UNIT III:

Culture and Health

Behavior/Socialization
Presented by:
Muhammad Younus
Nursing Lecturer
Horizon Institute of Health Sciences
Objectives
At the end of this unit learners will be able to:
•Explain the effects of culture on illness,
cultural shock, and mal-adjustment.
•Discuss the Cultural variations in Sickness, Birth
and Death perspective.
•Review the concept of Compliance in
different cultures.
•Describe the Food taboos in different cultures.
•Define Behavior in-groups of status, deviance,
alienation, and socialization.
 Culture And Health
•Culture is a pattern of ideas, customs and
behaviors shared by a particular people or
society.
•Culture constantly evolves.
•The speed of cultural evolution varies. It
increases when a group migrates to and
incorporates components of a new culture into
their culture of origin.
Culture And Health
•Children often struggles ‘between
cultures’– balancing the ‘old’ and the
‘new’.
• They essentially belong to
both, whereas their parents often
belong predominantly
to the ‘old’culture.
 CULTURE
Visible and Hidden
The influence of culture on health is vast. It
affects perceptions of:
•Health
•Illness
•Birth
•Death
•Beliefs about causes of disease
•Approaches to health promotion
•How illness is experienced and expressed
•Where patients seek help
•Types of treatment patients prefer
• To analyze, it is important to see
whether patient is primarily ‘collectivist’
or ‘individualist’.
•Knowing the difference can help health
professionals with diagnosis and with
modifying a treatment plan
accordingly.
Cultural shock
•Cultural shock is an experience a person
may have when moves to a cultural
environment which is different from one's
own.
•It is also a personal disorientation a person
may feel when experiencing an unfamiliar
way of life due to immigration or a visit to
a new country.
• A move between social environments,
or simply transition to another type of
life.
•Cultural shock can be described in four
distinct phases:
•Honeymoon
•Negotiation
•Adjustment
•Adaptation
Transition shock
Culture shock is a subcategory of a more
universal construct called transition
shock.
Transition shock" refers to the
disorientation, anxiety, and stress that
individuals may experience when they
undergo a significant change or move
from one environment, culture, or
situation to another.
 There are many symptoms of transition shock,
including:
•
Anger
•
Boredom
•
Compulsive eating/drinking
•
Desire for home and old friends
•
Excessive sleep
•
Feelings of helplessness
and withdrawal
Continued…

• Getting "stuck" on one thing

• Glazed stare
• Irritability
• Mood swings
• Stress reactions
• Stereotyping host nationals
• Suicidal thoughts
• Withdrawal
 Phases of Cultural Shock
Honeymoon
•During this period, the differences between
the old and new culture are seen in a dreamy
light.
•For example, in moving to a new country,
an individual might love the new food, the
pace of life, and the local’s habits.
•During the first few weeks, most people are
fascinated by the new culture.
Negotiation
•After some time (usually around three months,
depending on the individual), differences
between the old and new culture become
apparent and may create anxiety.
•Excitement may eventually give way to
unpleasant feelings of frustration and
anger.
• Person experience
it as unfavorable
events
that may be perceived as
strange and offensive to
one's cultural attitude.
Adjustment
•Again, after some time (usually 6 to 12
months), one grows accustomed to the new
culture and develops routines.
•One knows what to expect in most
situations and the host
country no longer feels
all that new.
Adaptation
•In the mastery stage individuals are able to
participate fully and comfortably in the
host culture.
•Mastery does not mean total conversion;
people often keep many traits from their
earlier culture, such as accents and
languages.
•It is often referred to as
the bicultural stage.
Reverse culture shock
•Reverse culture shock (also known as "re-entry
shock" or "own culture shock") may take place —
returning to one's home culture after growing
habitual to a new one can produce the same
effects.
•The affected person often finds this
more surprising and difficult
to deal with than the
original culture shock.
 •Reverse culture shock is
generally made up of two parts:
idealization and expectations.

•When an extended period of

time is spent abroad person
focuses on the good from our
past, cut out the bad, and create
an idealized version of the past.
• The realization that life back home is now different.

• Expectations refer to the assumptions and

anticipations individuals have about what
returning home will be like.
These expectations may be influenced by
memories of their home culture before leaving,
which may not align with the current reality.
M al-a djustment
•Refer the "inability to react
successfully and satisfactorily to
the demand of one's
environment".

•Mal adjustment affects an

individual's ability to maintain a
positive interpersonal
relationship with others.
Factors of Mal-adjustment
The causes of maladjustment can be: Family
environment, personal factors, and school-
related factors.
Family causes
•Children who possess a low socioeconomic
status.
•Parents who are abusive and
highly authoritative
Personal causes
•Children with physical, emotional or
mental problems.
•Child experience difficult time keeping up
socially when compared to their peers.
•This can cause a child to experience
feeling of isolation and limits interaction.
School related causes
•Children who are victimized by their peers
at school are more at risk of being
maladjusted.
•They become prone to anxiety and feelings
of insecurity.
•Teachers who display unfair and biased
attitudes towards children cause difficulties
in their adjustment.
Cultural variations
Pain and Analgesia
•The expression of pain and the health-
seeking behavior centered from culture to
culture.
•For example, in some cultures it is
considered honorable and desirable to
tolerate pain, while same behavior
expectations are not shared by other
cultures.
Birth and Early Infancy
•Different cultural groups may have specific
norms regarding
•Isolation of postpartum mothers.
•The care of the umbilicus
•Early feedings
•Co-sleeping
•Circumcision.
•Newborns and babies centers on covering
their heads, even if in tropical climates.
Death and Dying
•Death rituals are often shaped by culture.
•In dying or severely ill patients, the patient
and family member ’s expression of grief,
•The use and acceptance of hospice care,
•The termination of life support systems,
•The integrity of the body and burial,
•Other end-of-life rituals.
Concept of Compliance
•The act or process of doing what you have
been asked or ordered to do: the act or
process of complying.
•In moralizing, religions encourage people
to anticipate supernatural punishments and
rewards.
• Belief that an individual's ultimate
punishment is being sent by God, the
highest authority or believe of Karma.
•In many religious cultures, including
Christianity and Islam, Hell is traditionally
depicted as fiery and painful, imposing
guilt and suffering.
Food Taboos in Different Cultures
•Some people do not eat various specific
foods and beverages in various religious,
cultural, legal or other societal prohibitions.
•Many of these prohibitions constitute taboos.
•Many food taboos and other prohibitions
forbid the meat of a particular animal,
including mammals, rodents, reptiles,
amphibians, fish, molluscs, crustaceans
and insects.
•Which may relate to a disgust response being
more often associated with meats than plant-
based foods.
• Some prohibitions are specific to a
particular part or excretion of an animal,
while others forgo the consumption of
plants or fungi.
•Some food prohibitions can be defined as
rules
•Some foods may be prohibited during
certain stages of life (e.g., pregnancy).
•Food taboos usually seem to be intended to
protect the human individual from harm,
spiritually or physically, but there are
numerous other reasons given within
cultures for their existence.
• Judaism prescribes a strict set of rules,

called Kashrut, regarding what may and

may not be eaten, and notably forbidding
the mixing of meat with dairy products.
•Islam has similar laws, dividing foods
into haram (forbidden)
and halal (permitted).
• Most Hindus do not eat beef,
and some Hindus apply the
concept
of ahimsa (non-violence) to their diet and
consider vegetarianism as ideal, and
practice forms of vegetarianism.
•In some cases, the process of preparation
rather than the food itself comes under
scrutiny. For instance, in early medieval
Christianity, certain uncooked foods
were of dubious status
• Switzerland where rural consumption
of cat and dog meat is traditional
•Likewise, horse meat is rarely eaten in
the English-speaking world, although it is
part of the national cuisine of countries as
widespread as Kazakhstan, Japan, Italy,
and France.
 Behavior in-groups of status

STATUS:
•There is a status ranking in social settings and
in business settings.
•These statuses ultimately stratify the world and
break it down into levels based on the setting (social
or business).
•All these levels and layers of status can lead
to inequality.
Scena rio
•The boss walks out of his office and everyone
in the room tenses up. This group of employees
feels nervous or stressed because the boss can
impact their lives due to his status. His status in
this group of employees impacts how these
individuals perform and work with him.
•In the same scenario boss go in a meeting with
higher executives in the corporate office, thus
his status is lessened in this group.
• When he was in his office (the first group) he was
at the top of the hierarchy, and now at the corporate
office (the second group), he is lower in status.
• This story is an example of the status
characteristics theory, which states that
differences in social status create hierarchies within
groups.
Deviance
•Deviance describes an action or behavior
that violates social norms.
•The violation of norms can be categorized as
two forms, formal deviance and informal
deviance.
•Formal deviance is taken as crime, which
violates laws in a society.
•Informal deviance are minor violations that break
unwritten rules of social life and rejecting
folkways
Example of formal deviance include robbery,
theft, rape, murder, and assault.
Whereas standing unnecessarily close to another
person in a queue is an example of Informal
deviance.
Aliena tion
•Social alienation is when individual or groups
feels disconnected from the values, norms,
practices, and social relations of their
community or society.
•For example: Discovering that a person who
served as a role model has serious flaws, death
in the family.
•Some sociologists observe that individuals
become alienated when they perceive
government, employment, or educational
institutions as irresponsible and unresponsive to
their need.
 SOCIALIZATION
•Socialization is the process of internalizing the
norms and ideologies of society.
•Socialization essentially represents the whole
process of learning throughout the life and is a
central influence on the behavior, beliefs, and
actions.
•Individual views are influenced by the
society's consensus and usually tend toward what
that society finds acceptable or "normal".
Primary socialization
•Primary Socialization occurs when a child
learns the attitudes, values, and actions
appropriate to individual as member of a
particular culture.
• It sets the groundwork for all future
socialization.
Secondary socialization
•The process of learning what is the appropriate
behavior as a member of a smaller group within
the larger society.
•Secondary socialization takes place outside
the home.
•Where children and adults learn how to act in a
way that is appropriate for society.
•For example Schools require very different
behavior from the home, and children must
act according to new rules.
•Relocating to a new job.
Resocialization
•Process of discarding former behavior patterns
accepting new ones as part of a transition in
one's life.
•For example experience of a woman after death
of her husband.
Anticipatory socialization
•When people are blocked from access to a group
they might have wanted to join, they reject that
group's values and norms, and instead begin the
anticipatory socialization process with groups that
are more receptive to them.
•Law school students learning how to behave like
lawyers, older people preparing for retirement, boys
getting ready to become missionaries/preachers.
References
• Horton, P. B., & Hunt. C. L. (2004). Sociology.
(6th ed.). New
York: McGraw- Hill.
• Hughes, M. (2016). Sociology the core. (12th
ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGfIdDK0nJw