<P> Problems in communities or cultures, including poverty, unemployment or underemployment, lack of social cohesion, and migration, have been associated with the development of mental disorders . Stresses and strains related to socioeconomic position (socioeconomic status (SES) or social class) have been linked to the occurrence of major mental disorders, with a lower or more insecure educational, occupational, economic or social position generally linked to more mental disorders . There have been mixed findings on the nature of the links and on the extent to which pre-existing personal characteristics influence the links . Both personal resources and community factors have been implicated, as well as interactions between individual - level and regional - level income levels . The causal role of different socioeconomic factors may vary by country . Socioeconomic deprivation in neighborhoods can cause worse mental health, even after accounting for genetic factors . In addition, minority ethnic groups, including first or second - generation immigrants, have been found to be at greater risk for developing mental disorders, which has been attributed to various kinds of life insecurities and disadvantages, including racism . The direction of causality is sometimes unclear, and alternative hypotheses such as the Drift Hypothesis sometimes need to be discounted . </P> <P> Some clinicians believe that psychological characteristics alone determine mental disorders . Others speculate that abnormal behavior can be explained by a mix of social and psychological factors . In many examples, environmental and psychological triggers complement one another resulting in emotional stress, which in turn activates a mental illness Each person is unique in how they will react to psychological stressors . What may break one person may have little to no effect on another . Psychological stressors, which can trigger mental illness, are as follows: emotional, physical or sexual abuse, loss of a significant loved one, neglect and being unable to relate to others . </P> <P> The inability to relate to others is also known as emotional detachment . Emotional detachment makes it difficult for an individual to empathize with others or to share their own feelings . An emotionally detached person may try to rationalize or apply logic to a situation to which there is no logical explanation . These individuals tend to stress the importance of their independence and may be a bit neurotic . Oftentimes, the inability to relate to others stems from a traumatic event . </P> <P> Mental characteristics of individuals, as assessed by both neurological and psychological studies, have been linked to the development and maintenance of mental disorders . This includes cognitive or neurocognitive factors, such as the way a person perceives, thinks or feels about certain things; or an individual's overall personality, temperament or coping style or the extent of protective factors or "positive illusions" such as optimism, personal control and a sense of meaning . </P>

The biological perspective of a mental disorder may suggest that