Practice Quiz for Culture Specific Diseases

Practice Quiz for
Culture Specific Diseases

No. of Questions= 9

INSTRUCTIONS: To answer a question, click the button in front of your choice. A response will appear in the window below the question to let you know if you are correct. Be sure to read the feedback. It is designed to help you learn the material. You can also learn by reading the hints and feedback for incorrect answers.

1. Which of the following statements is true concerning culture specific diseases?

a) They sometimes become world-wide epidemics.

b) They are found only in small-scale societies.

c) They cause only relatively minor illnesses.

d) none of the above

2. Which of the following statements is true concerning kuru?

a) It has been found mostly among the South Foré people of the eastern New Guinea Highlands.

b) It is caused by eating pig meat that has not been thoroughly cooked.

c) Its victims die within a few days of the onset of the first symptoms.

d) none of the above

3. Which of the following was a consequence of kuru among the South Foré?

a) There was a reduction in the number of adult men relative to women.

b) People carefully cleaned up their house sites to make sure that witches could not obtain any of their hair, fingernail clippings, feces, or personal belongings.

c) The Australian government rounded up South Foré men and had them sterilized in order to prevent the inheritance of kuru.

4. Which of the following statements is true concerning mental illness?



a) It is not present in all societies.

b) All societies define people who regularly carry on animated conversations with dead relatives or other supernatural beings as being mentally ill.

c) What a culture defines as abnormal behavior is a consequence of what it defines as a modal personality.

5. Among the Saora tribe of India, young men and women sometimes exhibit abnormal behavior patterns that Western trained doctors would likely define as a mental disorder. These young people cry and laugh at inappropriate times, have memory loss, pass out, and claim to experience the sensation of being repeatedly bitten by ants. The Saora explain this odd behavior as being due to ___________________ ?

a) the actions of supernatural beings who want to marry them

b) malaria

c) witchcraft practiced by strangers from neighboring tribes

6. Which of the societies listed below traditionally would most likely have little respect for and avoid a person who is violent and aggressive towards other people within their community?

a) Yanomamo of Venezuela and Brazil

b) Pueblo Indians of the Southwestern United States

c) none of the above

7. The culture-bound syndrome known as ______________________ occurred among the Chippewa , Ojibwa , and Cree Indians of Canada and the United States.

a) koro

b) windigo psychosis

c) amok

8. An irrational perception that one's prominent sexual body parts (penis and testes or vulva and nipples) are withdrawing into the body and subsequently being lost is a characteristic of which of the following culture-bound mental syndromes?



a) koro

b) gajdusek

c) kuru

9. Which of the following statements is true concerning culture-bound syndromes?

a) They are rare--only two or three have been discovered around the world.

b) Any of them is likely to appear in other cultures.

c) none of the above

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This page was last updated onMonday, August 08, 2005.
Copyright © 2002-2005 by Dennis O'Neil. All rights reserved.

1.	Which of the following statements is true concerning culture specific diseases?


	a)	They sometimes become world-wide epidemics.
	b)	They are found only in small-scale societies.
	c)	They cause only relatively minor illnesses.
	d)	none of the above


2.	Which of the following statements is true concerning kuru?


	a)	It has been found mostly among the South Foré people of the eastern New Guinea Highlands.
	b)	It is caused by eating pig meat that has not been thoroughly cooked.
	c)	Its victims die within a few days of the onset of the first symptoms.
	d)	none of the above


3.	Which of the following was a consequence of kuru among the South Foré?


	a)	There was a reduction in the number of adult men relative to women.
	b)	People carefully cleaned up their house sites to make sure that witches could not obtain any of their hair, fingernail clippings, feces, or personal belongings.
	c)	The Australian government rounded up South Foré men and had them sterilized in order to prevent the inheritance of kuru.


4.	Which of the following statements is true concerning mental illness?


	a)	It is not present in all societies.
	b)	All societies define people who regularly carry on animated conversations with dead relatives or other supernatural beings as being mentally ill.
	c)	What a culture defines as abnormal behavior is a consequence of what it defines as a modal personality.


5.	Among the Saora tribe of India, young men and women sometimes exhibit abnormal behavior patterns that Western trained doctors would likely define as a mental disorder. These young people cry and laugh at inappropriate times, have memory loss, pass out, and claim to experience the sensation of being repeatedly bitten by ants. The Saora explain this odd behavior as being due to ___________________ ?


	a)	the actions of supernatural beings who want to marry them
	b)	malaria
	c)	witchcraft practiced by strangers from neighboring tribes


6.	Which of the societies listed below traditionally would most likely have little respect for and avoid a person who is violent and aggressive towards other people within their community?


	a)	Yanomamo of Venezuela and Brazil
	b)	Pueblo Indians of the Southwestern United States
	c)	none of the above


7.	The culture-bound syndrome known as ______________________ occurred among the Chippewa , Ojibwa , and Cree Indians of Canada and the United States.


	a)	koro
	b)	windigo psychosis
	c)	amok


8.	An irrational perception that one's prominent sexual body parts (penis and testes or vulva and nipples) are withdrawing into the body and subsequently being lost is a characteristic of which of the following culture-bound mental syndromes?


	a)	koro
	b)	gajdusek
	c)	kuru


9.	Which of the following statements is true concerning culture-bound syndromes?


	a)	They are rare--only two or three have been discovered around the world.
	b)	Any of them is likely to appear in other cultures.
	c)	none of the above