Social and Personality Psychology Compass †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Social and Personality Psychology Compass. Answer: Introduction: In the past 150 years, the average life expectancy has increased globally in developed and developing countries. There is gradual gain in the life expectancy among the developed countries like European countries, Australia, North America, New Zealand and Japan. On the other hand, there is a huge life expectancy gap seen in the developing countries with high adult and child mortality rates like in Eastern Mediterranean region, Asia and Latin America. This gap has led to a change in the mortality and morbidity rates since 1950s and shifted to a high mortality in the developing countries. Among the developed countries, there is increase in life expectancy due to rapid decline in mortality rates (Jones, Podolsky, Greene, 2012). The maternal mortality rates (MMR) and infant death rates has declined due to preventive measures taken by the developed countries in proper immunization during early age and efficient maternity care. There is also a shift in the trends of housing, education, sanitation, growing incomes and efficient public health measures. The better access to these facilities has contributed to the epidemiological transition, as there is proper immunization and vaccine against infectious diseases. A gradual shift of mortality and morbidity rates started 100 to 150 years ago in developed countries that took rapidly and more quickly. There are gradual improvements made in the healthcare system management to provide the best quality of care to the population and improvements in life expectancy causing death rate reduction among the adults. The maximum death (60%) in developed countries occurs above the age of 70 years whereas it is only 30% in developing countries. This statistics shows that there is a gradual shift in the death patterns between developed and developing countries as the latter experience maximum deaths at younger adult ages. However, it is only 20% in rich countries as compared to developing countries (WorldHealthOrganization., 2013). There is extreme diversity in the health conditions, as developing countries comprise of heterogeneous population in terms of mortality. The mortality statistics in the developing countries underestimate the morbidity rates. For example, the burden due to non-communicable diseases in adults like visual impairment, depression and most importantly, burden of chronic diseases. Child focus is also a reason for health promotion in developing and developed countries. The rate of global deaths is under the age of 15 years indicating that there are prevailing challenges for child health. In richer countries, there is perception to focus greatly on the adult health as it is the productive age group and makes up the countrys maximum workforce; however, premature child death has also significantly reduced. There is demographic surveillance, high income financing systems, health insurance coverage and high quality health system with better technology in developed countries that led to a gradual decline in morality and morbidity rates. On the other hand, there is burden of disease among the low-income countries like pneumonia, diarrhoea, heart disease, AIDS and stroke. On a contrary, developed countries topped the list by heart disease, stroke, followed by lung cancer, pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis. This shows that high-income countries morbidity rates are due to sedentary life style related disorders (Dahlgren Whitehead, 1991). Today, the Biomedical Model is the most dominant model of disease that deals with molecular biology and scientific discipline. It believes that deviation from the somatic (biological) variables causes disease and does not acknowledge the psychological, social and behavioural dimension of diseases. It also explains the disease is an independent entity and behavioural changes are a reason for somatic processes related to illness. There is a high prevalence of HID/AIDS among Sub-Saharan Africa among the young women (15-24) years as compared to the young men and shows a great disparity among the genders in terms of AIDS prevalence (Zealand, 2012). The reason behind this is high levels of transactional sex between the men in Botswana and young women. There is also sexual relationships that are age-disparate that increases the vulnerability of young women to HIV (Hamoudi Sachs, 2002). This shows that there is social and psychological factors related to this high HIV prevalence in Sahara region. As biomedical model management of health does not take into account the social constructions of a disease, it is not enough to understand the root cause for this high prevalence. It completely ignores the social factors related to an illness and suggests only related health problems. Most importantly, the biomedical model focuses on treatment of a disease rather than preventive measures. For the HIV reduction among the yo ung people in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is requirement of behavioural change like change in pattern and use of contraceptives, delay in sexual debut that can reduce HIV transmission. Prevention is the best strategy to reduce this high HIV prevalence in Africa through health promotion programs that can create awareness among the young people about the ill impacts of HIV on health. There should also be sentinel surveillance of the population that provide the framework for current prevalence trends and obtain accurate data to frame interventions. This is not a part of the biomedical model of disease as it focuses on treatment and not preventive measures taken to reduce the high HIV prevalence. This is another drawback of this model in addressing the root cause of this high prevalence. The model also ignores the relations between health and illness and as a result, it shows that this mode; has more disadvantages than the advantages. Rather, social model of health is a better model that might explain the high HIV prevalence among the Sub-Saharan region. The high-risk behaviours in the HIV prevalence is also important to note in the population, as high risked behaviour among the population cannot be addressed by biomedical model. The transactional sex, alcohol and drug abuse are also contributing factors for HIV prevalence that are behavioural changes that are not addressed under this model. There is also impact of psychosocial factors that need to be addressed for high HIV prevalence. However, the model does not consider these factors as human behaviour is determined by various factors encompassing the individual and environment and their interaction (Engel, 1992). Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the major causes of death in New Zealand accounting for 33% of annual deaths. In every 90 minutes, a person die from heart disease and around 172,000 people are living with CHD. It is higher among the Maori population as compared to European population becoming the leading cause of death in New Zealand. More than twice the number of Maori die from cardiovascular diseases that account for 1.5 times hospitalizations and CHD rates (www.health.govt.nz., 2016). With medical research advancements to increase life expectancies and quality of life, there is still increasing diabetes and obesity rates among the Maori community have created a virtual tsunami of CHD in New Zealand. This high rate is due to attribution of risk factors like behavioural factors, biological risks and environmental and occupational hazards. Dietary risks remain the major cause for CHD, as there is low vegetable and fruit intake, lack of physical activity, high salt and sugar in take (Chew, et al., 2016). These underlying root causes for high CHD in NZ can be explained through two models; Social Determinants of Health (SDH) and Biopsychosocial Model of Health. SDH model is a framework that helps to study the underlying causes of CHD among the Maori in NZ. The understanding of the social and physical determinants has health impact on the functioning and health outcomes. Maori have low access to resources like safe housing, food to meet their daily requirements. There is lack of education and job opportunities to avail the healthcare services and receive education to lead a healthy life. There is also lack of social support in terms of health promotion programs and because of social exclusion, there is lack of awareness among the high-risk population regarding CHD. SDH also explains that literacy and language is the biggest barrier that prevents them from seeking support from community-based resources. The physical determinants include the community design and built environment to provi de green space and sidewalks for performing physical activity management . There is lack of economic stability, inequalities of healthcare services, poor education, socio-economic conditions and family income. These physical and social determinants are important that addresses the reason behind the high CHD prevalence (WorldHealthOrganization, 2010). On the other hand, Biospychosocial Model encompasses the psychological factors along with social and biological factors that contribute to illness and health. It states that interplay of these three factors frame the health and ones predisposition to disease. The biological factors involve the genetic factors like chromosome 9p21.3 risk allele that is associated with CHD predisposition. Psychosocial factors like sadness, depression and irritability is important to address as it also contribute to the burden of disease by exacerbating the biological predisposition that put the genetically vulnerable Maori population at risk. Social determinants are also crucial to address that have an influence on the risk population like low socio-economic status, poor health literacy due to lack of education and job opportunities among them. These factors lead to lack of awareness among them regarding CHD prevention, poor participation in health promotion programs and increase in risked health behav ior (Lehman, David, Gruber, 2017). These two models explain the underlying social, physical and psychosocial factors behind CHD prevalence in NZ. Conclusion There is gradual gain in the life expectancy among the developed countries like European countries, Australia, North America, New Zealand and Japan. Whereas, there is a huge life expectancy gap seen in the developing countries with high adult and child mortality rates. A gradual shift of mortality and morbidity rates started 100 to 150 years ago in developed countries that took rapidly and more quickly. There is burden of disease among the low-income countries like pneumonia, diarrhoea, heart disease, AIDS and stroke. In country like New Zealand, coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the major causes of death in accounting for 33% of annual deaths. The Maori community have created a virtual tsunami of CHD in New Zealand. The attribution of risk factors like behavioural factors, biological risks and environmental and occupational hazards contributed to NZ burden of CHD disease. Therefore, health awareness programs are required to reduce the burden of disease in NZ. 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