structural functionalism conflict theory and symbolic interactionism

This was especially true for premature death, said Parsons, because it prevents individuals from fully carrying out all their social roles and thus represents a “poor return” to society for the various costs of pregnancy, birth, child care, and socialization of the individual who ends up dying early. Ill health impairs our ability to perform our roles in society, and if too many people are unhealthy, society’s functioning and stability suffer. Physicians “manage the situation” to display their authority and medical knowledge.Īs conceived by Talcott Parsons (1951), the functionalist perspective emphasizes that good health and effective medical care are essential for a society’s ability to function. Health and illness are social constructions: Physical and mental conditions have little or no objective reality but instead are considered healthy or ill conditions only if they are defined as such by a society. Partly to increase their incomes, physicians have tried to control the practice of medicine and to define social problems as medical problems. People from disadvantaged social backgrounds are more likely to become ill and to receive inadequate health care. Social inequality characterizes the quality of health and the quality of health care. The physician-patient relationship is hierarchical: The physician provides instructions, and the patient needs to follow them.

Patients must perform the “sick role” in order to be perceived as legitimately ill and to be exempt from their normal obligations. Good health and effective medical care are essential for the smooth functioning of society. Table 13.1 Theory Snapshot Theoretical perspective Table 13.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes what they say. As usual, the major sociological perspectives that we have discussed throughout this book offer different types of explanations, but together they provide us with a more comprehensive understanding than any one approach can do by itself. With these definitions in mind, we now turn to sociological explanations of health and health care. Finally, health care refers to the provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. This social institution in the United States is vast, to put it mildly, and involves more than 11 million people (physicians, nurses, dentists, therapists, medical records technicians, and many other occupations). Medicine refers to the social institution that seeks to prevent, diagnose, and treat illness and to promote health in its various dimensions. Although the three dimensions of health just listed often affect each other, it is possible for someone to be in good physical health and poor mental health, or vice versa. As this definition suggests, health is a multidimensional concept. Health refers to the extent of a person’s physical, mental, and social well-being. List the assumptions of the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on health and medicine.īefore discussing these perspectives, we must first define three key concepts-health, medicine, and health care-that lie at the heart of their explanations and of this chapter’s discussion.

Structural functionalism conflict theory and symbolic interactionism