Caring for Patients from Different Cultures

Question 1

What is the difference between a stereotype and a generalisation?

Answer 1

• A generalisation is a broad statement based on facts, experiences, examples or common patterns.
• A stereotype is a negative interpretation of a group of people that limits the group to that interpretation.

Question 2

Define culture.

Answer 2

Beliefs and behaviours that are learned and shared by members of a group.

Question 3

Define value.

Answer 3

Anything held important at an individual or cultural level.

Question 4

List 2 examples of differing value systems that might exist between cultures.

Answer 4

1 - Varying expectations of independence and autonomy.

2 - Varting expectations of privacy.

Question 5

Define worldview.

Give an example of how a worldview can affect how people interpret events.

Answer 5

• A person’s assumptions about the nature of reality.
• E.g. a religious person will attribute God’s will to the cause of a person’s death rather than actually using their brain.

Question 6

What is the difference between an emic perspective and an etic perspective?

Answer 6

• An emic perspective comes from within the culture.

- An etic perspective comes from the observer and tries to be culturally neutral.

Question 7

Define ethnocentrism.

Answer 7

The view that one’s own culture is the correct culture.

Question 8

Define cultural relativism.

Answer 8

The idea that a person’s values should be understood based on that person’s own culture, rather than be judged against the criteria of another.

Question 9

Summarise the case of the Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis.

Answer 9

• The study involved 600 black men, some with syphilis and some without.
• They were told that they were being treated for ‘bad blood’.
• In reality, they were not being treated, and instead were being monitored to observe the effects of believing that they were being treated.
• This happened despite there being a known cure for syphilis.

Question 10

Define time orientation.

Answer 10

An individual or culture’s focus on time (past, present or future).

Question 11

List 2 examples of status models.

Answer 11

1 - Hierarchical.

2 - Egalitarian.

Question 12

List 3 models of disease.

Answer 12

1 - Magico religious model (some diseases are spiritual).

2 - Biomedical model (life is controlled by biochemical processes that can be controlled).

3 - Holistic model (health is determined by wider factors, including social factors as well as physical and mental factors).

Question 13

Define cultural competence.

Answer 13

• The ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures.
• Appreciating the differences between one’s own culture and that of another.

Question 14

List 10 sources of differences between cultures.

*This is a summary of topics covered in this lecture. Points 1-5 are new in this card, whereas points 6-10 have been covered in previous cards.

Answer 14

1 - Sex roles.

2 - Decision making roles in the family.

3 - Religious practices.

4 - Expression of pain (stoic or expressive).

5 - Communication.

6 - Use of status models.

7 - Use of disease models.

8 - TIme orientation.

9 - Worldviews.

10 - Value systems.