Acquiring the Tools to Study Health Systems Flashcards
(41 cards)
Reductionism
When anything in the natural world or society is studied by examining its individual parts.
System
An entity that maintains its existence through the mutual interaction of its parts. A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent components that form a complex and unified whole. Defined as an organized collection of parts (or subsystems) that are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goal (works together as a whole, not individually).
Complex Systems’ Characteristics
1) Are self-stabilizing.
2) Are purposeful.
3) Capable of using feedback to modify their behaviour.
4) Can modify their environments.
5) Capable of replicating, maintaining, repairing, and organizing themselves.
Systems Thinking
Looks at the whole system rather than its individual parts (the philosophy that everything is connected). Assumes interconnectedness of the many parts of the system. Considers how change in one part may impact other parts. Allows us to see the complexity of health and illness and health care. Goes against the reductionist approach.
System Trap
A way of thinking that is inappropriate for the context or issue being explored.
Laws of Systems Thinking
1) Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.
2) The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
3) The easy way out usually leads back in.
4) Faster is slower.
Asystemic Thinking
The inability to think about complex systems and their dynamics.
Deforestation
A public health concern (animals are pushed closer to human society and result in more diseases and pathogens).
WHO Definition of Health
A state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
Health
Being oblivious to one’s body (not having to worry about your body, ex. not feeling light headed, sore, tired, and etc.), feeling good, and not being sick. Physical, mental, and social wellbeing. Is socially constructed (there are cultural, social, and historical variations in how we define and understand health and illness).
Disease
A condition that was diagnosed by a licensed healthcare professional ex. physician. Symptoms that can be assigned a medical diagnosis.
Illness
Our subjective experience of feeling unwell. Not formally diagnosed.
Sickness
A combination of having a disease and feeling ill.
Wellness
A more encompassing term than health, actions the individual takes to feel well.
Sociology
A study of society. It seeks to understand how societies function and to identify patterns and underlying mechanisms of the social worlds in which people live.
Individual Agency
Our decisions on how we act (things we can do/control by ourselves).
Social Structures
Stable patterns of social relations ex. families (who works and who stays at home, different from family to family), governments (how it is organized, changes from country to country) and economy (the value and system of money).
Sociological Imagination
The ability to see the linkages between personal troubles and larger social issues.
Tools for Analyzing Health Systems
1) Structural Functionalism
2) Conflict/Critical Perspectives
3) Symbolic Interactionism
4) Systems Thinking
Theoretical Paradigm
A conceptual framework or school of thought in which interrelated ideas and concepts about an aspect of reality are formulated ex. if you hold something up high and release it, it will fall.
Types of Theories
1) Micro
2) Meso
3) Macro
Micro Theories
Focuses on the social interactions between individuals or groups.
Meso Theories
Focuses on social institutions and social organizations ex. studying how things are organized in a hospital (ex. how can the hospital system be organized to reduce wait times) or university (ex. how the university communicates with students).
Macro Theories
Focused on trying to understand the big picture, usually done by comparing classes and social institutions.
