SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS exam 2 questions and answers with solutions 2025
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Module
Sociology
Institution
Sociology
Medicalization - ANSWER "A process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illnesses or disorders."
*Medicalization has affected both deviant behavior and natural life processes.
EX] Drunkeness is a disease, wrinkles can be cured.
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SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
exam 2 questions and answers with
solutions 2025
Medicalization - ANSWER "A process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as
medical problems, usually in terms of illnesses or disorders."
*Medicalization has affected both deviant behavior and natural life processes.
EX] Drunkeness is a disease, wrinkles can be cured.
Peter Conrad: (2000) Medicalization and Social Control Article. What are the main ideas surrounding
medicalization? - ANSWER -1970's term that means to make medical
-Sociocultural process-conceptualizes medicine as an institution of social control.
-Legitimizes deviance by turning deviant acts into an illness. i.e.) Homosexuality, Alcoholism, etc. [Makes
normal social problems medicalized ones]
*3 levels of Medicalization
*Contexts of Medicalization
*Degrees of Medicalization
What are the 3 distinct levels of Medicalization? - ANSWER -Conceptual
-Institutional
-Interactional
What is the CONCEPTUAL level of medicalization? - ANSWER -Defines the problem at hand
-Few medical professionals are involved
-Medical treatment is not necessarily applied.
*How do we think about something. In medical terms or some other way?
What is the INSTITUTIONAL level of medicalization? - ANSWER -Organizations adopt a medical approach
to treat a particular problem.
*Hospitals, schools, cemeteries are institutions-this level focuses on how these particular institutions
deal with medicalization.
,What is the INTERACTIONAL level of medicalization? - ANSWER -Physicians are most directly involved.
-Doctor/Patient interaction.
-Doctor treats "social" problem as a medical one and provides patient with a medical form of treatment.
i.e.) Prescribing tranquilizer drugs for unhappy family life.
Michel Foucault (1926-1984) - ANSWER *French theorist
*Power, modernity, and bodies
-Madness and civilization
-The birth of the clinic
-Discipline and Punish
-The history of sexuality
*He believed that handling issues by using cohersion (with fear-if you don't do something ill kill you) was
an unacceptable method. Instead he thought that power is gained by surveillance (this call might be
monitored-thus people will say less).
*Power works by making people obey and comply.
Context of Medicalization - ANSWER *Conrad: 2 contextual aspects that affect medicalization.
-Secularization
-Changes in medical profession
What is secularization? - ANSWER Medicine has replaced religion as the dominant moral ideology. i.e.)
Homosexuality, infertility.
-Society used to turn to war and religion for answers but instead is now viewing the role of daily lives
more scientifically. (Medicine is more important than prayer)
Changes in the medical profession - ANSWER -Better health in the last two decades of medicalization
because of improved standards of living, vaccinations, etc.-fewer children are getting sick.
, -Increased medicalization of psychosocial problems in children but only on the conceptual and
institutional levels of medicalization.
Degrees of Medicalization - ANSWER *Fully medicalized
*Partially medicalized
*Minimally medicalized
What is fully medicalized? - ANSWER Death and childbirth
What is partially medicalized? - ANSWER Opiate addiction and menopause
What is minimally medicalized? - ANSWER Sexual addiction and spouse abuse.
Excessive Medicalization: The Case of ADHD - ANSWER *5 million Americans take medication for ADHD.
*Significant growth in young adults prescription.
*Potential for misuse, addiction and side effects.
(Higher concentration of users in southeast region)
-Amphetamine use i.e.) Address and Ritalin use has doubled between 2008 and 2013.
Dilemma - ANSWER "A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more
alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones."
Sheldon Ekland-Olson: What are the two moral imperatives? - ANSWER *Life is sacred and should be
protected.
*Suffering, once detected, should be alleviated.
"How do we, through our customs, laws, religion, and common practice, go about justifying the violation
of these deeply important, perhaps universal, moral imperatives, all the while holding tightly to their
importance? -The short answer is this: with empathy and logic we draw boundaries and through political
debate we set priorities to resolve dilemmas."
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