Question

This is based on Health Psychology:

1. What are the components of a good definition of culture?

2. What aspects of life are influenced by culture? How is culture transferred?

3. What factors can influence responses to the "Who am I" test?

4. Why are cultural differences important in the context of health?

Answer 1

1) Cultures include several features like:

• survival
• education.
• movement and transport.
• communication.
• economy.
• technology and innovation.
• social structure.
• languages.
• tradition and culture.
• arts, practices, social norms and occupations in life.
• clothing and hobby with learning practices in life.

2) The aspects of life that are influenced by culture include :

• attitude.
• belief.
• behavior
• values in life with morality.

Culture is transferred when a person migrates to some other country for learning, education, business or job opportunities in life.It involves the transfer of knowledge and community of people from one place to another. This term was coined by Michele Espagne in the 1980's.

3)"Who am I" is a self-concept in society. It reveals the inner consciousness of a person with the perception of inner feelings and sensation of a person in a society. It reveals the inner identity, education, knowledge and motivation of a person which helps in his development in life.It includes the self-defining principles of a person in life. It includes three stages of life:

• Material self.
• social self.
• spiritual self of a person in life.

4) Cultural differences include the analysis of the health concerns of the patients with counseling and rehabilitation of these people in society. They are important as they provide awareness to people living in various regions of the society with impartation of the importance of health and its benefits. The people should be aware of the consequences of the different diseases prevalent in the society. African-American are prone to illness in their old age as revealed in the statisitical study with 77% getting affected in their old age in their life. The linguistic and cultural barriers among people belonging to different ethnic backgrounds and races makes it difficult for people to interact and get their diseases diagnosed. It becomes difficult for them to interact and define the problems which are affecting their health and mental balance in life.