Chapter 2

Question 1

A debated concept based on the assumption that all societies require certain functions to be performed for them to survive and maintain social order. Also, known as functional imperatives.

Answer 1

Functional prerequisites

Question 2

Behaviour or activities that violate social expectations about what is normal.

Answer 2

Deviance

Question 3

A concept used by Talcott Parsons to describe the social expectations of how sick people are expected to act and of how they are meant to be treated.

Answer 3

Sick role

Question 4

An economic and social system based on the private accumulation of wealth.

Answer 4

Capitalism

Question 5

A political ideology with numerous variations but generally refers to the creation of societies in which private property and wealth accumulation are replaced by state ownership and distribution of economic resources.

Answer 5

Socialism

Question 6

A vision of society based on communal ownership of resources, co-operation, and altruism to the extent that social inequality, and the state no longer exist.

Answer 6

Communism

Question 7

The growth of profit-oriented medical companies and industries, whereby one company may own a chain of health services, such as hospitals, clinics, and radiology and pathology services.

Answer 7

Medical-industrial complex

Question 8

Treating health care as a commodity to be bought and sold in the pursuit of profit maximization.

Answer 8

Commodification of health care

Question 9

Focuses on how political, economic, and ideological factors influence the distribution of power and other resources in a society, which in turn shapes individual experience and state policies.

Answer 9

Political economy

Question 10

Refers to a process of interpretative and empathetic understanding

Answer 10

Verstehen

Question 11

A term first used by Max Weber to describe the way that power is exercised to exclude outsiders from the privileges of social membership (in social classes, professions, or status groups).

Answer 11

Social closure

Question 12

The standardization of social life through rules and regulations.

Answer 12

Rationalization

Question 13

A concept originally developed by Max Weber to refer to the abstract or pure features of any social phenomenon.

Answer 13

Ideal type

Question 14

A term coined by George Ritzer to expand Weber’s notion of rationalization; defined as the standardization of social life by rules and regulations, such as increased monitoring and evaluation of individual performance, akin to the uniformity and control measures used by fast-food chains. These principles are now applied to other sectors, both locally and globally.

Answer 14

McDonaldization

Question 15

The process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical issues, usually in terms of illnesses, disorders, or syndromes.

Answer 15

Medicalization

Question 16

Focuses on the effect that social institutions and professions (such as the police, the courts, and psychiatry) have in labelling (defining and socially constructing) behaviours and activities as deviant.

Answer 16

Labelling theory

Question 17

Mechanisms that aim to induce conformity, or at least to manage or minimize deviant behaviour.

Answer 17

Social control

Question 18

A physical or social trait, such as a disability or a criminal record, that results in negative social reactions, such as discrimination and exclusion.

Answer 18

Stigma

Question 19

A term used by Erving Goffman to refer to institutions, such as prisons and asylums, in which life is highly regulated and subjected to authoritarian control to induce conformity.

Answer 19

Total institutions

Question 20

The “big picture” analysis that frames and organizes observations and research on a particular topic.

Answer 20

Meta-narratives (or meta-analysis)

Question 21

A concept used by Dorothy Smith to refer to a complex of organized practices, including government, law, bureaucracy, professional organizations, educational institutions and discourses in texts, and objectified social relations with their gender subtext, that coordinate and organize the lives of individuals. In this mode of ruling, the particular actualities of people’s everyday lives are abstracted and objectified into standardized forms of knowledge that in turn regulate, guide, and control their lives.

Answer 21

Relations of ruling

Question 22

A feminist research strategy associated with Dorothy Smith combing theory and method. It begins from the standpoint of people in the actualities of their everyday world to show how people’s social relations are organized by forces outside of them.

Answer 22

Institutional ethnography (IE)

Question 23

A system of power through which males dominate households. It is used more broadly by feminists to refer to society’s domination by patriarchal power, which functions to subordinate women and children.

Answer 23

Patriarchy

Question 24

The process of learning the culture of a society (its language and customs), which show us how to behave and communicate

Answer 24

Socialization

Question 25

A term coined by American critical race scholar, Kimberle Chrenshaw in 1989 to examine how race and sex/gender were mutually constituted for African American women. The idea that one needs to examine how various biological, cultural, and social categories interact on multiple (and often simultaneous) levels that lead to oppression and inequality.

Answer 25

Intersectionality

Question 26

Refers to the nature of work performed as a result of gender roles. The stereotype is that of the male breadwinner and the female homemaker.

Answer 26

Sexual division of labour

Question 27

Refers to the use of feelings by employees as part of their paid work. In health care, a key part of nursing work is caring for patients, often by providing emotional support.

Answer 27

Emotional labour