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MED 110- MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY > 2. QUESTIONS BASED ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH BOOK > Flashcards

2. QUESTIONS BASED ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH BOOK Flashcards

1
Q
  1. What is Sociology a scientific approach of?
A
  • it is a Scientific Approach to understanding people in society
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2
Q
  1. What do social structures exert on individuals?
A
  • they exert influence over our behaviour
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3
Q
  1. What do Sociological Perspectives on Health emphasise?
A
  • they emphasise that it is vital to understand the social
  • this allows us to understand health and illness to a much better extent
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4
Q
  1. What do Sociological Perspectives on Health emphasise?
A
  • they emphasise that it is vital to understand the social
  • this allows us to understand health and illness to a much better extent
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5
Q
  1. What does the Sociological Imagination invite us to do?
A
  • they invite us to think beyond our own subjective perceptions
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6
Q
  1. Why are Sociological theories useful?
A
  • they are useful in moving away from common-sense understandings of society
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7
Q
  1. What is Sociology concerned with?
A
  • the study of human society
  • specifically key issues: such as the change and distribution of power between different social groups
  • it looks at the interactions between individuals and groups
  • as well as the interaction between groups and other groups
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8
Q
  1. What is Sociological imagination?
A
  • it is a way of thinking that requires you to adopt a critical and questioning approach to even the most mundane aspects of social life
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9
Q
  1. What is Sociological knowledge based on?
A
  • it is based on the scientific approach
  • this approach is built upon evidence to support theoretical perspectives
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10
Q
  1. What does the term Society refer to?
A
  • it refers to the structural factors that influence our beliefs and our behaviour
  • these factors establish some predictability and regularity in our lives
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11
Q
  1. What does socialisation into the norms and values of a particular society bring about?
A
  • it enables us to predict and make sense of the behaviours of others and of ourselves
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12
Q
  1. What does Society provide us with?
A
  • it provides us with cultural resources to live in the social world
  • it teaches us patterns of behaviour, responses and ways of behaving
  • these teachings exist outside any one individual, and were invented a very long time ago
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13
Q
  1. What is present with most human encounters within a specific society?
A
  • there are roles to be played out
  • responses to be predicted
  • cues to be acted upon
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14
Q
  1. What determines how people act?
A
  • the way we act is not our own personal invention
  • it emerges out of the society in which we live
  • the ways we act, behave and think are shaped by a number of subtle, direct and indirect processes over our whole lives
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15
Q
  1. What kind of relationship exists between individuals and the society or structure in which they live?
A
  • a specific and distinct one
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16
Q
  1. Will each person in the same social class category have identical experiences?
A
  • NO
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17
Q
  1. What are two things that can be determined based on social class?
A
  • morbidity rate
  • mortality rate
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18
Q
  1. What allows us to justifiably place people in specific groupings?
A
  • the sufficient amount of similarities in patterns of health within the social class
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19
Q
  1. In which fields of life can these similar experiences be seen in?
    Name 5
A
  • income levels
  • availability of local resources
  • availability of doctors in their geographical locations
  • their physical environment
  • patterns of expenditure
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20
Q
  1. What two terms explain the relationship between society and the individual?
A
  • structure
  • agency
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21
Q
  1. What is the concept of agency?
A
  • this concept determines the way in which we are shaped by society
  • and how we can then shape society
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22
Q
  1. Provide a definition of an agent?
A
  • an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure
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23
Q
  1. Within biology and medicine, what factors do we look at when examining a person’s state of health?
A
  • we look at the state of the person
  • the risk of infection of the person
  • an ability to fight the infection
  • genetic predispositions
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24
Q
  1. Within sociology, what factors do we look at when examining a person’s state of health?
A
  • social and environmental factors
  • age
  • social class
  • gender
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25
Q
  1. How is sociology relevant to the health?
A
  • it helps us understand and explain health
  • in terms of how health is related to and affected by a person’s social structure
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26
Q
  1. What does a sociological understanding of health consider?
A
  • it considers structural and social factors
  • rather than just biological explanations of health and disease
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27
Q
  1. Is the discipline of sociology modern or an older teaching?
A
  • it is fundamentally a modern one
  • this is because it is always trying to explain, anticipate and alter a rapidly changing world
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28
Q
  1. Where are the structures and relationships of sociology derived from?
A
  • industrialism
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29
Q
  1. Who are the four Founding Fathers of Sociology?
A
  • Comte
  • Durkheim
  • Weber
  • Marx
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30
Q
  1. What us the underlying motivation of sociology?
A
  • to reveal the reality of social relationships
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31
Q
  1. What kind of explanations are sociological ones?
A
  • rational
  • empirical
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32
Q
  1. What is the basis of scientific explanations?
A
  • they are consistent
  • they can contradict themselves at times
  • they must accord with evidence
  • the explanation itself must be changed if evidence disproving it is found
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33
Q
  1. What is one crucial difference between sociological and scientific explanations?
A
  • the methods employed to uncover evidence are completely different
  • natural sciences can use an experimental method to find evidence as their subject matter can be simply measured
  • sociologists cannot use experimental methods as they are testing human society, human behaviour, actions and their meanings, consciousness
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34
Q
  1. Why is the study of sociology liberating?
A
  • it teaches the appreciation of cultural variety
  • it allows an insight into the working of social institutions
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35
Q
  1. What does Social Imagination urge us to do?
A
  • it urges us to think outside of our own experiences
  • to depart from what is referred to as common-sense explanations
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36
Q
  1. What are common sense explanations?
A
  • an explanation of phenomena based on limited observations of human behaviour
    and on our own limited experiences of the social world
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37
Q
  1. What 3 Fundamental Questions does Sociological Imagination bring about?
A
  1. What is the structure of this particular society?
  2. Where does this society stand in human history?
  3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and this period?
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38
Q
  1. What is ensured when these questions are asked and answered?
A
  • there are no assumptions made about what is being studied
  • that the context, both cultural and historical, is taken into account when considering any explanation of what is observed
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39
Q
  1. What is a fundamental concern of Sociology?
A
  • the distribution if power in society
  • and it’s consequences
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40
Q
  1. What is the product of inequality in terms of Health?
A
  • it is literally a matter of life and death
  • it is a result of social disadvantage
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41
Q
  1. What is a Theory in common-sense terms?
A
  • it is a set of ideas or propositions used to explain and predict social phenomena
  • it is derived from a particular perspective or worldview
  • it only permits certain kinds of explanations
  • usually rational and scientific ones that do not tolerate explanations that cannot be evidenced
  • they can sometimes be heavily based on opinion rather than on facts
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42
Q
  1. What is a paradigm?
A
  • it is a description of the interactions of human beings within any society
  • paradigms are broad viewpoints or perspectives that permit social scientists to have a wide range of tools to describe society,
  • they can use this to build hypotheses and theories
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43
Q
  1. Should sociological explanations share characteristics with scientific explanations?
A
  • yes
  • they should both be consistent
  • they must accord with evidence
  • they must change if evidence can be found to refute them
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44
Q
  1. What are sociological theories characterised by?
A
  • the need to be consistent
  • the need to be evidenced
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45
Q
  1. What is the difference between a sociological and a common-sense theory?
A
  • a sociological theory goes beyond what we can see and measure
  • this allows us to explain phenomena in which we have no direct experience
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46
Q
  1. What is the medical model of health about?
A
  • it has a mechanistic (purely physical) view of the body
  • it has a reliance on biological causation to explain illness
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47
Q
  1. What does the social model of health provide?
A
  • it provides a holistic approach
  • it stresses that health and illness can only be explained by analysing the social
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48
Q
  1. What are the limits to the social model of health?
A
  • it can overemphasise the role of the social
  • it can forget that health is experienced in the human body
49
Q
  1. What do theories of wellbeing attempt to capture?
A
  • they attempt to capture a holistic and rounded account of people’s lives
  • they go beyond the binaries of health and illness
50
Q
  1. What do Traditional medicine and Alternative therapies provide?
A
  • they provide other models and ways of thinking about health and well being
51
Q
  1. What does the Sociological Imagination urge us to do when it comes to health and well being?
A
  • it urges us to think of health and well being in a radically more different and open minded manner
52
Q
  1. What is Biomedicine?
A
  • a principle way of understanding health and illness in a global culture
  • it is widely accepted by the medical profession and the lay

-the lay: non-professional population

53
Q
  1. How many defining characteristics are there to the medical model of the explanation of health?
54
Q
  1. Name the 5 defining characteristics to the medical model of the explanation of health?
A
  1. Mind-Body Dualism
  2. Mechanical Metaphor
  3. Technological Imperative
  4. Reductionist Tendency
  5. Doctrine of Specific Aetiology
55
Q
  1. What does Mind- Body Dualism refer to?
A
  • it refers to an acceptance of the mind and the body as 3 separate entities when it comes to treating the patient
  • the subject of the medicine is the physical body
  • the focus is not placed on what may be the “problematic” mind
56
Q
  1. What does Mechanical Metaphor refers to?
A
  • it refers to the idea that medicine is said to refer to the body as a machine
  • the belief that the functioning of the body is determined by biological and scientific laws
  • knowing how the body functions allows medical practitioners to repair any disfunction
57
Q
  1. What does Technological Imperative refer to?

Imperative= of vital importance

A
  • the significance attached to medical methods of intervention in treating the body
  • intervention can be surgical or pharmacological
58
Q
  1. In Biomedicine, what is usually overemphasised?
A
  • the curative (able to cure disease) element of biomedicine
  • this takes away focus from the beneficial contributions of lifestyle changes (dietary or environmental changes)
59
Q
  1. What does the Reductionist Theory refer to?

Reductionist= analysing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents

A
  • there is a tendency in BioMedicine to reduce all explanations of the physical workings of the body
  • the medical model of health tends to not acknowledge both the social and psychological factors that influence health
60
Q
  1. What does the Doctrine of Specific Aetiology refer to?

Doctrine= a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group

Aetiology= the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition

Causation= the action of causing something

A
  • the belief that all disease originates from specific and knowable causes
61
Q
  1. What is a criticism aimed at the Medical Model of Health?
A
  • that it can do both good and harm
62
Q
  1. What is the concept of Iatrogenesis?

Iatrogenesis= relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment

A
  • this refers to any harm caused by a doctor
  • this means that the patient would not have been harmed had they not experienced medical intervention
63
Q
  1. What is ‘Clinical’ Iatrogenesis?
A
  • the harm caused to a patient through drug therapies, doctors or hospital
64
Q
  1. What is ‘Cultural’ Iatrogenesis?
A
  • a dependence on medicine to cure and to care for people
  • this causes people to no longer take responsibility for their own health problems and the diagnosis of these
  • patients no longer seek out alternative explanations or remedies for their health
65
Q
  1. What is the result of ‘Cultural’ Iatrogenesis?
A
  • it leads to a situation called a ‘medical nemesis’
  • this means that the harm caused by medicine is difficult to eliminate
    EXCEPT by suggesting further medical intervention
  • this results in even more harm
  • it becomes a vicious cycle
66
Q
  1. How has medicine prolonged the lives of people?
A
  • through radical interventions (such as organ transplants)
  • through elimination of pain that is caused by minor ailments (such as headaches and period pains)
  • this is why there is such a reliance and dependency on medicine
67
Q
  1. What has been the most beneficial aspect of medicine?
A
  • it has transformed yesterday’s killers into today’s modern nuisances
68
Q
  1. What is the medical model?
A
  • a specific way of thinking about and explaining diseases
  • it is based on biological factors
69
Q
  1. What does the fluid nature of Medical Knowledge result in?
A
  • it results in some elements of the medical model changing importance over time
70
Q
  1. What causes the fluidity of medical knowledge and its changes over time?
A
  • this is, in part, due to the socially constructed nature of medical knowledge
71
Q
  1. What is Social Constructionism?
A
  • it is an emphasis on the extent to which society is actively and creatively produced by human beings
72
Q
  1. What are Social Worlds?
A
  • they are interpretive nets woven by individuals and groups
73
Q
  1. What does the term Paradigm refer to?
A
  • it refers to a model or mode of thought
  • it is a particular way of seeing the world
  • it sets boundaries to what we see, how we record and measure information
  • it helps us understand which factors are significant and which are not
74
Q
  1. How has Medical Knowledge about Health and Disease become more specialised?
A
  • the focus is first on the whole person
  • then specific parts of the body are examined
  • finally, the construction of cells is analysed
75
Q
  1. Which is currently more important in medicine: theoretical/learned knowledge or experimental knowledge?
A
  • theoretical/learned knowledge
76
Q
  1. What happens when there is a paradigm shift?
A
  • there is a shift in the nature of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient
77
Q
  1. What distinguishes diseases from the past from the conditions of today?
A
  • the conditions of today have social causes
78
Q
  1. What does it mean when Sociologists say that: “diseases and poor well being are caused by social aspects”?
A
  • it means that various aspects of the societies that we live in are not good for our health or our well being
  • these aspects include: inequality, racism, sexism, lack of control, lack of purpose and lack of meaning
79
Q
  1. Can you name 4 Risk Factors that are biologically proven to negatively affect a person’s health?
A
  • poor diet
  • smoking
  • lack of exercise
  • drinking too much
80
Q
  1. What fraction of a person’s health is determined by these biological risk factors.
A
  • only a third
  • the other 2 thirds are a result of society in which we live
81
Q
  1. What is the main aim of the Social Model of Health?
A
  • it is to place health into a social context
  • it is to understand health as something that emerges from many different processes and influences that include and go beyond the purely biological
82
Q
  1. What does Sociology suggest when it comes to what makes an individual have poor health?
A
  • it is not just the individuals lifestyle choices that lead to them having good or bad health
  • it also comes down to the society the individual lives in and how this affects them
83
Q
  1. How does the society in which we live have an affect on our health?
A
  • various social processes create the context in which we exist
  • this then provides us with resources
  • this then decides the opportunities we have
  • it faces us with challenges that either enable or prevent us from living a healthy, rewarding and fulfilling life
84
Q
  1. What can sociologists who follow the social model tend to overemphasise?
A
  • they overemphasise the social to the point where they forget that there are fleshly, biological bodies
    THAT EXPERIENCE pain, discomfort and illness
85
Q
  1. What do many Sociologists suggest we develop with regards to health models?
A
  • they suggest we develop more nuanced models of thinking about health
  • models that capture the richness and depth of all the multiple processes which shape our health
86
Q
  1. What can the Social Model of Health be overly critical of?
A
  • the medical profession
87
Q
  1. What are 4 challenges that have led to the Medical Profession losing power over time and being more prone to open Criticism?
A
  1. Patient’s knowledge on their diseases
  2. Alternative Practitioners
  3. Clinical Autonomy
  4. Private Pharmaceutical Corporations
88
Q
  1. How does a patient’s knowledge on their disease negatively affect the Medical Profession?
A
  • patients are generally better informed about their conditions than they were in the past
  • especially those with chronic illnesses
  • they can discredit the information the medical practitioner gives them
89
Q
  1. How do Alternative Practitioners negatively affect the Medical Profession?
A
  • they raise serious questions about the effectiveness of conventional treatments
  • they question the potentially damaging long-term effects of conventional treatments
90
Q
  1. How does Clinical Autonomy negatively affect the Medical Profession?
A
  • Clinical Autonomy comes from Governments
  • they seek to regulate medical and other health professions
  • this can limit the creativity and the free will of the doctor
91
Q
  1. How do Private Pharmaceutical corporations negatively affect the Medical Profession?
A
  • they influence and set the health agenda
  • this can be very biased towards a specific goal
92
Q
  1. What is the Hedonic Approach to well being?
A
  • well-being is a result of living a happy and pleasurable life
  • the aim is to maximise happiness and to dispense negative feelings when they arise
  • health is a result of living a satisfactory life, with an abundance of positive moods and an absence of negative ones
93
Q
  1. Provide a definition foe Hedonic Psychology?
A
  • it is the study of what makes experiences and life pleasant or unpleasant
  • it is concerned with feelings of pleasure and pain
  • it is also concerned with boredom, joy, sorrow, satisfaction and dissatisfaction
94
Q
  1. What is the Eudaimonic Approach to health?
A
  • this views health as a result of achieving happiness in the long run
  • it believes happiness in a life-long task
  • it about reaching out to others and finding meaning in what one does
  • this may involve the individual to forgo short term pleasure and happiness in pursuit of a long term deeper sense of self
95
Q
  1. What is crucially stated by the Eudaimonic approach to well being?
A
  • negative states are not to be avoided
  • they are to be accepted if they are necessary in gaining a fuller life
  • life is a project
  • where deeper moments of self-realisation and self-confirmation are necessary
  • these are achieved by engaging in meaningful endeavours and activities
96
Q
  1. How is well being viewed in the Eudaimonic approach?
A
  • it is viewed as a process
  • it is something we do together
  • it recognises that well being and environment are interlinked
97
Q
  1. What is “Disneyfication”?
A
  • it is a form of criticism of the Hedonic and Eudaimonic views of health
  • it claims that these views of health emphasis a false emotional self
  • where all is wonderful and optimistic
  • this overlooks and ignores natural negative emotions which do not neatly fit into these views
  • these emotions are not dealt with and are treated as though they do not exist
  • this can do more harm than good
98
Q
  1. What is Californication?
A
  • it is a form of criticism of the Hedonic and Eudaimonic views of health
  • is judges the belief that everyone is meant to be happy and balanced all the time
  • and if you are not, then there is a severe issue with you
  • which the psychiatrist must deal with at once
99
Q
  1. What is it to have a Eurocentric mindset?
A
  • it is to believe that western medicine is the only way of treating others
  • to believe that western customs are superior to those of traditions and cultures elsewhere
100
Q
  1. What view point do both traditional and alternative medicines share?
A
  • they view treatment as a holistic understanding of what it wrong with the patient
  • they look holistically at what causes poor and good health
  • how external circumstances affect the health of a person
101
Q
  1. How would one describe Traditional Medicine?
A
  • it is typically found in the global south
  • it draws deeply on experiences, beliefs and the culture of a particular society
  • it has a very long history
  • it is the sum total of the knowledge, skill and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences that are indigenous to different cultures
  • even if these beliefs are explicable or not
  • these medicines are used in the maintenance of health, as well as the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness
102
Q
  1. How would one describe Alternative Medicine?
A
  • it is typically found in the global north
  • it is popular among people who are dissatisfied with conventional medicine
  • they often draw on information from other traditional medicines, but they lack the cultural roots in the society in which they are adopted
103
Q
  1. What causes variations in the form of Traditional medicines used?
A
  • the traditional medicine tactics used vary by country and region
  • there is always an emphasis on some sort of holism
  • as well as a belief in spirits or magic
104
Q
  1. What do Traditional healer’s look at?
A
  • they look at the cause of a patient’s misfortune/illness
  • they look at it in the context of social, natural and spiritual environments
105
Q
  1. Where are the remedies used in Traditional Medicines derived from?
A
  • they are derived from medicinal plants
  • from herbs
  • from animal sources
106
Q
  1. Can there be a cross-over between alternative and traditional medicines.
    Provide an example.
A
  • yes there can be
  • Ayurvedic medicine is a traditional medicine used in India, where it originated
  • it is a holistic approach that focuses on balancing life forces, exercise and diet
  • it is also commonly used in Europe and North America
  • these places lack the roots, heritage and culture to this traditional medicine that they have adopted
  • therefore, it is seen as alternative medicine
107
Q
  1. Why do people choose traditional care?
A
  • it may align with their cultural beliefs
  • accessing medical doctors may be impossible due to poor infrastructure, lack of roads and lack of transport services
  • visiting a doctor is very costly
  • their is a relationship between socio-economic status and orthodox health care usage
  • a decreased level of income results in a reliance on traditional healers

NB: both traditional medicine and orthodox health care can be used by a patient simultaneously

108
Q
  1. What did the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Traditional Medicine Strategy of 2014-2023 propose?
A
  • we should harness the potential contribution of traditional medicine to health, wellness and people centred health care
  • we should promote safe and effective use of traditional medicine by regulating, researching and integrating traditional medicine products, practitioners and practice into appropriate parts of the health care system
109
Q
  1. How can Complementary and Alternative Medicine be defined?
A
  • it describes any practices that fall outside the boundaries of conventional medicine
  • they deal with the unity of the mind, body and spirit
  • it is a non-conventional medicine that can be used in conjunction with western biomedicine rather than as a radical alternative
110
Q
  1. What are the categories that Complementary and Alternative Medicine can be divided into?
A
  • physical
  • psychological
  • paranormal
  • practices that demand high training
  • do it yourself and at home practices
111
Q
  1. How has BioMedicine sought out to emphasise a further distinction between itself and alternative medical practices?
A
  • it has asserted supremacy of science over superstition
  • it has committed itself to dealing only with scientific methods which are free from social or political bias
112
Q
  1. How has BioMedicine positioned itself to be viewed as the “truth”?
A
  • it is based on scientific observation of natural phenomena
  • it conducts tests and research on these phenomena
  • this brings about accurate results that can be repeated
  • this repetition of the result values brings about validity
  • this allows laws facts to be written and proved about these natural phenomena
  • alternative medicine cannot produce the same kind of testing
113
Q
  1. Can BioMedicine and Alternative Medicines both be accepted and why?
A
  • yes they can
  • they are equally valid conceptions of the body, health and disease
  • they just have criteria that the other does not
114
Q
  1. List 4 differences between Alternative Medicine and BioMedicine.
A

1.
Alternative Medicine: health is viewed as a balance of
opposing forces within the body
BioMedicine: health is viewed as an absence of the
disease

2.
Alternative Medicine: the disease indicates that there is a
presence of negative, disruptive
forces within the body.
symptoms are a product of the
body’s attempt to get rid of toxic
substances
BioMedicine: disease is defined in relation to a specific
part of the body.
diseases are a deviation from the normal
functioning of the body

  1. Alternative Medicine: ‘reading’ the body, examining the
    dietary habits, lifestyles and
    constitution types help to bring
    about a diagnosis with regard to the
    patient’s health
    BioMedicine: a diagnosis is achieved by examining the
    form and structure of the specific organism
    and the degree to which the presence of the
    disease indicates a deviation from normal
    functioning
  2. Alternative Medicine: the therapy is based on an attempt
    to strengthen vitalising, positive
    forces within the body
    BioMedicine: therapy consists of attempts to destroy or
    suppress disease
115
Q
  1. What are some reasons why Contemporary and Alternative medicine are being favoured instead of BioMedicine?
A
  • people are less likely to put their effort into communal goals and activities, such as a communal orientation to health
  • people are more likely to seek private solutions to their problems
  • alternative and contemporary medicine fits this trend as the individual seeks out the solution for themselves
  • people are not fond of the unequal power relationships between the patient and the doctor in BioMedicine
  • alternative and contemporary medicine brings about a more equal power sharing relationship between practitioners and patients because the practitioners pay attention to the patient’s personal circumstances
  • BioMedicine has medicalised many aspects of human existence in an inhumane way
  • Seeing the disease as a purely biological entity is not always beneficial.
  • it does not satisfy the patient’s need to understand why they have developed the illness
  • people are now preferring natural remedies over chemically produced ones
116
Q
  1. What are the limits of BioMedicine?
A
  • biomedicine is unable to cure certain diseases
  • it does not place enough emphasis on the causes of illness
  • it is preoccupied with relieving symptoms
  • the side effects of biomedical treatment are potentially harmful
  • biomedical treatments can be too drastic and too invasive
117
Q
  1. What are the benefits of alternative medicine?
A
  • they provide an explanation of the causes of ill health
  • they put the disease in context of a person’s individual lifestyle
  • they provide a more egalitarian (equal) relationship between the patient and the practitioner
  • they offer an alternative to high tech medicine
  • they treat the person as a whole
  • they encourage individuals to take greater responsibility for their health
118
Q
  1. How is Alternative Medicine portrayed in a sense of post modern society?
A
  • it expresses a greater desire for self determination and choice
  • it challenges the cultural dominance of biomedicine
  • it reflects a more general trend for maintaining the body through purchase of consumer goods and services

MED 110- MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY (25 decks)

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