Functionalist Perspective on Healthcare In the event of an individual falling ill, we as a nation are very lucky to have such excellent Physicians. Sociology has a variety of different perspectives when it comes to the understanding of the honest purpose of healthcare. With the new era emerging with new technology, humans have become inattentive to the environment and health wellness. I will be explaining the importance of healthcare from the Functionalistic Perspective, targeting three main factors; sick role, gatekeeper and social class. Along with some interesting facts, and studies of the environments role in health within a community. Prior to, new technology and educational programs, a community couldn’t identify properly what the …show more content…
According to World Health Organization health is defined as “‘state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity’”. The terminology of “sick” and “well” is socially constructed from the community, family, friends, and work. Health is viewed differently on the demographic map, and communities. Gaining brighter insight into the use of health, we begin to understand the sociological perspectives. Functionalist believe that sick role is “societal expectations about the attitude and behavior of a person viewed being ill”. Early influential functionalist emphasis medicine’s role to maintain or even cure a ‘”normal”’ functioning individuals of society. In simple words, the patient or individual would be seeking to get well. It was also understood functionalist believe even disabled people were classified as sick. The downfall with functionalism is they confuse impairment and disability with the “sick role”. Talcott Parson, who is well known for his contribution to functionalism theory, outlined the behavior required of people who are considered sick. In summary he believed they are exempted from their normal, day-to-day activities. Yet they are
Outlined within this essay are two sociological theories which have been investigated this will be in conjunction with a contemporary health issue. This then will be related to how the individual’s lifestyle and social class to give the reader a better understanding of this health issue.
Introduction: For this essay I am going to critically discuss the biomedical model as well as the social model of health and how they both relate to the lay perspectives on health and illness.
The main approach of the social determinant of health is how the society provides the economic and social resources to their population in order to improve public policies and health. The social determinant of health has introduced in the mid of 19th century in which the living conditions of the society were the main factors of health (Engels, 1845/1947; Virchow, 1848/1985).After this research there was a number of studies that have proved that the people who are exposed to their social and physical conditions in their homes, workplaces and communities are more significant towards their health than their living conditions such as the usage of tobacco or too much intake of alcohol, eating fruits or vegetables and daily
Functionalists believe that society is a structure that functions via interrelating parts, each with its own role. If an individual is sick then they become a deviant to the structure that is society. Deviant means that it is not the norm and does not fit in with society. To get around this the functionalist perspective uses the sick role. An individual can take on the sick role in order to be excused from their usual duties until they are well-enough to resume them.
For many decades, Americans’ health has been greatly impacted by many social, economic and environmental determinants (Plough, 2015). These social, economic, and environmental determinants include income, education, ethnicity, natural and built environment. These factors create the health disparities in the health care system. The culture of health has changed over the last several generations. Health is viewed as not just needing to seek health care, but rather to recognize all aspects of people’s lives that support an active and healthy lifestyle and environment. The aspects can be their work, families and comminutes (Plough, 2015).
Pincus, T., Esther, R., DeWalt, D.A., & Callahan, L.F., (1998) Social conditions and self-management are more powerful determinants of health than access to care. Ann Intern Med. 1998 Sep 1;129(5):406-11.
The biomedical model of health has been criticised because it fails to include the psychological and social causes relating to an individual’s medical illness or health, looking only at the biological causes (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Therefore, sociologists being aware of the impacts of social structure and lifestyle on health have put in various efforts to place the study of ‘the social’ at the core of health and healthcare examination.
During 1951 Parson was the first to debate about the sick role. According to Parson, there are the few expectations which need to be met before considering individual sick. Firstly, individual should not cause their own health problem an example could be by eating a high-fat food which leads to overweight and linked to type 2 diabetes. An individual receives a less sympathy. Secondly, individual who is sick must adamant to get well otherwise will see as faking the illness. Thirdly, an individual illness should be confirmed by a physician so they can follow the instruction. The relationship between the physician and the patient is hierarchical where the instruction is provided by the physician and followed by the
The health of an individual and their communities is affected by several elements which combine together. Whether an individual is healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment.1 To a greater extent, factors such as where an individual lives, their relationships with family and friends, the state of their environment, income, genetics and level of education all have significant impacts on health, however the more frequently considered factors such as access and use of health care facilities regularly have less of an impact.6 Determinants of health is a term which was introduced in the 1970s as part of a broader analysis of research and policy on public health. Researchers argued that there was a lot of attention and too much expenditure on health being dedicated to individuals and their illnesses, and little or no investment in populations and their health. It was decided that public health should be more concerned with social policies and social determinants than with health facilities and the outcomes of diseases.7 The determinants of health include social and economic environment, physical environment and an individual’s behaviour and characteristics. The environment of an individual determines their health, holding responsible an individual for having poor health or acknowledging them for good health is inappropriate. Individuals are not likely to be able to control several of the determinants of health. These determinants that make individuals healthy or not include the factors above, and numerous others.6
The negative is where health is perceived to be the absence of disease or abnormalities in the body. This is similar to the positive is where health focuses on the presence of certain attributes, rather than the absence of them. This is different from the world health organisation (WHO 2008) where health requires a person to be completely physically, mentally and socially well, but not just the absence of disease and illness. This also requires the person to be socially and economically productive in order to be seen as healthy. According to Mildred Blaxter (1990), there are different ways of defining health. Furthermore, disease can be seen as the presence of an abnormality in part of the body or where there is a harmful physical change in the body such as broken bones. So, illness is the physical state of disease that is to say, the symptoms that a person feels because of the disease. However, there is some limitation of these definitions which is not merely an absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing. (Haralambos and Holbon 2009 p: 50).
The notion of health is contextual and an interactive, dynamic process between person and environment (Schim et al, 2007). Both wellness and illness are conceptualized by the ‘person’, existing on a continuum across the lifespan (Arnold & Boggs, 2001).
In some way, public health is seen as a modern philosophical and ideological perspective based on ‘equity’ and aimed to determine inequitable in society. It seen as a ‘science’ and ‘art’ in the sense that it deals with the cause of disease, treatment of illness as well as it involves laboratory experiments, intervention and promoting of health of the population. Winslow (1920, p. 23) defined public health as ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency through organised community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organisation of medical and nursing service for early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health. On the other hand, it is ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised effort of society’ (Acheson, 1998; in Cowley S, 2002, p. 261).
Parson’s sick role generalizes today’s modern-day view of the sick role. It is the role given to those who experience illness beyond the physical condition of a sick state- it constitutes a social role because behaviors are shaped by institutional expectations and reinforced by the norms of society. It's based on the assumption that being sick is not deliberate or a choice of that person. According to Parsons, the sick role requires an ill person to fulfil a series of obligations to gain many rights. They are obliged to: Seek medical advice, cooperate with medical experts and therapists throughout their illness, want to get well as quickly as possible (Cockerham, 2016). In return for fulfilling these obligations they are exempt from social responsibilities and self-care, which are taken upon by family and friends. These rights, however, are granted only when a recognized medical authority, such as a doctor, acknowledges the person’s illness. Some illnesses do not justify people claiming all the rights of the sick role. For example, minor ailments may be self-treated and should not require time off work. In such circumstances, an inappropriate adoption of the sick role puts a strain on this social contract and may be met with a lack of sympathy from family and careers. This reaction can also occur when people who are genuinely sick fail to follow prescribed medical advice (Parsons,
Health psychology is a relatively new concept rapidly growing and could be defined as the biological and psychological influences affect ones behaviour also bringing in social influences of health and illness (MacDonald, 2013). Biological determinants consider genetic and biological factors of an illness whereas psychological determinants focus on the psychological factors such as why people behave the way they do when dealing with issues such as anxiety and stress. Models such as the Health Belief Model and Locus of Control were developed in attempt to try and explain psychological issues around a chronic illness such as breast cancer (Ogden, 2012). Sociological factors can cause an enormous amount of pressure for one to behave in a certain way for example gender roles in society and religious considerations when dealing with health beliefs. Health Beliefs can be defined as one’s own perception to their own personal health and illness and health behaviours (Ogden, 2012). There are also theories and models used to explain pain and coping with diagnosis such as Moos and Schaefer (1984) Crisis theory and Shontz (1975) cycle of grief people go through when being diagnosed with a serious illness.
The processes of life were being born, growing old, having illness, and death. In our life, we suffered from different sickness. It was a good reason for the absent from school, work or other daily working activities. However, in the view of a sociologist, the people who were in the sick role, they were regarded as having committed a crime and it was treated as deviant behavior (Peter & Meredith, 1998). In the structural functional model, people took various tasks and role in society or in different institutions. These were dependable with the structures and norms of the society. Did sickness have any effective elements in society? This paper would describe the concept of sick role and the application in the nursing practice (Parson, 1979).