Here is a quick post to follow sara's on health. Above is a figure that I made that may (I haven't totally decided yet) visually depict the basic theory of that paper she mentioned. The interaction between the patient and the physician is a very interesting one. Why do some patients listen and do what is best for their health, and why do some not? Why are some interactions with doctors pleasant and some not? All patients and all physicians go into their interactions with expectations built upon their past experiences (whether experiences they actually had, heard about, or are merely common to their social and economic status). Sometimes these experiences and expectations (one's 'habitus' in the figure) overlap significantly with that of the physician and other times not at all. In addition to this, there are varying levels of voluntary trust that one may have in the physician, or the health system in general. The third part is that of how responsive the physician is to the actual individual with whom they are speaking. If they have very set expectations about how all patients should be and do not change according to different people, then they are not reflexive at all (they poorly react to specific situations or individuals). All of this together will, in the end, go a long way in determining whether some patient/physician interaction is positive or not, makes an impact or not, healthy lifestyles are adopted or not, and so on.
So, if you are still with me, I think this helps to answer the question of what, if anything, fighting at school has to do with one's health and medical care. The more that we are able to instill healthy living practices in people, the more this will change and shift their overall 'habitus,' the cognitive perspective from which they live their life. The more that we can teach children that fighting is bad for them in general, the more that we can change how they interpret their world and make decisions accordingly. In the end, they may actually grow up with a more healthy lifestyle than they otherwise would have.
2 comments:
i think i can answer this one:
"Why do some patients listen and do what is best for their health, and why do some not?"
A: because sufficiently motivating reasons for action are internal (i.e. part of a 'motivational set' of psychological states like beliefs, desires, aims, preferences, goals), and doctor stimuli, per se, is external.
Word. But life is almost a constant interaction of the 'internal' and the 'external.' If that is constant and the outcome varies, it is the mechanism that causes the differences that is most interesting. Both the the patient and the dr have the 'internal' stuff they bring with them, but their internal expectations and what not are in a way externalized and are either constructive or destructive, it would seem.
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