Risk Perception and Health Behaviour (Sociology) Flashcards
Define health risks
Constructed via aggregations of statistical probabilities linking certain health behaviours with disease outcomes
Sociocultural Theories of Health Risk Perception and Risky behaviour?
- Social construction of risky behaviour
Risk is a subjective and culturally relative set of norms, values and beliefs shaping our understanding of disease - it is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED
Our shared cultural values and norms shape our engagement with risky health behaviours
People contextualise statistics within the schema of their own lives
They often take an all or nothing approach - something will happen to me or it won’t
It is therefore difficult to get people to change behaviours that are seen as routine within their own lives e.g. drinking after work
Makes epidemiologically/statistically grounded health prevention strategies difficult to apply
Sociocultural theories of health risk perception? 2
Risk society thesis:
Beck - The harms of industrialisation and globalisation have outweighed the perceived benefits of scientific advancements
No longer a rational calculation of probability
Category of fear related to wider societal issues which pervades all aspects of society
Challenge: Peoples perception of risk becomes highly selective
Difficult to encourage behaviour change when there are “bigger” threats posed by the world we live in
