This textbook helps students in the health sciences prepare for the social foundations portion of the medical college entrance exam. It provides a solid understanding of the fundamental concepts, theories, and methodologies in sociology that the exam requires. This book offers a condensed overview of the sociological concepts covered during a 15 week semester. It helps students gain an understanding of the social foundations of behavior, and the social determinants of health within the professional context of medicine. Students are provided with the necessary basics in addition to case studies, learning and research activities, recommended external resources, and study questions. These are meant to develop pre-health students' understanding of the importance of the social factors that influence health outcomes. The featured activities contain various exercises using examples of sociology of health and medicine, including social factors shaping health, social relations between doctors and patients, and the health care system, among others. As a result, this book well informs not only those who wish to prepare for the medical college entrance exam to pursue a career in the health profession, but also anyone who is interested in social perspectives on health and medicine.

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea provides an in-depth look at the lives of families in Korea that include immigrants. Ten original chapters in this volume, written by scholars in multiple social science disciplines and covering different methodological approaches, aim to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about these multicultural families. Specially, the volume expands the scope of “multicultural families� by examining the diverse configurations of families with immigrants who crossed the Korean border during and after the 1990s, such as the families of undocumented migrant workers, divorced marriage immigrants, and the families of Korean women with Muslim immigrant husbands. Second, instead of looking at immigrants as newcomers, the volume takes a discursive turn, viewing them as settlers or first-generation immigrants in Korea whose post-migration lives have evolved and whose membership in Korean society has matured, by examining immigrants’ identities, need for political representation, their fights through the court system, and the aspirations of second-generation immigrants.

Korean families have changed significantly during the last few decades in their composition, structure, attitudes, and function. Delayed and forgone marriage, fertility decline, and rising divorce rates are just a few examples of changes that Korean families have experienced at a rapid pace, more dramatic than in many other contemporary societies. Moreover, the increase of marriages between Korean men and foreign women has further diversified Korean families. Yet traditional norms and attitudes toward gender and family continue to shape Korean men and women's family behaviors. Korean Families Yesterday and Today portrays diverse aspects of the contemporary Korean families and, by explicitly or implicitly situating contemporary families within a comparative historical perspective, reveal how the past of Korean families evolved into their current shapes. While the study of families can be approached in many different angles, our lens focuses on families with children or young adults who are about to forge family through marriage and other means. This focus reflects that delayed marriage and declined fertility are two sweeping demographic trends in Korea, affecting family formation. Moreover, "intensive" parenting has characterized Korean young parents and therefore, examining change and persistence in parenting provides important clues for family change in Korea. This volume should be of interest not only to readers who are interested in Korea but also to those who want to understand broad family changes in East Asia in comparative perspective.