health and disability-definitions and concepts Flashcards
lay definition
this refers t how ordinary people construct their definitions of health and illness. if definitions of health and illness vary, then we need to know what factors appear to influence the way in which individuals define their sense of being healthy or ill. sociologists have suggested that culture, age, gender and social class are particularly important.
krause 1989
studied hindu and sikh punjabis libing in bedfor and focused on their illness called sinking heart which is characterised by physical chest pain
blaxter 1990 national survey of health-age differences
found that young people tend to define health in terms of physcla fitness, but graduall as people age, healthj comes to be defined more in terms of being able to cope with everyday tasks. she found that older people with serious arthiritus, who neverless defined themselved as healthy, as they were still able to carry out a limited range of routine activites.
gender differences- hilary graham 2002
found that men face fewer consultations with doctors than women and appear to have lower levels of illness. this is partly due to the greater number of complications associated with childbirth and menapoause that women face but also partl;y due to how men are less likely to define themselves as ill or as needing medical attention
blaxter-social class differences
found that working class people were far more likely to accpet higher levels of illness than middle class people. blaxter described the working class people as fatalsitic that is they accepted poor health as one of those things. as a result, people from lower social classes are less likely to constult a GP than middle class people
illness and disease-eisenberg 1977
suggested that we should make a distinction between illness and disease. illness is an individual’s subjective experience of symptoms of ill health, whereas diseases are clinical conditions defined by medical professionals. it is therefore perfectly possible to have an illness without disease and disease without illness
nettleton 1995
definitions of health are socially constructed and dominated by global commercial interests
Post modernist bury 1997
Argues that improvements in health have led to the expectations of long and healthy lives in which Poeple can plan their future. However this is threatened by chronic illness. In his study he found that the diagnosis threatened peoples identity causing biograpical disruption and leading them to review their lives. It also disrupted relationships with others because of the likelihood of increased dependency on others. The greater peoples physical, economic, and relationships resoruces the more they could retain a positive self-image.
Williams 1984-postmodernist
Argues that over time the biographical disruption can be overcome with a narrative reconstruction which makes sense of how and why they got the disease, often blaming it on negative social experiences. This helps to repair the disruption and can realign present and past, self and society.
Criticism of post modernism- carracia and pierret 1995
Criticise the post modern approach arguing that the response to disease reflects membership of particular social groups rather than individual biogrpahy. In a study of hiv positive men, the gay men experienced a process of disruption more then the hetrosexual men, as the diagnosis reinforced the gay mens perception of themselves as ill. Simialryl, pound et al 1998 found that the working class men in the east end of London experienced strokes as just another crisis in their difficult lives and not as a biographical disruption.
Interactionists perspectives- test 1988
Studied repetitive strain injury amongst typists. He found that views on whether it consitituted as disease varied. Employers denied that it was a disease, blaming it on bad posture. Psychiatrists argued that it was a psychological problem resulting from dislike if the work. Unions claimed it was a common and serious real disease.
Scrambler et al 1981
Studied 79 women aged 16-44 and found that only one in 18 women who experienced symptoms of illness visited a doctor.
freund and McGuire 1991
Use the phase of illness iceberg to indicate that there is much more illness than is reported to doctors
Becker et al 1997
Developed the health belief model to explain what influenced people to visit the doctor and to follow the advice provided by the doctor. They found that social factors are as important as medical factors. Interaction between the individuals perception of health and illness and the medical profession, shape the process of consultation and treatment
Critic- day and day 1977
Argue that interactionists ignore social factors such as inequality pollution and stress which may cause ill health
