Minor in Health and Social Sciences (HSS)

Trends in the 21st century such as the prominence of health and illness in everyday life, the increasing rates of illnesses associated with people's lifestyles, occupations, individual choices, governments' decisions and the relevance of ecological factors, all accentuate the importance of analysing health and illness systematically from the perspectives of the social sciences and humanities.

The objective of the Minor in HSS is to introduce students to the rich and varied expertise from the social sciences and humanities on health phenomena. The Minor in HSS focuses on three areas of health knowledge contributed by social sciences, and based on these areas of health knowledge, the Minor in HSS is designed to attain three learning outcomes.

The first two are knowledge outcomes:

1. Students will obtain basic knowledge on the influence of psychological, social, economic, cultural, historical, and environmental factors on health-related behavior and attitudes as well as on illness and disability patterns in society and their consequences.
2. Students will be acquainted with the application of social science research approaches to the analysis of three areas of health knowledge:
   1. the impact of the psychological dimensions of individual behaviour and attitudes;
   2. the socio-economic, and cultural dimensions of individual and collective health-related behavior, attitudes, and beliefs including the structure, dynamics and roles of health organisations and social support network;
   3. the relevance of the economic and physical environment to the population’s health.

The third learning outcome is on ability:

3. Students will be able to search for and identify evidence-based social science research on health-related behaviour and attitudes as well as on illness and disability issues and patterns in society.