Critical Reading Reflection:
Learning Objectives:
To help you begin to think more deeply about the course content
To give you the opportunity to apply what you are learning and develop your own thinking on the issues, concepts, and theories discussed in class
To help you develop your writing skills
INSTRUCTIONS: write a critical reflection on ONE ofthe following:
1. Drawing on relevant course readings and on the arguments and evidence presented in the Nature of Things documentary, “Programmed to be Fat” discuss the possible causes of the global obesity epidemic. Explain which of these determinants and/or corresponding theories you are personally most aligned with and why?
2. Drawing on the readings on “Sociology and Health” (Chapter 4) and on the film “Bad Sugars” discuss why the Tohono O’odham and Achimel O’odham (Pima) tribes in Arizona have some of the highest rates of Type II diabetes in the world.
3. Drawing on the readings on “Anthropology and Health (Chapter 5) and on the film The Split Horn”, describe how depression and its treatment are conceptualized by the Hmong people. Discuss how this cultural understanding contrasts with the dominant biomedical model of health that informs treatment of depression in Western medicine. What might some of the consequences of these cultural
differences be?
4. When thinking about smoking, which ofthe different types of (health) behaviour discussed in Chapter 6 (“Health Psychology”) do you think is most significant and why? Based on this assessment, which model of (health) behaviour change do think smoking cessation programs ought to rely on? Justify your choice.