In this essay the author will discuss the effects of class society, the bio-psycho-social issues and lifespan development, in relation to a 30 year old man described in the scenario (please see Appendix), and in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s [NMC] “Code of Conduct” (2008), to maintain confidentiality his name has been changed to “Danny”.
Danny is overweight and unfit. He continues to gain weight because his energy intake is far greater than his energy output. His low-nutrient diet consists mainly of carbohydrates and fats and he leads a sedentary life, spending a lot of time watching television. He uses the lift to go up and down from his flat on the 8th floor. The only exercise Danny takes is walking to the local club and shops. (Andersen, Crespo et al 1998).
This increased weight gain and lack of fitness puts undue stress on the body, Danny’s cardiovascular system has to work much harder just moving the extra body mass around. His diet may lead to an increase in adipose tissue (fat under the skin) and a decrease in sweat gland density making it much harder for the vascular system to remove waste heat energy. Davies,B., Bull,R.,Roscoe,J.,Roscoe,D.( 2005).
This build up of adipose tissue restricts the flow of heat towards the skin putting a greater strain on the circulatory system as the heart has to work harder to pump blood around the body so the heat energy carried by the blood can be released more rapidly near the skins surface, resulting in heat overloading and increased respiratory functioning. Heat rashes can also develop which may lead to the sweat glands in the folds of the skin becoming infected and blocked. Davies et al.( 2005)
Danny’s weight also puts him at risk of developing a...
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...kempt 30-year old, who lives alone on the 8th floor of a council high-rise block of flats. He has never been in permanent employment, although he has had a series of casual jobs. Danny has family living nearby, but he has little contact with them. Danny is overweight due to poor diet and lack of exercise. His hobbies include socializing in the local club and watching TV.
Recently, Danny has begun to feel unwell; he thinks that he may have a high temperature but assumes that it will resolve itself without seeking medical advice.
You have studied:
• The maintenance of oxygen intake in biology
• The cardiovascular system in biology
• Skin and temperature in biology
• Lifespan development in psychology
• Social class in sociology
• Housing, homelessness and labeling and stigma in sociology
How might you apply these concepts to the scenario?
Lipid metabolism is one source of energy for the human body. We eat food containing one form of lipids, triacylglycerols. Before starting lipid metyabolism, these fats get broken down into droplets by bile salts.Triacylglycerols can be broken into fatty acids plus glycerol via hydrolysis with the help of the pancreatic lipase enzymen and then get used by cells for energy by breaking down even further. Once the pancreas and cells have enough energy and don’t need to absorb anymore, fatty acids get synthesized back into triacylgleryols. The excess triacylglycerols get stored in adipose tissue. Excess storage leads to weight gain and obesity.
Diversity is part of the American lifestyle. America is a country built on capitalistic principles, where a countries’ economy is controlled by a small number of people. People who tend to have power in the society tend to separate themselves from the rest. Looking back at different time period of American history diversity has shaped up the lives we live as Americans, whether it is because of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, socioeconomic background, and capabilities/ disabilities, there is always diversity in society. Although, diversity is increasingly being viewed positively, and as much as people are proud of their differences. There will always be a way for human beings to diversify themselves into groups in which share similar interests.
Outlined within this essay are two sociological theories which have been investigated this will be in conjunction with a contemporary health issue. This then will be related to how the individual’s lifestyle and social class to give the reader a better understanding of this health issue.
THESIS: Race differences in identity and social position were, and are, more important than class differences in American society.
Overtime, sociology has played an essential role in the aid of healthcare policies and procedures, along with playing a fundamental role in one’s understanding of health inequalities. This paper explores how sociology has played such a role in healthcare, whilst including discussions regarding the influence of social structures and inequalities in the health of an individual, their family and community, with the topic of health variations between social classes being the main focus of the discussion. A structured overview, review and evaluation of a specific health policy in the UK will also be provided within this paper. Sociology in healthcare. Sociology can be defined in a number of ways, due to its almost limitless scope (Denny, Earle,
"What has happened in America is that achievement is so important that everyone wants everyone else to know what they have done. . . And in case you don't know, they want to tell you with a lethal combination of houses, cars and diamonds. (Fabrikant 2005))" Inequality in the United States is changing, and for the worse. People who are not wealthy are now competing to have the "status" of wealthy, which causes the wealthy to literally get wealthier while the middle class and upper middle class are going increasingly in debt trying to keep up with the wealthy.
Since the beginning of time, social class and race have been paramount in society. Back in the time of caveman, roles and traditions were passed down based on gender. The man was responsible for protection and collecting food while women were responsible for cooking and keeping house. That belief has traversed time and slowly changes with each era. But throughout history, men and women have lived with preconceived notions of their duties to their families. These notions have been passed down generations and have affected how people live within their society. In the novel “Like Water for Chocolate”, social class is revered in the story of the De la Garza family. As we see through the personal journey of Tita, the main character, these distinctions are evident.
Social class is a subjective concept in social sciences and political theory where individuals are grouped into different classes. This set a hierarchy inside the society structure where the upper and lower class exist and contribute to the society. Understanding social classes and their effects on the people, as well as cultures and social behavior and lead sociologist closer to the development of an ideal society.
Social class is a system of social stratification, the hierarchy creates specific types of social inequalities. Social inequality refers to the existence of social inequalities created such as ownership, types of occupation that creates differences in wealth, income and power, while social stratification refers to the existence of social groups. Class can be arranged to economic factors such as income, education, wealth and other factors at work. Poverty remains high and could argue that true poverty cannot exist in a country as rich as the United States. It is clear that poverty has an impact on certain groups of people, while other groups have it easy, but poverty is often associated with something low education, poor health and social inequalities groups. Nearly a quarter of less than high school (23.6%) education live below the poverty line, while 3.6% of people with tertiary education live below the poverty line (U.S. Census 2007). The assumption that poverty is something that adds to increasing educational opportunities for the poor and education overall, suggests that it is very difficult to get out of poverty. You can see some similarities between health, poverty and employment status. The results of poor health, poor health contributes to poverty, and the difficulty of working full time. These are all things that come to be in a state of poverty.
According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident is that food intake is higher than the calories burned in physical activity. Excess of energy from food is stored in the body as fat causing an increase of weight. During the course of the last 40 years, obesity has grown enormously in the United States and the rates remain on the rise (pgs. 272-273).
This essay will discuss, illustrate and evaluate the following statement: inequalities in health are increasing in the 21st century. The focus will be on one of the key determinants of health inequality, social class, specifically in the UK.
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Lifespan development: a chronological approach, John Wiley and Sons Australia. Rajacich, D., Kane, D., Williston, C., & Cameron, S. (2013). If They Do Call You a Nurse, It Is Always a “Male Nurse”: Experiences of Men in the Nursing Profession. Nursing Forum, 48(1), 71-80.
It is perpetuated by the way wealth, power, and prestige are distributed and passed on from one generation to the next
The Relationship Between Social Class and Educational Achievement Many sociologists have tried to explore the link between social class and educational achievement, measuring the effects of one element upon the other. In order to maintain a definite correlation between the two, there are a number of views, explanations, social statistics and perspectives which must be taken into account. The initial idea would be to define the key terms which are associated with how "social class" affects "educational achievement." "Social class" is the identity of people, according to the work they do and the community in which they live in. "Educational achievement" is the tendency for some groups to do better or worse in terms of educational success.