Deck 14: Social Patterning of Behaviour

Question 1

Most of the gradient in health is due to ________.

A) unhealthy diets
B) low level of exercise
C) excessive alcohol consumption
D) income and education

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Health relevant behaviour is best understood as ________.

A) choices the person freely makes
B) choices the person makes under a set of influences and constraints
C) patterns of action and responses to context
D) determined by the person's past and current circumstances

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The amount of alcohol a student is likely to drink in a social setting is most closely associated with ________.

A) the price of drinks
B) how much he or she decides to drink
C) how forceful the servers are
D) who he or she is with

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The Health Belief Model was developed by ________.

A) Anthony Giddens
B) Roberto Unger
C) Pierre Bourdieu
D) Irwin Rosenstock

Question 5

"Information overload" refers to the fact that ________.

A) physicians are faced with too much information to give sound medical advice
B) Canada still does not have nationally administered electronic health records
C) people receive an overwhelming amount of health-related information from friends and through media
D) fake news and "false facts" bombard users of social media

Question 6

By embracing the idea of ________, we recognize that information available to individuals, the content of their beliefs, and their actions may be modified by exogenous variables.

A) rational behaviour
B) health belief
C) social influence
D) social patterns

Question 7

________ are the least likely to exercise regularly.

A) Individuals who did not finish high school
B) Individuals who graduated from high school
C) Individuals who graduated from university
D) Doctoral and postdoctoral graduates

Question 8

Behaviourist interventions using reminders, nudges, and rewards are ________.

A) highly effective
B) never effective
C) able to make a short-term difference
D) likely to yield mixed and sometimes perverse results

Question 9

Stress, both during childhood and later in life due to workplace, neighbourhood, and other social contextual factors, is strongly linked to ________.

A) over eating
B) exercise
C) sound sleep
D) peak athletic performance

Question 10

The following is NOT a variable in the Health Belief Model: ________.

A) Self-perceived personal risks
B) Self-perceived social risks
C) Self-perceived barriers to and costs of behavioural change
D) Self-perceived benefits of making the behavioural change

Question 11

The term "enstructuration" means that ________.

A) neural activity shapes brain formation
B) personal agency and social structures interact allowing individuals to make choices within their social contexts
C) childhood development determines future life choices
D) neural sculpting is responsible for decision-making process

Question 12

By embracing the idea of social influence in health promotion, we assume that ________.

A) we cannot modify people's behaviour
B) genes have little influence on human behaviour
C) we can modify people's behaviour by educating them and providing them information and incentives
D) lower-income individuals have different brain structure than middle- or upper-class learners

Question 13

The ________ incorporates a hypothesis that health related beaviour can be modified by providing cues to people.

A) neural sculpting theory
B) habitus concept
C) nudge theory
D) false necessity theory

Question 14

Jenna is a public health worker who is interested in reducing smoking in population. She is in the process of designing the anti-smoking campaign. The following campaign will be most successful: ________.

A) A campaign that focuses on facts (e.g. statistics, information) and targets people who want to quit smoking
B) A campaign that focuses on facts (e.g. statistics, information) and targets people who do not want to quit smoking
C) A campaign that focuses on feelings and perceptions (e.g. visual advertisement, pictures of people who were harmed by smoking) and targets people who want to quit smoking
D) A campaign that introduces monetary incentives and targets people who do not want to quit smoking

Question 15

The strongest predictor for smoking/non-smoking is ________.

A) one or both parents smoked
B) level of education
C) current household income
D) knowledge regarding health effects of smoking

Question 16

One of the paradoxes of strategies developed to reduce risky behaviours, such as wearing seatbelts or bike helmets, is that ________.

A) they can actually increase bad health outcomes and risky behaviours
B) people embrace them wholeheartedly
C) only poor people follow the advice
D) only middle- and upper-class individuals support them

Question 17

A lifestyle is best understood as ________.

A) a person's choices about how she or he wants to live her or his life
B) an integrated set of practices embraced to establish personal identity
C) a reflection of fashion, fads, and social trends
D) the patterns of preferences a person develops over the life course

Question 18

Factors that contributed to the comeback of healthy lifestyles rhetoric in the 1970s in North America include all the following EXCEPT ________.

A) recognition of the rising importance of chronic diseases
B) demedicalization of social problems and less reliance on conventional and alternative medicine
C) diminishing faith in medicine to solve health-related problems
D) a strengthening cultural link between consumption patterns and who we are

Question 19

The concept of "habitus" was coined by ________.

A) Anthony Giddens
B) Émile Durkheim
C) Roberto Unger
D) Pierre Bourdieu

Question 20

Enculturing the brain refers to the idea that ________.

A) brains should be cultured to study human development
B) labs are the best environment to study human brains and human behaviour
C) history and other forms of socially patterned practice become encoded in the brains of people participating in each particular social formation
D) agency and structure are interrelated

Question 21

There is virtually no difference in the health of low-income Americans who live a healthy lifestyle compared to their low-income counterparts who do not.

Question 22

People are easily motivated to change their behaviour when offered monetary incentives.

Question 23

According to Anthony Giddens, human behaviour is determined by social structure and does not allow for the exercise of agency.

Question 24

The best way to improve people's health-related behaviours is to provide them with more accurate health-related information.

Question 25

Research from neuroscience shows that the brain sometimes determines action before the person has considered what they want to do, before he or she has become aware of that decision.

Question 26

Enstructuration refers to the availability of health-relevant resources built into neighbourhoods, (such as availability of walking spaces, parks, and clean air).

Question 27

Most risky behaviour, such as smoking, binge drinking, or illicit drug use, is more common among less well-off people.

Question 28

A methodologically individualist approach to health assumes free will-a capacity of the person to choose behaviours.

Question 29

The idea of a healthy lifestyle arose in the fifteenth century in China.

Question 30

McDonald's and PepsiCo (owner of Frito-Lay and Gatorade) are at the forefront of voluntary anti-obesity initiatives inspired by nudge theory because they are highly motivated to preclude compulsory regulatory measures.

Question 31

What is the Health Belief Model? Does this model rely on the social determinants of health perspective? Explain your answer.

Question 32

How is our behaviour socially patterned? What are the implications for population health? Illustrate your answer with an example.

Question 33

How successful are incentives for modifying people's health-related behaviours? Illustrate your answer with an example.

Question 34

Some people suggest that, in order to improve population health, we need to provide more information about healthy options and better educate people about healthy behaviours. Do you agree or disagree with this approach? Why or why not?

Question 35

What is "nudging"? How useful is this strategy for improving population health?

Question 36

Discuss the debates between agency/free will and structure/social context in shaping health-related behaviour. Where do you stand in these debates?

Question 37

Describe the history and the evolution of our understanding of "healthy lifestyle." Using specific examples, explain the usefulness of this approach to population health policy.

Question 38

Using specific examples, demonstrate what is problematic about assuming that our actions are guided by "rational" choices?