Health Flashcards
sociological approach to illness
examining rates of illness to explain why people from certain social backgrounds are more likely to become sick than others (social location- class, race, ethnicity, gender)
functionalism approach
- good health & medical care = functional member of society
- too many unhealthy = weak society functioning
- must perform the “sick role” to be exempt from normal obligations
the sick role
- Talcott Parsons
- person has the right to not perform normal social roles
- obligated to try to get help
conflict theory approach
- inequalities reproduced by health/healthcare
- disadv social background = more likely to be ill and have bad healthcare
symbolic interactionism approach
- perception of health/illness is socially constructed and definition changes over time (ex: ADHD, homosexuality, etc.)
- the way physicians make patients wait to display their authority
selection theory
other factors, like genetics, might affect both socioeconomic status and health
drift explanation
health affects income (not income affects health)
social determinants theory
social status can determine a person’s health
- psychosocial: feeling inadequate
- materialist: differential access to healthy life
- fundamental: less resources
health discrepancies: education, race, marital status, gender, family size
- education: higher education
- race: white people
- marital status: married people
- gender: women
- family size: smaller
US health care system
relies on a private market for care
fee-for-service
- every time doctors serve a patient, they get paid
- incentive to overtreat
HMOs
fee-per-person
morbidity
illness
mortality
death
sociology of mental health
- what is the definition of normal human behavior?
- DSM has the standardization, but changes often, so this changes how mental illness is understood and treated
- increase in medicalization of mental health
