Basic Sciences, Health, Biology & Life Sciences, Aging, Psychology - Theory, History & Research, Clinical Medicine, Biology
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Overview
This book is about health in the present-day population of the United Kingdom. A multi disciplinary team of academics and practitioners examines major health issues at different periods from conception to death. A major theme of the book is that, as the lifespan unfolds, we emerge from dependency on others to a state of interdependence in which areas of individual autonomy expand; in later life dependency tends to increase again. But how much of this trajectory is enforced by society rather than by physical and mental development and decline? A wide range of issues receive attention: for example, have antenatal care and childbirth become dominated by inadequately-evaluated medical technology? Have we underestimated the contribution of psychological development to health in childhood? Are accidents to children due to inadequate parental supervision or have urban environments become too dangerous to explore? Is risk-taking an essential step in the transition from adolescence to adulthood? The tension between personal freedom and social pressures to conform are apparent in adult preoccupations with sexual behaviour, fertility and conflicts between paid work and domestic life. Do these stresses contribute to what is termed the mid-life 'crisis'? Do negative images of older people affect health and well-being in later life? And how does modern society shape the experience of death and bereavement?Book Details
Published
January 1, 1995
Publisher
Ballmore, Buckingham ; Published by the Open University Press in association with the Open University, 1995.
Pages
244
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780335192076