Sociological Approaches To Health And Ill Health

Sociological costes To Health And Ill HealthIn this appellative I will look at the different sociological perspectives on wellness and ill health as well as the different definitions of it. delimitate health is really difficult as in that respect are many different views. There live been many criticisms of the defining of health. The definition of health has changed everyplace the years. For exampleIn Mauritania a small country in N.W. Africa, obesity is considered a sign of beauty. Girls are force-fed so that they grow up with that obesity look.In the western country obesity is seen as ill health, unattractive and associated with invalidating stereotypes.Obesity is still seen as a sign of wealth and well-being in many parts of Africa.Functionalist ApproachThe functionalist approach on health and ill health derives from Talcott Pearson. Talcott saw ill health as a threat to ordering and believed that good health was essential in order for society to be still functioning. He s aid that ill health affects our ability to work and bring to pass our roles in society. For that reason he said that for a soul to be considered beep there are several expectation to be met. He called the expectations the sick role which indicated how people are supposed to be like when they are ill and how they should be thinking. The sick role divides into deuce groups the rights and the obligations.RightsThe sick psyche is devoid from any friendly roles. For example work, or school, they should be allowed to take the day off in order to get back to normalThe sick person is non responsible for their conditionObligationsThe person should seek for medical assistance. For example going to the doctors to get checked up and get treatmentThe person should not like being sick. For example the person should not fake being sick just because they get attention as well as get a day off their normal duties.However the sick role backfires sometimes as people tend to lose patience with the sick person or deny that they are sick for reasons such as liking the role. For example family, they may show sympathy at the beginning but by and by a while they lose patience with the sick person and assume he/she is seeking attention or is a hypochondriac.Marxist Feminist ApproachMarxist approach believes that the health and kind care service care services are provided just to help the bourgeoisies gain gain ground. The Marxist believe that the health and social care of the service users should be maintained in order for them to quickly get back to work so that they can make profit for the bourgeoisies. In order to maintain the social hierarchy the government purposely ignores the selling of products which can harm ones body for example, cigarettes, tobacco etc. In the sophisticated world I believe the hierarchy is shaped into a pyramid with a few elite at the top controlling and manipulating those below which allows the copious to always be the rich and the poor to be the poor giving no chance for movement in the hierarchy.Feminist writers believe that the medical concern and pharmaceutical industries have given a low priority to developing male contraceptive pills which have fewer harmful side effects compared to contraceptives apply by women. This shows that society is exploiting women and increase anxiety and stress for women there by suppressing their abilities and making life outside of family harder so that women resume their position as a housewife. For example a women experiencing depression or nausea at her workplace will perform badly therefore in comparison to males who are acting better and getting better result she will seem inferior .This clearly shows how society and its medications are purposely full of side effects to marginalise women, so that the males will be more dominant.While Marxist and Socialist Feminist argue that women are not receiving the same medications as males. Women have two roles, also known as double day wh ich signifies two roles women have to undertake. First of all as a housewife, taking care of her domestic duties, and the otherwise as a worker/employer. Sociologist Doyal suggests that it is the fact that women have two roles in society, that they getting sick. Personally I believe it is due to the medication we receive as women, which could otherwise be given to men with far less side effects. It is the due to the lack of consideration and its need for male dominance that women are sick. take down now in this modern day the definition of health is not clear. There are two opposing theories one being that health content the absence of disease the other being not only an absence of disease but also a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being. The negative concept is the absence of disease which would mean that the person needs to be diagnose with a disease in order to be unhealthy. However the compulsive definition which is provided by the World Health Organizati on (WHO)in 1974not merely an absence of disease but also a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being means that you dont have to be diagnosed with a disease you could be mentally ill ,physically, spiritually ,socially, emotionally, or intellectually. So therefore the health and social care sectors usually take a holistic assessment in order to address the needs of the whole person rather than single issues. (Btec take 3 health and social care book 3).Sociologist Mildred Blaxter carried a large survey and then identified three definitions to health and well-beingOne overconfident definition regarding health as being fitTwo being a negative definition Regarding health as being free from unhinge or discomfortAnd lastly a functional definition regarding health in terms of being able to perform certain, day-to-day tasksConcepts of ill healthClinical IcebergOne concept of health is Clinical Iceberg this is a term used to describe unreported illness. The statistics prod uced by the government and the doctors have a 94% off unreported illness missing from the statistics. For example Lyme Disease is one of the highest unreported illnesses that is unreported. A survey last month for the Everyman masculine Cancer Campaign suggested that nearly twice as many men as women had not visited their GP in the past year. (http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ mag/8154200.stm last accessed 22/10/12 1802) (http//www.anh-usa.org/lymedisease/ last accessed 27/12/12 )So therefore this could be one of the reason why there are so many unreported illness because men do need see a doctor because the try and live up to the verbalize of men dont cry and they are tough so this leads them to think that if they do go to the doctors that they are weak.ImpairmentImpairment is the restrictions to our day-to-day activities caused by physical or mental dysfunctions for example Down syndrome a learning difficultly.DisabilityDisability is seen by Tom Shakespeare as restrictions that arise for a person with impairments because society does not take into account the needs of people with impairment for example someone in a wheel chair not having ramps in buildings or someone deaf not having hearing aids lendable. However some people may refer this to disabling environment which suggests an environment where facilities for the impairments are not available for people to take full part in social life.