EXAM 2: QUESTIONS BY TOPIC
Gender Differences in Health and Mortality
• What is a well-documented paradox for sex differences in morbidity and mortality? (Case
& Paxson)
• What are three possible explanations for this paradox? (Case & Paxson)
• In what way is women’s worse self-rated health but lower mortality explained by the
differential distribution of chronic diseases among men and women? (Case & Paxson)
• What do Case and Paxson’s findings tell us about differential vulnerability of men and
women to smoking-related diseases? (Case & Paxson)
• How do men and women differ in terms of self-reported health? (Ross and Bird)
• What are explanations for gender differences in self-rated health proposed by the
authors? (Ross and Bird)
• Which measures of health status are used by Gorman and Read to examine gender
differences? (“Gender Disparities in Adult Health”)
• What are their findings for each of the three measures? (“Gender Disparities in Adult
Health”)
• Which factors explain why women report worse self-rated health than men? (“Gender
Disparities in Adult Health”)
• Which social changes of recent decades have affected women’s self-rated health?
(“Working More and Feeling Better”)
• What is the main explanation for the improvements in women’s self-rated health?
(“Working More and Feeling Better”)
• What is the main explanation for the narrowing gender gap in self-rated health?
(“Working More and Feeling Better”)
• How does work-family balance affect trends in women’s health? (“Working More and
Feeling Better”)
Religiosity and Health
• How do the authors measure public religious activity, private religious activity, and
spirituality? (“Gender Differences in Religious Practices and Health”)
• How are public religious activity and spirituality related to health of women and men?
(“Gender Differences in Religious Practices and Health”)
• What are the explanations for the health benefits of public religious activity and
spirituality? (“Gender Differences in Religious Practices and Health”)
• How do religious beliefs help older African American women cope with depression and
hardship? (“The Lived Experience of Depression in Elderly African American Women”)
Masculinity and Health
• What are gender stereotypes of masculinity in our society? (“Constructions of
Masculinity”)
• How do men construct masculinity using health beliefs and behaviors? (“Constructions of
Masculinity”)
• How does chronic illness affect men’s psychological well-being and their perceptions of
masculinity? (“Constructions of Masculinity”)
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• How do social institutions promote men’s unhealthy behaviors? (“Constructions of
Masculinity”)
• What are the problems that men encounter with depression? (“Constructions of
Masculinity”)
• How do men with depression reconstruct their masculinity? (“Men’s accounts of
depression”)
• How do men with depression resist dominant masculinity? (“Men’s accounts of
depression”)
Race Differences in Mortality
• What are differences in life expectancy between African American and White men and
women? (“Black Death, White Death”)
• Why race is a fundamental cause of health and illness? (“Black Death, White Death”)
• What are reasons for persistent racial gap in mortality, especially among men? (“Black
Death, White Death”)
• Among these reasons, what is the main reason? (“Black Death, White Death”)
• What are three pathways through which early-life conditions can affect health and
mortality in adulthood? (Warner & Hayward)
• Do Warner and Hayward find direct or indirect effects of early-life conditions on race
gap in men’s mortality in later life? (Warner & Hayward)
Incarceration and Health
• What are race differences in the rates of incarceration? (“Incarceration and Health”)
• What is the effect of incarceration on health? (“Incarceration and Health”)
• Does incarceration explain racial differences in health? What is the mechanism?
(“Incarceration and Health”)
• According to the authors, what are potential policy solutions to the detrimental effect of
incarceration on health? (“No Real Release”)
Race/Gender and Mental Health
• What is health pessimism? (“Health Pessimism”)
• How do African Americans compare to Whites with respect to health pessimism?
(“Health Pessimism”)
• Which explanation is proposed by the author for the racial difference in health
pessimism? (“Health Pessimism”)
• What are differences in psychological distress (i.e. mental health) among racial/ethnic
groups? (“Racial/Ethnic Differences in Distress”)
• Are racial/ethnic differences in mental health similar to racial/ethnic differences in
physical health? (“Racial/Ethnic Differences in Distress”)
• What are three major themes in older women’s accounts of depression? (“The Lived
Experience of Depression in Elderly African American Women”)
• How do religious beliefs help these women cope with depression and hardship? (“The
Lived Experience of Depression in Elderly African American Women”)
• What are the problems that men encounter with depression? (“Constructions of
Masculinity”)
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• How do men with depression reconstruct their masculinity? (“Men’s accounts of
depression”)
• How do men with depression resist dominant masculinity? (“Men’s accounts of
depression”)
Doctor-Patient Relationships
• What is the race concordance hypothesis? (“Doctor-Patient Race Concordance”)
• How is the race concordance between the patient and the physician related to patients’
satisfaction? (“Doctor-Patient Race Concordance”)
• What are the explanations for why patients choose to be race concordant with their
physicians? (“Doctor-Patient Race Concordance”)