SOC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Dynamic Psychiatry, Health Equity, Malaria
Document Summary
He developed the concept of the sick role, which assigns a sick person rights and obligations. People occupying the sick role are not required to perform normal social roles and are not held accountable for their own condition. However, they are expected to try to get well and to seek competent doctors to help. This conception is very individualistic and does not take into account how social conditions can a ect a person"s health. Illness is a social construct: what it means to be sick (or healthy) has changed throughout history and di ers from place to place. Medicalization: the process by which problems or issues not traditionally seen as medical comes to be framed as one. Doctors have a great amount of social power, political power and prestige: They o er a universally valued product > health and longevity.
