Social and Cultural Determinants

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Lectures with students’ participation.

PowerPoint presentation, videos and other pedagogical material.

Learning Outcomes

To identify the relations between epidemiology and medical anthropology.

Regarding social epidemiology, to understand the historical and conceptual elements.

To understand the relations between social networks of support, social cohesion, capital and health.

The importance of social inequality as central cause of illness.

To consider cultural factors in epidemiological research.

 

- To understand health and illness definitions, as well as its allocation in time and space.

- To understand the importance of social inequality regarding the health-disease relationship.

- To understand and identify some theories and basic concepts regarding health and disease sociology.

- To have an overview of the complex relations between health, medicine and society, while social phenomena.

- The importance of a multidisciplinary perspective when analyzing these phenomena.

 

Happiness and Subjective Well-Being (Professor Manuel Quartilho)

The objectives of this course consist of an attempt to define the concepts of happiness and subjective well-being regarding history, societies and cultures. They were designed with a view to promoting the discussion of arguments for and against happiness, with contributions from philosophy, economics and positive psychology. Furthermore, they value the relationships between culture and subjective well-being, cultural differences on the definition of well-being and the relationship between structural social factors and the well-being of populations according to transnational data. Students are expected to develop skills that promote the exploration and research of social and cultural factors as individual and collective determinants of happiness and well-being.

 

Healthy Societies (Professor Manuel Quartilho)

This course is directed towards the acquisition of concepts related to global social determinants of health and, in particular, mental health. Its objectives convey the importance of stress and experiencing early adversities; value the psychosocial conditions of labor activities; encompass a discussion of the concepts of social cohesion and social capital; underline the impact of poverty, exclusion and social inequities; and contemplate aspects related to the social costs of inequality, influencing social relations, the mental health of the population, medium life expectancy, the chances of providing life-long education, violent behaviors, etc. in different societies. Thus, students are expected to gather the required skills for critically exploring and researching the different shapes and the impact of inequality in different social, interpersonal and cultural settings.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Social and cultural epidemiology (Professor Alte da Veiga)

1- Social epidemiology. Historical and conceptual features. Social integration, social networks, social support and health. Social cohesion, social capital and health. Social discrimination, social inequality and health. The impact of unemployment and state reform on health.

2- Cultural epidemiology. Theoretical and conceptual features of an emerging subject. Objectives. Methods: the EMIC approach as a model for the integration of quantitative and qualitative dimensions.

 

Sociology of Health and Illness I (Professor Vítor Rodrigues)

The definition of Medical Sociology and Sociology of Health and Illness

Health and illness definitions, its evolution through time and space. The biomedical model. Introduction, successes, comments and challenges.

Beliefs and health behaviors – theoretical models

Health and social inequalities

 

Sociology of Health and Illness II (Professor Amélia Augusto)

1 – Health and illness as social phenomena

 

2 – Biomedical model of illness and its critics

2.1. – Biomedical model of mental illness

 

3 – Social construction of illness

3.1 – Social construction of mental illness

 

4 – Medicalization of life

4.1. – Social, cultural and medical iatrogenesis

 

5 – Labeling and social stigma

5.1 – Medicine as cause of labeling

5.2 – Social stigma and social interaction

 

Social determiners of health and illness (Professor António Barbosa)

- Epistemological questions concerning the biopsychosocial model

- Life events and social support in physical and mental illness

 

Spaces and health (Professor Helena Nogueira)

The massive urbanization that characterizes modern societies has been generating progressively discontinuous and fragmented urban territories, where questions related do poverty, social and material deprivation, access to essential resources, mobility and social exclusion are accentuated. All these issues contribute to the emergency of a new health paradigm, characterized by a more interdisciplinary and contextualized nature.

This module is grounded on the premise that health belongs to its own place. It aims at promoting a critical reflection on the spaces and places of everyday life, identifying and analyzing their capacity to generate and manage risk factors and health protection factors. We recognize that acting on places is tantamount to acting on individuals, integrating them on their communities; it is thus possible to improve health improving everyday places.

 

Happiness and Subjective well-being (Professor Manuel Quartilho)

Philosophy and science of subjective well-being. The myths of the science of happiness. Sociological theories. The pursuit of happiness through History. Happiness according to an individual perspective. Can people be happier? Happiness in an interpersonal context. Subjective well-being and quality of life. The “causes of happiness”. Geography of happiness. Cultural differences on the definition of subjective well-being and related attributions. Social conditions, liberty and happiness. Money and happiness. The “happiness paradox” on contemporary societies. Debates and controversies around the concepts of happiness and subjective well-being.

 

Healthy Societies (Professor Manuel Quartilho)

Generic considerations on the social determinants of health and diseases. Health and social inequalities in different societies. Social cohesion, social capital, social conflict. Different qualities of life in different societies. Material success and social failure. The large social costs of inequality.

Assessment Methods

Continuous
Synthesis work: 100.0%

Bibliography

Lisa F. Berkman and Ichiro Kawachi, Eds. (2000). Social Epidemiology. Oxford University Press.

 

James A. Troste (2005). Epidemiology and Culture. Cambridge University Press.

 

Bird, C., Conrad, P., Freemont (2000). Handbook of Medical Sociology, fifth edition. Prentice Hall.

 

Scheid, T., Brown, T. (2010). A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health. Cambridge University Press.

 

Marmot & Wilkinson (2006). Social Determinants of Health. Oxford University Press.

 

Helena Nogueira (2008). Os Lugares e a Saúde. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.

 

Richard Layard (2011). Happiness – Lessons from a New Science. Penguin.

 

Michael Eid and Randy Larsen (2008). The Science of Subjective Well-being. The Guilford Press.

 

Wilkinson, R. (2005). The Impact of Inequality. The New Press.

 

Wilkinson, R., Pickett, K. (2009). The Spirit Level. Allen Lane.