Passage
Until recently, deviance has generally been conceptualized as negative. Positive deviance (PD) is used to describe the atypical behaviors exhibited by some individuals that result in superior outcomes when compared with others in the group. Despite having similar access to limited resources, some people adopt novel strategies to problem-solve much better than their peers. For example, rural Vietnamese villages in the 1990s had child malnutrition rates approaching 70%. Despite this, certain villagers were able to nourish their children by developing innovative strategies that defied social norms. These villagers fed their children plant parts not traditionally consumed (such as the leaves of the sweet potato plant) and fed them three or four times a day (instead of the customary two meals a day). In other words, despite a lack of conventionally accepted means, these villagers engaged in alternative behaviors, or PD, to meet the societal goal of providing adequate nourishment to their children.Research into PD has focused on using these innovative individuals to catalyze change in their communities. A pilot study attempting to spread the techniques of these initial PD villagers within their own community was successful: Childhood malnutrition dropped by over 80% in two years. However, the community-based approach to changing health behaviors appears to be crucial: When an international aid organization attempted to implement a larger program based on these same practices, villagers resisted the imposed changes and it was unsuccessful.Another study assessed how PD can improve outcomes in health care settings. Patients with difficult-to-manage chronic diseases often hold deeply entrenched beliefs about how to handle their illnesses and ignore alternative strategies. PD patients, referred to as "bright spotters" in the study, are an exception. They have successfully managed to control their complex illnesses using innovative approaches such as diet modifications and unique coping mechanisms. Similar to the pilot study with Vietnamese villagers, preliminary results suggest that peer-led group activities may best allow bright spotters to teach fellow patients how to effectively manage their illnesses.
-What two competing concepts help explain why the Vietnamese community-based approach was effective and external approaches were not?

Question

Passage
Until recently, deviance has generally been conceptualized as negative.  Positive deviance (PD) is used to describe the atypical behaviors exhibited by some individuals that result in superior outcomes when compared with others in the group.  Despite having similar access to limited resources, some people adopt novel strategies to problem-solve much better than their peers.  For example, rural Vietnamese villages in the 1990s had child malnutrition rates approaching 70%.  Despite this, certain villagers were able to nourish their children by developing innovative strategies that defied social norms.  These villagers fed their children plant parts not traditionally consumed (such as the leaves of the sweet potato plant) and fed them three or four times a day (instead of the customary two meals a day).  In other words, despite a lack of conventionally accepted means, these villagers engaged in alternative behaviors, or PD, to meet the societal goal of providing adequate nourishment to their children.Research into PD has focused on using these innovative individuals to catalyze change in their communities.  A pilot study attempting to spread the techniques of these initial PD villagers within their own community was successful:  Childhood malnutrition dropped by over 80% in two years.  However, the community-based approach to changing health behaviors appears to be crucial:  When an international aid organization attempted to implement a larger program based on these same practices, villagers resisted the imposed changes and it was unsuccessful.Another study assessed how PD can improve outcomes in health care settings.  Patients with difficult-to-manage chronic diseases often hold deeply entrenched beliefs about how to handle their illnesses and ignore alternative strategies.  PD patients, referred to as "bright spotters" in the study, are an exception.  They have successfully managed to control their complex illnesses using innovative approaches such as diet modifications and unique coping mechanisms.  Similar to the pilot study with Vietnamese villagers, preliminary results suggest that peer-led group activities may best allow bright spotters to teach fellow patients how to effectively manage their illnesses.
-What two competing concepts help explain why the Vietnamese community-based approach was effective and external approaches were not?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism are competing sociological concepts. Culture describes the aspects of society that are shared by its members, such as language, norms, beliefs, and practices. Cultural relativism suggests that there are no "right" or "wrong" cultural practices. Cultural relativism advocates for examining a culture based on its own context, rather than comparing it to another culture. Ethnocentrism is the opposite of cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism describes the process of judging another culture based on one's own culture. For example, the traditional veil worn by Muslim women is a cultural practice. Judging this practice as oppressive compared with American culture is ethnocentric, but viewing the practice within the larger context of Muslim culture without judgment is an example of cultural relativism. Community-based approaches to behavior change are usually more effective than change being imposed on people, because community-based approaches tend to be culturally relativistic whereas external organizations tend to be ethnocentric. (Choice A) Prejudice and discrimination are complementary concepts. Prejudice describes negative attitudes about an individual based on group membership (eg, "women aren't good leaders"), whereas discrimination involves actions taken against an individual or group based on prejudice (eg, not giving a leadership position to a woman). (Choice C) Impression management and the dramaturgical approach are also similar (not competing) concepts. Both describe how individuals attempt to shape how they are perceived by others through actions and behaviors. (Choice D) Social networks are informal, nonhierarchical collections of people (eg, friends on Facebook), and organizations are formal and hierarchical. Coercive organizations have forced membership (eg, prisons). The concept of a coercive organization does not apply to those trying to decrease malnutrition in Vietnamese villages. Educational objective: Cultural relativism views social practices within their own cultural context, whereas ethnocentrism judges social practices based on another society's culture.

Passage Until Recently, Deviance Has Generally Been Conceptualized as Negative. Positive