Week 1 Notes Flashcards
According to the biomedical model, health is the…
absence of physical illness and disease
What are the 5 defining Characteristics of the Biomedical Model
- Body Dualism
- Machine Metaphor
- Technological imperative
- Physical reductionism
- Doctrine of specific etiology
What is the Cartesian Mind/Body Dualism
The body and mind are separate. Medical practitioners treat the body separate from the mind
What is the Machine Metaphor
Body is viewed as a machine made up of discrete parts
What is the Technological Imperative
Treatment is primarily though pharmacological or surgical interventions
What is Physical Reductionism
reduction of all symptoms to the physical workings of the body, there is no attention to social, environmental… ect factors
What is the Doctrine of Specific Etiology
Disease is assumed to originate from specific and knowledgeable causes
How would you cure illness according to the biomedical model?
Surgery, medicals, behaviour modifications, health education and immunizations
What are the criticisms of the biomedical model?
- Disease is very complex
- Objectification and medical scientism (not seeing people in an ideal way)
- down plays the rol of social factors
- victim blaming
Biological Determinism
belief that behaviour and social status is an inevitable part of biology
Victim blaming
social inequality is explained in terms of individuals being solely responsible for what happens to them in relation to the choices they make and their assumed “inferiority”
According to the sociological model health is …
socially determined and socially experienced
According to the sociological model the causation of disease is…
the result of social-structural inequalities
According to the biomedical model, disease is caused by…
a measurable pathology of the physical body, which is the result of malfunctioning parts of the body
According to the sociological model, income = ?
Health.
poorer individuals/countries exhibit higher rate of illness and lower life expectancies
What are the three defining characteristics of the social model of health
- social production/distribution of health
- social construction of health and illness
- social organization of health care
Social Production/distribution of health and illness
Illness often derives from an individuals social environment
“risk imposing factors” = social conditions that produce illness or risk illness
Social Construction of Health and Illness
What is considered an illness or disease can vary among cultures and change over time
ex. Homosexuality
Social organization of health care
the way health services are funded and organized influence health and illness
ex. Dominance of physicians - 1/4 of people will experience mental illness
How would you cure illness according to the social model of health
- public policy
- state intervention
- community participation, advocacy and political lobbying
What are some criticisms of the social model?
- utopian idea
- over emphasis on harm of medicine
- solutions to problems are complex, costly and difficult to implement
- under emphasis of individual responsibility
