(Doc) Health Sociology : Assignment
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Added on 2021-06-16
(Doc) Health Sociology : Assignment
Added on 2021-06-16
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Running head: HEALTH SOCIOLOGYHEALTH SOCIOLOGYName of the Student:Name of the University:Author Note:
1HEALTH SOCIOLOGYThe health and well-being of a population is dependent upon the sociologicaldeterminants to a great extent. It has been said that the external environment has a wide range ofelements that affect the sound physical and mental well being of an individual (Braveman &Gottileb,2014). Sociology critically presents an overview about the determinants that affect thephysical and mental health of the people on the basis of theories and societal model. This essaywould delve into the development of a deeper concept of the sociological theories and proceedwith relating it to the social determinants of health. The essay would also present a clear view onthe contrasting characteristics of the sociological theories and the biomedical theories. The twoconceptual models that have been chosen in order to explain the influence on the socialdeterminants of health in this essay are the functionalism and the conflict theory. The functionalism theory as propounded by Parson, it states that in order to build a strongand functional community it is important that the community has access to proper medicalfacilities and a healthy living standard (Martindale,2013). It further explains the fact that if acommunity comprises of a lot of unhealthy inhabitants then it ultimately leads to the disruptionof the social equilibrium. The model significantly emphasizes upon the events of prematuredeath and claims that in such cases the individuals make a zero contribution to the society at thecost of utilizing and exploiting all the resources that the society offered (Ng & Muntaner,2014).Also, in case of premature death, the individual does not fulfill all the social roles that isexpected from the society in return of the various social rigmarole such as socialization, childbirth, child care and so on. The theory proceeds with the explanation of true and pretentioussickness. It states in order to be stated as a true sickness, the mentioned characteristics must bemet adequately. The characteristics include, firstly the cause of the disease should not be onaccount of personal negligence. For instance, due to an unhealthy life-style if a person becomes
2HEALTH SOCIOLOGYover weight or develops Cardiac complications then in that case, the sickness is because of themanifestation of self-negligence and it evokes meager or no sympathetic response from thesociety. Hence, in order to fall under the legitimately sick category it is important to bediagnosed sick and the sickness should not be a result of personal negligence. Secondly, it is alsomentioned that the sick people must possess a will to recover and heal and thirdly, the sicknessmust be testified and diagnosed by a physician who would thoroughly check the patient for anykind of sickness and accordingly provide medications. In most of the cases, it has been observedthat the patients even on recovery fake their illness and possess no will to get better and enjoy theattention and care. In such cases, the society does not perceive such individuals as sick. Themedical experts and the physicians thoroughly diagnose the patient and according to the theoryare stated to maintain a hierarchal relationship with the patients. This is because the physiciansexamine the patients for the occurrence of any disease and accordingly prescribe medicationsthat are expected to be followed strictly by the patients. So, it seems as if the physicians are theleaders and the patients need to obey the leaders and follow the instructions and because of thesame, the hierarchal relationship has been mentioned in context of the functionalism theory(Rubin,2016). However, it is critical to note here that the societal model of functionalism has anumber of disadvantages as it does not consider the phenomenon of terminal sickness intoaccount and is more focused on the short-term illness (Frank,2013). At the same time, the theoryalso does not consider the effect of the social background that might contribute to thedevelopment of diseases. For instance, a place that lacks proper sanitation or drinking waterfacility is bound to have an unhealthy community and in such cases the theory does not standvalid. Lastly, there have been many instances that prove the physicians are not always correctwith their treatment hence patients must participate actively while the process of intervention is
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