Exam 2 Flashcards
Medical Model of Illness
what doctors typically mean when they say something is an illness.
1)illness is an objective label
2) Illness is nonmoral
3) illness is an apolitical label
4) each illness is caused by unique biological problem. (can be fix with meds)
EX: Female sexual dysfunction is biological disease, due to lack of sexual responsiveness, label FDS as illness and people who have it as neutral bio statements that don’t reflect the person, FDS 1st identified by docs, FDS is treated with drug
Sociological Model of Illness
used by critical sociologist & others who are interested in how social forces affect health & health care
1)illness is a subjective category
2)illness is a moral category
3)illness is a political label
4)illness results from a combination of social and biological causes.
EX: FSD is a label given to women who are distressed by lack of sexual responsiveness, we label it as an illness because we find it disturbing, FSD was promoted by pharma comp. to sell drugs, women’s sexual problems often reflect psychological & interpersonal as well as bio problems
Social Norms
An ill person is one whose actions, abilities, or appearance don’t meet
EX:
Moral Status
a social condition that we believe indicates the goodness or badness, worthiness, or unworthiness of a person
EX: Virginity or laziness
Deviance
behaviors or conditions that a socially powerful person within a given culture perceives to be immoral or violate social norms.
EX: robbery, theft, rape, murder, assult
Negative social sanctions
any punishment from ridicule to execution
EX: getting a traffic ticket for speeding.
Positive social sanctions
rewards that range from token gifts.
EX: financial bonuses
Magic Bullets
refer to drugs that almost miraculously prevent or cure illness by attacking one specific etiological factor.
EX: penicillin and insulin
Social construction
something that exists in the world not as an objective condition, but because we have defined it as existing.
EX: measles as an illness we have organized our ideas about that virus, fever, and rash only 1 of the many possible ways to talk about it.
Medicalization
process of identifying a condition as a medical problem requiring a medical solution.
EX: chronic drunkenness to be a sin, but than later considered mental illness
Contested illness
distressing and painful symptoms that affected individuals believe constitute an illness even though many docs disagree.
EX: chronic fatigue syndrome
Managed care organization
are health insurance providers that restrain costs by monitoring closely the health services given to patients.
EX: Health Maintenance organization
Depoliticized
define it as a medical rather than political problem
EX: Women having hysteria (women being overly emotional) instead of focusing on the inequality being presented
Demedicalization
process by which a behavior or condition, once labeled sick becomes defined as natural or normal
EX: homosexual, health risk of masturbation, stupidity, laziness, etc
Geneticization
the shift toward defining genes as the cause of human disease, behavior, & differences
EX: true genetic diseases such as hemophilia only occur if an individual has a specific gene.
Epigenetic Effect
when genes combine with environmental factors in a process
EX: stressful conditions can “turn on” illness-causing genes and weaken the effectiveness of illness-preventing genes, thus increasing depression, heart disease, etc.
Functionalism
an image of society as a smoothly working, integrated whole
EX:
conflict perspective
a perspective in the social sciences that emphasizes the social, political, or material inequality of a social group.
EX: pay inequalities between groups and inequalities in the justice and edu systems of govt.
Disability
responses to bodies that fail to meet social expectations or from limitations in the built environment
EX: someone in a wheelchair, blind person
Medical model of disability
something that is wrong with a person body or mind
EX: someone in a wheelchair wanting to enter a building but there are stairs, they would need to cure the person in order for that person to enter
Sociological model of disability
a way of viewing the world which says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment.
EX: someone in a wheelchair wanting to enter a building but there are stairs, they would say it’s the stair needs to change
blaming the victim
individuals such as people with disabilities are blamed for causing the problems they experience.
EX: a person in the wheelchair can’t access a certain part of the restaurant, people will blame them and not the restaurant design.
minority group
any group that is considered inferior & subjected to differential & unequal treatment & therefore defines itself as a group w/ shared experiences of discrimination
EX: LGBTQ+, community, religion, those with disabilities, african americans, whites, natives, hispanic, etc
Prejudice
unwarranted suspicion, dislike of, or disdain towards individuals because they belong to a particular group, whether defined by ethnicity, religion, or some other characteristics.
EX: refusing to hire a job applicant based on their disability
stereotypes
overly simplistic ideas about members of a given group.
EX: Peter Pan- captain hook with missing limb and seen as bad guy
discrimination
unequal treatment grounded in prejudice
EX: firing or demoting an employee because of their disability
American with Disabilities Act
designed to address discrimination & unfair treatment on the basis of a person disability status.
EX: the person w/ disabilities are seen as evil in children books
EX: denial of reproductive rights to those w/ disabilities
Illness Behavior
process of defining, interpreting and responding to symptoms
EX:
Illness behavior model
gender, age, class, and ethnicity affect how people define & seek care symptoms
1) their symptoms are frequent, persistent, visible, and severe enough to interfere with daily activities
2) lack alternative explanations for their symptoms
3) their families and friends generally trust doctors and support seeking medical care for health problems
4) no psychological, economic, or practical barriers keep them from accessing health care
EX: symptoms appear frequently, highly visible, illness only explanation for physical problems, health care available.
Self diagnosis
doctors cannot offer a convincing diagnosis, however individuals may seek to diagnose themselves
EX:
Sick role model
living with illness or disability means living with stigma
EX: appendicitis, cancer, broken leg
Stigma
social disgrace of having a deeply discrediting attribute, whether a criminal record, a gay lifestyle, or socially unacceptable illness
EX: calling someone with mental illness is dangerous, crazy, or incompetent rather than unwell
Health social movements
are collective (rather than individual) efforts to change something about the world that movement members believe is wrong
EX: fighting to loosen health insurers restrictions on what treatments they will cover.
Social stress theory
social class based stress leads to mental disorder
EX: SES disadvantage, sex discrimination
Social drift theory
mental problems lead to lower social class
EX: when patients are admitted to mental hospitals for the first time with diagnosis of schizophrenia, they typically hold jobs that are lower in social class
Medical model of mental illness
4 assumptions about the nature of mental illness
1)Objectively measurable conditions define mental illness, in the same way that the presence of a specific bacterium defines syphilis.
2)Mental illness stems largely or solely form something w/in individual psychology or biology, even if docs don’t know it yet
3)Mental illness, like syphilis, will worsen if left untreated but many diminish or disappear if treated promptly by medical authority.
4)Treating mental illness, like treating syphilis, rarely harms patients, so it is safer to treat someone who might really be healthy than refrain from treating someone who might really be ill
EX: traumatic brain injury, down syndrome
sociological model of mental illness
Model consists 4 assumptions:
1)Mental illness is defined through subjective social judgments
2)Mental illness reflects a particular social setting as well as individual behavior or biology
3)Persons labeled mentally ill may experience improvement regardless of treatment, and treatment may not help
4)Medical treatment for mental illness can sometimes harm patients
EX:
Reliability
how trustworthy something is if you get the same results every time no matter where you go
EX: medical thermometer is a reliable tool that would measure the correct temp
validity
rather or not it is accurate
EX: valid driving test should include a practical driving component
social control
they have power to set rules and norms that people will follow
EX:CDC, pharma agency, insurance comp., lobbyist
Depersonalization
a feeling that they no longer are fully human or no longer considered fully human by others
EX: feeling like a robot
Deinstitutionalized
process of moving mental health care away from large institutions
EX: release of these individuals from hospitals into the community
remedicalization
process that occurs when a formerly demedicalized illness or label is once again remedicalized in the sense the new evidence
DSM
is a broad and if we make it to specific challenges may come up
Alternative and complementary therapies
complement rather than replace mainstream medicine.
EX: Herbal & dietary supplement, deep breathing, and meditation
Placebos
drugs known to have no biological effect
EX: sugar pill that’s used in a control group during a clinical trial
stigma
social disgrace of having a deeply discrediting attribute
