Sociology of the body, health, illness, and sexuality

Question 1

medical sociology

Answer 1

analysis of medical institutions
the production of medical knowledge, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, and he interactions of healthcare professionals, and the social or cultural (rather than clinical or bodily effects of medical practice)

Question 2

social epidemiology

Answer 2

studies the ways in which social, political, cultural, and economic circumstances influence our chances for a healthy life

Question 3

sociology of the body

Answer 3

how our bodies are effected by social experiences

Health and illness, for instance, are shaped by social, cultural, and economic influences.

Question 4

social class gradient in health

Answer 4

The strong inverse association between socioeconomic resources and risk of illness or death.

Question 5

universal health coverage

Answer 5

Public health care programs motivated by the goal of providing affordable health services to all members of a population.

Question 6

eating disorders

Answer 6

Anorexia is related to the idea of dieting, and it reflects changing views of physical attractiveness in modern society
bulimia—bingeing on food, followed by self-induced vomiting.
Once a young person starts to diet and exercise compulsively, they can become locked into a pattern of refusing food or vomiting up what they have eaten

social norms stress the importance of physical attractiveness more for women than for men and that desirable body images of men differ from those of women

Question 7

body mass index (BMI)

Answer 7

Weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared

normal weight: 18.5-24.9

Question 8

obesity trends and differentials

Answer 8

high and rising obesity rates; risen steadily throughout 20th and 21st centuries
obesity= BMI of 30+
pronounced racial gaps

Question 9

explanations for rising obesity

Answer 9

-“Obesogenic” environment (Brownell)

Question 10

statistical artifact explanations for changing obesity rates

Answer 10

• child and adolescent obesity rates generally decreased with increasing family income
• the obesity rate for non-Hispanic black adults was more than 3.5 times the rate for non-Hispanic Asian adults

Question 11

obesogenic environment

Answer 11

• > sedentary work for adults (de- industrialization)
  • > sedentary activities for children
  • > fast-food
    • food desert
  • > cheap production of caloric foods
  • > cheap, large portions lure cost-conscious

Question 12

food deserts

Answer 12

geographic area lacking high-quality affordable food, typically concentrated in low-income neighborhoods

Question 13

sick role theory (Talcott Parsons)

Answer 13

describe the patterns of behavior that a sick person adopts to minimize the disruptive impact of illness or injury
Functionalist–> society operates in a smooth and consensual manner–> illness as a dysfunction that can disrupt the flow of this normal state–> people learn the sick role through socialization and enact it

3 sets of normative expectations:

1. The sick person is not held personally responsible for his or her poor health.
2. The sick person is entitled to certain rights and privileges, including a release from normal responsibilities.
3. The sick person is expected to take sensible steps to regain their health, such as consulting a medical expert and agreeing to become a patient.

Critiques:
does not adequately capture the “lived experience” of illness
cannot be applied across all contexts, cultures, and historical periods.
fails to explain illnesses that do not necessarily lead to a suspension of normal activity–> alcoholism, certain disabilities, and some chronic diseases
It also presumes a short-term condition and that people will return to normal functioning when the illness passes

Question 14

symbolic interactionist perspectives on health

Answer 14

“illness as lived experiences”
Symbolic interactionists study the ways people interpret the social world and the meanings they ascribe to it.
focus on meaning-making and everyday experiences of health, like how living with a chronic illness affects one’s identity, behavior, and interactions with others.
A person who is diagnosed with a health condition like autoimmune disease may consider that a major part of their identity, talk about regularly, join Facebook support groups, and adjust their daily activities accordingly.

Question 15

stigma

Answer 15

Any physical or social characteristic that is labeled by society as undesirable.
e.g. extreme obesity, alcoholism, schizophrenia, or HIV/AIDS

• Stigma theory holds that some personal traits are devalued in a particular social context, and elicit unkind or discriminatory treatment from others.
• Physical visible health conditions may be stigmatized because they are visually appealing to others, while other conditions are stigmatized because others incorrectly view them as indicative of a character flaw.
• Medical and public health experts emphasize that substance use disorders like opioid addiction are diseases rather than matters of choice or personal character, to fight the stigmatization of persons with such conditions.

Question 16

examples of obesity-related stigma

Answer 16

more than four decades of research shows that heavier persons are more likely than thinner persons to be described as:
–> lazy, gluttonous, unattractive, a less desirable candidate for myriad jobs, undesirable as friend
this is a new phenomenon. In prior centuries, food scarcities meant fatness connected with affluence not laziness (e.g., fat cat)

• the most famous example is the South Pacific island of Fiji. Anthropologists who visited the island in the 1980s found that fatness was celebrated. the introduction of “western” television on the island in 1995 changed that
• Fijian teenage girls began to compare themselves with the stars of “Melrose place” and “Beverly hills 90210”
• by 1998, 15 percent of girls surveyed said they’d induced vomiting to control their weight, compared with 3 percent in 1995
• in subsequent years, as many as 74 percent of girls interviewed said they were too fat

Question 17

biomedical model of health

Answer 17

The set of principles underpinning Western medical systems and practices that defines diseases objectively and holds that the healthy body can be restored through scientifically based medical treatment.

Question 18

complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

Answer 18

A diverse set of approaches and therapies for treating illness and promoting well-being that generally fall outside of standard medical practices.

Question 19

medicalization

Answer 19

process by which some variations in human traits, behaviors, or conditions become defined as medical issues that require treatment
—> developed out of pervasive biomedical model of health

the process by which a bundle of symptoms, attributes, or behaviors are given a label as a “disorder,” often biological in nature
viewing an attribute a a “medical condition” set the pathway to “treatment”
–> typically via medication, therapy, or surgical intervention

Benefits: reduction of stigma/ insurance for therapy and treatment/ interventions
downfalls: no cultural or societal interrogation; internalization of social problems; increasing reliance on drugs & biology to solve problems

Question 20

examples of medicalization

Answer 20

Depression vs. sadness
Pre-menstrual syndrome vs. sad/cranky/sore
conduct disorder vs. misbehaving
social anxiety v.s. sadness
PTSD vs. an expected reaction to extreme trauma

Question 21

medicalization and obesity

Answer 21

Mauritania: Obesity is considered beautiful, so “forced feeding” is common, especially for young girls.

In the U.S. “feeders” are considered abnormal, and are diagnosed as “fat fetishists.”

Question 22

importance of global disparities in infectious diseases

Answer 22

-Lower-income nations have higher rates of illness from infectious disease, higher mortality rates, and lower life expectancies than wealthier nations do

Question 23

heteronormativity

Answer 23

The pervasive cultural belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and natural expression of human sexuality.

Question 24

diversity of human sexualities

Answer 24

Noncisgender persons challenge the gender binary of male–female, moving fluidly between the categories of male and female or rejecting the binary altogether

Question 25

Kinsey study of sexuality

Answer 25

investigation of sexual behavior in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s

Kinsey’s results were surprising because they revealed a tremendous discrepancy between prevailing public expectations of sexual behavior and actual sexual conduct.
The gap between publicly accepted attitudes and actual behavior was probably especially pronounced just after World War II, the time of Kinsey’s study.
People participating in sexual activities that were still widely denounced concealed them, not realizing that others were engaging in similar practices behind closed doors. The more permissive 1960s brought openly declared attitudes more into line with the realities of behavior.

Question 26

contemporary research on sexuality and hookup culture

Answer 26

• alive and well on campus; one-night stands, short-lived sexual relationships, or “friends with benefits” relationships
• while casual sexual encounters were relatively common, men and women were fairly selective in such encounters
• relatively rare; not all include sexual intercourse
• Americans report relatively few sexual partners throughout their lives and less frequent sex than their counterparts in other nations
• sexual conservation in America

Question 27

nature-nurture debates regarding sexual orientation

Answer 27

• impossible to separate biological from early social influences in determining a person’s sexual orientation
• when one twin was gay, there was about a 50 percent chance that the other twin was gay

-t is often the case that even in infancy, identical twins are treated more like each other by parents, peers, and teachers than are fraternal twins, who in turn are treated more like each other than are adoptive siblings

Question 28

homophobia

Answer 28

An irrational fear or disdain of homosexuality.

Question 29

transphobia

Answer 29

Negative attitudes, feelings, or actions toward transgender and gender-nonconforming people, their lifestyles, and their practices.

Question 30

heterosexism

Answer 30

An ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any nonheterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community.

Question 31

milestones of LGBTQ rights movement

Answer 31

changing medical notions of sexual orientation

legalizing same-sex marriage