The Tangible Factors: The Psychological Aspects Of Good Health

Good health is the most valuable gift available to the mankind on this planet. Good health is an essential pre-requisite for the persistent and adequate functioning of an individual and a society. Health of an individual is a basic necessity for carrying out day to day activities. Physical non-wellbeing is a problem not only for an individual but also for a society. A sick person’s primary concern is to maintain physical wellbeing of his body. Other pursuits of life become secondary for him.

Therefore, as Rene DuBos (1981) explains, health can be defined as the ability to work. This does not mean that healthy people are free from all health problems; it means that they can function to the point that they can do what they want to do (Cockerham,

It is consisted of tangible and intangible factors. Tangible factors are those factors which are related to the demographic variables while intangible factors represent the psychological aspect of an individual in the form of norms, values, attitude, opinions etc. In Sociology, a number of thinkers have different perceptions and views about lifestyle concept. Max Weber in his work ‘Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft’ (1921) states that lifestyle is the concrete and visible manifestation of status groups. Lifestyle reflects the status or prestige of a group or people they have and they want to have in future. So the lifestyle leads to social differentiation even within the same social class. Pierre Bourdieu (1984) analyses that lifestyle consists of social practices embedded in social structure and adherence of these social practices to the people choices. So, Bourdieu talks about the interaction between the ‘Structure’ and ‘Agency’. Thorstein Veblen (1899), observes that people follow specific ‘schemes of life’ i.e. lifestyle on the basis of their desire to show adherence to a strata which is considered to be superior to them and to make a distance from the strata which is considered

Indoor leisure activities in the form of television and internet have replaced the outdoor activities like games. This further resulted in to escalation of sedentary life style and physical inactivity.

If the situation is analysed deeply, the physical inactivity is not the single bad effect of indoor leisure activities but it also resulted in to decrease in social interaction of people that gave rise to a situation of social isolation. Man is social animal and being gregarious is the basic nature of the human-beings. In present time, most of the physical and mental problems are the result of lack of interaction between the individuals.

In addition to this, overpopulation, excessive use of modern gadgets, motorized vehicle, lack of public spaces in urban areas resulted into reduced physical activity among the people. Urbanisation and industrialisation brought with it overcrowding of the urban spaces and polluted environment as a result of heavy vehicular traffic. The pollutants emitted by these industries and motor vehicles are the big cause of breathing, lung, heart problems and