Health, Illness and Medicine

Abstract

The sociological study of health and illness has much in common with the study of deviance as illness is also a form of unintentional ‘rule breaking’ Sociologists have examined both the social causes of diseases and also how the meanings of ‘health’ and ‘illness’ are constructed in social processes. There are also connections between the sociological study of medicine and religion. Some sociologists have argued that medicine has taten over some of the social control functions that have traditionally been associated with established religion and mat in contemporary societies the religious distinction between good and evil is being Increasingly replaced by the medical distinction between healthy and unhealthy. This chapter aims to illustrate how sociologists have examined the social origins of disease and the processes that shape both people’s experiences of illness and disability and the medical knowledge and practices around which health care is organized. It should help you to understand:

• What is meant by the biomedical model of health and how it has been questioned in recent years

• How sociologists have tried to measure and explain health inequalities

• The relationship between stress, social support and health

• What is meant by the sick role and how sociologists have tried to illuminate people’s experiences of sickness and disability

• How sociologists have explained ideas about health, illness and the human body as social constructions