Discuss a sociocultural approach to one health problem

Question 1

Stress

Answer 1

The process that arises when the perceived demands on an individual exceed a person’s capacity and capability to cope with those demands.

Stress can be considered as both the state of this imbalance and the effects it has on someone as their body and mind respond to this state.

Question 2

Stress from an evolutionary perspective

Answer 2

From an evolutionary perspective, stress arises as the result of an acute threat and its paired response, such as fighting or running for one’s life.

Question 3

Chronic stress

Answer 3

When a stressor and its response last for more than an isolated experience or a couple of weeks, they can become chronic stress, and this type of stress can contribute to the development and progression of non-communicable diseases.

Question 4

One of the most significant health problems

Answer 4

One of the most significant health problems in modern society is cardiovascular health.

This includes hypertension, ischemic stroke and heart attacks.

Question 5

What have psychologists argued?

Answer 5

One of the key factors in poor cardiovascular health is thought to be stress.

Psychologists have argued that sociocultural factors – that is, environmental factors – may play a key role in stress and, therefore, cardiovascular health.

Question 6

What did Sapolsky find?

Answer 6

Found that unlike what many people believed on hierarchies which was that the leaders were most stressed, that instead, it was the opposite.

Question 7

Strengths of Sapolsky

Answer 7

A strength of the study is that it was a case study and therefore was longitudinal making the study more reliable and valid as it removes the possible confounding variables that the baboons were feeling particularly stressed at a certain period in time.

Question 8

Issues with Sapolsky

Answer 8

However, a key issue with the study is that it is based on baboons and not humans.

Even though they might have similar hierarchies and similarities in their culture compared to humans, it can still not reliably be generalised to humans.

Another key issue is that it does not find the cause of the forming of the hierarchies.

A possibility might be that the reason that certain baboons manage to be at the top, due to managing stress better and therefore presents bidirectional ambiguity as it is unsure whether stress is the cause or the effect of the hierarchy.

Question 9

A study that supports Sapolsky’s work on hierarchies but with more reliability due to it studying humans

Answer 9

Marmott in the study name the ‘Whitehall study’

Question 10

A study that supports Sapolsky’s work on hierarchies but with more reliability due to it studying humans

Answer 10

Marmott in the study name the ‘Whitehall study’

Question 11

Aim of Marmott

Answer 11

To determine how workers’ control over their work environment affects their health

Question 12

Hypothesis of Marmott

Answer 12

The researchers hypothesised that high levels of control lead to lower levels of stress, while low levels of control typically experienced by workers lower down the organisation hierarchy can increase stress levels.

Therefore, the further down the bureaucratic hierarchy you are, the higher the risk of stress-related health effects.

Question 13

Procedure of Marmott

Answer 13

Questionnaires were sent to participants on a yearly basis and the researchers checked each participants’ health records for cases of cancer and diabetes, in addition, self reported non fatal heart problems.

Question 14

Findings of Marmott

Answer 14

The researchers found that there was a correlation between heart disease and one’s control in the workplace.

The rate of heart problems in the lowest levels of the system were 1.5 times the rate in the highest levels.

The researchers also found that smoking, obesity and hypertension could account for some of the differences, but the most significant factor was the degree of control that participants felt they had.

Question 15

What does Marmott support?

Answer 15

Therefore, even though there might have been confounding variables, the researchers still found the degree of control was the main cause

Therefore supports that hierarchies have a significant effect on the person’s stress which leads to health problems.

Question 16

Strength of Marmott

Answer 16

A strength of the study is that it had a large sample size of 7000 which made the study more reliable and generalisable

Question 17

Limitations of Marmott

Answer 17

However not cross culturally as it was civil servants from Britain and therefore more research in other cultures would need to be done to generalise cross culturally.

The study was mainly based on self report questionnaires. These are unreliable as they cannot be verified and are vulnerable to biases such as the social desirability effect.

This is because participants would not want to admit of their problems as they would have seen them as a negative and therefore might not have been open about all of them. Another reason is that health problems can be very serious and it can be difficult to talk about them if it could have a serious effect on them.

Question 18

What do find from Sapolsky and Marmott but what are the issues?

Answer 18

From these two studies, we find the effect of hierarchies has on stress and that it can lead to health problems.

However, it does not determine whether the hierarchies have a permanent effect on the monkeys or not and whether it can change.

Question 19

What study investigates the permanent effect of stress in hierarchies?

Answer 19

Tung et al

Question 20

What does Tung et al study?

Answer 20

Studied female macaques and showed that their place in their hierarchy lead to some genes to express themselves

Question 21

Procedure of Tung et al

Answer 21

In the study, they introduced middle ranking monkeys to a subordinate role to existing group members.

This made sure that the social status of the other females also increased.

The researchers carried out blood testing to see how the rank influenced the activity of various genes.

Question 22

What did Tung et al find?

Answer 22

They found that the monkeys at the bottom of the hierarchy had more activity in genes associated with the production of immune-related cells and inflammation

When relating this to humans, chronic inflammation and stimulation of the immune system is a risk factor for many different diseases such as cardiovascular problems and Alzheimer’s disease.

They also found that low ranking monkeys had higher levels of glucocorticoids.

It is believed that this hormone may play a key role in the gene expression observed in the study and therefore gives a biological explanation for the sociocultural phenomenon making it more valid.

Question 23

Strength of Tung et al

Answer 23

The study is that it had biological evidence for the sociocultural stress factor of hierarchies, therefore making the findings more reliable.

It is also evidence that the the sociocultural approach does not affect stress by itself but requires other approaches as well such as biological.

Question 24

Issue with Tung et al

Answer 24

However an issue once again is that this is an animal study like Sapolsky making it difficult to generalise to humans.

There is also the issue of sampling bias as only females were chosen which on the one hand removes certain extraneous variables such as gender but on the other hand, the results can once again not be generalised to other groups.

In conclusion, this study is evidence for the effect of hierarchies on stress, however, the study is difficult to generalise to humans.

Question 25

Conclusion of hierarchies in relation to stress

Answer 25

In conclusion, the hierarchies in society appear to strongly be supported by research and support that there is a sociocultural approach to stress.

However, two out of the three studies analysed are not based on humans and therefore makes it unreliable on whether the same findings will be found on humans.

More research will therefore need to be made on humans to ensure that the findings of these studies are also shown in humans.

Question 26

Discussion of the sociocultural approach

Answer 26

In all three studies, one’s position in society seems to play a key role in one’s health.

The sociocultural approach adopts a more holistic approach than other approaches.

One’s position in society is quite complex and several factors about one’s rank may actually be the reason for the poor health outcomes.

Marmot argued that it was caused by the stress of lacking control; it could also be that the those at lower ranks experience direct threat from those above them, as would be the case in Sapolsky’s study.

Some psychologists argue that it is due to social comparison – that is, comparing yourself to others that have more.

This final argument could explain why even in poor communities, those at the top of the hierarchy are healthier than those at the bottom, even when all are still poor.

Question 27

Issue discussion of the sociocultural approach

Answer 27

Using a holistic approach instead of a reductionist approach may be because it is difficult to isolate social factors in the study of health problems.

It is difficult to measure variables such as “social position” when it is not so clearly ranked as in the Whitehall study.

Other social factors such as “level of acceptance,” “sense of control,” and “social support” are all difficult to measure. In human studies, it is also difficult to carry out experimental research, meaning that the studies are correlational in nature, leaving the question of bidirectional ambiguity.

However, modern biological research argues that behaviour is the result of gene – environment interaction, meaning that biologists recognise the importance of sociocultural factors in health problems, as seen in Tung’s study.