Sociology Quiz 2 PDF

Libertarian ethic: all about me, less government, basic needs, tell women what to do with their body Communitarian ethic: Focused on community values and needs, more community Health behavior: Behavior to improve health or body image - Partially the result of socialization and social control Web...

Libertarian ethic: all about me, less government, basic needs, tell women what to do with their body Communitarian ethic: Focused on community values and needs, more community Health behavior: Behavior to improve health or body image - Partially the result of socialization and social control Weber’s conceptualization of Health behavior - Lifestyles - Life choices: the activities you partake in, the products you consume - Life chances: if you make more, you consume more - Health lifestyle: promoting health improvement Health belief model: engaging in behavior to prevent illness The social context of health behavior: - Social Class: people with a higher SES are more likely to seek health-improving behavior; people at a lower social class are less likely to seek health-improving behavior - Race and ethnicity: The overall pattern of worse health behavior stems from lower SES in minority concept of race, difficult to explain because empirical research is inconsistent - Gender: women are more likely to seek out care, men are more risky - Other factors: social relationships, religious affiliation, corporate practices, neighborhood conditions, sexual orientation and sexuality, Disease as a biological concept: the symptoms of a disease are confined to the individual Illness is a social concept: perception of and reaction to medical symptoms, three elements Relationship of illness experience and behavior: Healthcare activities that people engage in or do not engage in when responding to perceived symptoms Suchman’s stages of Illness Behavior: 1. Symptom experience: notice symptoms and decide what to do about them 2. Assumption of the sick role: engage in behavior expected of people diagnosed as being ill 3. Medical care contact: get a diagnosis, self-medicate, self-care 4. Dependent-patient role: patient undergoes testing is needed, takes medication 5. Recovery and rehabilitation: continues to perform sick role until better, or not Fundamental causes: underlying causes of health inequality - Four theoretical points: I. Influences multiple disease outcomes II. Affects disease outcomes through multiple risk factors III. Involves access to resources that can reduce risks or minimize consequences of the disease once it occurs IV. Effects on health persist over time despite intervening mechanisms that may change - most important fundamental cause: socioeconomic status - Health policy implications: Reduce resource inequalities  Contextualize risk factors - Identify factors that put people at risk for risks Introduce health interventions that benefit individuals irrespective of their own resources or behaviors Social Class: social identity, people with the same status, wealth, and ideals - With respect to fundamental cause theory - Lack of resources for better health - Chronic social stress - Jobs: poor jobs, may need multiple - Neighborhood: overcrowding, air pollution - Childhood: poor nutrition, inactivity Gender Paradox: Compared to men, women live longer - have better mortality but have worse health- more morbidity Men have more life-threatening disease Women live longer but are more poor Looking Glass Self: Our self-concepts result from social interaction with other individuals based on how individuals perceive us Stress results when our self-image is not consistently reflected by the other individual Definition of the situation: - How a person understands crisis Behavior is orderly as long as the definitions of a social situation is relatively constant When definitions change, habitual behavior is disrupted, disorganization and uncertainty may appear Coping dependents upon learned coping skills from social experiences If a person perceives a situation as stressful, then it is stressful Life as theater approach: - Social interaction depends upon information about the other participants Appearance Past experience with similar individuals Social setting Information communicated by the other individual through their words or actions Contributions to understanding of stress: Cooley: an individual’s self-perception as a social object is dependent upon the reaction of others Thomas ○ Individuals will react to the same crisis differently  ○ Adjustment and control of a crisis depends upon an individual’s ability to assess a situation with respect to similar ones in the past, revise judgment, and act upon it based on past experience Goffman: the self is a sacred object and is more important than anything else because it represents who we are Social Stress: Influence on Health: - Three stressors - Negative life events (divorce, unemployment, death) - Chronic strains (poverty, overcrowding, alcoholism) - Traumas (violence, serious accident) - Chronic Stress impairs physical and mental health - Hypertension, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease - Affects immune functioning, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis - Factors that affect health: - How stressful a stressor is - Number of stressors experienced - Time frame in which stressors occur (more in a short period of time is more stressful than same amount in a long period of time) - Chronis strains have more impact on mental health than negative life events - People of color have stress from both low SES and discrimination Factors that Buffer stress: Sense of control over ones life High self-esteem Social support - Stress buffers are less likely to be found in individuals with backgrounds that produce greater stress (social class, racial/ethnicity, gender) Social Rank and Stress: Social rank is associated with the ability to handle stress ○ A higher position in the social hierarchy is associated with the ability to handle stress better and its physical effects ○ Association of SES status with health occurs at every level of the social hierarchy Childhood Toxic Stress: Frequent severe prolonged when raised in poverty Stress Proliferation: - Three forms - One stressor will lead to additional stressors (chain reaction) - Occur over the life course - Generational Cumulative disadvantage: impact of stress experienced in childhood accumulates over the life course Social Support/Social Networks: - Social support refers to types of support and assistance that people receive from others - Social networks are a source of support - Types of social support - Emotional - Instrumental - Informational - Appraisal - Types of Social Networks - Density (knowing and interacting with one another) - Homogeneity (demographically similar) - Geographic dispersion (close proximity) - Directionally (share equal power and influence) - Individuals with greater levels and higher quality of social support have better health outcomes - Individuals with stronger social support are more likely to live longer Other Factors and Health: - Religion - More religious individuals have greater physical and psychological health and die later in life - More likely to practice health promotion behavior - Neighborhood living conditions - Concentrated disadvantage - Stress due to crime, overcrowding, illegal drug use - Environmental hazards - Rural areas have health risks due to extreme poverty, low education, proximity to health centers and grocery stores, physician shortages - Unsafe work conditions - Interpersonal violence