According to Huff (1999), the concepts of health held by various ethnic and immigrant groups within the United States may differ from and even contradict the health concepts of the mainstream society. This exercise will give you the opportunity to look at the concept of "being healthy" cross-culturally. You will interview someone who has a different cultural background from your own and through the interview you will realize cross-cultural similarities and differences in health-related behaviors.
- Choose a person to interview with a different cultural background from your own.
- Use the questionnaire in the Resources to interview your chosen person and yourself.
- Write up the responses from both interviews.
- Analyze the responses.
- What kind of similarities and differences did you find between your definition of "being healthy" and your partner's definition?
- What kind of similarities and differences did you find between your responses and your partner's responses in the attitudes and behaviors concerning keeping good health?
- Did you find any cultural values reflected in your responses and your partner's responses?
- How can the knowledge of cultural differences inform social policy related to health care?