Sociology 341 Chapter 1 – Flashcards

The study of health care as it is institutionalized in a society, and of health, or illness, and its relationship to social factors.

The us field which applies the perspectives, conceptualizations, theories, and methodologies of sociology to phenomena having to do with human health and disease.

Medical sociology encompasses a body of knowledge wishing places health and disease in a social, cultural, and behavioral context.

Descriptions and explanations or theories relating to the distribution of diseases among various population groups; the behaviors or actions taken by individuals to maintain, enhance, or restore health or cope with illness, disease, or disability; people's attitudes, and beliefs about health, disease, disability and medical care providers and organizations; medical occupations or professions and the organization, financing, and delivery of medical care services; medicine as a social institution and it's relationship to other social institutions; cultural values and societal responses with respect to health, illness, and disability; and the role of social factors in the etiology of disease, especially functional and emotion-related.

Mid 19th century physician who paved the way for medical sociology. Founder of modern pathology. He contended that medicine is largely a social science that needs to consider the influence of social structure on creating both health and illness. He identified that social and economical conditions as being primary causes of an epidemic of typhus fever in 1847 and lobbied for improved living conditions for the poor as primary preventive technique

Reducing every disease and illness to a biological cause. (Virchow argued against this)

Classic work published by Alfred Grotjahn documenting the role of social factors in disease and illness and urging the development of a social science framework for working with communities and providers in reducing health problems.

Term coined to refer to efforts to improve public health.

Heightened awareness in us and Europe of the need for social programs to respond to health crises. These were years of social upheaval caused in part by the effects of the Industrial Revolution and rapid urban growth (and in the US a tremendous influx of largely poor and unskilled immigrants).

1950 and 1960 the emergence of medical sociology as a field of study. The most important developments then pertain to changes in health, healing, and illness; external recognition of the field; and its institutionalization within sociology.

The development of medical sociology was facilitated by 4 changes that occurred or were occurring in medicine in the 1959s and 1960s. 1. Changing patters if morbidity and mortality. 2. The impact of preventive medicine and public health. 3. The impact of modern psychiatry. 4. The impact of administrative medicine.

2 key events in 1959s and 1969s that contributes to the increased interest in legitimation of medical sociology. 1. Medical schools began to hire sociologists for their faculties. 2. Government agencies and private foundations initiated significant financial funding for medical sociology. The national institutes of health and national institutes of mental health sponsored sociological research in medicine and subsidized training programs for graduate students in sociology.

1. 1959: medical sociology was accepted as a formal section of the ASA. 2. 1965: the ASA assumed control of an existing journal in medical sociology and renamed it on the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The ASA currently has 1,000 members of in the medical sociology field. aSA 15,000 members.

1. Values, attitudes, and behaviors of people relative to ethical issues in medicine (attitudes about genetic research and cloning). 2. Social policy questions (new reproductive Technologies or the termination of treatment for the terminally ill). 3. Social movements (pro-life and pro-choice movements)

Health care costs and lack of access that millions of Americans have to healthcare. There has been a switch from traditional healthcare insurance plans to managed care networks occurred the ought the 1990s and 2000s. Affordable care act in 2010.

Sociologists can offer insight about how to implement reform but also examine the intended and unintended consequences of transforming the health care system and he extent to which these structural changes actually improve population health.

1. The relationship between the social environment and health illness A. Social epidemiology B. Social stress 2. Health and Illness Behavior A.health behavior B. Experiencing Illness and Disability 3. Health Care Practitioners and Their relationship with parents A. Physicians and the profession of medicine B. Medical education and the socialization of physicians C. Nurses, mid level health care practitioners and allied health workers D. Alternative and complementary healing practices E. The physician and patient relationship 4. The health care system A. The health care system B. Health care delivery C. The social effects of health care technology D. Comparative health care systems

The ability to think about things in a manner other Han that to which many individuals are accustomed. Sociology attempts to understand behaviors by loving them in social context (by looking for social patterns and examining the influence of social forces or circumstances that have an impact on individual behavior.

Influential sociologist referee to this ability to see how larger social patterns (public issues) influence individual behavior (personal troubles) as sociological imagination.

Coined by C Wright Mills 1. Almost all adult smokers began smoking as a teenager; few adults begin smoking. 2. Men are more reluctant than women to see a physician. 3. Pharmaceutical drugs are more expensive in the United States than in any other country. What social force influences these behaviors

3 theoretical orientations have dominated the field of sociology. 1. Functionalism Views society as a system or structure with interior dependent parts (family, economy, and medicine) that work together t produce relative stability. 2. Conflict Theory Views the society as a system largely dominated by social inequality and social conflict. Conflict theorists perceive social order is dictated by the most powerful groups rather than on the value consensus of functionalists. 3.interactionism Or symbolic interactionism Focuses on small scale day to day interactions among people. Society is outcome of many episodes of interaction each day in which people interpret social messages and base their response on these interpretations. (In medicine, interactionists have shown how doctors use particular communication strategies to reinforce dominance.) interrupting patient comments and using brief close ended questions.

1. Demonstrate and emphasize the important influence of cultural, social- structural, and institutional forces in health, healing, and illness. 2. Maintain their spirit of free and critical inquiry. Must have a liberal ideology. 3. Continue to seek interdisciplinary collaboration. Sociology of medicine: advancing sociological theory and method through research in the medical field. Sociology IN medicine: making practical contributions to the practice of medicine. They can do both and even making a critical worse rice is possible as long as it is perceived to be constructive objective and not antagonistic. Mechanic (1995:1492) has noted that the major health problems facing national systems are complex and multifaceted and not easily amendable to analysis from the perspective of any single discipline. Several medical sociologists have recently urged greater efforts to integrate social and biological explanations of matters related to health healing and illness.

Identifies cause & effect relationships between specified variables in controlled conditions (2 groups). Used in health education material testing, innovations in teaching medical students, new payment mechanisms/systems.

Most commonly used data gathering technique in sociology. Systematic collection of information about attitudes and behaviors through personal or telephonic interview or Questionnaires, now mainly online. Helpful in studying attitudes and values that cannot be studies in other ways.

Systematic observation of people in their natural environment valuable for medical sociology (difficult to be systematic). Allows observation of actual behaviors. (Hospitals, mortality review conferences, patient self help groups).

Many demographers (study population size, composition, distribution) and other medical sociologists study health problems and society's relation to them by researching recorded vital and social statistics. Researchers examine birth, death records, medical charts, insurance forms, and morality, morbidity statistics.

1. Experimental Research 2. Survey Research 3. Observational Research 4. Existing Statistics

Functionalism & Conlict Theory (Macro) Interactionism (Micro)

The study of patterns and trends in the causes and distribution of disease and illness within a population. Research Question: Why is the infant mortality rate higher for African Americans?

The study of the imbalance or unease create when demands on a person exceed resources to deal with then. Researcher Question: Why do women report higher levels of stress?

The study of behaviors intended to promote positive health. Research Question: Why does society focus on changing individual behaviors rather than the social circumstances that influence individual behavior?

The study of the ways that people perceive, interpret and act in response to illness and disability. Research question: What factors cause people to interpret medical symptoms in very different ways?

The study of medicine as a profession and the role of medicine within society. Research question: How does the high number of medical malpractice suits influence physicians and the practice of medicine?

The study of the education and socialization of physicians in medical schools. Research Question: What are the key value orientations that students learn in medical school?

The study of issues pertaining to nonphysical health care providers. Research Question: Why are physicians more supportive of physician assistants than they are of nurse practitioners?

The study of healers and healing practices outside conventional medicine. Research Question: Why do many people simultaneously use both medical doctors and alternative healers?

The study of patterns in the way that physicians and patients relate to each other and factors that influence these patterns. Research Question: To what extend to male and female physicians interact differently with patients?

The study of organization, regulation, financing, and important problems in the health care system and recent health care reform legislation and activity. Research Question: What effect will heath care reform have on the health care system?

The study of the organizations and agencies (including hospitals) that provide health care services. Research Question: What are the consequences for society of for-profit versus not-for-profit hospitals?

The study of the social consequences and public policy choices of new health care technologies. Research questions: What are the supporting and opposing arguments for legalizing physician-assisted death?

The study of health care systems in other countries. Research Question: Why are most health care systems around the world currently undergoing significant change?