Cultural Beliefs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cultural Beliefs - Essay Example This paper describes the perceptions in the PEN and how affects the sub-African Saharans behavior regarding their health problems. Cultural Beliefs Culture is a set of rules and beliefs, traditions among other things like art and religion, that is shared by a society. It is where values and behavior is rooted and it is therefore enough to influence perception, judgment, and of course, behavior. AIDS is one of the prevalent diseases in the Sub-Saharan Africa with the rate of 6.1%. It is in fact, one of the worst diseases in the continent, affecting 22.5 million people (HIV positive). AIDS is caused sexually, and sexual practices are behavioral. Since behavior is cultural, it is therefore logical to conclude that one can actually control certain behaviors through culture. In this case, the PEN-3 model, which was created to address and integrate culture in the development, implementation and evaluation of health programs. The PEN-3 model is composed of three domains. These three domains are also composed of another 3 sections each. The three domains are: cultural identity, relationships and expectations and culture and empowerment. Culture and empowerment is a domain that is composed of three more factors which are positive, existential and negative perceptions. They represent all the good and bad facets of culture, hence the positive and negative perceptions.