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Strengths and weaknesses of the functionalist perspective relating to health
Reflection on medical ethics
Moral ethical dilemmas in the medical field
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A Functionalist perspective: This perspective regards illness as socially deviant behaviour which requires social control. Being defined as ill legitimises exemption from the responsibilities of daily life. The condition, however, is that the patient seeks help and cooperates with the doctor. The ill person has a requirement to attempt to be healed, and the doctor is obligated to help the
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 Open University, 2015b). Looking at the language used in mental health and how this can change and shape people’s perspectives, for instance, the term ‘patient’ indicates that a person is ill. Once again this is taking on a biomedical approach, and the biomedical perspective are a result of physical or chemical malfunction in the brain (The Open University, 2015c) There are debates over the language used within mental health on how to refer to people, moving towards the terms ‘service user’ or ‘client’ which takes the focus away from an illness and more of a service being given and
“ Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you with out a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value. A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society in the Outside World, because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them. At some time – perhaps in your childhood – you may have been allowed to get away with flouting the rules of society. When you broke a rule you knew it. You wanted to be dealt with, needed it, but the punishment did not come. That foolish lenience on the part of your parents may have been the germ that grew in to your present illness. I tell you this hoping you will understand that it is entirely for your own good that we enforce discipline and order.” (Kesey 188).
through the illness not being identified as an illness, is a social stigma and inadequate
Sick Woman refers to any person who is subjugated or oppressed by the capitalist system. Johanna Hedva’s article Sick Woman Theory, concentrates on the marginalized people, suffering from chronic or mental illness, asking for a change on both social and political relations. “Sick Woman Theory” states that the idea of wellness and of being normal is a capitalist idea, being well means being able to go to work, and must be rejected. The way the patriarchal system has set the standards is for anyone not meeting the social norm not to be capable of survival. If a disability holds someone captive in their own body and unable to actively protest, then they must find an alternative
Based on the understanding of what it takes to be a patient. The medical model and parson are both at an agreement. According to Parson “the ‘obligation to “want to get well” …. And to seek professional help and social support: to actively seek professional help, to trust the physician and to follow medical advice. The doctor-patient relationship is set up to enable
Mental health and mental ill health is a wide subject that includes many different categories of mental health problems. According to the organisation Mind, mental health problems affect one in four people in Britain (Mind, 2013). Although, that is a big number it still is a sensitive topic for many people.
... find stability and maintain their stability of their illness. Many of these people overcome their illness to some extent and manage to play an important role in society.
Would You Rather? is a popular game among children, teenagers, and even adults. The game simply gives players two choices and asks them which they would rather. However, what would a player choice if they picked up a car and it read, “Would You Rather… have a mental illness or a physical illness?” You could easily say that mental diseases are worse and name all of the aspects that are terrifying about them; however, you could also say that physical illnesses are worse and list the gory realities of it as well. But what about them both, side by side, with all of their painful characteristics and facts. Mental and physical diseases are no worse than one another because they both disarray daily lives and activities, both
Race, by definition, refers to biological characteristics of individuals as reflected in their physical appearance (Lyndonna Marrast, David U. Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler, 2016) Contrary to popular race, the concept of race is not something that is intrinsic to human nature; in other words, it is an aspect of society that has been socially constructed with the intention of separation and segregation. Usually, those that are placed into racial categories are associated with certain prejudices and biases that are the result of multiple stereotypes that are perpetuated in our society; for example, there are multiple stigmas of African Americans in today’s society. As a result, this has allowed for the development of a specific way of
Mental Health is an issue that millions of individuals are facing here in the United States. Illnesses such as anxiety and panic attacks, borderline personality disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, and depression affect the lives of so many.
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.
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).
Depending on the social contexts, there are some illnesses without diseases or the meaning of illnesses is independent from the biomedical entity. Illness is socially and culturally constructed and can reflect cultural biases or set limitations on particular groups. Historically, cultural assumptions of women’s nature have limited women’s ability to access resources and participate in the public sphere. Physicians have acted as agents of social control through defining women’s natural ability as secondary to men, and medicalizing of women’s problems, such as childbirth, menopause and premenstrual syndrome. These biased assumptions have become more complex and less visible, however they continue to limit and control women’s agency in society. Feminists have accused the medicalization of menopause as devaluing women, despite that fact that aging is a natural process. However, different cultures construct different understandings, definitions, experiences and medical practices of illness. Illness, such as anorexia can reflect the changing social expectations and roles of women in different cultures. The creation and treatment of illnesses are unequal. “Stigmatized illness”, including AIDS and epilepsy can create moral meanings that cause the perception of illness and individuals with illness stigmatized. Furthermore, factors such as whom and how many are affected
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.