Overview
Argues that in order to be truly effective, public health scientists must develop reasoning skills that are adapted to public health issues
Draws upon public health issues as wide ranging as infectious diseases, food safety and the safety of prescribed drugs and medical interventions
Reports on a large-scale, questionnaire-based survey of both members of the public and public health professionals in the US and UK
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
The book explains how scientists and lay people routinely resort to the use of these strategies during consideration of public health problems. Although these strategies are not deductively valid, they are nevertheless rationally warranted procedures. Public health professionals must have a sound understanding of these cognitive strategies in order to engage the public and achieve their public health goals.
The book draws upon public health issues as wide ranging as infectious diseases, food safety and the potential impact on human health of new technologies. It examines reasoning in the context of these issues within a large-scale, questionnaire-based survey of nearly 900 members of the public in the UK. In addition, several philosophical themes run throughout the book, including the nature of uncertainty, scientific knowledge and inquiry.
The complexity of many public health problems demands an approach to reasoning that cannot be accommodated satisfactorily within a general thinking skills framework. This book shows that by developing an awareness of these reasoning strategies, scientists and members of the public can have a more productive engagement with public health problems.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty
Authors: Louise Cummings
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15013-0
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Medicine, Medicine (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-15012-3Published: 09 April 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-36242-7Published: 06 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-15013-0Published: 27 March 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 242
Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations
Topics: Medicine/Public Health, general, Health Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Popular Science in Medicine and Health