Chapter 7 Learning Objectives

In this chapter, students should learn to do the following:

1. Understand why health and addictions are social problems.
2. Understand the differences between drugs, drug abuse, drug dependence, and tolerance.
3. Understand the biomedical view of health and the biopsychosocial views of health. Explain the difference.
4. Understand the characteristics that may lead to smoking tobacco.
5. Understand how the following theoretical perspectives explain health and addiction in society: structural functionalism, conflict theory, feminism, social disorganization theory, Merton’s strain (anomie) theory, and symbolic interactionism.
6. Understand how life expectancy, mortality rates, maternal mortality rates, infant mortality rates, under-five mortality rates, and morbidity rates can be used to understand patterns of health and illness in society.
7. Understand how mental illnesses influence Canadian populations.
8. Explain the primary causes of obesity and how obesity can be measured.
9. Understand how four different theoretical perspectives (structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and feminist theory) explain health and illness in society.
10. Understand how concerns regarding health outcomes and health-care delivery can be resolved, including preventative measures.