The purpose of this essay is to outline the relationship between stress and health status and why this is an important issue in contemporary society. The definition of stress can be interpreted differently as each and every individual holds a subjective opinion to how stress can impact their health status. (Alder, 2004: 126) would state that stress can be “anything from trauma to the experience of working in a noisy room”. In this case, stress in general can therefore be anything from the experience of psychological stimuli such as social contact and crowds, to suffering physical symptoms such as a chronic head ache. On the other hand, health status can be defined as more of a holistic concept and can be determined more by just physical affects
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Many sociologists argue that we live in a socially constructed society where citizens segregate their own rules from others. (Burr, 2003) This can depend on certain factors such as race, gender, social class, income and generally the type of background you come from. If this is the case, could this social construction and indirect discrimination result in more stress to certain people than others? Statistics have demonstrated that individuals from a lower social class have a higher mortality rate than those from a higher social class. (ONS, 2004) Sociologists such as (Barry and Yuill, 2012) would suggest that the difference in class gradient is due to the high amount of discrimination between social classes. This generally results in higher stress levels for lower class people which evidently results in a higher mortality rate. This can also be demonstrated with health and ethnicity. Statistics have confirmed African Caribbean girls are more prone to chronic stress than any other ethnic group (Carlisle, 2000). Sociologists would argue that this could be due to the amount of racism and victimization that these people are vulnerable to. (Barry and Yuill) This clearly demonstrates the extent of stress and how a diverse range of people are more vulnerable than others when it comes to impacting their overall
Many sociologists argue that we live in a socially constructed society where citizens segregate their own rules from others. (Burr, 2003) This can depend on certain factors such as race, gender, social class, income and generally the type of background you come from. If this is the case, could this social construction and indirect discrimination result in more stress to certain people than others? Statistics have demonstrated that individuals from a lower social class have a higher mortality rate than those from a higher social class. (ONS, 2004) Sociologists such as (Barry and Yuill, 2012) would suggest that the difference in class gradient is due to the high amount of discrimination between social classes. This generally results in higher stress levels for lower class people which evidently results in a higher mortality rate. This can also be demonstrated with health and ethnicity. Statistics have confirmed African Caribbean girls are more prone to chronic stress than any other ethnic group (Carlisle, 2000). Sociologists would argue that this could be due to the amount of racism and victimization that these people are vulnerable to. (Barry and Yuill) This clearly demonstrates the extent of stress and how a diverse range of people are more vulnerable than others when it comes to impacting their overall