Session 6: Belief systems and cultural influences on health and disease

Question 1

Define and discuss the concept of culture.

Answer 1

• Always takes place in a social context
• Defines what’s acceptable in a particular community
• Distinguishes humans from animals and is linked to
  symbols and language
• Shapes our behavior, closely linked to traditions,
  customs and beliefs
• Varies from community to community
• Learnt through socialization of transmission from one
  generation to the next
• Continuously changes
• A relative concept
• Viewed as normal by people practicing it and bizarre
  by others
• Cultures and subcultures can coexist in a society

Question 2

Discuss the relationship between culture and health.

Answer 2

• It influences whether one will consult an orthodox
  health worker or a traditional healer
• Different cultures experience pain, birth, and death in
  different ways and doctors should be aware of this

Question 3

Define the concept ethnicity/ethnic groups.

Answer 3

• All people from a specific geographic region
• A group speaking the same language and practicing
  the same religion
• A group of people that’s distinguished from others,
  has developed a subculture and has a shared feeling
  of peoplehood

Question 4

Discuss the difference between ethnicity and ethnocentrism.

Answer 4

• Ethnocentrism: the tendency to see your own culture
  as superior and judge other cultures by the standards
  of your own and measure against values of your own
• Ethnicity: a group of distinguished people, has
  developed their own subculture and share a feeling
  of peoplehood

Question 5

Name the 6 elements of culture and briefly discuss each.

Answer 5

1. Value
   - Idea shared by people in society about what’s wrong/right, good/bad, desirable/undesirable
2. Norms
   - Expectations of how people are suppose to act, think
   feel in specific situations; formal/informal
   *formal= laws
   *informal= behavior accepted by society
   - Folkways are less NB, like table manners
   - Mores: norms considered as sacred & their violation
   may lead to serious consequences
3. Sanctions
   - Formal/informal
   - Formal are applied by people in authority
   - Informal are applied by friends/peers
4. Symbols
   - Culture depends on people’s ability to create and use
   symbols
   - They include language, music, art
   - Used to express oneself
5. Material culture
   - Physical objects like books, tools, clothing
   - Material culture which has a religious meaning to one
   may have an ornamental meaning to another
6. Rituals
   - Have social, psychological and symbolic dimensions
   - Link the physiological and social stages of life

Question 6

Discuss the cultural factors that can influence the onset of disease.

Answer 6

1. Economic status
2. Gender roles
3. Family structure
4. Marriage patterns
5. Sexual behavior
6. Contraceptive patterns
7. Population policy
8. Pregnancy and childbirth practices
9. Child rearing practices
10. Body image alterations
11. Diet
12. Dress
13. Personal hygiene
14. Housing arrangements
15. Sanitation arrangements
16. Occupations
17. Religion
18. Funeral customs
19. Culturogenic stress
20. Migrant status
21. Use of chemical comforters
22. Leisure pursuits
23. Domestic animals and birds
24. Life-cycles
25. Authority patterns within the household
26. Pain and culture
27. Communication and culture
28. The meaning of color of medicine

Question 7

Discuss the practical and ethical implications that arise due to cultural and spiritual differences between doctors and patients.

Answer 7

• Physicians may experience tension when a patient’s
  decision about medical care is religiously
  unacceptable to themselves
• Lack of awareness of this conflict can lead to ethical
  dilemmas

Question 8

Discuss how gender, seniority, age and social status can impact on interpersonal interaction

Answer 8

• Division of labor between sexes
• Social rights, obligations and expectations associated
  w/ the two gender roles
• Cultural beliefs about behaviors appropriate for each
  gender
• Threshold for consultation w/ a doctor
• Degree of “medicalization” of the female life-cycle

Question 9

Discuss how social status can impact on interpersonal interaction.

Answer 9

• Whether wealth is evenly distributed throughout the society
• Whether a group is poor/wealthy relative to other members of society
• Whether income is sufficient for adequate housing, nutrition & clothing
• Cultural values associated w/ wealth, poverty,
  employment & unemployment
• Whether the basic economic unit is the individual, family or a larger collective

Question 10

Discuss how social status can impact on interpersonal interaction.

Answer 10

• Whether wealth is evenly distributed throughout the society
• Whether a group is poor/wealthy relative to other members of society
• Whether income is sufficient for adequate housing, nutrition & clothing
• Cultural values associated w/ wealth, poverty,
  employment & unemployment
• Whether the basic economic unit is the individual,
  family or a larger collective