What is social position?

这是一篇关于社会科学和公共管理学科的问答题作业

1.What is social position? Social position includes biology situation such as behavior and intelligence, occupation of social economics, household income, education, cultural, environment condition and so on. Actually, the boundaries of the factors which could influence health are overlap. (unequal lives, P109)|”.“Structural theorists who research on health inequalities regard competing explanations as subordinate. That is to say, behaviors, culture and intelligence may theoretically be related to structural determinants and health outcomes (McCartuey. C et.al, P224)”. A group of people who have similar backgrounds means that they share similar culture and behavior, which could be drug abuse or excessive drinking. Therefore, for people who grow up in this kind of background are more likely to have dangerous behaviors. Social position influences health, but how? When different social group are equally exposed to behavioral risk factors , mortality remains higher in the lower social-economic groups(McCartuey. C et.al, P224)”. And it is discovered that an adult’s health behaviors are relate to the earlier socio-economic exposure (McCartuey. C et.al, P224)”.However, social positon can produce health inequalities. For a group of initial Chinese immigrants in England, they are less likely to find jobs that are suitable for their education backgrounds. Therefore, they expect their children to have better life. Consequently, these children behave well in school, and they are more likely to integrate into high social class（unequal lives）. It is common finding that high class groups of people have 2-2.5 times higher possibility to have better health than bottom groups of people in most development countries background. (Income and health in time dimension). As for a group of people who were born with disadvantages, it’s hard for them to change their class through education but they could endeavor to achieve a healthy environment as others do. And we should also take state backgrounds into consideration. A similar group in different states may differ in health condition. Because, when average income per person is calculated by dividing these measures by the population denominator and adjusted for price differences between counties to achieve ‘purchasing power parity’ (unequal lives, P59)”This means even a group of middle class people in developing country have the same income with people in developed country, They are more likely to be healthier, for that he can purchase more in their own country.

At the same time, agency and preference are also related to social position and health outcomes. But by what means? Agency has the right to legislate .We do not have perfect laws to protect the poor people to share the social resources. It may be a demand to legislate to distribute the resources. And preference also has an influence on health and position. People differ in taste. Some people prefer working at night and some people prefer to work during day time, which could have influence on health and position.
2. As the gender theory shows, man and woman are essentially different, which are due to biological characteristic. That is, men are described as rationality, productivity, public sphere and culture while women are described as emotionality, reproduction, private sphere and nature. And it is also commonly believed that men are superior to women. Some people consider men to be human norm while women to be the exception.
However, these differences in gender can influence the health of men and women. As the global life expectancy of men and women shows (1950/2000), men die quicker than women, which mean that woman can enjoy a longer life than man. And also, as a study shows, it’s easier for men to overcome illness than women. That is to say, women are sicker. We know that men and women are different in health. But how does gender influence health? Here are some examples.
Firstly, men and women are different physically. It’s common for women to suffer from breast cancer while it less likely bothers men. “An unwillingness to admit weakness may prevent many men from taking health promotion messages seriously and from consulting a doctor when problems arise (Doyal, P2)”. Secondly, in most society those men more tend to have unhealthy behavior, like addition to alcohol, than woman. This behavior could affect the health of men. Thirdly, we know that men and women play different roles in society, which may be the most valid reason to explain why gender inequality exists. Power different distribution between man and woman has great impact on population health. According to Doyal (2001) traditionally man exposure to work field, which increasing the odds that man get occupational injure is higher than woman. According to Graham (2007), through the social change, women start entre into workplace as man do, and women also carry the duty to care works inside of family. “It is possible that the ‘double exposure’ experienced by women who work and shouldering work burden in home has more often reporting musculoskeletal pain among the full-time work women. (Fritzell & Lundberg, P64)”. Moreover, in poor household situation, women may get poor mental and physical support from family members and society, even during their more vulnerable time, like pregnant period.
3.The health of workers may be enhanced by employment through a series of mechanisms.
Firstly, employment status can provide a critical link between educational attainment and earned income for the majority of adults. For most workers and their families, the major source of financial resources necessary to purchase health-enhancing goods and services are earnings from employment In the United States, other essential material resources such as pensions, health insurance coverage, and even eligibility for unemployment insurance are also directly tied to employers. P1108 Even after adjusting for their higher education and better pay ,individuals who are working in higher status occupations have substantially better health, a finding famously demonstrated in the Whitehall study of British civil servants. P1108. Creative self-expression at work could improve psychological well-being and cognitive function .And it could also reduce stress that can lead to the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. All of these positive benefits could also improve chances for a positive career trajectory if they enhance work performance and it can also create a sustaining positive loop. P1108
Secondly, working time influence health directly, and the influence of work time on emotional health and physical problems is pretty strong. Indirectly, it reduces time for healthy meals and exercise. At night, infrastructure and other environmental factors are cued to diurnal work patterns-active during the day and resting. Night workers may also try to stay in step with day schedules. For example, they stay awake during traditional mealtimes with their families. In addition to exhaustion, asynchrony with social institutions may also lead to increased stress levels, which makes people feel unhappy. Night workers also have high risk of divorce rates which suggests greater levels of family stress.
Thirdly, if the job is associated with a lack of job control, variable hour shifts and rotating may also have negative effects on well-being. In contrast, flexibility, autonomy, and the ability to set one’s hours might counteract some of the detrimental health effects of working a rotating shift. However, working a shift with variable hours it may be the choice of the employer, not the employee to make the decision to work a shift with variable hours or not. It indicates that both irregularity of hours and job control are at issue. Also associate with greater stress and reports of more frequent health problems.
As we can see, rich people occupy most part of our social resources. The upper class people are more likely to have good education. And when they choose a career, it’s easier for them to choose what they like. And also, they can choose the jobs that do less harm to people’s health. So, they may be healthier than the poor people.
4.As far as I am concerned, education and health are related.
Firstly, via better education background, one is easier to find a job which he prefers. This job may do less harm to his health, and he could get enough time to relax. These are good for health. He may get more social resources such as medical treatment which is pivotal to keep health. And getting a suitable job makes one feel happy, which is also good for health.
Secondly, health also influences education. As a study shows, most physical illnesses and injuries at least initially hinder math achievements. The size and the duration of the achievement gap depend on the type of illness or injury and its probable severity. And for a student who suffered from a chronic IP or an ENM, sometimes the math achievement deficits did not diminish over time. When a student is young, the negative effects of these illnesses are greater on the math achievement. There are also other examples of health’s influences on education. Once a student suffers from mind disease or other illnesses, it’s hard for them to concentrate on their school. Therefore, this could hinder their education.
Thirdly, according to a study by U.S.-Lillard＆Molly(2010), extra year of education can reduce the probability of death by 2-3 points in the next ten years, while Lleras-Muney’s research suggested the probability is 3-6 points.(2005)And Mazumder suggested that the reduction is 10 points. However, France-Albouy ＆ Lequien’s research suggested that there was no reduction in 2009,U.K.-Clark ＆ Royer drew the same conclusion in 2010.Another research showed that there was a small reduction in all-cause mortality for exposed low-SES men aged 40-50.Now we can see that even not absolutely proved, past mandatory school reforms may followed by reduced mortality among the cohorts exposed.
In highly developed countries such as Canada, U.S. and W.E. countries, life expectancy almost continuously increases. And some studies of mortality in Europe and U.S. have suggested that between different SES groups, differences in mortality and life expectancy have grown over time. These widen gaps have led to at least two “Americas,” if not multiple others, in terms of life expectancy, demarcated by level of education and racial-group membership. So, how to narrow these gaps is an important task for the policy makers .Implement educational enhancements at young , middle, and old ages for people of all races is a good way to reduce the large gap in health and longevity.
5. In the absolute income hypothesis, income is a central indicator of social position. And individual is related to the social structure of the society. Income can also be viewed as an unambiguous measure of success. In the relative income hypothesis, education is a marker of later occupation and income, which can be linked to specific behavioral and lifestyle aspects which explain health. And income indicates of socio-economic origin and childhood conditions. Higher education may make people more receptive to and conscious of health education messages. And occupational class is the social relations of production which denotes technical tasks linked to positions while occupation position reflects the life chances and opportunities. Psycho-social aspects and stress of occupational position are linked to effort-reward imbalances being harmful for health.
What is relative deprivation? Once one does not have something, but when he sees someone include himself in previous time, and having the thing he does not have, then he believes that it is necessary for him to have that thing. And that is called relative deprivation. And the relative deprivation is distinguished into two parts. In one case, the individual takes his standard and wants to be a member of and compare their own situation to. In another case, the individual makes his or her claim against the comparative group. However, measuring relative deprivation is difficult. Firstly, relative reference groups are a combining for example socioeconomic position, living region and age group. Secondly, self-related deprivation is related to the individual’s own norms and preferences. Thirdly, there are no specifying reference standards to capture the degree of intensity of experienced relative deprivation.
There different gradients in income-related health inequalities between men and women. That is to say, men and women play a different role. For example, men are likely to have individual income while women are likely to have household income.
This literature explains the relationship between gender and health, and it also gave some examples and chats and graphs.In our society,women always do house work which means no income.And long time house work makes women exhausted,which is harmful to their health.

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