Sociology of Health - Essay Example

SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH of Introduction According to Burnham , sick role refers to the situations in the medical psychology that regards the sickness of patients compared to their rights and obligations. The work cited by Berk, Berk, & Dodd (2013), determines that Talcott Pearson (the proponent to the theory) brought to attention the aspect of the sick not being able to carry out normal duties as another person that is healthy. On the other hand, the aspect of health refers to the idea of a person being in a state of freedom from any form of suffering emanating from diseases or illnesses. The aspect of being unhealthy is caused by diseases. A disease, according to Haines, Sanders, & Lehmann (2007) refers to a disorder that occurs to cause a change in the normal functioning of the structure of a person and is accompanied by signs and symptoms. These are the ideas as expressed by the functionalist perspectives as expressed by the functionalist proponent Herbert Spencer. On the other hand, the postmodernism aspect of the sick role is more of an integration of many previous theories. It determines that the sick people usually change their capability and hence they are forced to sport the normal operations as per their normal duties (Haines, Sanders, & Lehmann, 2007, p. 22). This research seeks to establish the aspect of the sociology of health. Specific focus will be based, with reference to the sociological perspectives, the relationship between a doctor and a patient, the levels of social control in the medical field as well as the political economy in the medical field. A conclusion will be based on the findings as per the findings in the different sections and perspectives. Relationship between the Doctor and Patient The relationship between doctors and patients is special in determining the performance of the doctor as far as the illness of the patient is concerned. From the functionalism perspective, Parsons determined that the relationship is supposed to be based on a social system in which the societal expectations on a given profession must be taken care of (Haines, Sanders, & Lehmann, 2007, p. 112). Given that the system takes to account the aspect of there being high levels of consideration for the whole society, it is determined that the work of the doctor in treatment of a patient was not just limited to the individual patient. It was aimed at eradicating the disease in the whole society. The behaviour is supposed to impact the whole social system and in turn, the whole society is supposed to benefit effectively. How the disease would affect the functioning of the whole society was more important than just dealing with the single case. High levels of illness and low levels of health are supposed to be dysfunctional, an issue that emanates from the patient-doctor relationship. If one person was sick in the society, then the functioning of the society would be jeopardised. When the work requires that normal duties are relinquished and a doctor visited, the doctor is therefore soused to offer a niche. The sick role would then determine that the sick person be allowed bed rest by the doctor who cedes full cooperation. The physician is therefore supposed to functionally act in the interests of the patient, offer care that is technically competent in an objective manner. The relationship between the doctor and the patient therefore from the functionalism perspective would be supposed to be reciprocal, based on consent and effectively functioned so that the cost of being deviant to the duties is reduced. This relationship is also not supposed to be based on favour but the quality of the service that would serve to increase the value of the person to the society through reducing his absent time from his roles (Burnham, 2014, p. 321). From the postmodernism perspective, the definition of a patient is based on the doctor’s accounts and experiences with the patients. The situation therefore lives to the idea that there has to be a connection between the condition of the patient, his level of cooperation and the knowledge of the doctors. Doctors determine patients on the basis of being good or bad. This is based on the types of patients in view of their behaviour and the diseases that are affecting them. From the perspective of the doctor, the patients that are considered to be best are those that hardly consults, are able to make judgement on when consultation is needed. These patients have full trust in the doctors and have no questions about the decisions of the doctor (Haines, Sanders, & Lehmann, 2007, p. 198). They have a direct way of complying with the propositions of the doctor. On the other hand, the worst patients are those that kept complaining, are troublesome, and are over consulting. These patients are likely to be demanding for their rights at all times, have little trust in the doctor and directly blame the doctors for their problems and their illnesses. From the postmodernism perspective, it is determined that there is a direct connection between the patients and the doctor and the benefits seem to be a direct connection linking these two groups. Doctors are likely to love dealing with those considered less disturbing. In the case of treatment, it is determined that they are likely to act fast with those considered good than those considered bad. A different perspective in the postmodernism era is viewed on the basis of the medical field. There is a strong notion that the modern public are always sceptical about the medical field. However, the levels of being sceptic are not whole because patients are not known to put so much emphasis on the effectiveness of the doctors and the medicine (WANG, XIA, & YAN, 2014;34). Therefore, postmodernism indicates a patient population that is informed but has no choice in many cases and therefore still has no problems having the doctors attend to them. Medical Profession Exercises Social Control The medical profession has far reaching effects on the society. If we consider the two theoretical perspectives as enumerated above, it can be noted that the doctors literally run the operations of the society (Berk, Berk, & Dodd, 2013, p. 121). Consider the functionalism aspect. It is noted that members of a society are very important to that very society given the socio-economic impacts that they accord to the same society. In their absence, the specified roles that they used to play will stall. On stalling, all the people that depend on them will tend to suffer economically. Therefore, the functionalism perspective indicates doctors as being productive as far as the functionality of the society is concerned. In every aspect, it must be noted that when members of the society are feeling well, then the society will continue functioning. When doctors work harder to treat patients, then the illnesses that will have affected a given society will have been reduced (Burnham, 2014, p. 21). The treated people will go back to their duties as fast as possible which is an issue that supports the entire economic value of the society. The functionalist aspect therefore demystifies the idea that the medical field supports the whole society and the stability of the society will be based on there being people that are healthy at all times to continue running the economy. Consider the reasoning from the postmodernism aspect. In this case, the doctors deal with the individuals that they consider to be cooperative with them. In this case, the level of sound treatment is determined by the level of cooperation between the patients and the doctors. Postmodernism puts the doctors at higher levels of pressure. This is because people want accountability and not guess work. To be sure about what they are doing, doctors are supposed to be well educated with sufficient experience to win the hearts of the public. Therefore, issues associated with the patients opposing or questioning the competence of the doctors is not likely to end in the near future (Berk, Berk, & Dodd, 2013). However, it has also been noted that the patients lack options as far as the medical field is concerned. This makes it impossible for the doctors to continue monopolising the industry and dictating the terms of operation. The factor that remains imminent therefore is that the doctors are the keepers of the life of the society. Without them, it would have been a world and society that is fully affected by diseases. Economies would fall and there would be no development. The human resource in the people would be killed off due to lack of the right treatment for the sick. Some may die and some may have permanent medical conditions like being lame. How the Medical Profession actually contributes to Ill Health As much as the medical profession contributes to better the health of people, it can also lead to body malfunction. Three classified methods have been known to lead to there being medical malfunction. These include the aspect of; Clinical iatrogenesis Social iatrogenesis Structural iatrogenesis Iatrogenesis refers to the sicknesses that emanate from medical activities (Candel-Sánchez & Perote-Peña, 2013). Clinical iatrogenesis refers to the aspect of the ill health that the victim contracts while they are in hospital. In most cases, this may be due to ignorance, medication side effects and other malpractices that arise from the doctors. There are times when this is serious and the patient ends up losing their lives. Social iatrogenesis is a case in which the medical consultants’ staffs contribute to the spread of some medical conditions. This is done through encouraging a morbid society into consumption of some special types of medicine such as curative, preventable or environmental medicine. This process undermines the individual capability through making people hypochondriacs in that their only hopes are the medical staffs. Cultural iatrogenesis refers to the aspect of the society making the will of their members weak. This is done through paralysis of healthy responses in which case the doctors become the decision makers in the society. Political Economy of the Health Industry There are some economies that are capitalism in nature. Moreover, there are some individuals that carry a capitalist characteristic in which case to them, profit making is the most important factor. In this case, search for profits end up interfering with the quality of the medical attention given to the patients. Moreover, the employees of such establishments suffer from having to overwork so much to meet the demands of their clients (Berk, Berk, & Dodd, 2013). When rates of capitalism economy is highly developed, life is fully regulated by the unregulated market, the health at national level and understaffed establishments because the main aim of the health facility is to make profit, instead of venturing in investing in quality. The main aim of having the workers toils to make profits for the owners of the company in the capitalist system. In such cases, every health care system serves the purpose of maintaining the workforce for the purposes of aiding the owners to make as much profit as possible. The ideas of Marx therefore developed ideas that would oversee the expansion of the project of industrial capitalism. The plight of the workers is absolutely absolved. This is in making sure that the school, Conclusion This is a phenomenal; research on the aspect of health sociology. In this case, a collection of issues were discovered. First, it is noted that the result takes a few hours to determine the cause of the object. Functionalist and postmodern theories are used to explain the situation in which case. It was discovered that although functionalism may be out of place, there is always a way to work the fire out. Otherwise the industry is too packed eighth similar plans. Another issue is that of the doctor-patient Relations (Wang, Xia, & Yan, 2014, 134). It is determined that a doctor can be good or bad based on the consumer characteristics that lead to some aspects uniting or failing to. Social control has also been seen as part of the required control over the USB. Technological advances determine that the health industry will change for the benefit of the people as opposed to just being there. References Berk, M., Berk, L., & Dodd, S. (2013). The sick role, illness cognitions and outcomes in bipolar disorder. Journal of affective disorders, 146(1), 89. Burnham, J. C. (2014). Why sociologists abandoned the sick role concept. History of the Human Sciences, 27(1), 109. Candel-Sánchez, F., & Perote-Peña, J. (2013). A political economy model of market intervention. Public choice, 157(1/2), 61. Haines, A., Sanders, D., & Lehmann, U. (2007). Achieving child survival goals: potential contribution of community health workers. The Lancet, 369(9579), 89. WANG, B.-y., Xia, T., & Yan, X.-t. (2014). Analysis of doctor-patient relationship status and its influencing factors of the tertiary hospital in Suzhou. Global Journal of Hospital Administration, 2(4), 219. Read More