In the name of health : the social consequences of cultural assumptions about health and illness
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation explores cultural assumptions about health and illness and examines the interpersonal and individual level consequences of these beliefs. I argue that health is performative and that individuals are judged according to their ability to adhere to culturally normative expectations about health. In the three papers of my dissertation I examine how dominant cultural beliefs about what it means to be healthy reinforce existing inequalities and shape the everyday experiences of individuals. In the first paper of my dissertation I examine how institutionalized health beliefs in the form of workplace health promotion programs influence how overweight and obese employees are evaluated. In the second paper I investigate how body size influences attributions of blame and responsibility for illness and impacts the willingness of others to support or censure patients. The third paper explores the gendered experience of survivorship. In this paper I find that there are different cultural expectations for men and women cancer survivors and that gender stereotypes shape how individuals experience illness and recovery. Collectively, these papers illustrate how understandings of health and illness are cultural constructs that have social, material, and psychological consequences.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Powroznik, Karen M |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
| Primary advisor | Ridgeway, Cecilia L |
| Thesis advisor | Ridgeway, Cecilia L |
| Thesis advisor | Cook, Karen |
| Thesis advisor | Fields, Corey |
| Advisor | Cook, Karen |
| Advisor | Fields, Corey |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Karen M. Powroznik. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Karen Marie Powroznik
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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