Health Sociology: Sociological Theories and Their Impact on Health and Medicine

Running Head: HEALTH SOCIOLOGY 0
Health Sociology
7/19/2018

HEALTH SOCIOLOGY 1
The transformation is taking at a very fast pace starting from the capital
expansion, moving with globalization and aligning with technological advancements
leading to various visible consequences, such as increased in social injustice an
inequality.
The discussion of the “social” comes in light when it influences on the health
sector. This forces the World Health Organization (WHO) to create a commission on
Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) so that a promotion can be done to
acknowledge the importance of social determinants for the individuals and the whole
population, which help all to find out the way to combat with these issues. The main
objective of this commission was to collect and synthesize the evidence for
determining the social determinants of health and its impact on health inequalities
and well as provide necessary recommendations.
Sociological theories consist the core principles and strength of the provision
of this approach. Several sociologists study social phenomena at different stages
and from different perceptions. They also learn every aspect from necessary events
(which comprise the micro level of analysis of society) to the vast portrait (which
includes macro-level analysis of large social patterns). The revolutionary European
sociologists presented a boarder view of essentials and approaches which provide
sociologist with a framework and position to check the relationship among the
society and its people Martino, L. (2017). As per the study, the two major macro-level
perspectives studied are conflicted approach and functionalist approach (Martindale,
2013). All these perspectives give a unique view to sociologists which state
paradigms stating how society stimulates people, and vice versa (Collyer &
Scambler 2015). All approach distinctively theorizes society, social forces, and
behaviour of human (Crossman, 2018).
According to the conflict theory, the societies are competing for the limited
resources which create perpetual conflicts. This theory focused on discrimination in
the quality of well-being and of health-care delivery. Various civilization
discriminations like social class, race, and ethnicity are affecting all health and health
care (Laluddin, 2016). Social disadvantages like crime affect people to become ill
and later on inadequate health care make the situation worse which creates more
difficulty in making them well.

HEALTH SOCIOLOGY 2
This approach also states the energies of doctors over the time to govern the
practice in medical stage and to determine several issues or social harms in a timely
manner. Physicians are encouraged for doing is characterized by both good and
bad. The good perspective is that they know the truth that the talent lies inside and
being professionalism they have a duty to diagnose any patient for the purpose of
cure. Contrary, according to the bad perspective, they give importance to money by
aligning social issues with medical complications and in dominating the cure and
treatment by addressing these syndromes (Wagner, 1963). This results in over
sighting the potential solutions.
A criticism with examples can illustrate this statement – Variety of medicines
are available but the physicians criticize it honestly by saying that these alternatives
are inadequate and can be dangerous as they know that this will affect their financial
term in their life.
Midwives care can be used as another example. In the previous century,
midwives help fertile females in deliver their child (Ehrenreich, 2010) but later on
physicians feel that these midwives are unauthorized and untrained who can deliver
the babies adequately and later on won the legislation of where only the physicians
can help the women’s in delivering babies (Reid, 2012).
At last, with the help of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, many
hyperactive babies are now diagnosed but these children majorly know as an overly
active few generations ago. A drug named Ritalin is also being developed which
limits hyperactivity and then their actions are treated as to be a medical issue that
leads ADHD diagnosis to be used at increasingly rate results in giving that drug to
around ten thousand children’s in the physician’s office which is a very lucrative
condition for physicians.
By examine it critically, it can be said that this approach is going on the wrong
side in the assessment of health and medicine due to the physician’s motivation
where they interest is lying over the financial bed. It cannot be neglected that
scientific medicine is having a great and positive impact on the health of people but it
is wrapping in the motives of physicians. The physicians are giving priority to their
economic considerations which are directly or indirectly impact the life and healthy
society.