soc chap 1,2,3

gender and social stress

-men experience traumatic physical injuries on the job and women more often experience chronic stress from holding jobs while raising children -women have a greater cumulative stress burden, and higher rates of disability

gender convergence

-mens and womens health risks are becoming more similar

race and social stress

-minorities have higher cumulative stress burdens and resulting ill health -minorities have a stress burden which includes the emotional burden of living with racism -racism and discrimination increase the odds that such individuals will be poor or live in bad neighborhoods with neglect and crime-factors that contribute to stress/illness

class and social stress

-poor people are more likely to hold jobs that combine high demand-bosses pressuring workers to produce more and faster-with low control-bosses who offer workers few choices -these working conditions result in dangerous levels of stress

qualitative data

-researchers may spend months conducting in depth interviews or observing a community -useful for helping us understand how people understand their lives, why people think/behave in specific ways, and how social interactions work

pandemic

worldwide epidemics ex)polio, aids

sociology in medicine

- sociologists design their research to questions about social life that doctors consider useful -reflecting doctors view of such patients as problematic, many sociologists have explored ways to encourage patients to comply with medical advice

why are men most likely to batter their wives

-because men believe that their power within the family is threatened, such as men who have less education than their wives -also men who have a high need for power and who support traditional gender roles

why are african americans with kidney disease more likely to die than whites with the disease?

-because of racism- the experience of discrimination is highly stressful and affects both physical and mental health -poverty causes african americans to be more likely to die of diabetes than white people-diabetes accounts for high rates of kidney disease

what are doctors decisions about intersex babies shaped by

-by doctor's cultural assumptions about gender -children were assigned boys if their penis's were too large and were assigned girls if their internal organs would allow them to give birth

social networks

-can help prevent illness -are the webs of social relationships that link people to each other, whether as friends, relatives -social networks offer people access to social support, financial help, health info and other forms of aid that can help them stay or become healthy -people with smaller social networks;weak ties to others in their networks; or networks that tie them to poor people, will be less able to avoid or recover from illness -networks also affect health by exposing individuals to specific social norms

health belief model

-compliance: an individuals willingness to follow medical advice -the model explains why healthy individuals adopt healthy behaviors -4 factors affect these decisions: that they are susceptible to a certain health problem, that the problem is serious, that adopting preventive measures will reduce their risks significantly, the no significant barriers make it difficult for them to adopt those measures

environmental racism

-corporate decisions to locate polluting industries in minority neighborhoods -the disproportionate burden of environmental pollution experienced by ethnic minorities -enviornmental racism is a consequence of everyday racism -racial discrimination keeps members of minority groups in segregated communities

critical sociologists

-focus on the sources, nature and consequences of power -sociology of medicine is a branch of critical sociology

social resources

-has she learned from a young age to turn to alcohol as a coping measure? -do her friends encourage her to drop out or try harder? -does she have money to hire a tutor? -the answers to these questions will affect whether this acute stress leads to chronic stress and in the end to ill health

sociology of medicine

-sociologists design their research to answer questions of interest to sociologists in general -look at issues of compliance through patients eyes -they have learned that patients sometimes ignore medical advice not out of foolishness, but because their doctors did not clearly explain the prescribed regimens or because the emotional or financial costs of following that advice seem to outweigh the benefits -study the experience of the patienthood -focuses on how power affects health, illness and health care

cumulative stress burden

-the sum of acute and chronic stresses that one has experienced -it is a powerful predictor of ill health

quantitative data

-understands social life by finding ways to turn observations into numbers and stats -useful in assessing how often something occurs in social life and how one thing may cause another -large samples

when is stress likely to affect health?

-when it stems from a "fateful loss", is physically exhausting, or disrupts social support systems

3 major meanings of stress

1. situations that make people feel anxious 2. emotions that result from exposure to stressful situations 3. bodily changes that occur in response to these situations and emotions

in 1900, life expectancy for US whites was what?

47 to 60 years

disease

a biological problem within an organism

epidemic

any significant increase in the numbers affected by a disease or to the first appearance of a new disease ex)bubonic plague, leprosy, small pox

the rate of tuberculosis increased dramatically during the 1980's. As a result, tuberculosis during those years should be referred to as?

epidemic

endemic

established within a population at a fairly stable level

currently, the most common causes of death in the US are from what?

heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, strokes, alzheimers, influenza and pneumonia

responses to stress and coping with stress depends on what

social resources that are available to the person

morbidity

symptoms, illnesses, and impairments

social drift theory

the idea that illness leads to poverty more often than poverty leads to illness -this is because as people become disabled, their ability to earn a living or find a job decline and they fall to a lower social status

epidemiological transition

the shift from a society characterized by infectious and parasitic diseases and low life expectancy to one characterized by degenerative and chronic diseases and high life expectancy

illness

the social experience and consequences of living with a disease

those who frame their research questions in terms of PUBLIC ISSUES, rather than PERSONAL TROUBLES, use what?

the sociological perspective- a view of the world that focuses on social patterns rather than on individual behaviors

before 1900, the most common causes of death in the US were?

tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and typhoid