Medical sociology Flashcards
Describe the medical and social models in relation to health?
Medical model: illness an individuals problem due to limitations on body or mind - society compensates for what is wrong
Social model: disability understood as the unequal relationship within society. Disabled people excluded from participation in society due to physical, organisation, and attitudinal barriers. Disability might be considered a form of social oppression (which might be internalised meaning people with diabilities less likely to challenge exemption from society). In the extreme, = eugenics
Discrimination: Discrimination act and equality act
what is the sick role?
Rights and obligations of affected patients:
Patient rights: withdraw from work, no blame,
Patient obligations: seek help, want to get better
Doctor rights: intimate exam, authority
Doctor obligations: knowledgeable, wants patient to get better
Describe the doctor patient role (Scambler)
The traditional doctor-patient role is paternalistically doctor centred, but in recent years more patient centred - expert knowledge vs lived experience
Patient centred:
-Patient consumer, expert
-Decision making shared
-Patient’s role self care, active monitoring of condition, source of expertise
-Information made available to patients
-Consultation style - listening,
Doctor centred:
-Doctor led
-Patient passive recipient of care
-Patient notes not necessarily shared
-Active (doctor) / passive (patient)
What is clinical and social iatrogenesis?
Clinical iatrogenesis is where medical treatments worsen the original illness
Social iatrogenesis is where health service provision encourages overmedicalisation e.g. cosmetic surgery
Structural - over reliance on medicine to solve all health issues
what is stigma?
Goffman: a social construction which takes the form of a discrediting social label applied to individuals who fail to live up to normative expectations
what is deviance?
Deviance are behaviours deemed unacceptable in a particular culture
People who deviate from the norm are labelled as being abnormal in some way
Primary deviance relates to the behaviour before the label is applied, secondary deviance relates to the status once they have been publicly labelled deviant. This can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy, and reinforces the deviant behaviour which can heave greater implications for the individual than the behaviour itself in terms of their role and self esteem.
what are social norms?
social norms are rules of behaviour that are considered acceptable in a group or society
Describe some theories of social justice?
John Rawls - justice as fairness / veil of ignorance
Jeremy Bentham - greatest good for the greatest number
Describe a framework for describing the social determinants of health?
Dahlgren and Whitehead policy rainbow
Name French and Raven’s 6 sources of power:
Name French and Raven’s 6 sources of power:
Resource (can reward with promotion or funds), position (holding a position), coercive (power from the ability to punish), personal (charisma), expert, negative
