Assignment Task:Health Across Middle East and Asian Cultures – Medical Science Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

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Critical Essay
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Health Across Middle East and Asian Cultures
Introduction
“According to the World Health Organization, health is defined as the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1994 as cited in Sartorius, 2006, para. 1). This is the broadest definition of health, as there are multiple meanings for the term of health. Health is not only the absence of illness and disease, however it is the ability of a person to recuperate and return to their normal healthy state.
Health is very important in every individual as it is the main source for our ability to function in society. In addition, health is associated with the Well-being of a person. There are five major aspects of well-being, which includes physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual. The five aspects should not be neglected in order to be in a healthy state (Stoewen, 2017). In addition, there are several factors that influence a better health which are genetics, environment, relationships and education. These factors might explain why people have better health than others.
On the other hand, health is viewed differently across cultures. Matsumoto (1996) defines culture as “the set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual, communicated from one generation to the next” (as cited in Spencer-Oatey, 2012, p. 2). The perception and willingness of health vary dramatically across cultures. For instance, people from the US view disease as a result of natural scientific phenomena, advocate medical treatments that fights against microorganism or the implementation of advanced technology to diagnose and treat illnesses. However, other cultures believe that their disease is from supernatural phenomena which makes them rely on their religious beliefs such as praying, seeking treatment from a traditional healer or other religious rituals (How culture influences health, n.d.). The perception of health and the action of treating the illness differ from culture to culture. Since every culture has its own belief and value, people within a specific culture will eventually vary from others. This is why health is difficult to define as every culture explain the term health in a different meaning.

• Death Rituals Across Cultures
• IntroductionDeath is the problem that a person inevitably encounters as a temporary being. Each culture develops its attitude to death, and its understanding of death finds the mechanisms of reconciliation of a person with an understanding of the finiteness of their existence. The experience of one’s greatness and, at the same time, one’s mortality is one of the tense and insoluble contradictions inherent in any culture. However, in all societies, the problem of death draws attention to some fundamental cultural values. The perception of death, performed rituals and ceremonies are primarily related to the explanation, confirmation, and integration of people’s view of the world and life.
• Burial as a Ritual of Death and a Farewell Ceremony
• Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
• Examples of Muslims, Mexican, Asians
• Feast for the Dead as a Reminder of Sorrow
• Cross-cultural Comparison of Smiling Western and Eastern cultures: USA and UAE.
• Introduction Smiling is a facial expression individuals express when they are experiencing joy, pleasure, amusement, and pleasant (Abe, Beetham & Izard, 2002). A smile is formed by the contraction of muscles around the eyes and mouth (Kraus & Chen, 2013). DO NOT DO THIS:::: Smilingisused tocommunicatepsychological signals such as positive emotions, personal social status or social intentions (Willingham & Matsumoto, 2009).Several studies have supported the belief of it is good to smile and that individual who smile areperceived as happier and approachable (Otte et al, 1994). Smiling people tend to be evaluated as more positively, create in the perceiver a warm feeling and are perceived to be intelligent, more than a nonsmiling person (Lau, 1982). Smiling people are perceived more favorably than non-smiling people, people judge and perceive them as happier, competent, friendly and more attractive (Krys, Vauclair, Capaldi, Lun, & Bond, 2016).
• According to Niedenthal (2010), there are three types of smiles that have separated functions.
• The three types are affiliative, dominance and enjoyment smiles. Affiliative smile is essential
• for maintaining social bond with others and it signals positive social intentions. Dominance
• smiles are the ones that reflect control and social status and include proud and critical smiles.
• The third smile type is enjoyment smile is when an individual smile spontaneously when
• experiencing success or pleasure.
• Eye contact perception in the West, East Asian and Middle East across cultures
• Introduction:
• Eye contact is non-verbal communication that has different meanings and beliefs across cultures. In the western culture they consider” eyes are the windows to the soul”, while in the Asian East culture “eyes are as eloquent as the tongue” and in the middle east culture “eye is the mirror of the soul” (Akechi, Senju, Uibo, Kikuchi, Hasegawa& Hietanen,2013). Also, maintaining eye contact during social interaction its an important principle for Western Europeans than for East Asians. Some cultures consider direct eye contact rude, aggressive and disrespect. In contrast, some of the cultures are using eye contact to regulate conversation and to make others pay attention to them and make them feel trustworthiness (Kleinke, 1986). This hypothesis is derived from the existing cross-cultural literature on eye contact. Cultural differences in eye contact behavior emerge from differential display rules and cultural norms in East Asian, West, and Middle Eastern cultures.
• East Asian culture:
•  Cultures in East Asian, extended eye contact can be considered rude or a challenge to power, aggressive, unacceptable and unpleasant persons. Firstly, in Japanese culture people avoid maintaining eye contact with others because it means to them rude and disrespectful. For example, Japanese show less eye contact than Canadians during face to face interaction because in their culture are taught to look at others neck or elsewhere to show respect to them(Donahue,1998). Moreover, they consider that long periods of visual communication can be interpreted as a challenge of authority (Zhang, 2006). Secondly, in China and Japan, they taught their children how to communicate politely with others. For example, Andersen, Hecht, Hoobler, & Smallwood (2003) examine that in China and Japan, children taught to show respect by avoid making intense eye contact with elders and teachers. Thirdly, Finnish and Japanese have different perspectives between averted gazes and directed gazed in communication. According to Uono & Hietanen, (2015) conducts a study to investigate cultural differences between 30 Japanese participants in the East Asian and 30 Finnish participants in Western European. Participants are required to complete gaze direction judgment task and determine whether the stimulus face was looking at them. As a result, Japanese participants categorized the model as angrier and as sadder when the model offered a direct rather than averted gaze, while gaze direction had no effect on the anger ratings of Finnish participants and they rated the model as more approachable than displays of averted gaze.