Question

What is relationship between race, ethnicity, gender, and social class and physical and emotional (mental) health?

Answer 1

Sex/gender and race/ethnicity are complex traits that are particularly useful and important because each includes the social dimensions necessary for understanding its impact on health and each has genetic underpinnings, to varying degrees.

Gender

Gender simply refers to the physical difference which help us to recognise the sex i.e. if that person is male or female.From the past years females are seen to be submissive over male and presently too we might see women working along men but at some point of time they still have to fight for themselves. And their struggles might have lead them to mental disorder.

Race

In biology, races are genetically distinct populations within the same species; they typically have relatively minor morphological and genetic differences. Though all humans belong to the same species (Homo sapiens), and even to the same sub-species (Homo sapiens sapiens), there are small genetic variations across the globe that engender diverse physical appearances, such as variations in skin color.Racism and racial discrimination create a unique environment of pervasive, additional stress for people of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.² These repeated traumatic interactions can result in reduced self-esteem and internalized hatred as they’re forced into conservative and apologetic thinking.

Ethnicity

Race is associated with biology, whereas ethnicity is associated with culture. Ethnicity is the term for the culture of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion and customs. To be a member of an ethnic group is to conform to some or all of those practice.

Social class

A social class is a set of subjectively defined concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories,^[1] the most common being the upper, middleand lower classes.

Today, concepts of social class often assume three general categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional workers, small business owners and low-level managers; and a lower class, who rely on low-paying wage jobs for their livelihood and often experience poverty.

Physical health

Physical health can be defined as a state of well-being when all internal and external body parts, organs, tissues, and cells can function properly as they are supposed to function. This physical health definition also includes physical health as a state of physical well-being in which a person is physically fit to perform their daily activities without restrictions. Good physical health means that, for example, our ears can generally hear, our eyes have normal vision, our legs can walk, jump, run, and perform many other normal activities without problems. Recruitment of rookies for military service in many countries is often based on the requirement of good physical health.

Mental health

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

• All these are the various aspects of one's personality and makes up the individual what he/she is.Personality is defined as the set of habitual behaviors, cognitions and emotional patterns that evolve from biological and environmental factors.