The Sociology of Health
Access to health professions
Lecturer: Elspeth Cordell
Outcomes for this unit
• Sociology of Health criteria sheet
• The assessment for this unit
Today’s lesson outcomes
• Define Biomedical and social definitions of
health (C1)
• Discuss the differences (C1.1)
• Evaluate with examples the definitions of
health and illness (C1.1)
• By the end of the lesson we should have
addressed part 1 of the assignment
Getting you thinking task: When can a
illness be labelled as a illness
• Answer the questions on the hand-out
Conclusion of activity
• Real evidence
• Produces sympathy
• Patient is believed
But what is ‘health’?
Working towards Criteria 1 of assessment
Part 1
• What does ‘health’ mean?
• Spend a couple of minutes writing your own
definition of health
• After this , share with your neighbour
Part 2
• We need to have a definition of health.
• Why?
Public definitions of health
•
•
•
•
•
Blaxter (1990)
10,000 people
How they define health
3 categories immerged
3 definitions of health and illness
• Public definitions
• Bio-medical model
• The Social model
• T: Firstly Come up with your own definitions of
‘health’
1: positive definition
• Health defined as:
• Being fit and able to undertake any reasonable
task
• Feelings are attached to this definition
• How one ‘feels’
2- negative definition
• Health defined in terms of being free from
pain and discomfort
• Absence of feeling hurt or feeling pain
3. Functional definition
• Healthy is defined in terms of being able to
perform a range of tasks
• Objective view of health- mechanical
What influences these definitions?
• What factors could influence how we define
health? for example cultural differences
1. Think of things that could influence how we
define health
2. give an example
Example: Mental illness
• Is culture bound
• evidence suggests that mental illness in one
culture may not be viewed as such in another
(Fernando, 1991)
• Atypical behaviour?
Cultural differences
• Krause (1989)
• Hindu and Sikh Punjabis
living in Bedford
• Sinking heart
• Physical chest pain
• Illness caused by variety
of emotional
experiences
• Public shame
Any other examples ?
So
• What is needed is an accepted definition of
health and illness
The accepted definition..
• “A state of complete physical, social and
mental wellbeing, and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity”
• WHO 1948
T: Anything wrong with this?
The up-to-date definition..
• “Health is seen as a resource for everyday life,
not an object of living. It is a positive concept
emphasising social and personal resources as
well as physical capabilities. The extent to
which an individual or (group of individuals) is
able, on one hand to realise aspirations and
satisfy needs, and on the other hand to
change or cope with the environment.”
• Is this a better definition and why?
The biomedical model (C1.1)
• Worksheet task
End of lesson
• Check learning question to encapsulate MUST,
SHOULD, COULD
• 1. When defining health firstly what do we
have to consider, and secondly why is it
important?
• Please hand this to me
Elspeth Cordell
THE SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH
Whilst setting up
• Read through your hand-out: Biomedical
definition of health
• Explain why this definition is good for
defining ‘health and illness’.
• Explain why this definition is not good for
defining ‘health and illness’.
Last Lesson : working
towards criteria 1.1
This lesson : fulfilling
criteria 1.1
Next lesson : fulfilling
criteria 2.1
Introduced the unit:
Must:
• Define the biomedical
and social models of
health
• Define disability
Must: define social realism
and social constructionism
Must:
• be able to provide a
definition of health
• Began to define the
biomedical model of
health
Define mental illness in a
sociological context (Stretch
&Challenge)
Should: explain with
examples why a health can
be hard to define
Should: explain these
models with examples to
support them
Should: discuss their views
on mental health
Could: begin to evaluate
different definitions of
health
Could: evaluate the
differences of these models
Could: Evaluate with
evidence these two
approaches in explaining
mental illness
Conclusion of the Biomedical model in
understanding health
• Illness is always based on an identifiable (physical
or mental cause)
• Illnesses can be identified, classified and
measured
• The cure usually lies in the physical body of the
patient, not in their social relationships or their
spiritual life
• There is an reliance on drugs or therapy
However (Assignment tip: information to start
contrasting the definitions!)
• This definition to understanding the concept
of health is too simplistic
• Health is affected by wider influences than
just the affect on the body or mind
• We should investigate the reasons why people
get ill, instead of just concentrating on the
body
The social model C1.1
• Newspaper article:
• http://www.newsmedical.net/news/20141112/Study-Fast-foodoutlets-in-inner-city-neighborhoods-linked-torisk-of-diabetes-obesity.aspx
• Diagram and mini group task
Social model diagram
• Read the accompanied
article to support you.
Now have a go at filling in
the for and against on the
hand-out (Social model of
health)
• Mini group task:
• Finding your own
evidence for assessment
Lesson 3: Health
Lecturer: Elspeth Cordell
Last lesson
Explored the
social model of
health
This lesson
Must:
• Define both
models
• Define disability
• Define mental
illness
Should:
provide examples to
support both models
Could:
Compare and
contrast the models
Next lesson
Evaluate mental
illness in terms of
social realism and
social
constructionism
Things that affect health (SM)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Social class- (black report)handout
Ethnicity – handout
Gender
Age
Where you live- poverty vs affluent
Education
The social model of health
• Definitions of health is not solely based on
physical and mental illnesses
• Should be based on social- economic factors:
• Where you live, your job, your education, your
ethnic group, your sexuality….
Examples:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Smoking: hand-out
Gender : Hand-out
Cervical cancer:
Singh et al 2012 hand-out
Mejia et al 2003 hand-out
Graph- social classes hand-out
• So if we address issues of poverty, we could
improve the health!
Health models
• Conclusion task : page 157 Q1-4
Disability
Implications of the models on
disability
• Huge implications on disabled people (Moore
et al 2001)
Disability- Criteria 1.1
• Assumed: someone has impediments that stops
someone from operating normally…
• This assumes that: we have a clear definition of
normal bodily functions and what the normal
activities associated with this body part are!
• Oliver (1996) Disability is also a social
construction not just physical one
• T: why do you think this is?
• Because of research this as lead to WHO defining
disability…
WHO- 1998
• Distinguished between:
• Impairment: refers to the abnormality of, or loss
of function of, a part of the body
• Handicap: Refers to the physical limits imposed
by the loss of a function
• Disability: refers to the socially imposed
restriction on people’s abilities to perform tasks
as a result of the behaviour of people in society.
• T: Any exmaples for the Disability definition?
Evidence of the social model of
disability:
How the models view disability
• We treat disabled people differently in our
world
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObMG63QXw
• How does the medical (Biomedical) model
view the cause of disability?
• How does the social model view the cause of
disability
Conclusion and assessment
What needs to be addressed in the assignment
up to now:
• Biomedical model- definition, examples for
and against
• Social model- definition, example, and for and
against
• Disability- defined (WHO) and viewed by the
models
Mental illness
• Getting you thinking task
• Individual then group
Influences
• What influences our definitions of mental
illness?
• For example-
Task: Find your own evidence
• Task to help = p171
Social constructionism
• Labelling theory