If you were ever formally introduced to psychology, then you recall Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning study.

http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm

These dogs were introduced to meat powder and they would respond by salivating.  Then the meat powder’s presentation was associated with a bell.  Next, they took away the meat powder and just rang the bell. The dogs continued to salivate in response to the bell in the absence of the meat powder.

Social determinants of health is an area of exploration to which I am very interested and committed because it helps us get beyond the individual risk behaviors that lead to our health choices by examining the context in which individuals make their choices. I am especially excited about investigating HIV risk through the lens of the social determinants of health. It dawned on me this morning that if you understand classical conditioning, then you “get” the impact of social forces on health understanding that certain responses or decisions have had the similar effect of conditioning on our behavior. For example, certain behaviors with negative health consequences at some point could have been paired with certain experiences, and even in the physical absence of those “stimuli”, we still have the same behavioral response. Ultimately, the point is that our individual behaviors do not exist in the vacuum of just individual’s will power.  There are forces at work that need to be teased out and confronted in order to create and form new associations with more beneficial behavioral responses. I guess the question is What or Who is ringing your bell?