Health and Illness: Chapters 6-9 Flashcards
Conflict theory in sociology
emphasizes social class, hierarchy - that society has lots of conflict in it
Illness behavior
the activity undertaken by a person who feels ill for the purpose of defining that illness and seeking relief from it
Health behavior
the activity undertaken by individuals for the purpose of maintaining or enhancing their health, preventing health problems, or achieving a positive body image
Health lifestyles
collective patterns of health-related behavior based on choices from options available to people according to their life chances; include contact with medical professionals for checkups and preventive care, but the majority of activities take place outside the
Life chances
largely determined by class position that either enables or constrains health lifestyle choices; influences the potential for realizing life conduct choices
Engineering methods
the building of safe water supplies and sewers and the production of cheap food for urban areas through the use of mechanized agriculture; engineering issues deal with sanitation, medical vaccines, etc
Medical era
dominant approach to health was mass vaccination and the extensive use of antibiotics to combat infections
Postmedical era
physical well-being is largely undermined by social and environmental factors, such as smoking, loneliness, poverty, pollution
Social capital
what kind of social networks a person participates in
Status group
aka social class, people who share similar material circumstances, prestige, education, and political influence; members of the same status group share similar lifestyles; ones lifestyle is a reflection of the types and amounts of goods and services one uses or consumes
Life conduct
the choices that people have in the lifestyles they wish to adopt
Constrained choices
the choices we make operate within certain limits, the limits of what resources available and the limits of where you grew up
Cultural capital
culture - habits, tastes, and styles; different positions in society; within different groups, people tend to have certain habits, tastes, and styles
Weber’s concept of lifestyles
led to the development of SES as the most accurate reflection of a person’s social class position - influenced by income, education, occupational status; lifestyle is a reflection of a person’s status in society - based on what people consume; lifestyles are based upon choices, which are dependent upon the individual’s potential for realizing them; some lifestyles spread across class boundaries and gain influence in the wider society
Habitus (Bourdieu)
class related set of durable dispositions to act in particular ways; these dispositions produce lifestyle practices for individuals that are similar to those of other people in their social classes and different from people in other classes
Four categories of social structural variables
class circumstances - lifestyles of upper classes are the healthiest and those of the lower class the least healthy; age, gender, and race/ethnicity - people take better care of their health as they grow older, women eat better and visit doctors more and smoke less and have overall healthier lifestyle, racial disparities in health are largely determined by class position; collectivities - collections of actors linked together through particular relationships such as kinship, work, religion, politics - their shared norms, values, ideals reflect a particular collective viewpoint capable of influencing health lifestyle; living conditions - differences in the quality of housing and access to basic utilities, neighborhood facilities, and personal safety
Theory of health lifestyles
social structural variables influence your life chances (structure), which interplay with your life choices (agency); life choices are influenced by socialization and experience;
dispositions to act (habitus) caused by the interplay leads to various practices (actions) which make up a health lifestyle
Preventive care
routine physical examinations, immunizations, prenatal care, dental checkups, screening for health disease and cancer, and other services intended to ensure good health and prevent disease - or minimize the effects of illness if it occurs
Health belief model
based on the theory that people exist in a life space composed of regions with both positive and negative valences (values) - a person’s behavior might be viewed as the result of seeking regions that offer the most attractive values
Health belief model - human behavior
human behavior is seen as being dependent on the value placed by a person upon a particular outcome, and the person’s belief that a given action will result in that outcome
Likelihood of action (triggers)
involves weighing of the perceived benefits to action contrasted to the perceived barriers; what people believe may depend on what goes on around you - a stimulus in the form of an action cue may be required to trigger an appropriate behavior
BRFSS
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; a population approach to studying health behavior, collects data on general health behaviors - largest phone survey; a household survey by the CDC on how people report their behavior and status relative to health risks such as smoking, diet, exercise
Upstream vs. downstream
upstream interventions - focus on aspects of our social and physical environments that are either conducive or not to good health and well‐being - structural, larger scale incentives/restrictions
downstream interventions - focus on what we generally think of as medical care, outpatient or inpatient care, doctor’s office, diagnosis and treatment - individual, personal behaviors
Illness behavior
the varying ways individuals respond to bodily indications, how they monitor internal states, define and interpret symptoms, make attributions, take remedial actions and utilize various sources of informal and formal care
Self-care
taking preventive measures, self treatment of symptoms, and managing chronic conditions; may involve consultation with health care providers and use of their services; consists of both health and illness behavior
Factors that promote self-care
the shift in disease patterns from acute to chronic illnesses and the accompanying need to care for symptoms that cannot be cured; dissatisfaction with professional medical care that is depersonalized; recognition of the limits of modern medicine; the increasing awareness of alternative healing practice; heightened consciousness of the effects of lifestyles on health; a desire to be in control of one’s own health when feasible
Women’s self-care movement
part of the second wave on feminism in the 1970s; many women objected to what they perceived as inadequate or inappropriate treatment from doctors; women sought more info and familiarity into their bodies and body processes and practiced self-examination and non-medical remedies
Age and gender
use of health services is greater for females than for males and is greatest for the elderly, women have higher morbidity rate, but also know more about health matters than men and take better care of themselves; elderly people visit doctors more than younger people and are hospitalized more, increase in physician visits typically exists after age of 45- women increase at a faster rate than men
Cosmopolitan vs parochial perspectives (Suchman)
cosmopolitan - low ethnic exclusivity, less limited friendship systems, fewer authoritarian family relationships, more likely to know about disease, trust health professionals, less dependent on other while sick
parochial (unsophisticated) - close and exclusive relationships with family, friends, members of their ethnic group and to display limited knowledge of disease, skepticism of medical care, high dependency in illness, more likely to depend on lay-referral system
Lay-referral system
consists of nonprofessionals - family members, friends, or neighbors - who assist individuals in interpreting their symptoms and recommending a course of action
Role of social networks
close, ethnically exclusive social relationships tend to channel help-seeking behavior toward the group rather than professional health care delivery systems; people in ethnically exclusive groups are more likely to respond to a health problem by seeking medical care if it is consistent with their cultural beliefs and practices, or less likely to seek medical care if their beliefs support skepticism and distrust of professional medicine
Social network
the social relationships a person has during day-to-day interaction, which serve as the normal avenue for the exchange of opinion, information, and affection; role of social networks is to suggest, advise, influence, or coerce an individual into taking or not taking particular courses of action
SES
lower-class persons tended to underutilize health services because of the financial cost and/or culture of poverty
Culture of poverty
phenomenon in which poverty, over time, influences the development of certain social and psychological traits among those immersed within it - these traits include dependence, fatalism, inability to delay gratification, and a lower value placed on health - reinforces the poor person’s disadvantaged social position