The Biopsychosocial Model

Question 1

What is the biopsychosocial approach?

Answer 1

Provides framework for to guide the study of concepts tested in the psychosocial section for success in medicine

Question 2

What is the biomedical approach in contrast to the biopsychosocial approach?

Answer 2

The traditional biomedical approach focuses narrowly on the physical aspects of medicine

Question 3

What are the 2 primary claims of the biopsychosocial approach?

Answer 3

1. Illness is determined by a variety of influences not a single cause
2. Causes and effects of illnesses can be examined at multiple levels in the life of an individual( psychological, sociological etc.)

Question 4

What is social constructionism?

Answer 4

Human actors construct or create reality rather than discovering reality that has inherent reality

Question 5

According to some social constructionists, what two categories can reality be divided into?

Answer 5

Brute facts

Institutional facts

Question 6

What are brute facts?

Answer 6

Physical realities that exist outside human input

Question 7

What are institutional facts?

Answer 7

Facts that only exist as a result of society’s structures and society’s

Question 8

Use gravity to give an example of institutional and brute facts

Answer 8

Brute fact- objects fall to earths surface when dropped from above

Institutional facts- gravitational force involving institutional facts

Question 9

Contrast symbolic interactionism and social interactionism

Answer 9

While social constructionism would be interested in shared meanings of health and illness, symbolic interactionism focuses on interaction between individuals.

Question 10

What is symbolic interactionism?

Answer 10

Through social interactions, individuals develop shared meanings and labels for various symbols- terms, concepts or items that represent specific meanings

Question 11

What purpose do shared symbols serve in interactions?

Answer 11

Allow for smooth societal interactions by permitting reasonable expectations of how other people will behave and what constitutes appropriate responses

Question 12

Social interactionism says human interaction constantly create and change meanings. Hence…

Answer 12

Why meanings of symptoms can change several times over a doctor-patient interaction

Question 13

Why is social interactionism criticized?

Answer 13

For leaving out larger societal forces that undeniably have an effect on people’s lives

Question 14

What theoretical perspectives examine the larger levels of social functioning in society?

Answer 14

Functionalism and conflict theory

Question 15

What is functionalism?

Answer 15

Belief that factions of society work together to maintain stability, components work together.

Question 16

What is conflict theory?

Answer 16

Views society as competing groups that act as groups that behave in their own self interest rather than societal equilibrium

Question 17

What are the pros and cons of functionalism?

Answer 17

Pros: provides useful perspective for considering processes that contributes to social stability

Cons: assumes social stability is always ideal- can not explain societal changes