People from different cultures generally attribute illness to one of four causes. Identify them and discuss their fundamental assumptions.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The four causes are (a) factors within the individual, such as bad eating and exercise habits; (b) factors within the natural environment, such as air and water pollution; (c) societal factors, such as intergroup conflict, poor health care facilities, and the like; or (d) supernatural factors, including religious beliefs, fate, and indigenous beliefs.
These attributions for health and illness reflect the particular culture’s general value orientations. For example, persons in Western cultures such as the United States, which are often individualistic, generally believe that the origins of illness are rooted in the individual patient. So ill health is often considered to be the result of the individual’s bad habits, such as poor diet, lack of exercise, damaging lifestyle choices, poor personal hygiene, alcoholism, drug abuse, or other deviant behavior. Typically, these cultures rely on a biomedical model of health care, in which the fundamental assumption is that diagnosis and treatment of illness should be based on scientific data. In many non-Western cultures, illness is often attributed to societal and/or supernatural conditions. Societal attributions are based on intergroup or interpersonal conflict within the culture. One of the most common causes of illness is thought to be witchcraft. Supernatural conditions, such as religion, pure fate, and indigenous belief systems, are also thought among certain cultures to be the origin of illness. Here, one’s ill health is believed to be caused by the intervention of a supernatural being. This is also referred to as the personalistic approach. Persons in such cultures may believe that their illness is God’s punishment for their misdeeds, such as not attending church regularly or not saying their prayers. In Western cultures, such as the United States, persons might attribute their illness to bad luck; that is, they believe that their illness is the work of fate.