...Summary The common-sense model of self-regulation of health and illness was developed in the 1980s by Howard Leventhal and his colleagues (Diefenbach & Leventhal, 1996). It was based on Leventhal’s research from the prior decade that studied the effect of fear in relation to health related behaviors. The theory has various titles such as the, Self Regulation Theory, Common Sense Model of Illness Representation or Leventhal’s Theory (Hale et al, 2007). For ease of communication it will be referred to as the Common Sense Model (CSM). It’s primary goal and function is to explain how a person processes an illness threat. The CSM is centered on the individual and his or her idea of health and illness. It works under the premise that the individual is “an active problem solver.” CSM also theories an individual’s representation of the illness will be the primary cause of their actions and behavior and the process of illness representation will lead the individual to make common sense health behaviors. (Diefenbach & Leventhal, 1996). Self-regulation is the processing of information by a patient regarding their health and the actions that an individual takes to return to a normal state of health. A stimuli such as a symptom of an illness or a diagnosis starts a three-phase feedback cycle of self-regulation. First, the individual constructs a cognitive “representation” of the illness. Secondly, the individual acts and “copes” with the illness. In the third stage, the...
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...The common-sense model of self-regulation of health and illness was developed in the 1980s by Howard Leventhal and his colleagues (Diefenbach & Leventhal, 1996). It was based on Leventhal’s research from the prior decade that studied the effect of fear in relation to health related behaviors. The theory has various titles such as the, Self Regulation Theory, Common Sense Model of Illness Representation or Leventhal’s Theory (Hale et al, 2007). For ease of communication it will be referred to as the Common Sense Model (CSM). It’s primary goal and function is to explain how a person processes an illness threat. The CSM is centered on the individual and his or her idea of health and illness. It works under the premise that the individual is “an active problem solver.” CSM also theories an individual’s representation of the illness will be the primary cause of their actions and behavior and the process of illness representation will lead the individual to make common sense health behaviors. (Diefenbach & Leventhal, 1996). Self-regulation is the processing of information by a patient regarding their health and the actions that an individual takes to return to a normal state of health. A stimuli such as a symptom of an illness or a diagnosis starts a three-phase feedback cycle of self-regulation. First, the individual constructs a cognitive “representation” of the illness. Secondly, the individual acts and “copes” with the illness. In the third stage, the individual...
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...primary research article. (1 paragraph) | The theory of self-regulation is the theoretical base and method in the research study to examine the use of emotion regulation and goal-directed behavior in an attempt to improve sleep behaviors. Self-regulation is the process in which a person has perceived illness cognition, a patient’s own implicit common sense beliefs about their illness. There are five cognitive dimensions of these beliefs: identity; perceived cause of illness; time line; consequences; curability and controllability (Fowler, Kirschner, Kuiken, & Baas., 2007, p. 223). This process occurs over three stages of interpretation, coping, and appraisal (Fowler et al., 2007). In the research study, “Using Mental Imagery to Deliver Self-Regulation Techniques to Improve Sleep Behaviors,” the efficacy of behavioral interventions were geared toward improving the sleep behavior for working adults with the use of mental imagery undertakings that were designed with the theory of self-regulation principles. More specifically, the main attitude is where the patient focuses their thoughts, emotions, and behavior in order to achieve their desired outcome, a sort of homeostasis, if you will. The use of imagery and implementation intention imagery are used in order to reduce arousal while preparing for sleep. The objectives of this study are to increase positive effects on sleep self-efficacy, sleep-related behavior and planning, to include positive behaviors...
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...Theories of Biomedicine Sociology is the study of human interaction and organisation of society; it is often areas which are problematized in need of provision. It can be explained that health and illness are simply biological descriptions of the state of our bodies. The structures of the body have been mapped out through genetics. This is ever closer inspection of the body or as Foucault 1977 would suggest through this ‘medical gaze’ which has brought considerable power to the medical profession. The sociology of health and illness is concerned with the social origins of and influence on disease rather than exploring its organic manifestation in individual bodies. The sociology of medicine is concerned with exploring the social, historical and cultural reasons for the rise of medicine particularly the bio-medicine model in the definition and treatment of illness. A more refined version of this common sense view underlies the long standing bio-medical model of disease based on the following assumptions. Firstly that disease is an organic condition and non-organic factors associated with the human mind are considered unimportant or are ignored altogether in the search for biological causes of pathological symptoms. Secondly that disease is a temporarily an organic state that can be eradicated and cured by medical intervention. Disease is experienced by a sick individual who then becomes the object of treatment. Disease is therefore treated after the symptoms appear and...
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...Hiral Dalal English 1A Professor Worthington July 24, 2013 No to Guns! Ever heard of this popular saying, “Guns don’t kill people! People kill people”! This is the number one excuse that is heard from people that are pro- guns. Well yes, people do kill people but they use their guns to do so. As a matter of fact, “Guns do kill people”! It’s as simple as that! Guns and gun possession is a major concern and issue that the United States has been facing for many years. Both the government and its citizens have had mixed opinions on this conflict for awhile and with the tragic events that have hit this nation recently, it has left people more concerned then ever. Is it really necessary for anyone who wants to be able to possess firearms to have it? Should it really be as easy at is as of now, to get access to guns? With all the possibilities of accidents happening, gun control is very much needed. This nation needs a better gun control system and the idea of possibly banning all these assault weapons in the future. Let’s go back to the beginning where it all started. When the Constitution was written this world was not as advanced in technology as it is today. Compare today’s handguns, multi-chambered, rapid- fire assault rifles, and shotguns to the long single shot “musket” that was used during the Revolutionary War; there is a big difference. The Second Amendment was written in 1789, more than two centuries ago. However, if the Amendment were to be interpreted today it would...
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...INTRODUCTION The focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. Socially constructed reality is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. Social phenomena include all behavior which influences or is influenced by organisms sufficiently alive to respond to one another. Behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. Behavior can be conscious or unconscious. Social constructionism can be seen as a source of the postmodern movement, and has been influential in the field of cultural studies. Some have gone so far as to attribute the rise of cultural studies (the cultural turn) to social constructionism. Berger (1966) is perhaps best known for his view that social reality is a form of consciousness. Central to Berger's work is the relationship between society and the individual. In his book The Social Construction of Reality Berger develops a sociological theory: 'Society as Objective Reality and as Subjective Reality'. His analysis of society as subjective reality describes the process by which an individual's conception of reality is produced by his or her interaction with social structures. He writes about how new human...
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...COMMUNITY AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY | ASSIGNMENT 1 | | | TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Outline of community psychology and public health approaches. 2 2. Similarities and strengths of (CP) and (PH) 3 3. Differences and weaknesses of (CP) and (PH) 4 4. Conclusions 4 Critically compare and contrast the Community Psychology and Public Health approaches to social problems. OUTLINE OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH The identification of the limitations of mainstream, curative individual therapy (Seedat, Cloete & Shochet, 2002: p. 221) and recognising the need for further community development, social policy and planning; many South African psychologists just as the Americans did in 1960 turned to Community Psychology (CP) during the eighties, to help relieve the sense of powerlessness and anxiety experienced during the political upheaval (Tutorial Letter 102, 2009: p. 5). CP was acknowledged as a separate discipline in 1965 in Swampscott Massachusetts, with its initial focus on social and cultural influences on mental health. It has since then expanded to explore ecological issues that go beyond the individual level. CP investigates the importance of diversity, questions one-dimensional measures of health and validates psychologists as instruments for social change (http://www.answers.com/topic/community-psychology). CP has four models, of which only two, namely Mental Health and Social Action will be of concern in this essay...
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...clarke@hantspt-sw.nhs.uk Website: www.isabelclarke.org Abstract When mental health breaks down, the human being grasps at ways of coping with the crisis. The goal of coping is escape from intolerable affect and the means are familiar as 'symptoms' of mental illness. For example, to shut down physically and cease to compete is depression (Gilbert 1992), and drugs and alcohol provide a straightforward way out. As psychological therapists, our task is to devise, evaluate and, most importantly, persuade the client to adopt alternative, healthier, ways of coping; ways that offer less immediate relief, but which do not trap the person in a diminished quality of life. By explaining breakdown in terms of coping with intolerable affect, this approach, developed and evaluated in an acute hospital setting (Durrant, Clarke & Wilson 2007), enables us to offer more adapted skills for coping with affect as the solution. This 'third wave Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)' approach (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) takes seriously the discontinuities in human information processing (Teasdale & Barnard 1993) and employs mindfulness to manage them. The coping mechanisms considered are: • Mindfulness • Arousal management techniques • Emotion Regulation skills (Linehan 1993a & b) • Skills for coping with relationships with self and others, including a compassionate mind based approach to self esteem. • Coping with psychosis. Many of these techniques are already...
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...The development of a national system of health care in the United States has remained a major topic of debate throughout the United States, especially since the 1980s. Healthcare costs in the United States have risen dramatically during the past 40 years, due in part to longer average life spans, which give rise to greater costs because older citizens require greater care, and the employment of technologies that extend the life of patients, which generally results in greater spending. Insurance costs have likewise increased dramatically, and a relatively large percentage of U.S. citizens and other residents are uninsured or underinsured. According to information from the census bureau in 2001, 41.2 million Americans, constituting 14.2 percent of the population, did not have Health Insurance. The healthcare system is largely controlled by the free market, which is believed to provide limitations on how much physicians and other specialists can charge to their patients. However, many critics of the current system, including organizations composed of physicians, note that the system has become largely bureaucratic and that cost-cutting measures and pressures caused by competition and the need for profit have reduced the effectiveness of medical practice. Despite these problems, many commentators have not been able to agree as to the proper level of control that state or federal governments should have over health care. Following World War II, the number of Americans that had...
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...IS ABNORMAL? * It is behavior, specifically persistent behavior associated with cognitive, emotional, or perceptual distortions that are not socially acceptable, and are potentially dangerous. Many behaviors fit the criteria, but are not considered abnormal. Astronauts for example are not considered to be psychologically abnormal despite engaging in dangerous and persistently deviant behaviors. Legal insanity is different from a clinical diagnosis, although a clinical diagnosis will determine whether or not a person can be judged insane by a court. To define behavior as abnormal, it must meet the following standards. 1. Distressful – It is upsetting for self and others. 2. Dysfunctional – It is maladaptive, inhibits personal goals or ability to function on own. 3. Dangerous – Potentially to self or others. 4. Deviant – Is not tolerated by cultural norms and/or is statistically odd, keeping in mind context of behavior. (Religious practice gets a pass.) 5. *Duration – Behaviors, Affects and/or Cognitions are persistent regardless of circumstance over time. 6. *Detachment – Person holds beliefs or acts in ways that do not correspond to reality. (Religious practice gets a pass.) TYPES OF RESEARCH- One and two apply only to the social sciences, whereas three, four and five apply to both natural and social sciences, with exception to history, which relies solely on case studies and archaeological based observations. In this case though, I’m only talking...
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...result, the bridge becomes weaker and is more likely to undermine the overall success of the business. This process encompasses the following key steps such as articulating the company's long and short-term business strategies and making sure they are aligned with current compensation approaches; choosing the compensation approach that will best reward and reinforce the company's articulated strategic goals; and periodically evaluating the compensation approach against the business strategy to see if goals have been met and make necessary adjustments. To align compensation with the business strategy, a company must first be able to articulate what that business strategy is. While identifying and articulating the business strategy seems self evident, many companies have lost sight of their strategy or find that a strategy is in place but not explicitly recognized or communicated. And in this era of constant change, companies can't assume that they are pursuing their official business strategy. In other words, a company whose business strategy is obsolete may have adopted a more relevant strategy without taking the time to explicitly...
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...Health and Wellness in Native North America It is true that many of the old ways have been lost. But just as the rains restore the earth after a drought, so the power of the Great Mystery will restore the way and give it new life. We ask that this happen not just for the Red People, but for all people, that they all might live. Black Elk, Oglala, Sioux Contemporary health status of American Indians can be best viewed through the lens of various federal policies enacted over the past 500 years. These policies were developed largely in response to dramatic population losses among the indigenous peoples of America, resulting from genocidal actions of military campaigns, the lack of immunity to the diseases that accompanied European colonizers, and the assimilation efforts that destroyed tribal structures and wellness practices. Medical services were first coordinated through army physicians in the Department of War in an effort to control the spread of diseases from early reservation sites placed on or near military forts. By the twentieth century, the rapid decline of the Indigenous population, documented by the “Meriam Report” of 19281 prompted new assimilation efforts to save the first Americans. Healthcare services were re-coordinated within the Bureau of Indian Affairs and then into the Public Health Service, finally resting within the Federal Indian Health Service (IHS). Assimilation policies, however, proved to be highly destructive resulting in the...
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...Rachel Nuwer, writer for the Smithsonian, quotes in her article,““The teen brain isn’t broken,” Jay Giedd, a child psychiatry researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, told NPR. Instead, he calls this transitional period “a time of enormous opportunity””. Teenagers are not developing Anorexia because there is a misconnection in their brain, it is due to the impression left from social media sites of what an admirable body type looks like. Consequently, when teenagers log into their Tumblr, Instagram, or Twitter account their brains train themselves into believing that is how their bodies should look like. Because teenagers are so vulnerable, many log into those social media sites and fall victim to the idealization of the perfect body type. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders(ANAD), “86 percent of college students who have an eating disorder said it started before the age of 20. Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among teenagers”. From this information I can conclude many people who have or have had an eating disorder started practicing unhealthy eating habits as a teenager. A relatively simple way to start this process and see quick results is to refrain from any calorie intake. From my 10th grade health class, I know not having any calorie intake a body can only burn calories and if continued over a longer period...
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... Course Project: Medical Pluralism in Western Society July 31st, 2015 Introduction & Objectives: Through the course of Health and Society, we explore different techniques and remedies for the use of individual’s health. We have come to an understanding that even in a Western society that is dominated by western biomedicine, there are still correspondence with alternative medicine and spiritual healing that is used when dealing with diseases and other related health illnesses. Since Canada has a multicultural society, individuals may visit doctors, psychologists, paediatrician, and physicians, and at other times we seek chiropractic solutions, relaxation techniques, massage, prayer, herbal therapies, special diets, folk remedies, acupuncture, yoga, or homeopathy in pursuit of having a healthier life. There is not always a conflict between non-western medicine and Western biomedicine. Though the two may have different forms, procedures, norms, regulations, and values, Canada has come to rely on both for a solution to their health. The process by which people take advantage of a variety of health techniques and strategies that are based on different models of health and healing is what has come to be known as medical pluralism. (Woronko) For the objective of the interview, I was tasked with analyzing how medical pluralism contributes and is utilized in individual lives in Canada. For...
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...suffer from the same medical conditions (Rhee, 2013). This is a win – win situation for the organization and patients. Patients are typically allotted 15 to 30 minutes to discuss their concerns with the physician but with group medical appointments (GMA), patients are actually able to spend up to 90 minutes with their provider. GMA’s offer an alternative structure in the way effective and efficient care is delivered to chronically ill patients (Schmucker, 2006) and it allows greater interaction time with the provider. A GMA will typically involve approximately 8-12 patients while all of the components of individual appointments can be delivered to include: one-on-one medical evaluations, greater time for patient education, and promoting self-management (Jaber, Braksmajer, & Trilling, 2006). Regulatory (OSHA) Mandate According to the United States Department of Labor, “under the OSH Act, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace and OSHA's mission is to assure safe and healthful workplaces by setting and enforcing...
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