SOC246H1 Lecture : SOC246 Lecture 5
Document Summary
Winter 2012, class 5: positivist vs. interpretivist approaches to health. Positivist sociology emphasizes objective facts, things we can go out into the world and measure, precision, and quantitative ways of representing reality. Assumes that phenomena in the world are out there for us to observe. We can measure them objectively in a quantitive way. There is an emphasis on this approach in sociology. Interpretive sociology emphasizes meaning, representations and portrayals, richness and depth, and subjective aspects of the world. Deals more with subjective understanding of the world. Shows that health is multifaceted and not always easy to measure. Example: british sociologist mildred blaxter carried out a study in which she asked older people: what is health? 1. Basic concepts related to health and aging: morbidity: disease, more medical term. Abnormality or disfunction in specific bodily system. prevalence: at a given time how many people have a specific disease.
.jpg)
