This already puts a limitation on the amount of people that would read
the text. The readers would have to have at least a college education to fully understand some of
the words used throughout the text. However, the use of medical jargon also makes it clear that
the text was written specifically for those of the same discipline. An example of this medical
jargon is when Schutt and Goldfinger say patient with major depressive disorder had smaller
neurons and fewer glial cells in the prefrontal cortex that mediate between neurons and their
environment (144). The words glial cell and prefrontal cortex would not make sense to a

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general audience if they were to read this text. Therefore, the only ones capable of fully
understanding this sentence, along with the rest of the monograph, is other psychiatrists. The
audience, restricted to only psychiatrists, does not allow others to learn from the work being
done, therefore they may not be able to act against the homeless epidemic.
Psychiatrists are able to perform more physical studies because they are doctors and they
deal with the mind. They are able to take a look at symptoms, neurons and cells. Because of this
the evidence used in their journals or writings consist of experiments and concrete numbers.
Schutt and Goldfinger use many graphs (pgs 152-3, 169) and quantitative data. They also do
measurements of symptoms using a QOL-based measure (169). These measurements and
qualitative data give psychiatrists credibility. However, they too, like sociologists, have
participants in their studies. Psychiatrists have an easier time finding participants because they
are doctors so people with mental illnesses go to them, they do not have to do much searching.
They do, however, set guidelines that the participants had to meet to be considered mentally ill
and be a part of the study. These observational studies along with quantitative ones make up a
strong support for the writer's argument.
A similarity between the two disciplines is that both sociology and psychiatry provided a
solution to the homeless epidemic. Although they took a different approach towards obtaining a
solution, they both accomplished what they had set out to do. The solution offered by the
sociology discipline is that youth workers and and policy-makers need to assist young people to
maintain and manage existing social relationships and to create broader social networks (Barker
741). This solution of course relates back to sociologists main interest social relationships. On
the other hand, psychiatrists found through their participants that measured distress decreased in

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their follow-up interviews for those who had moved into housing (Schutt and Goldfinger 150).
Together the two disciplines can provide an overall solution which would be that the best way to
help homeless people with mental illnesses is to provide them with housing. These disciplines
answered the big so what? question many readers many have after reading these texts. All the
research conducted led to a possible solution to end or at least lessen the growing homeless
epidemic.
Homelessness was looked further into by these two disciplines, sociology and psychiatry.
Each approached this topic in a way unique to their discipline but both eventually came up with a
solution to the homeless epidemic. Their writing pertaining to this topic and their disciplines
have distinct audience. The sociology discipline can often reach a broader audience due to the
nature of its contents while a psychiatric discipline will most likely only attempt to write to
fellow psychiatrists.

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Works Cited
Barker, Justin David. "Social Capital, Homeless Young People and the Family." Journal of Youth
Studies 15.6 (2012): 730-43. Web.
Schutt, Russell K., and Stephen M. Goldfinger. Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2011. Print.