SOC 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Public Health, Medicalization, Social Constructionism
29 May 2016
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Document Summary
What is health: state of mental, physical and social well being. History of sociology of health: origins, 19th century"s social medicine. Factories, labour work with lots of ppl in the same place. Public health movement: reciprocal interests between medicine and sociology after wwii. Different med and sociology: critical approaches. Sociological approach to health: studies ppl attitude toward med, interaction between doc and patients. Why sociologist study health: to understand fundamental elements of human existence, to grasp the whole picture of health, making social sense of the varied manifestations of health and illness. Sociologists study: who has power, how groups get power, consequences of having or lacking power. Emphasizes that human behaviour is influenced by definitions and meanings that are created and maintained through symbolic interaction with others: different contexts provide different meanings, help understand individual behaviours. Labeling theory: a social condition or group is viewed as problematic if it is labeled as such: becomes more important than object itself.
