Soc 238 > Chapter 1 > Flashcards

Chapter 1 Flashcards

(45 cards)

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1
Q

Sociology

A
  • Study of human society and; social behaviour
  • Study of social interaction
  • Explores people’s lives and; social relationships to understand how we are affected by the society we live i
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2
Q

Sociological Imagination

A
  • Created by C. Wright Mills
  • Attempts to understand everyday life by connecting individuals’ experiences to larger social realities
  • Links “private troubles” and “public issues”
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3
Q

Social structure

A

the recurring patterns of social interaction through which people are related to each other, such as social institutions and social group

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4
Q

Social institutions

A

formal structures organized within society which are made to address social needs

ex. health care, government, education, religion and media

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5
Q

Social groups

A

groups of people who interact with one as a result of the way social institutions are organized another or share social trait

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6
Q

Categories of people

A

A set of people who share some common characteristics, but do not necessarily interact

ex. university students

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7
Q

Agency

A

The ability of people, individually and collectively, to influence their own lives and the society in which they live

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8
Q

Health Sociologists

A
  1. Focus on the social factors that influence health and illness
  2. seek to understand social patterns of illness and variations across different social groups
  3. place emphasis on social locations and contexts in determining health and well-being
  4. explore experiences of health and illness in certain social contexts and their subjective meanings
  5. adopt a social model of health, rather than a biomedical one
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9
Q

Health Sociology

A
  • Explores social patterns of health and illness
  • Identify the social, economic, cultural and political factors that impact health and well-being
  • Examine at health and illness experiences within contexts
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10
Q

Social Medicine

A
  • Jules Guerin (1848)

* Recognized the social origins of health

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11
Q

19th century health scholars

A

recognized that improved working, political and social conditions could improve health

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12
Q

Social Determinants of Health

A
  • Consideration of how social and economic factors contribute to health or ill health
  • Relates health and illness to the organization of society and the distribution of economic, political and social resources
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13
Q

Biomedicine

A

Focused on treating or curing ill health at the individual, biological level
*main focus within health care

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14
Q

Prevention in health care

A
  • Preventative approaches exist, but are not necessarily mainsteam or given as much attention
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15
Q

Medical definition of health

A

Absence of diseas

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16
Q

Lay definition of health

A

Related to the functioning or ability to carry out daily activities

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17
Q

Disease

A

a biochemical dysfunction, which can affect humans, as well as animals and plants

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18
Q

Ilnness

A

A biological, psychological or social condition defined as undesirable by those within a given culture who have the power to create such definitions

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19
Q

Sickness

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A

The social roles that a society designates as appropriate in relation to a certain condition of behaviour

20
Q

Biomedical Model

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A
  • The foundation of modern medicine
  • Basis of medical research, training and practice
  • Emerged from Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory of Diseas
21
Q

Biomedical Model Founded on Belief in…

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A
  1. specific etiology
  2. the body as a machine
  3. biological focus
  4. definition, diagnosis and treatment of disease as neutral, scientific matters
22
Q

Criticisms of Biomedical Modek

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A
  1. Doesn’t account for the complexity of health and illness and multidimensional aspects
  2. Fallacy of specific etiology
  3. Objectification and medical scientism
  4. Reductionism and biological determinism
  5. Interventionist bias
  6. Victim blaming
23
Q

The Sociological Perspective

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A
  • Critical of medical definition of health
  • Analyzes individuals within their social-environmental context, rather than biological aspects
  • Recognizes that health is socially defined, dynamic, relative and related to other social variables such as gender, class, ethnicity etc.
  • Focus on social determinants of health
24
Q

The Social Model

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A
  • Critical of, and opposed to biomedical model of disease
  • Linked to efforts to improve social and environmental conditions to prevent illness, rather than treat illness after it occurred
  • Identifies risk factors and risk-imposing factor
25
Key Arguments (Social Model)
1. Disease cannot have a single causal framework, but instead reflects a constellation of factors 2. Illness cannot be understood outside of historical, social, political and cultural context of a person 3. Medical science is the product of cultural changes 4. Role of the social in definition of illness (labelling and medicalization)
26
3 Main dimensions (Social Model)
1. The societal production and distribution of health and illness 2. the social construction of health and illness 3. The social organization of health care
27
Using a sociological perspective when studying health and ilness
*helps us to recognize that agency and social structures are both at play
28
Structure vs Agency debate
An issue of socialization vs autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure
29
Lifetime risk of maternal death
The probability that a 15 year old female will die eventually from a maternal cause assuming that current levels of fertility and mortality do not change in the future
30
4 Parts of the Sociological Imagination
1. Historical factors 2. Cultural factors 3. Structural factors 4. Critical factors
31
Public Health
Policies, programs, and services designed to keep citizens healthy and to improve the quality of life The focus is on enhancing the health status and well-being of the general population rather than just looking at the health of individual persons
32
Epidemiology
The statistical study of patters of diseases. Originally focused on epidemics, or infectious diseases. The field now covers non-infectious conditions, such as stroke and cancer
33
Social Epidemiology
A subfield aligned with sociology which focused on the social determinants of illness
34
State
A collection of government and government-controlled institutions, including parliament, the public sector, bureaucracy, the judiciary, the military and the police
35
Specific Etiology
The idea that there is a specific cause or origin for each specific disease
36
Cartesian Dualism
the mind and body are separate entities
37
Reductionist
the belief that all illnesses can be explained and treated by reducing them to biological and pathological factors
38
Biological determinism
An unproven belief that individual and group behaviour and social status are an inevitable result of biology
39
Victim blaming
the process whereby 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 psychological, cultural and/or biological inferiority
40
Risk factors
Conditions that are thought to increase an individuals susceptibility to illness or disease
41
Health promotion
Any combination of education and related organizational economic and political interventions designed to promote individual behavioural and environmental changes
42
Biopsychosocial model
a multifactorial model of illness that takes into account the biological, psychological and social factors implicated in a patient's condition
43
Ecological model
Derived from the field of human ecology and when applied to public health it suggests than an understanding of health determinants must consider the interaction of social, economic, geographic and environmental factors
44
Social model of health
Focuses on social determinants of health. Directs attention to the prevention of illness through community participation, political action and social reforms that address living and working conditions
45
Political economy
An approach that emphasizes the links between people's health and the political economic and ideological conditions of a society

Soc 238 (14 decks)

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