Phrases

Question 1

Altruism effect

Answer 1

The experience of trauma and/or migration motivates people to help others and to
contribute to society.

Question 2

Biological determinism

Answer 2

An unproven belief that individual and group behaviour and social status are
an inevitable result of biology.

Question 3

Biomedicine / Biomedical Model of Health

Answer 3

The conventional approach to medicine in Western
societies, based on the diagnosis and explanation of illness as a malfunction of the body’s biological
mechanisms. This approach underpins most health professions and health services, which focus on
treating individuals and generally ignores the social origins of illness and its prevention.

Question 4

Cartesian Dualism

Answer 4

Also called ‘mind/body dualism’ and named after the philosopher René Descartes,
it refers to a belief that the mind and body are separate entities. This assumption underpins medical
approaches that view disease in physical terms and thus ignore the psychological and subjective aspects
of disease.

Question 5

Civil society

Answer 5

The arena of voluntary collective action around shared interests, purposes and values.

Question 6

Cultural Safety

Answer 6

The acknowledgement by health professionals and organisations of the need to
provide services in a manner appropriate to all members of a diverse population. Cultural safety is
achieve when a client perceives their healthcare was delivered in a manner that respected and
maintained their cultural integrity

Question 7

Cultural Security

Answer 7

When health organisations and health professionals operate from a position where
appropriate responses to cultural diversity are not only acknowledged, but actually embedded in all
aspects of health care (e.g. from policy to practice)

Question 8

Culture

Answer 8

A system of shared ideas, attitudes, and practices that defines the social system of its
members. a “set of guidelines . . . that individuals inherit’ which help us ‘view the world… experience
it emotionally . . . and influence our behaviour in relation to supernatural forces or gods, and to the
natural environment.” Also seen as “an inherited ‘lens’ through which the individual perceives and
understands the world” and as “learned, accumulated experience.” (Helman, 2007, p. 2)

Question 9

Culture-bound syndromes

Answer 9

Locally defined patterns of illness that occur only in specific communities
and are identified by a set of symptoms that derives from the culture of the society that experiences
them.

Question 10

Epidemiological transition

Answer 10

A change in disease patterning in countries, from infectious diseases to
chronic or ‘lifestyle’ diseases

Question 11

Ethnocentrism

Answer 11

Viewing others from one’s own cultural perspective, with an implied sense of cultural superiority based on an inability to understand or accept the practices and beliefs of other cultures.

Question 12

Food insecurity

Answer 12

Unavailability of affordable, nutritious and culturally acceptable food. A state of
regular hunger and/or fear of starvation.

Question 13

Food security

Answer 13

The availability of affordable, nutritious and culturally acceptable food.

Question 14

Discuss the impact of culture on health

Answer 14

The influence of culture on health is vast. It affects perceptions of health, illness and death, beliefs about causes of disease, approaches to health promotion, how illness and pain are experienced and expressed, where patients seek help, and the types of treatment patients prefer.

Question 15

How does the Placebo Effect challenge the culture of Biomedicine

Answer 15

The placebo effect challengers the mental aspect of health and healing.

Question 16

CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

Answer 16

A broad term to describe both alternative medical
practitioners and practices that may stand in opposition to orthodox medicine and also those who may
collaborate with and thus complement, orthodox practice. Also referred to as Folk healing.

Question 17

Globalisation

Answer 17

Political, social, economic, and cultural developments – such as the spread of
multinational companies, information technology, and the role of international agencies – that result
in people’s lives being increasingly influenced by global, rather than national or local, factors.

Question 18

Health equity

Answer 18

The absence of avoidable differences in health. Minimizing inequalities in health and in
the key determinants of health, including modifiable social and physical conditions as well as medical
care. Health equity implies addressing the social as well as medical determinants of health, because
they are likely to be key determinants of health inequalities (Braverman).

Question 19

Health inequality

Answer 19

Different health status associated with various social groups. Differences in health
that raise concerns about equity (justice) because they are systematically linked with social
disadvantage, entailing worse health among socially disadvantaged groups (Braverman).

Question 20

Health

Answer 20

There is no definite meaning of health. Its meaning can be different depending on individuals,
social groups and cultures, and can differ at different times. “A state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1946).

Question 21

Humanitarian Aid

Answer 21

A broad term to refer to providing ‘relief’ to human beings and to reduce adverse
impacts of conflict, insecurity and natural disasters on populations.

Question 22

IDP (Internally Displaced Person)

Answer 22

A person who has been forced to flee his or her home but who has
not crossed the country’s border and therefore does not engage the international protection regime

Question 23

Illness behavior

Answer 23

The socially acceptable way to act when sick.

Question 24

Integrative Medicine

Answer 24

The blending of Biomedicine with another healing modality, such as a form of
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

Question 25

Maternal Health

Answer 25

The health of a woman during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period.

Question 26

Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)

Answer 26

The ratio of the number of maternal deaths during a given time
period per 100,000 live births during the same period.

Question 27

Medical Anthropology

Answer 27

How people in different cultures and social groups explain the causes of ill
health, the types of treatments they believe in, and to whom they turn if they get ill.

Question 28

Medical Dominance

Answer 28

A general term used to describe the power of the medical profession in terms of
its control over its own work, over the work of other health workers, and over health resource
allocation, health policy, and the way that hospitals are run.

Question 29

Medical Pluralism

Answer 29

A general term that refers to the vast array of healing modalities across the globe,
in particular to the increasing popularity of alternative therapies and their coexistence with biomedicine
in Westernised societies.

Question 30

Risks of Medical Pluralism

Answer 30

We all adapt, adopt and modify elements of
biomedicine – do you ever modify your GPs
advice? Game the system?
 Traditional knowledge, friends and peers, old
doctors, google, particular foods, routines,
relatives, previous experiences of “what
worked

“Here I don’t buy medication. Even a syrup for a cold I ask them to bring it for my
child from Iran. I don’t believe In their medicines here.”

Question 31

What are the benefits of traditional forms of healing?

Answer 31

More affordable than conventional medicine.
Easier to obtain than prescription medicine.
Stabilizes hormones and metabolism.
Natural healing.
Strength in immune system.
Fewer side effects.
cost effective.

Question 32

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Answer 32

8 global development goals set at the Millennium by the

United Nations and finished in 2015

Question 33

‘negative’ rights

Answer 33

Human rights that require states not to interfere in the affairs of their citizens (such
as rights to privacy, freedom of expression, thought, and religion, freedom of movement).

Question 34

‘positive’ rights

Answer 34

Human rights that require states to actively implement measures to secure particular
human rights (such as the right to a clean environment, rights to education, and rights to health).

Question 35

‘Pull’ factors

Answer 35

Factors that attract people to new locations.

Question 36

Public health infrastructure

Answer 36

The buildings, installations, and equipment necessary to ensure healthy
living conditions for the population.

Question 37

‘Push’ factors

Answer 37

Factors that make, cause or force people to migrate.

Question 38

‘Race’

Answer 38

The concept that human beings can be divided into biologically distinct sub-groups, identified
through phenotype, or outward appearance. It is a social construct used to categorise people, and
often implies assumed (and unproven) intellectual superiority or inferiority.

Question 39

Reductionism

Answer 39

The belief that all illnesses can be explained and treated by reducing them to biological
and pathological factors.

Question 40

Reflective thinking

Answer 40

A part of the critical thinking process referring specifically to the processes of
analysing and making judgments about what has happened. It is an active, persistent, and careful
consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge, of the grounds that support that knowledge,
and the further conclusions to which that knowledge leads.

Question 41

Refugee Status Determination (RSD)

Answer 41

The process by which an individual or group is found to fit the Article 1A definition of a refugee.

Question 42

Refugee

Answer 42

A person who is outside his or her country of origin, having crossed an international frontier,
and who is unable or unwilling to return there because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on
race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group, or political opinion (Article 1A UNHCR,
Refugee Status Determination).

Question 43

Sexual division of labour

Answer 43

The nature of work performed as a result of gender roles.

Question 44

Social construction

Answer 44

Refers to the socially created characteristics of human life based on the idea that
people actively construct reality, meaning it is neither ‘natural’ nor inevitable. Therefore, notions of
normality/abnormality, right/wrong, and health/illness are subjective human creations that should not
be taken for granted.

Question 45

Social determinants of health

Answer 45

The social determinants of health (SDH) are the conditions in which
people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development
agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems (WHO, 2015).

Question 46

Social Model of Health

Answer 46

A model of health that focuses on social determinants of health such as the
social production, distribution and construction of health and illness, and the social organisation of
health care. It directs attention to the prevention of illness through community participation and social
reforms that address living and working conditions.

Question 47

Social structure

Answer 47

The recurring patterns of social interaction through which people are related to each
other, such as social institutions (e.g. health systems, government, education) and social groups (e.g.
family, religion, ethnicity).

Question 48

Socio-economic status (SES)

Answer 48

A statistical measure of relative inequality that classifies individuals,
households, or families into one of three categories – low SES, middle SES, or high SES – derived from
a combination of income, occupation, and education.

Question 49

Stigma

Answer 49

An attribute or characteristics that separates people from one another. It is used by individuals
to interpret specific attributes of others as ‘discreditable or unworthy’ and this results in the stigmatised
person becoming devalued

Question 50

Structure-Agency Debate

Answer 50

A key debate in sociology over the extent to which human behaviour is
determined by social structure.

Question 51

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Answer 51

17 goals set by the United Nations to work on sustainable

development globally. SDGs are due to finish in 2030.

Question 52

The ‘Cascade of Intervention’

Answer 52

The way an initial biomedical intervention in birth, such as induction, leads to a series of other interventions, including epidurals, caesarean sections and episiotomies.

Question 53

The Champagne Glass

Answer 53

The unequal distribution of world income concentrates wealth in the top 20%
of the world’s population, forming the shape of a champagne glass.

Question 54

The Placebo Effect

Answer 54

A term that covers a broad range of ways in which an illness or condition in the
human body improves through intervention, despite the use of an inert or ‘inactive’ medication.

Question 55

The social construction of health and illness

Answer 55

Definitions of health and illness vary within groups and

over time.

Question 56

The social gradient of health

Answer 56

A continuum of health inequality in most countries from high to low,
where the poorest group of people have the worst health status, and each group above it has
progressively better health, with the most socio-economically advantaged group having the best health
status.

Question 57

The social organization of health care

Answer 57

The way a particular society organizes, funds, and utilizes its health services.

Question 58

The social production and distribution of health and illness

Answer 58

The impact of society on disease

patterning.

Question 59

The Sociological Imagination

Answer 59

A term coined by Charles Wright Mills to describe the sociological
approach to analysing issues. We see the world through a sociological imagination, or think
sociologically, when we make a link between personal troubles and public issues.

Question 60

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Answer 60

The first significant international human rights
agreement made by the United Nations. The UDHR outlines 30 human rights, and led to many other
human rights declarations and policies.

Question 61

Vicarious resilience

Answer 61

A term for positive meaning-making, growth and transformation in individuals due
to exposure to another person’s trauma story.

Question 62

Victim-blaming

Answer 62

The process whereby social inequality is explained in terms of individuals being solely responsible for what happens to them in relation to the choices they make and their assumed psychological, cultural and/or biological inferiority

Question 63

Why does marginalisation lead to poor healthoutcomes

Answer 63

Scientific advances in health care have been disproportionately distributed across social strata. Disease burden is also disproportionately distributed, with marginalized groups having the highest risk of poor health outcomes. Social determinants are thought to influence health care delivery and the management of chronic diseases among marginalized groups, but the current conceptualization of social determinants lacks a critical focus on the experiences of people within their environment. The purpose of this article was to integrate the literature on marginalization and situate the concept in the framework of social determinants of health. We demonstrate that social position links marginalization and social determinants of health. This perspective provides a critical lens to assess the societal power dynamics that influence the construction of the socio‐environmental factors affecting health. Linking marginalization with social determinants of health can improve our understanding of the inequities in health care delivery and the disparities in chronic disease burden among vulnerable groups.

Question 64

Human rights approach to Marginilsation

Answer 64

A human rights based approach means that all forms of discrimination in the realisation of rights must be prohibited, prevented and eliminated. It also means that priority should be given to people in the most marginalised or vulnerable situations who face the biggest barriers to realising their rights.