Sociology 2247A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Verstehen, Alternative Medicine, Devra Davis
7 May 2018
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Chapter 1 – Ways of thinking of Sociology about Health, Illness and Medicine
Intro
- We recognize illness in a social context because we have developed a vocab for it that allows us to talk
about it with people in our immediate circle or in the social world
- Unemployment is related to increased morbidity
- Increased health inequality has limited progress towards better health and health care
- The experiences or meaning of illness are constructed differently in various societies: social-
psychological conditions are linked to various diagnosis
- To define Soc of health we seek to explain some of the social causes and consequences of illness,
disease, death and disability – to show how people construct their own categories of illness/disease
- The Soc of Medicine system constructs what they deem to be illness out of what they recognize as
signs and sptos ad hat the ostitute as their respose to suh illess thru the treatet
they prescribed
o Sociology examines and offers explanations for issues like medicalization, biomedicalization the
varying types pf medical practice and medical discourse the ideology and organization of
medicine, different ways of financing med care, the structure and operation of the hospital and
the world of health care workers
- Structural Functionalism
o Auguste Cote thought that soiologs goal as to etter soiet so that it might become
orderly
o Durkheim studied social facts which are to be treated as real, external but capable of impacting
human behaviour
▪ Humans are predictable and controllable thru the power of norms
▪ Studies the social system that is broken into parts. Institutions which operate
interdependently to keep the society functioning
o Structural functionalism is associated with positivist methods
▪ Positivists view sociology as a science
▪ They believe sociology should remain objective while measuring social facts impacts on
people
o Five principles distinguish structural functionalism from others
▪ Sociology aims to discover and explain the impact of social facts on human behaviour,
attitudes, feelings
▪ Social facts are treated as things that are external to human actions and that determine
human behaviour
▪ Social facts can be seen in aspects of the social structure such as the norms that guide
behaviour through roles enacted in social institutions like family and social behaviours
▪ Sociology is a science that describes the world in a series of universal laws
▪ It considers human behaviour objectively/quantitatively measurable
o Talott Parsos sick roles
▪ Roles rise out of institutions that is associated with people (they can be a neighbour,
friend etc)
▪ Parsos ai oer as desriig the proess that aitai soietal istitutios ad
stable workings of society
▪ Roles should be looked at in context – sickness could lead to them not being able to fill
their role
▪ It relies on four components
1) The sick perso is eept fro oral soial roles
o The hae a legit reaso to sta i ed all da
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o To be exempted, the person may need formal medical acknowledgement
o For istae, eig eept fro a ea ith a dotors ote
2) The Sick person is not responsible for his/her condition
o Sickness must be beyond the persons control, so the person is not blamed or punished
o Sympathy rather than blame is the needed reaction
3) The sick person should try to get well
o Exemption is temporary
o If the dot tr to get well, then the role is no longer legit
o They would be labelled foolish
4) The sick person should seek technically competent help and co-operate with the doctor
o The person must seek help to get well
o Parsos sees illess as a for of deiae – threatens social systems
o Medicine is the institution responsible for providing legit and justification and for bringing the
sik ak to oral
o This is a theoretical determination not empirical
1. The sick person is exempt from normal social roles
o The extend of exemption depends of the nature, severity and longevity of sickness and the
characteristics of the social role
o “tudets roles are ot foral util deadlies for papers ad tests arise – to which they require
official legitimation from a doctor
2. Sick person is not responsible for their condition
o Depends on the nature of the condition and the circumstances through which the person has
acquired the condition
o Diseases reflect moral and social worth of the person and they are blamed with a degree of
soial stiga if the didt take the right steps to aoid it
o For ex, someone getting lung cancer form smoking
o Crandal and Moriaty found diseases most related to social rejection are
▪ Those believed to be under personal onset and control
▪ Those that were severe
▪ Epilepsy, leprosy, mental illness and venereal diseases are most stigmatized
▪ Gender not a factor
o Today, cancer can be a badge of honor or growth and used for marketing (ie Movember)
3. Sick person should want to get better
o Terminal illnesses are eeptios i hih people dot hae to at to get etter – if they try
to get better once being classified as terminal they may be thought of as mentally ill
4. Sick person should seek technically competent help and co-operate with the doctor
o Dominant medical care system is allopathic medicine which treats diseases by trying to create
conditions in the body that is opposite or incompatible with the diseased state
▪ Allopathic is subjected to rejection by interest groups like pharmaceutizaliczation of
childres etal health issues
▪ Determining which profession is technically competent is problematic
o Parsons was the first to note which medical practice, ideologies, and associations with medical
institutions fulfill social control functions which is used to describe medicalization
o Contemporary positivist study human behaviour as independent and dependent variables
▪ Studying the impact of a diagnosis on the family of the ill person treats health behaviour
related to the diagnosis as the independent variable
▪ Where, when the impact of income on the incidence of the disease, human behavior
becomes dependent
o Social structures (social facts) determine peoples thoughts, behaviours and feelings
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Document Summary
Chapter 1 ways of thinking of sociology about health, illness and medicine. We recognize illness in a social context because we have developed a vocab for it that allows us to talk about it with people in our immediate circle or in the social world. The experiences or meaning of illness are constructed differently in various societies: social- Increased health inequality has limited progress towards better health and health care psychological conditions are linked to various diagnosis. To define soc of health we seek to explain some of the social causes and consequences of illness, disease, death and disability to show how people construct their own categories of illness/disease. All social arrangements, theories and methods have political and economic bases and consequences: focuses on class-based power and findings reflect the political and economic interests of the researcher. Conflict theorist use information from historical and critical focuses they may see injustice everywhere (where structural functionalists look at just the social system)
