Medical sociology is usually referred to as the sub branch of sociology that explores and analyses the social causes and subsequent outcomes pertaining to health and illness (Cockerham, 2014). In this context mention may be made of the health status of individuals and populations that are not uniform and consistent thereby leads to inequity. The factors governing these disparities do not necessarily emanate from the genetic predispositions of the concerned person but is largely dependent upon factors impacted by the political and social forces of a nation, social and economic practices that drive necessary changes in conjunction with personal and environmental factors. These factors together constitute the social determinants of health …show more content…
The functionalist and interactionist theories may be further elaborated for explaining the key concepts and perspectives as put forward by eminent sociologists in erstwhile years. The functionalist theory considers society as a complex system of interrelated parts that are organized in a manner to maintain its stability. Alongside social stability, maintenance of consensus and solidarity is integral to the proposition of this theory. Societal institution comprising of family, education and economy serve crucial functions for operating the societal norms. Smooth functioning of society is dependent upon various factors that share the responsibility of controlling the factors that lead to sickness thereby limiting the performance of the societal functions effectively (Healy, 2014). Hence from the functionalist perspective the stability and functionality of the society is to be ensured through proper measures taken in terms of treating an ill patient. Sociologist Talcott Parsons depicted the behavior specific to a person who is recognized to be sick. The person who is suffering from an illness is under the obligation of recovering from his condition due to certain responsibilities entrusted on him or her in the outside world. In this regard professional assistance and appropriate therapeutic interventions are sought from competent authorities to
Sociology: Some guiding principles Social exploration of health – Group & individual experiences – Unique, individual factors of health/illness BUT also shared, social factors Medical knowledge, practice, & technology – Often constructed as THE TRUTH, without reference to the historical and cultural development of medicine ‐ sociology critiques what is meant by TRUTH. Health is socially shaped – What is means to be healthy or ill shifts between generations and within generations; across cultures and within cultures 3 2/17/2016 Identifying a sociological approach Key features of a sociological approach: Social distribution and production of health patterns of health and illness eg gender, class, age Social construction of health defining and meanings of health and illness Social organisation of health social processes to manage health and illness eg power; which health services receive funding priority etc., ‘who does what and to whom’
In this assignment I hope to effectively discuss and evaluate the patterns and trends associated with health and illness within the higher and lower social classes. I am going to do this by discussing and evaluating the following explanations and perspectives within sociology; Artefact explanation, Natural or Social Selection explanation, Cultural or Behavioural explanation and Materialist or Structuralist explanation.
It is more like an integration of biology with sociology, economics, politics and other diverse academic disciplines. The establishment of such an opinion is very important for the investigation of public health, as people’s socioeconomic status, their country and government, also have great influence on their possibility of getting certain disease, their chance of receiving appropriate healthcare and the quality of the healthcare they would receive. Isolating a person’s biological state from his social, economic or political status and thereby making any conclusion would be very inaccurate, and applying this type of thinking to the whole population would be
In this assignment I will be writing about two sociological perspectives and discus there patterns and trends of health and illness to two social groups.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 1978), health can be defined not only in terms of absence of disease, injury or infirmity, but also, as a state of mental, physical and social well-being. Over the last decades, many studies have emphasized the role of social circumstances on health status. The tight link between health and a wide range of socioeconomic, environmental and demographics factors have been increasingly recognized and proffer an alternative perspective on how to consider public health, social justice and even restructuring of the health care system (Daniels et. al., 2004). The increasingly acknowledgement that health is also a result of cumulative experience of social conditions and exposure to environmental
Social determinants of health encompasses ethnicity, gender and social class. It is seen as the essential
Sociology is the function of the human society, and social problems among us. There are three different theories that I will be discussing in this essay. The theories are symbolic interactionism, The conflict theory and functional analysis perspectives. These perspectives help make up the way society thinks as a whole. All three of these perspectives are alike, as much as they are different.
Sociologists employ three major theoretical perspectives in sociology today. They are the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionism. The structural-functionalist perspective is done at a macro level and its focus is on the relationships between the parts of society. The Conflict perspective is done at a macro level and its main focus is on how the wealthy controls the poor and weak.
The Saturday night party was the place to be. Anyone who is anyone was there. John’s curfew is midnight and its 12:05. Mark had been doing quite a lot of drinking and he was John’s ride home. John questioned whether or not he wanted to get in the car with Mark, but thought about how mad his parents were going to be. He was already five minutes late. Saying to himself “Just this one time,” he decided to get in the car. John never made it home that night. Mark had rolled the car off the bridge one mile away from his house. John lost his life all because he was afraid of getting grounded. There are many situations similar to John’s, and in a lot of them, no one survives. Because of all the death and tragedy as a result of driving under the
Discuss what is meant by medicalisation and in what ways we can consider diseases to be socially constructed.
A) Compare and contrast the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist theoretical approaches to the study of society. How does each approach view society, the individual, social order, and social change? Your textbook analyzes sports in terms of various perspectives. Using the analysis of sports as a model, analyze the role of television from the functional, conflict, and interactionist approaches.
Health-care is a sociological institution within the American Culture. Health-care has many different aspects that pertain to patients, care givers and governmental approach to supply healthcare to all citizens. Sociology is the “scientific study of social behavior and human groups.” (Schaefer, 2009) Sociology plays a large role in how Americans look at our health-care systems and approach health and illness in one’s own life.
Health has been influenced by many factors such as poor health status, disease risk factors, and limited access to healthcare. All these factors are due to social, economic and environmental disadvantages. According to the World Organization (WHO) (2015), “the social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities, which is the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries”
The aim of this essay is to examine the influence that socio-economic status has on an individual’s health.
Functionalism is a macro theory that focuses upon different aspect of the sociological life. It recognises society as a single unit in which different interrelated parts combine together. A well known functionalist Parson believe that medical profession is fundamental part of this unit and plays the most important role in the development of the society. Functionalist believes that medical profession possess the highest status in the society. It is because of their strenuous and long period of study, deferred gratification and vital role they play in the society by dealing with sick people, and treating them equally, professionally and ethically. Functionalists emphasized on the recognition of medical professionals through role allocation. However, Functionalism has been criticised for the importance they have given to the physicians. According to the health studies patients receive health services from various different medical professions, but only importance of physicians is overplayed(Covington, 2008).