Chapter 7 The Social Meaning of Illness

Question 1

Medical Model

Answer 1

i. Illness is an objective label: there is a scientific consensus on what is normal and what is illness
ii. Illness is non-moral: conditions and behaviors are labeled illness scientifically without moral considerations or consequences
iii. Illness is an apolitical label “identified by doctors through scientific research”

Question 2

Sociological Model

Answer 2

i. Illness is a subjective category: what is normal and what is illness may be highly contested
ii. Illness is a moral category: conditions and behaviors may be labelled illness when they are considered bad (deviant)
iii. Illness is a political label: some groups have more power than others to decide what is illness and who is ill.

Question 3

Medicalization definition

Answer 3

The process through which a condition or behaviour becomes defined as a medical problem requiring a medical solution, or through which the definition of an illness broadened to cover a wider population.

Question 4

Influence of Medicalization

Answer 4

Doctors, consumer groups, and pharmaceutical companies when they all work together.

Question 5

Consequences of Medicalization

Answer 5

a. Can lead to social awareness of a problem, sympathy toward its sufferers, and the development of beneficial therapies.
b. Unintended negative consequences:
i. Doctors become the experts who only have the answers. Victim of overmedication
ii. Medical treatments become the only logical response
iii. When defined in medical terms, it reduces the chance that it’ll be understood politically
iv. Can justify voluntary and involuntary treatment

Question 6

Demedicalization

Answer 6

The process through which a condition or behaviour becomes defined as a natural condition or process rather than an illness.

Question 7

Illness: the social experience

Answer 7

How we view illness is both medical and sociological perspectives.
Objective (medical) and subjective (sociological)