What is material or structural explanation?
Christopher Snyder
Published Apr 10, 2026
Similarly, it is asked, what is a structural explanation?
Another good definition says that a structural explanation is a causal explanation that cites a structure as a cause. The new definition is needed because many examples of explanations in the social sciences that seem, intuitively, to be structural explanations meet the new definition but not the old one.
Similarly, what defines cultural behavior? Cultural/behavioural explanation
These behaviours, which are well known and typically comprise smoking, drinking, diet and exercise (Blaxter, 1990), were regarded as 'cultural' because of the common understanding that they are, or should be, within the control of individuals.
Just so, what is the artefact explanation?
Artefact explanations seek to account for inequalities in health as a construct of the measurement process. The Black Report believed that the artefact explanation was relatively unimportant in accounting for the persistence of class inequalities in health.
What is the social selection explanation?
Abstract Social selection, or the idea that an individual's health can influence their social mobility and, hence, their position in the social hierarchy, has been suggested as an important element in the process which produces social class difference in health.