Behavioral Determinants Culture & Health

Question: Describe about the Behavioral Determinants for Culture Health? Answer: There are certain factors that strongly influence and affect the behavior of an individual or a group of population. These factors produce a behavioral impact which may be desirable or undesirable and are known as Behavioral Determinants. The social environment and culture are the factors that influence the behavior and also contribute towards the sustenance of that culture1. Like for example, culture exerts a real impact on how individuals behave, and so does ethics. It is due to the differences in the cultures that the changes in the behavioral patterns of people who belong to different countries are observed. The behavioral patterns tend to distinguish one cultural group from every other group and thus, make each country a little different from all the others2. Thus, it is mainly due to the cultural behaviors that people belonging to the same group share the same characteristics. However, certain aspect of human behaviour is applicable for all the people belonging to a particular host country and does not change. This is because of what is called as a universal behaviour. For example, the use of verbal language for communication process. This is an example of universal behaviour as verbal language involves the use of sounds. Germans, Canadians and the people of United States prefer directness, clarity and confrontation in their communication. They tend to follow a low-context communication style. Eastern cultures follow the concept of long-term orientation against short-term values such as respect for traditions. Anthropologists suffer from psychological stress and culture shock when they move to live out in other society. The Latinos of United States tend to follow a collectivistic culture in which the behaviours of each individual are based on respecting the family and their values. References Arnault DS. Cultural Determinants of help seeking: A model for research and practice. Res Theory Nurs Pract. 2009; 23(4): 259-278. Parrish P, VanBerschot, JA. Cultural Dimensions of Learning: Addressing the Challenges of Multicultural Instruction. Int Rev Res Open Dis. 2010; 10(2): 1-19.