Analyzing Public Health: Social Constructionism, Feminism & Health

This essay provides an overview of public health and health promotion, focusing on the theory of social constructionism and its relevance in understanding the world. It discusses the concept of well-being, highlighting Seligman's PERMA theory, which includes positive emotion, engagement, meaning, relationships, and accomplishment. The role of feminism in assisting health practitioners and addressing health inequities is also examined, emphasizing its concern with oppression, equity, and justice. Furthermore, the essay explores the extent to which health and illness are social and cultural phenomena, particularly in the context of events like the COVID-19 pandemic, and how social, political, and economic factors influence people's health. Desklib offers a platform for students to access this essay and other study resources.

INTRODUCTION TO
PUBLIC HEALTH AND
HEALTH PROMOTION
OMED

Table of Contents
Introduction to public health and health promotion.....................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Introduction to public health and health promotion
Social construction-ism refers to the theory of knowledge in the field of sociology as well
as the theory of communication. In this essay it will be discussed that the theory of social
construction-ism is useful and important (Taylor, 2018). The term well being and the most
effective approach of well being will also be discussed. This also shows the role of feminism in
order to assist the health practitioners and will also shows to what extent is health and illness a
cultural and social phenomenon.
Social construction-ism is a theory that examine and analyse the development and the
growth of jointly constructed understandings of the whole world in terms of reality that is purely
formed on the basis of shared assumptions. In simple words it is the theory of knowledge in
sociology that shows that how an individual can develop and understand their knowledge about
the world. According to social construction-ism human beings gave more emphasis on certain
categories as compared to others even if they don't reflect the real divisions. Social
constructionists share some beliefs such as they believed that the conventional knowledge is not
mainly based upon the objectives of an individual so, it becomes an obligation for them to
become aware of the assumptions that are implicit in knowledge. Social constructionists also
believes that all the ways and the paths of the understanding and the knowledge are culturally
and historically relative. It is also believed that knowledge is sustained by social processes which
means that the understanding is constructed through various types of interactions between the
people and the world (Tiefer, 2018). Knowledge and the social actions are interconnected and go
together and also the understanding has a wide variety of social constructions.
Social construction-ism plays a very important role and is also very useful in terms of
understanding as it provides a framework for understanding the constructed world and the
knowledge that people inhabit. It is also very useful in order to understand the social behaviour
or the behaviour of the people living in the society. This theory of knowledge is useful as it holds
the different types of characteristics such as class, gender, ability, race and the sexuality that are
the products of human definition and it is shaped by historical and social contexts. It gives
meaning to the worthless things and also creates the reality of the society. For example the idea
of blue colour is for the boys and the pink colour is for the girls are related to the gender and the
colour in terms of social construct.

Well being can be defined as a state of being healthy, comfortable and happy. In simple
words it is very strongly linked and connected with the happiness and the satisfaction of the life.
Well being refers to the combination of the people's mental, physical, emotional and social health
factors (Daykin and et.al., 2018). It can be described as the feeling about the life. In terms of
health and social care well being includes the protection from the abuse and neglect and the
absence of disease and illness. For example parents are concerned about their children's well
being such as their safety, comfortableness and the happiness.
The one of the best theoretical approach that can be most effective in order to understand
the concept of well being is Seligman's PERMA theory. According to this theory there are five
building blocks that includes positive emotion, engagement, meaning, relationship and
Accomplishment and also there are several techniques to enhance each one of these blocks.
Different people will drive well being from these building blocks in order to varying degrees.
The factors that enable flourishing can assist people in order to make informed choices that are
mainly aligned with their values and the interests. Positive emotion refers to the route to well
being is hedonic that increases positivity in the emotions. The positive emotions can be increased
about the past, present and future (Chatterjee and et.al., 2020). This route is limited and totally
based on the experiences of an individual as emotions are tend to fluctuate. Engagement refers to
the an experience according to which a person can deploys their attention, strengths and skills for
the competition of a challenging task. It produces an experiences called flow which means the
person's skills are sufficient for a challenging activity in order to achieve the goals.
Relationships are fundamental to well being as it boost the experiences that contributes
towards well being such as joy, laughter, meaning, feeling of belonging, etc. According to this
theory the doing act of kindness and to make the relationship with the other people can produces
the increase in well being. On the other hand a sense of meaning can be derived from belonging
and also there are various societal institutions that enable it such as family, religion, justice,
science, community, etc. People pursue success, accomplishment, competence and achievement
for their own sake. So, in this way each building blocks contributes to well being.
Feminism refers to the belief in political, economic and social equality for the women. It
includes the equal rights for the men and women. It is a range of social movements as well as the
ideologies that aim to define equality of the sexes (Mukhtar, 2020). There are three types of
feminism such as liberal, cultural and radical. Feminist are the people that have worked in order

to ensure the access to social integration and also the legal abortions that are related to the rights
and the protection of women. Public health plays a vital role in the promotion and the protection
of the health of people. Feminists analyse the public health ethics that are related to the health
and well being of women. Activities of the public health includes redressing of the health effects
of poverty and oppression and also they have the potential to make differences for women and
their children. Some other public health activities are focused at screening, raising the relevant
questions about paternalism, autonomy and also the regulation of bodies (Lupton, 2019).
Feminism is concerned with oppression, equity, and justice that act as the central themes
in public health ethics. Economic and material disadvantages are some of the important
dimensions in terms of inequity in the genesis of ill health. It includes lack of power,
discrimination, diminished opportunities, etc. Feminist research that the female gender is one of
the risk factor for increased inequity and also find that the poverty is a risk factor for poor health
so the efforts are put in order to safe and protect the rights of the women (Mannarini and Rossi,
2019).
The social and cultural phenomena are related to all the behaviours and the trends that
occurs in a society which can be performed by the members that have a concrete effect. Now a
days health and illness is becoming both social as well as cultural phenomena for example after
the covid -19 pandemic situation creates many social and cultural problems for the public. It
disturbed all the members of the society and also gave the adverse effect on their cultural also.
Health and illness is depend on everyday life and mainly on the life of the society. So, it is
important to increase the social, political and economical resources in order to determine the
people's health (Blasini and et.al. 2018). The pandemic situation badly affect the economy that
caused changes in socio- economic life and also gave rise to the negative phenomena and create
stress for the public. It creates many problems such as unemployment, poverty, market economy,
etc. that increases the health issues and various other illness problems.
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the social construction-ism is a theory
that assist knowledge and the understanding of the people that shows that how an individual can
develop and understand their knowledge about the world. Social constructionists also believes
that all the ways and the paths of the understanding and the knowledge are culturally and
historically relative. It plays an important role and is very useful in order to provides a
framework for understanding the constructed world. However it can also be concluded that well

being is a state of being comfortable, healthy and happy and one of the most effective theory of
well being is Seligiman's PERMA theory that is based on the five important building blocks. On
the other hand it can be concluded that feminism is a wide range of social movements that
focuses and gave emphasis in order to define the equality of the sexes and it also assist public
health practitioners to understand the health of men and women in the society. It can also be
concluded that health and illness affect the society as well as the culture.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Blasini, M., and et.al. 2018. The role of patient–practitioner relationships in placebo and nocebo
phenomena. International review of neurobiology, 139, pp.211-231.
Chatterjee, K., and et.al., 2020. Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature
with implications for policy and future research. Transport reviews, 40(1), pp.5-34.
Daykin, N., and et.al., 2018. What works for wellbeing? A systematic review of wellbeing
outcomes for music and singing in adults. Perspectives in public health, 138(1), pp.39-
46.
Lupton, D., 2019. Toward a more-than-human analysis of digital health: Inspirations from
feminist new materialism. Qualitative health research, 29(14), pp.1998-2009.
Mannarini, S. and Rossi, A., 2019. Assessing mental illness stigma: a complex issue. Frontiers
in psychology, 9, p.2722.
Mukhtar, S., 2020. Feminism and gendered impact of COVID‐19: Perspective of a counselling
psychologist. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(5), pp.827-832.
Taylor, S.P., 2018. Critical realism vs social constructionism & social constructivism:
application to a social housing research study. International Journal of Sciences: Basic
and Applied Research, 37(2), pp.216-222.
Tiefer, L., 2018. Social constructionism and the study of human sexuality. In Sex is not a Natural
Act and Other Essays(pp. 15-29). Routledge.
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