Deconstructing Health Inequity: A Perceptual Control Theory Perspective

Foreword
Preface
Contents
About the Authors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Beginning the Search for Answers
	Entering the Health Inequity Field
	A Bias Towards Understanding How People Work
	A Lack of Agreement in the Field
	Could Perspective Be Part of the Problem?
	Sharing Our Journey
	The Link Between Income Inequity and Health Outcomes
		The Main Point and Some Nuances of Which to Be Aware
		A Closer Look at the Findings
		Explaining Why Income Inequity Might Have the Effect That It Does
		Alternative Views About the Research
	Pausing to Reflect
	References
2 A Closer Look at the Scientific Literature
	The Contribution of Theoretical Frameworks
	Methodological Considerations
	Seeking Conceptual Clarity
	Concluding Comments and Common Themes
	References
3 Inequity Through a Different Lens: An Introduction to Perceptual Control Theory
	Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
	The Ubiquitous Phenomenon of Control
	Invariant Laws Will Not Be Discovered Through the Study of Variability
	Mechanisms and Models
	Considering Causality
	But Doesn’t Everyone Already Know All This?
	In a Nutshell
	References
4 Health Through the Lens of Control: A Different Look at Well-Being and Being Well
	What Is Health?
	Controlling Is a Bio—Psycho—Social Process
	What Would Thinking About Health in This Way Mean?
	If We Define Health Differently, We Might Study It Differently Too
	References
5 Research Through the Lens of Control: Reflecting on What We’re Doing from a Different Vantage Point
	We Are All Controllers All the Time
		Researchers as Controllers
		Examples of Researchers’ Controlling
	It Doesn’t Matter How Closely We Scrutinise Inequity
	It Doesn’t Matter How Many Linear Causal Pathways We Construct
		It’s Loops Not Lines When It Comes to Causality
		The General State of the Literature with Regard to Causality
		Some People Seem to Know Something Is Amiss
		Every Now and then an Exciting Glimmer of Circular Causality Appears
		But with the Wrong Model We’re Still Asking the Wrong Questions
	But Wait! There’s More …
	References
6 Supercharging Our Research Efforts: A Matter of Control
	It Doesn’t Matter How Complex Our Statistical Analyses Are
		We’ll Never Spin Correlations into Causation
		Statistics Are Good but They Are Not That Good
		The Scientific Insignificance of Statistical Significance
		Life Is Not an Averaged Event
	Making It Matter
		What Could We Be Studying?
		What Model Could We Use?
		What Methods Could We Employ?
	Don’t Go Anywhere! We’re Not Done Yet …
	References
7 Yes! That Really Is What We Mean
	Researching Controllers
	Setting the Scene: Detecting Clues About Control from the Very Beginning
	The Controllers Who Made It Happen
		Hoff and Pandey
		Experimenters
		Participants and Parents
		Other People Who Were Involved in the Research
	The Procedures and Activities
		The Variables and Treatments
		The Treatment Instructions
	The Results
	What Is Striking
	What Else Is There to Say?
	References
8 But Wait, There’s More!  Control Affects Practice as Much as Research
	Acknowledging People as Controllers in Our Practices
		Patient-Perspective Care: A New Paradigm of Healthcare Based on Control
		It Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult: Patient-Led Appointment Scheduling
	Acknowledging People as Controllers in Our Health Policies and Models
		Policies Within Health That Promote Inequity
		There’s Nothing Public About Health
	References
9 Well That’s That Then. We’re All Controllers All Controlling Together. So What?
	The True Measure of Any Society Can Be Found in How It Treats Its Most Vulnerable Members
	Scientists Have Learned to Respect Nothing but Evidence, and to Believe that Their Highest Duty Lies in Submitting to It However It May Jar Against Their Inclinations
	Facts Are Stubborn Things, and Whatever May Be Our Wishes, Our Inclinations, or the Dictums of Our Passions, They Cannot Alter the State of Facts and Evidence
	The Habit of an Opinion Often Leads to the Complete Conviction of Its Truth, It Hides the Weaker Parts of It, and Makes Us Incapable of Accepting the Proofs Against It
	Truth Does not Change Because It Is, or Is not Believed by a Majority of the People
	In Questions of Science, the Authority of a Thousand Is not Worth the Humble Reasoning of a Single Individual
	We Have to Live Today by What Truth We Can Get Today, and Be Ready Tomorrow to Call It Falsehood
	I Cannot Say Whether Things Will Get Better if We Change; What I Can Say Is They Must Change if They Are to Get Better
	The Childhood of the Human Race Is Far from Over. We Have a Long Way to Go Before Most People Will Understand that What They Do for Others Is Just as Important to Their Wellbeing as What They Do for Themselves
	The so What of It All
	References
Index