Explain and discuss the ways in which sociology and Psychology can Essay

Explain and discuss the ways in which sociology and Psychology can help provide a better understanding of Health and Health care - Essay Example In order to provide an in-depth knowledge, let us define first sociology, psychology, health, and health care. Sociology is derived from the Latin word socius meaning companion and the Greek word logus meaning study of (Taylor & Field, 2007, p. 3). As a discipline, sociology is the social scientific study of society including the interactions between people and society and the influence they imposed on each other (Hyde, Lohan & McDonnell, 2004, p. 3). On the other hand, psychology refers to the scientific study of human behavior which includes how an organism act, think, feel, learn, perceive, interact with others and understand themselves (Barkway, 2009, p. 2). Health is a holistic discipline and is defined by the World Health Organization in 1946 as â€Å" a state of physical and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity† and health care refers to the delivery of health services of health professionals to achieve state of equilibrium (Harari & Leg ge, 2001, p. 2). Understanding the role of sociology and psychology to health and health care doesn’t end in knowing the core definition but rather, by careful analysis of the underlying principles, perspectives, alternative explanations, issues, influence on human behavior and general implications on the population to determine and entail the relationship between psychology, sociology, health, and health care. Human Behavior in Health Care Settings In a health care setting, health providers deal with people of different behavior and beliefs. Most of these people have complicated illnesses and behavioral reactions toward health care delivery and settings vary. Human behavior towards health care settings depends on several factors. It may be political, social, economic, and environment. There are culturally held beliefs about illness, disease prevention, treatments, as well as appropriate health behaviors and identification of the sick role. Health care providers must be aware of a person’s cultural norms to avoid culture shock and must start at the most basic level to foster health-promoting behaviors towards health care. Let us take the example of human behavior with regards to counseling in a health care setting. People may imagine the scenario as two individuals facing each other. Most of the times, patients behave in a way to show their feelings and being uncomfortable at closeness but there are also individuals who feel comfortable about this closeness and likely behave to confide in a health care staff and asks questions. In some instances, patient’s find it comfortable to verbalize their feelings and reasons of their behavior with the health care professional informally, checking their intravenous infusion or massaging them, rather than the formal set-up which is a one-on-one basis, facing each other (Barkway, 2009, p. 155). Human behaviors directly affect the status of health care. Negative human behaviors such as distrust in healt h care