Week 8- social stressors on health

Macrosocial influences

Large-scale social, economic, political, and cultural forces that influence the life course of people simultaneously

Dominant public health policy assumes individuals are responsible for their own health

Poverty, socioeconomic status, Social capital

Social capital

social relationships as resources. Those with greater social capital have more positive health outcomes

Gender differences lifespan

men die earlier but women have poorer health, in less developed countries men live longer

Gender differences illness

women suffer more non-fatal illness and hospitalised more women have twice the rate of depression, men have higher rates of injury, suicides, homicides

Gender differences - Lifestyle differences for women

birth, rape, DV, sexism

gender differences - stereotypes

men more likely to adopt risky behaviours, women more likely to engage in health protective behaviours

Gender differences - neurosexism

differences in male and females from brain development, sex hormones, corpus callosum larger in females

Racial differences - racism

discrimination in health care system, racial stress creates poor health (blood pressure, chronic inflammation)

Racial differences - ethnocentrism

ignore cultural, lifestyle and language differences

Racial differences- SES

live in unhealthy environments due to lower SES

Racial differences - genetics

epigenetics changes for stress response, sickle-cell disorder affecting African Caribbean

Stigma

Unfavourable reactions towards people when they are perceived to possess attributes that are undesirable. Creates stress and unemployment, Stereotype threat and environmental cues

Stereotype threat

Fear of conforming to negative stereotypes about group. Creates heightened cardiovascular reactivity, anxiety

Environmental cues

Stereotypes made salient by environment, eg hyper masculine environments

Other sources of stress

Daily hassles, burnout, self control failure, biopsychosocial model of threat

Biopsychosocial model of threat

When situation is viewed as a challenge, tends to result in bodily responses

• challenge response = responding well to stress

• Threat response = responding poorly to stress