Section
A
Abnormality: Deviates from the normal.
Absolute Poverty: Anyone without set of minimum necessities or essentials for living is said to be in absolute poverty.
Acute Sickness: Sudden or severe symptoms, that last less than six months.
Aetiology: The study (whether scientific or otherwise) of causation.
Angina: A specific type of pain in the chest caused by inadequate blood flow through the blood vessels of the heart muscle.
Appraisal: Assessment of whether an event is stressful and requires further action on the part of the individual.
Archives of Daily Living (Activities of Daily Living, ADL): One of the best known and oldest of the disability scales designed specifically for the elderly population.
 |
 |
Biomedical Model: Treats disease as a pathology that occurs within the person. The limitation of this model is that it excludes any psychological, social or ecological factors.
Biomechanical Model: The study of the mechanics of a living body, especially of the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure.
Biopsychosocial Model: Takes into account biological, psychological and social influences on health and illness.
Black Report:- A landmark report (1980) on inequalities in health.
Bourgeoisie: The middle class. In Marxist theory, the capitalist class opposing the proletariat in the class struggle.
|
|
Cartesian Dualism: Pertaining to the theories of the philosopher, Rene Descartes, Western science has made a distinction between the mind and the body.
Caste: A closed form of stratification in which individuals status is determined by birth and cannot be changed.
Catecholamines: Class of hormones (e.g. epinephrine and norepinephrine) secreted by the adrenal glands.
Chronic: Chronic disorders are ones that persist for a long period of time and may get progressively worse.
Class: Large-scale grouping of people who share common economic resources, which strongly influence the types of lifestyle they can maintain.
Coping: The process by which people try to manage the stress they experience.
Cortiscosteroids: A class of hormones, including cortisol, secreted by the adrenal gland.
Critical Health Psychology: An area of Health Psychology that is developing more critical and qualitative approaches within Health Psychology e.g. Social constructionism, feminism, phenomenology.
Crude Death Rate: Total number of deaths observed within a given time period.
Cynicism: The belief that the worse about people or the outcome
of events.
|
|
Dependence: Being abnormally dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit forming (especially alcohol or narcotic drugs).
Disability: Physical ailments which limit bodily functions and restrict general physical activity or functions.
Disease: Presence of some pathology or abnormality in a part of
the body. Bacteria and viruses cause many such diseases
Tolerance – In pharmacology, the ability to tolerate larger and larger doses of a drug after each exposure to it.
|
|
Electromyographic (EMG): Measures and records electrical activity in muscles.
Estates: System of groups based on birthright, law and religion.
Ethnicity or ethnic group: A group of people who have certain
background characteristics e.g. language, culture and religion in common,
which provide the group with a distinct identity as seen by themselves and
others.
|
|
|
|
Gate Control Theory: Model that proposes that a neural gate in the spinal cord can modulate incoming pain signals. The gate is opened and closed by messages from the brain.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): The sequence of physiological reactions to prolonged and intense stress. The sequence consists of the alarm reaction, the state of resistance, and the stage of exhaustion.
Gender: Socially acquired characteristic, and includes psychological, social and cultural characteristics, such as ideas about "masculinity" and "femininity".
General Household Survey (GHS): A survey conducted by the Office
of National Statistics. The GHS offers researchers to explore the
relationships between income, housing, family, drinking, smoking etc.
|
|
Health Psychology: A field of applied psychology that seeks to use psychological theory and knowledge to promote personal and public health. Specific focuses include problems as diverse as identifying the aetiology of illness, understanding the conditions and correlates of well-being, developing techniques for prevention and treatment of illness and improving health care delivery systems.
Hostility: Showing antagonism and opposition towards peoples and events.
|
|
Illness: Disease may or may not be accompanied by feelings of anxiety or distress. Some people may be diseased without even knowing it. On other occasions, it may be some time before an abnormality or disturbance in the body's functioning makes it presence known.
Inverse Relationship: In statistics, a relationship where, as values of one variable increase, related values of the other tend to decrease.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Macrosociology: Level of sociological analysis concerned with the analysis of whole societies and social structures. The "macro" parts of this package present data drawn from the UK as a whole, usually by means of large-scale surveys.
Marxian: Relating to the theories of Marx that hold that actions and human institutions are economically determined and that the class struggle is the basic agency for change.
Microsociology: Level of sociological analysis in which the focus is on face-to-face interactions in everyday life. The "micro" parts of this package present data from individual doctor/patient consultations which have been recorded by researchers.
Morbidity statistics: Describe the level of illness and disease in a population.
Morbidity: Rate of an incidence of a disease.
Mortality statistics: Based on registered deaths, and may be general or cause-specific.
Mortality: Death, especially of large numbers. Mortality rate – death rate.
|
|
National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC): From 2001 the NS-SEC will be used for all official statistics and surveys. It will replace the Registrar General's Social Class and Socio Economic Groups (SEG).
Nominal: Level of measurement at which numbers, if used, are mere labels for discrete categories.
Norms: A fixed or ideal standard.
Nottingham Health Profile: Generic health related quality of life measure.
|
|
Objective method: Uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices.
Ordinal: Level of measurement when cases are arranged in rank positions.
|
|
Pain: An unpleasant sensory an emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.
Pathology: An abnormal condition or biological state in which proper functioning is prevented.
Pattern Theory: Theory that pain is transmitted to the brain by a pattern of nerve cells. However, this is in a linear manner.
Phenomenological discursive methods: A philosophy of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness.
Physiology: The vital processes or functions of a living organism or its parts.
Population: In statistics, the total number of cases about which a specific statement can be made.
Prevalence Rates: The total number of cases of a disease or a disorder in a specific population at a point in time.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: A stress reduction technique in which people are trained to alternate between tightening and relaxing specific muscle groups.
Proletariat: The working class, especially those who lack capital and must sell their unskilled labour in order to survive.
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI): A field of study focussing on
relationship between psychosocial processes and nervous, endocrine, and
immune system functioning.
|
|
Qualitative Methods: Difference between cases in kind, which is not numerically measurable, though being different can be counted.
Quality of life (QoL): Degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his/her life.
Quantitative Methods: Difference between cases measurable by number.
|
|
Race: Term which suggests a primarily biological basis for differences between groups which is not supported by genetic studies. The term "ethnicity" is used in preference here.
Reductionism: Indicating the oversimplification of complex ideas or data.
Registrar General's Standard Occupation Classification (SC): A social class classification by occupation. Replaced in 2001 by the NS-SEC.
Relative poverty: Describes a person as poor in comparison to other members of their society. If the vast majority of people in a particular society have access to particular goods and services, eg telephone, car etc, the minority who are excluded from these goods and services on financial grounds can be said to be in relative poverty.
Relativism: Any theory holding that truth or moral value is not universal or absolute but may differ between individuals or cultures.
|
|
Sex: Biological given. Most people are born either male or female.
Slavery: Describes when some individuals are owned by others as their property.
Social Class: Most commonly measured using the Registrar-General's Occupation-based Classification System. This groups people from Classes I to V according to their occupation, eg lawyers and doctors are in Class I, and unskilled manual workers and labourers in Class V.
Socialised: To cause to be social or fit to live with others.
Social mobility: movement up and down in the class.
Society is a community; the conventions and opinions of a community.
Socio- Economic Groups (SEG): An official socio-economic classification. To be replaced in 2001 by the NS-SEC.
Specificity Theory: Pain is due to nerve impulses that are produced by an injury and are transmitted directly to a pain centre in the brain. Pain, in other words, is supposed to be proportional to the extent of the injury.
Standardised: In testing, to establish, for a particular test, the set of procedures for its administration, the scoring techniques to be used and the methods of evaluation and interpretation of obtained scores.
Standardised Mortality Ratios (SMRs): Way of calculating death rates in terms of the average for a group or population and then determining the degree to which specific groups vary from that standard. 100 is the number given to the average death rate for a population (e.g. the UK), and an SMR of less than 100 indicates a lower than average mortality risk while an SMR above 100 indicates a higher than average mortality risk.
Stratify: Classify according to a graded scale.
Stratification of Society: The existence of structured inequalities on life chances between groups in society.
Stress Inoculation Training: A cognitive-behavioural approach for stress management that teaches people a variety of skills for alleviating stress an achieving personal goals.
Subjective method: Depends upon the personal or individual- particular to a given person.
|
|
Tolerance: A gradual decrease in the body's response to a drug, thereby requiring large and larger doses to achieve the same effect.
Type A: A pattern of behaviour characterised by the impatience, hostility and time urgency.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |