Chapter 13

Question 1

True or False: Sociology and Health are closely connected

Answer 1

True

Question 2

types of sociologies where health and sociology are closely connected:

Answer 2

Medical sociology
Policy sociology
Critical sociology
Social ecology and epidemiology
(*healing is achieved through social means)

Question 3

what can effect an individual’s experience of medical professions?

Answer 3

“Race”/ethnicity, gender, age, and class

Question 4

The sick/patient role (aka medical sociology)

Answer 4

• Introduced by Talcott Parson (1902-1979)
• The social aspects of becoming ill and the privileges and the obligations that come with it
• 4 expectations

Question 5

The 4 expectations of the sick role (patient role)

Answer 5

1. Should be exempted from normal social responsibilities
2. Should be taken care of instead of having to take care of themselves
3. Are socially obligated to try and get well
4. Are socially obligated to seek technically competent help

Question 6

What does structural functionalism presume?

Answer 6

the social uniformity of experiences

Question 7

E.L. Koos

Answer 7

• 1954
• critiqued Parson’s view of the sick role
• what people think/do about health is dependent on social class + people in higher occupational groups were better able to afford the sick role.
• uniformity of sick role can be based on gender, race, and age

Question 8

Ivan Emke

Answer 8

-2002
- proposed new expectations for Canadians in the sick role:
1. Patients in New Economy (NE) are responsible for their own illnesses
2. Patients in NE are “not to be trusted”

Question 9

the natural course of disease:

Answer 9

• The progress of a disease in an individual over time
• Get ill->experience symptoms->get well (or sicker and/or death)
• Medication can alleviate symptoms and speed up recovery

Question 10

the social course of disease:

Answer 10

• the social interactions that a person goes through in the process of being sick and while being treated.
• shaped by social factors: ethnic background, culture, class, age, and sex/gender

Question 11

Biomedicine:

Answer 11

the application/use of conventional Western scientific principles in the diagnoses and treatment of illness and disease (uses physical tests and physical treatments)

Question 12

Alternative (complementary) medicine:

Answer 12

-*falls outside of conventional biomedical practices
- based on the notion that a person’s psychological state affects their ability to fight diseases
- e.g. acupuncture, herbal medicine, etc

Question 13

Medicalization

Answer 13

(as defined by Chang and Christakis)
- the process by which certain behaviours or conditions are defined as medical problems… and medical intervention becomes the focus of remedy and social control
- promotes commodification of healthcare

Question 14

Medicalization has been criticized as a form of reductionism that..

Answer 14

• reduces medical conditions to biomedical causes without examining possible sociocultural or political factors
• reduces the human body to systems and appendages rather than a whole being

Question 15

Reductionism

Answer 15

the philosophical idea that all higher-level (e.g. social, mental or medical) phenomena and processes can be explained at a lower (simpler) level

Question 16

Ivan Illich:

Answer 16

(1927-2002)
- introduced the notion of medicalization in the context of his critique of radical monopolies
- also came up with the concept of iatrogenesis.

Question 17

Radical monopolies (Ivan Illich)

Answer 17

The autonomy to decide whether to use a technological device or not (aka-depriving patients of care that isn’t provided by doctors)

Question 18

Iatrogenesis (Ivan Illich)

Answer 18

harm brought forth by a healer or any unintended outcome because of a health care intervention, not considered the natural course of the illness or injury.
- includes doctor generated medical complications; medical troubles linked to improper prescribing and lack of info
3 kinds: Clinical, Social, and Cultural

Question 19

Clinical iatrogenesis

Answer 19

refers to the various ways in which diagnosis cause problems that are as bad or worse than the health problems they are meant to resolve (e.g. coming into hospital for one ailment and then getting another from hospital)

Question 20

Social iatrogenesis

Answer 20

occurs when political conditions that “render society unhealthy” are hidden or obscured (e.g. the lax monitoring of laws concerning workplace safety by government agencies)

Question 21

Cultural iatrogenesis

Answer 21

takes place the knowledge and abilities of the medical community are extolled or mythologised to the point where the patient receives no credit for their role in recovery… all credit goes to doctor

Question 22

“Big Pharma”

Answer 22

term used to describe large pharmaceutical companies, that made enormous profit from developing, manufacturing, and marketing drugs (ex. Mylan’s EpiPen and price increase in the US)

Question 23

Medical Sociology, “Race”, and Ethnicity

Answer 23

• immigrant doctors’ credentials are often considered insufficient
• Brain Drain: the mass emigration of educated professionals- erodes healthcare system of immigrant doctors place of origin

Question 24

what does it mean when a disease is racialized:

Answer 24

when it is strongly associated with people of a particular racial or ethnic background (people of this background are then treated negatively
- ex. covid and the chinese

Question 25

Female Doctors are MORE likely to…

Answer 25

• Enter family medicine
• Leave the profession sooner
• Work fewer hours and see fewer patients

Question 26

Female doctors are LESS likely to…

Answer 26

• Become surgeons
• Be sued for malpractice
• Join professional organizations

Question 27

Dr. Julian Tudor Hart

Answer 27

(1927-2018)
- introduced the idea of the inverse care law

Question 28

Inverse care law:

Answer 28

The availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it in the population served
- in poor areas, where need is often highest, we are more likely to see Dr. shortages, overworked Drs, and obsolete facilities and equipment

Question 29

Disability

Answer 29

a physical or mental condition that limits a persons movements, senses or conditions
- 10 different types of disabilities: Hearing, seeing, mobility, flexibility, dexterity, pain, learning, memory, developmental disabilities, mental health

Question 30

Social Constructionist models

Answer 30

the idea that any human social category- race, gender, ability, and so on- is not a totally natural category, but has an important social component (aims for substantive equality rather than formal equality)

Question 31

substantive equality

Answer 31

building modifications that guarantee people with natural impairments equal accessibility

Question 32

formal equality model

Answer 32

everyone faces and must adapt to the same socially driven architecture that gives advantages to non-disabled people

Question 33

Policy Sociology:

Answer 33

A type of sociology that uses sociological research and data to produce social change, especially through government or corporate policy

Question 34

Critical Sociology:

Answer 34

A type of sociology that challenges both established sociological theories and the research that sociologists do

Question 35

Structural-functionalist:

Answer 35

An approach that views society as being like a human body, made up of different structures, with each having a vital function in ensuring the survival of the whole body

Question 36

Reductionist:

Answer 36

denoting any unrealistic statement or theory that attempts to explain a set of phenomena by referring to a single cause
- includes class reductionism: reducing all inequality to gender, race, or ethnicity

Question 37

Cultures of Medicine

Answer 37

the recognition that different cultures have different ways of practising medicine, including different social courses of disease, different techniques, and different physical remedies

Question 38

Commodification:

Answer 38

the tendency to treat something as though it were an object to be bought or sold (in medicine it involves identifying certain conditions that might be normal and treating them with “commodity cures”)