CLST 2090 Chapter : Socl 4451 Chapter Notes 2
Document Summary
Health behavior is the activity undertaken by people for the purpose of maintaining or enhancing their health, preventing health problems, or achieving a positive body image. It is what individuals themselves do to stay healthy. The focus of research in medical sociology, however, is not on the health practices of individuals, which are more appropriately defined as self-care, but rather on the transformation of this behavior into its aggregate form: health lifestyles. This definition is grounded in the classical theory of weber and incorporates the dialectical relationship between life choices and life chances he proposed in his lifestyle concept. People who wish to be part of a particular status group or social class adopt the appropriate lifestyle if they are to be accepted by people who already belong there. Status groups are stratified according to their patterns of consumption: these patterns not only establish differences between groups, but they also express differences that are already in place.
