After reading chapter one and reviewing the PowerPoint, you should complete the following tasks:
Answer the following questions in complete sentences (5-7 sentence responses):
Why is the United States the last industrial country to adopt a national health care program? Which sociological perspective(s) best explains why public and political support for health care reform has been difficult to achieve?
How is illness functional in society? What behavior is expected from someone who is sick? (‘The Sick Role’)
Explain from a conflict perspective how health inequalities are shaped by conflict and competing interests between groups.
In this exercise, you will listen to a podcast on medical history and answer questions about how it demonstrates the social construction of health and illness. The podcast, Sawbones, (http://maximumfun.org/shows/sawbones (Links to an external site.)) is a weekly show where a husband-and-wife team (she’s a medical doctor and he’s a comedian) discuss a variety of topics in medical history, often focusing on a particular disease or a particular treatment.
First, choose one of the following episodes of Sawbones.
“Birth Control” (http://maximumfun.org/sawbones/sawbones-birth-control (Links to an external site.))
“Lobotomy” (http://maximumfun.org/sawbones/sawbones-lobotomy (Links to an external site.))
“Hysteria” (http://maximumfun.org/sawbones/sawbones-hysteria (Links to an external site.))
“Green Sickness” (http://maximumfun.org/sawbones/sawbones-green-sickness (Links to an external site.))
Then, write your answers to the following questions:
Which social factors (class, race, gender, etc.) influenced the treatment or illness you studied? How?
How did conceptions of morality or responsibility factor into the understanding of the illness or treatment? How does this reveal how health and illness are socially constructed?
3. How did shared understandings of the disease affect public policy about the disease or the afflicted?
Please use this link to upload your work.
Assignment is due on Sunday May 22 by 11:59 pm.
Worth 20 points.
Note: Please only upload word docs or pdf files DO NOT SUBMIT ANY .PAGES FILES
Chapter Learning Objectives:
To read these particular portions of the chapter, please click on the links below and you will be taken to that section of the book.
19.1 The Social Construction of Health
Define the term medical sociology
Understand the difference between the cultural meaning of illness, the social construction of illness, and the social construction of medical knowledge
19.2 Global Health
Define social epidemiology
Apply theories of social epidemiology to an understanding of global health issues
Understand the differences between high-income and low-income nations
19.3 Health in the United States
Understand how social epidemiology can be applied to health in the United States
Explain disparities of health based on gender, socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity
Give an overview of mental health and disability issues in the United States
Explain the terms stigma and medicalization
19.4 Comparative Health and Medicine
Explain the different types of health care available in the United States
Compare the health care system of the United States with that of other countries
19.5 Theoretical Perspectives on Health and Medicine
Apply functionalist, conflict theorist, and interactionist perspectives to health issues
Instructions:
For this week, you should review each section in the chapter reading and complete your chapter recap assignment and/or discussion board. You should also review all supplemental readings and/or videos that are provided for you in the module. Please remember that your responses for the chapter recap assignment should be approximately 5 to 7 sentences in length per question set (not individual questions). You should only upload word or pdf files (please DO NOT upload .pages files). Additionally, your discussion board responses are due on Friday (initial response to the discussion prompt) and Sunday (respond to at least TWO of your classmates posts). Your posts should also be approximately 5 to 7 sentences in length per question set (not individual questions). Please let me know if you have any questions concerns about the assignments.
Help:
Please find the assignments rubric under the ‘Course Resources’ module here: Link
You can also find book resources for your textbook here: Link (Links to an external site.)
I am always here to help so don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns you may have:
How To Contact Me
Happy learning!!!
