5.How does social status affect health?

There is a mountain of evidence that social status, whether measured by income, wealth, esteem, occupational prestige, or education, is closely associated with nearly all measures of health and well being. In your readings and lectures for this week, there were several different explanations for why and how social status affects health. 

– House argued that social class shapes access to resources that can enable better health such as money and better neighborhoods

– Marmot argued that esteem from being in a higher job category can lead to better health even when pay and benefits are similar. Marmot argues that higher status brings along with it greater feelings of confidence and self actualization that enable people to live healthier lives.

– Link argued that esteem brings better health mostly when it is accompanied by material rewards, implying that is is the rewards, more than the status, that generates advantages in health. 

– Christakis argued that health can spread through social networks, implying that well off people with better health can maintain health advantages by cutting less advantaged, less healthy people out of their social networks — or that people can generally maintain better health by more closely associating with other healthy individuals. 

Prompt:

Which one of these arguments do you find most convincing, and why? Support your argument with references to the readings, lecture, or your own experience/observations. 

6.Why do people smoke?

Why do people smoke?

If I were to ask you just as lay people, why do people smoke? Or why don’t they smoke? What would you say?

Provide a list of reasons

Which of the different theoretical perspectives on health behavior that we covered in class and in readings best fit your list of reasons?

Be sure to briefly summarize the theory you are discussing in your answer. 

Peers:

Merna FahmyThursdayAug 11 at 6:11pmManage Discussion EntryWhich one of these arguments do you find most convincing, and why? Support your argument with references to the readings, lecture, or your own experience/observations. Personally, I’m more convinced with Bruce Link’s argument of social status and class brining one more rewards which is what ends up prolonging one’s life and improving their health status. Although Dr. Hannah stated in his lecture that Link’s hypothesis was tested through three different experiments and each one claimed a different response that did not align with Link’s belief, it was also explained that the other arguments by Christakis, Marmot, and House were not fully proven to be correct based on real experiments. I believe arguments like those can’t fully be proven and come to a direct final answer to whether they’re true or not because it all varies based on situation to situation. For example, being a president or vice president yes holds extremely high social class, but also comes with a very heavy load of stress as they’re the only people that can control the whole country they’re in charge of. It’s almost as if all the rewards they receive would be pointless to them and have no value in their eyes because of the amount of responsibility and work load they have on a daily basis. However, working somewhere in the middle like the typical middle to high class individuals would result in some gain of rewards that would be valued in the person’s eyes since they’re more of in the middle to high end, but not the top of the top like a president. In that case, the middle to high class person would work normal hours at a prestigious place that respects and compensates them for their skills like nurses, engineers, and computer science technicians. Their job provides them with that high social status and the rewards and money that come with being part of that job’s team. Like most people, rewards like money could be used to treat yourself to fancy dinners, travel, luxury treatments like lip fillers for example that could enhance your confidence, larger more modern homes and cars which automatically give you some sort of happiness and comfort. Some of these rewards could vary around the spectrum and could be very small such as a Starbucks drink that refreshes you throughout your work day or buying a luxury home that boosts your lifestyle. All these rewards are continuously coming to the individual, but their social status and job allows them to have some flexibility to work hard and still have benefits and some fun, whereas a president has high stress levels majority of the time and could not seek assistance from anyone else as everyone else is below his position. I believe that House and link have very close ideas, but I sided more with Link because I believe that those rewards are the reason to better health and the little booster that individuals gain to improve their health status from what they gain in being at higher social class. House is also correct and convincing, but at the end of the day money is basically the reward that is used up to help with your health.Random ThoughtWhat makes your health better whether it be mentally, physically, or emotionally ? Do you think the reasons to why your health is better could be because of rewards that others may not have access to due to their social class ?pls reply thx, 

Kendra NguyenSaturdayAug 13 at 5:06pmManage Discussion EntryPeople turn to smoking for many reasons. The first reason is due to the social influence and pressure by peers and family members. Peers and family members can act as both a risk and protective factor (Nichter 141). As a risk factor, peers and family members can collectively form a structural environment where smoking is encouraged to pass leisure time, relax, build social connections, and/or cope with daily life. This environment that permits smoking can increase one’s agency, or personal choice, to adopt smoking. The second reason can be the family history of smoking. If a child grows up in an environment with family members or neighbors constantly smoking, the smoking behavior can be perceived as normal and acceptable. The third reason is nicotine addiction. Nicotine is an addictive stimulant that can encourage smoking uptake. If an environment does not limit one’s agency to continue smoking (i.e laws or regulations to not smoke), then people will have no reasons to stop smoking. A fourth reason is that the tobacco industry advertises smoking as an aesthetic art, which can encourage young adults and adults to adopt this behavior to resemble the models or to fit into their structured environment. However, there are also plenty of reasons why people choose to not smoke. One reason that I follow is that smoking induces health complications, such as lung cancer and premature aging. A family history of health issues, like diabetes, can also deter people from smoking or ingesting carcinogens. A second reason is that people within a specific culture have stigmatized smoking and smokers. In this way, peers and familial members can act as a protective factor against smoking (Nichter 141). A third reason is that a person may identify as healthy, so smoking is not a part of their identity. I know that people hold pride in characteristics that they identify with. I take pride in following a healthy lifestyle, so I will undoubtedly avoid smoking. A fourth reason is that buying tobacco products is expensive in the long run. A fifth reason is that smoking pollutes the environment, especially the air. My list of reasons for why people choose to smoke or not smoke fits well with the Health Lifestyle Theory. Cockerham’s theory proposes that a person’s lifestyle is dependent on the relationship between agency and structure (51). Social structures influence the actions and thinking process of individuals for behaviors, like smoking (Cockerham 64). As listed above, a person’s social environment via their family, peers, or advertising campaigns can structurally predispose them to adopt smoking behaviors if they are socially accepted. Youths find ways to adapt to society by molding their identity around culturally accepted norms (Nichter 142).  A person’s level of agency, or ability to make decisions, is heavily impacted by these social structures and norms. Someone can make the individual decision to smoke as a method of coping or relaxing. Likewise, someone can choose to not smoke for health reasons or self-identity reasons. The tobacco industry plays a significant role in structuring the environment for youth to explore self-expression and experimentation. I wonder how much capitalism has played a role in making the tobacco industry so effective in promoting smoking despite the proven health issues. and reply this one.