Abstract
Mental representations of health and illness are thought processes that guide people's response to the threats to their physical and mental well-being. This article will explore how people living in different cultural contexts understand health and illness, and the implications this has for how they subsequently behave. Biomedical approaches will be presented as the dominant model for understanding health and illness in the West. However, comparisons will be made with other frameworks of understanding that are popular in other cultural settings. In this age of globalization, focus is also allocated to considering the costs and benefits to people of having competing ways of understanding health and illness available at onetime.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Pages | 567-570 |
Edition | Second |
ISBN (Print) | 978-0-08-097087-5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |