ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews what is known about the social selection, social causation distinction from literature on psychiatric disorders. As a meta-theory, social causation has a number of intermediate level theories that are well established in sociology and criminology literature. The differential effects of social selection and social causation for various disorders have become the focus of interest. Different approaches in design and analysis have been used to test whether social selection or social causation is more important in the causation of observed differences in prevalence of psychiatric disorders between social classes. The social causation model assumes that the greater degree of stress experienced as a consequence of ethnic discrimination by North Africans in Israel will result in higher rates of psychopathology. At lower education levels, North African males show higher rates than European males, suggesting a greater role of social causation in substance use disorders.
