Midterm 1 (Simplified) Flashcards
How is health a social construction
Because health is subjective. Our interpretations through personal experiences, culture, and social/political and historical contexts
Ways to conceive health (6):
- Normality
- Balance
- Adaptation to environment
- Being fit
- Absence of disease
- Resource for living
Health state
Present health of individual
Health status
Characteristics of being healthy/unhealthy; longer term attribute
Population health
- Health status and outcomes within a group of people rather than considering health of one person at a time
- The focus on community and social level factors that influence health
Illness
Perception of ill health, based on a person’s response to particular symptoms (Eg. pain, nausea) that cannot be directly observed
Factors influencing perception of symptoms (7):
- Gender
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Health status/previous experience with symptoms
- Family
- Culture
The Illness belief dimensions (4):
- Casualty
- Controllability
- Susceptibility
- Seriousness
Casualty in the illness belief dimension (2):
- Examines what causes people to ascribe to their symptom
- People look for causal explanations to make sense of their experiences of illness and disease
Controllability in the illness belief dimension (2):
- Examines the extent to which people believe illness is controllable
- Associated with self-rated health, preventive are, behaviour during illness, use of physician services, compliance with medical treatment
Perceived Susceptibility
Subjective perception of risk of contracting a disease or susceptibility to illness
Perceived Severity
Person’s belief about the seriousness or severity of a disease
Disease
Any harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism
Why do health, illness, and diseases change? (5)
- Scientific knowledge changes
- Disease change
- Distribution of disease in population change
- New ideas about health are built on other existing ideas
- Culture and societies change and culture and societies influence health illness and disease
Salutogenic model of health
Created by Aaron Antonovsky of an idea that health results of continuous everyday life interactions between the individual and inevitable social-, economic-, cultural-, physical-, mental- and biochemical stressors
Wellness
Inclusive concept that incorporates not only good health, but also the quality of life and satisfaction with general living conditions
Fundamental conditions and resources for health (9):
- Peace
- Shelter
- Education
- Food
- Income
- Stable eco-system
- Sustainable resources
- Social justice
- Equity
Health promotion
Process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health
Cause of decline in infectious disease
Result of the advancing biomedical practice of antibiotics, immunizations, and vaccines, as well as living conditions
Medical sociology importance
Reinforced the importance of broadening research perspectives in health to include an analysis of both disease pathology and the impact of the social environment
The sociology of medicine
Subspecialty of sociology with the purpose to improve theoretical understanding of social phenomena in which patients/practitioners interact. It offers a critical analysis of both patient compliance and medical dominance of health
Health sociology
Focuses on population health behavior rather than patient illness
5 main theoretical paradigms
- Structural Functionalist paradigm
- Conflict paradigm
- Symbolic Interactionist paradigm
- Feminist paradigm
- Sociology of the body paradigm
Structural Functionalist paradigm (5):
- Views society as a harmonious social system made up of several institutions that function to maintain stability
- Emphasizes that good health and effective health care are essential for a society’s ability to function
- Health and illness defined as “Social roles”
- Uses surveys and statistical analysis
- Examples: Sick role by Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Leading US sociologist who developed “the sick role” in The Social System. He used medicine to illustrate the structural functionalist approach to understand importance of social role as a key concept between culture, social structure, institutions, and behavior.
Criticism of sick role (4):
- Only applying to “temporary” acute illnesses and not for chronic conditions
- Not suitable for those that suffer emotional/psychological illnesses
- Failure to consider other influences of culture, gender, location
- Medico-centric bias
Duties of an occupant with sick role (4):
- Exemption from responsibilities
- Temporarily exempt from usual well roles and task obligations
- Try and get well and resume responsibilities
- Seek technically competent help & cooperate in process of getting well
Conflict Paradigm (7):
- Viewed society as a capitalist social system comprised of inequality completing interest groups, and power struggles
- Theory that society is in a state of conflict because of competition for limited resources
- Power group struggles (Social class, gender, ethnic relationships)
- Health and illness is defined as “Professional constructs”
- Research done through participatory action
- Eliod Friedson
- Example: Medical dominance
The Symbolic Interactionist Paradigm (6):
- Views society as a socially constructed product of everyday interactions and individuals
- Society is made up of several unique individuals who make their lives meaningful through social interaction
- Symbolic interactionism provides a means for understanding the “problem with two languages” (eg. two differing medical beliefs)
- Health and illness is defined as “Interpersonal meanings”
- Research done through participation observation
- Erving Goffman
Feminist Paradigm (5):
- Views society as a patriarchal form of social organization in which men dominate women by exercising social, economic, and political power
- Western science is dominated by “malestream” thinking, or the privileging of masculine perspectives on life. Therefore, lots of bias with androcentric thinking
- Health and illness is defined as “Gendered experiences”
- Research was done through mixed methods
- Ann Oakley
The Sociology of the Body paradigm (5):
- Society and social relations shape and shaped by human bodies
- A branch of sociology studying the representations and social uses of the human body in modern societies
- Health and illness is defined as “Embodied Cultural Facts”
- Research is done through a narrative analysis
- Michel Foucault
Biopower
When power is exercised in modern societies (Term by Foucault)
Habitus
Refers to the embodiment of social location and culture within human bodies
Life course perspective (5):
- Views society as the dynamic intersections of individuals biographies and historical events
- What happens to us earlier in our lives affects our present and future health for cardiovascular, respiratory diseases, stroke, gum disease, and cancer
- Health and illness is defined as “Unfolding across time”
- Research was done through longitudinal analysis
- Glen H. Elder, jr
European accounts of First Nations Traditional Health Systems (5):
- Biased
- Traditions described as primitive, fraudulent, harmful
- Healers described as magicians and pretenders
- Patients described as ignorant
- Practices were not seen as knowledge
Indigenous peoples take on health (5):
- Disease = result of disruption of balance and harmony among and between humans or with spiritual entities
- Goal of healing system = restoration of balance
- Power to heal; power to cause harm
- Serious illness = consequence of past breaching of moral order
- Communal = Needed communal solutions
Potlach
Ceremonial feast of Indigenous peoples at which possessions are given away or destroyed to display wealth or enhance prestige and was banned in 1994
Determinants of health for Aboriginals (8):
- Colonization
- Globalization
- Migration
- Cultural Continuity
- Access
- Territory
- Poverty
- Self-determination
Sickness
Involves both presence of disease and experience of illness