HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Social Constructionism, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Document Summary
Chapter 3 health as a social construction. Social constructionism starts with the observation that nothing we think we know about the world, including health and illness, is either fixed or given. Constructionists subscribe to a brand of constructionism known as mild or contextual constructionism. Other constructionists are referred to as radical or strict constructionists. Constructionists find common ground in exploring the social processes through which individuals create meaning. The concern then becomes to better understand how these interpretations and meanings are produced how they are promoted, used, negotiated, and challenged and the consequences in terms of how we behave. Social constructionism problematizes the meaning of health and illness: health is(cid:374)"t t(cid:396)eated as o(cid:271)(cid:448)ious o(cid:396) self-evident. Illnesses are not treated as universal states in nature waiting to be discovered. People are either healthy or ill: the focus is on how health and disease are distributed, who stays healthy, who gets sick, and why.
