Midterm Studying flashcards

Sociology

the study of interaction between groups and individuals in society

Bruce (1999) sociology

offers a scientific approach to understanding society.

Structure

the factors that help determine our experiences through the establishment of ways of behaving

Agency

individuals do not simply act out predetermined roles but ‘interpret’ that role in a way unique to them

Sociological imagination

a specific way to think about the world beyond our experiences. It challenges thinking about society as common assumptions or obvious explanations of human society and behavior.

Functionalism

society is like parts of a functioning whole. Society is consensual; everyone is “doing their part” to keep it running smoothly.

Symbolic Interactionism

the unique nature of the social world is made up of the actions of the participants motivated by human consciousness.

Sick Role Theory

The rights and responsibilities of an ill person ensure the functioning of society.

Sick Roles

Rights, time off to get better, excused responsibility for being ill, compliance with the doctor, and doing whatever you can to return to health.

Feminism

explains social structures as fundamentally based on inequalities between women and men.

Gender blindness

a criticism of traditional sociological theories

Marxism

the focus of class inequalities as being fundamental to understanding society

Post-modernism

a critical focus on how power relations come to being and uncovering their social construction.

Neo-materialism

people are not central to how we should understand the world

Material Agents

Anything that possesses some form fo power (viruses, animals, nature, technology)

The Enlightenment

brought a scientific and secular perspective of illness. No longer divine retribution and ‘demonic possession’ at the expense of integrated and holistic approaches to health

Medical Model of Health

Health is an outcome of biological factors. The body is like a ‘repairable’ machine where all illnesses have a specific cause and prioritizes the professional expert over the lay individual.

Social Model of Health

a holistic, multidimensional approach of health as social rather than biological in cause.

Jewson’s three paradigms of medical knowledge

Bedside Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Laboratory Medicine

Bedside Medicine

disease is a psychosomatic experience to be treated at home

Clinical Medicine

there is a specific aetiology of diseases that requires specialist practitioners who understand it, so it has to be treated in a hospital

Laboratory Medicine

disease is a biomechanical disturbance where special practitioners who understand cellular construction of the body treat it in the laboratory

Power

the ability to ensure that a particular point of view prevails in a disputed situation; the capacity to ensure that someone acts in a certain way; the ability to stifle opposition to a particular perspective

Iatrogenesis

harm caused by doctors/cultural dependence on medical practitioners

Well-being

complex and multifaceted; viewed variously as happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment, contentment, engagement, fulfilment

Reasons for alternative medicine

the rise of individualism, subcultural values of baby boomers, holistic and equal relationships, growing dissociation from civic and mainstream society, negative experiences with mainstream medicine

Limits of biomedicine

does not emphasize causes of illness, is preoccupied with relieving symptoms, has harmful side effects, and uses invasive treatment.

Benefits of alternative medicine

explains disease causes in the context of someone’s lifestyle, treats the whole person.

ignore

answer is ignore

Traditional medicine

dominant in the global south, draws on the experiences, beliefs, and cultures of a society

Zoonosis

the ‘jump’ in spread of disease from animals to humans

Ancient Greek Medicine

health involves the valance of self, society, and nature

The four humors

Sanguine (blood, spring, air), choleric (yellow bile, summer, fire), melancholy (black bile, autumn, earth), phlegmatic (phlegm, winter, water)

Anthropocene

current epoch where human activity is now driving deep changes on the planet.

Causes of climate change

development of electricity, reorganizing energy-dense transportation systems, widespread use of cars, suburban living out of town leisure sites, increase in mobilities

Chicago heatwave

739 deaths adversely affecting African American communities by a factor of 1.5, unequal experience of climate change

Xuan-Thuy National Park

The rising sea level is causing saltwater intrusion, killing farmland and wildlife, disease running rampant, and people are moving away from the area

Landscapes

an assemblage of features, memories, cultures, and symbols associated with well-being and provides a source of identity and human activity

Greenspace

public parks, forest walks, areas with trees, grass, and plants

Blue space

bodies of water like lakes, seasides, streams, and rivers

Causes of Inequality growth

changes in the labor market, government policy, and the expansion of financial capital

Class and health gradient

shows how unequal societies gradually create toxic societies through alienation, fragmentation, and lack of social cohesion.

Rosetto, PA

had fewer deaths from heart disease than the rest of the us due to strong social cohesion.

Material Disempowerment

occurs when the money or resources are simply not there to provide adequate nutrition, shelter, or clothing. This form of disempowerment can have a relative or absolute dimension

Psychosocial disempowerment

occurs when people lack the control over their lives to make the kind of decisions that would be beneficial for their overall health and well-being.

Political disempowerment

exists where governmental bodies make it difficult for all to recieve adequate care and opportunity

Gini Coefficient

0 being absolute equality and 1 being complete inequality

Gender order

distributes power unequally across different genders

Gender Performativity

the acting of gender roles creates gender; rejects that gender is determined by biological processes

Masculinity

influences male behavior rather than determining it, works in nuanced ways

HIV transmission in Malawi

women forced to be prostitutes to support their families due to lack of economic and gender power

Wixarika community

colonial Spanish rule eliminated pre-existing gender relations, resulting in unequal patriarchal gender order.

Race

A concept loaded with historical connotations, myths, and misunderstandings; no basis in science and used to differentiate between people based on social and historical processes.

Ethnicity

the cultural practices and heritage of a group of people; can be used to refer to or imply people of color.

Ethnoization

the spurious ascription of certain diseases to specific ethnic groups (sickle-cell anemia, malaria, ebola).

Racism

an organized system premised on the categorization and ranking of social groups into races and devalues, disempowers, and differentially allocates desirable societal opportunities and resources to racial groups regarded as inferior.

Structural racism

how racism came to be in the first place; deeply embedded and woven into society and produces a set of ideas, norms, and practices that become part of assumptions in a given society

Institutional racism

how public and private bodies and institutions can often act in a way that produces unequal care and treatment for people from ethnic minorities

Interpersonal racism

everyday encounters of name-calling, abusive terms, stereotyping, physical aggression, dismissal, and treating those from ethnic minorities as though they are not worthy of respect.

Place and racism

how groups of people are structurally racialized in different societies influences health and well-being

Biological Determinism

the idea that a person's behavior and characteristics are primarily determined by their genes, rather than by environmental or social factors

Cultural Determinism

the idea that a person's culture shapes their behavior, actions, and decisions

Mental illness

highly stigmatized, carries specific social consequences surrounding danger and violence

Stigma

an attribute that is deeply discrediting, used to delineate social differences, reflects power relationships, and often contested by groups who have it

Types of stigmas

physical deformities, character blemishes, tribal (social)

Sexuality

socially constructed to a society’s norms and traditions, acceptability varies by time and space

homophobia

negative attitudes, discrimination, and prejudice against queer people

heteronormative

the primacy and dominance of heterosexuality in society that marginalizes other sexualities

Health and LGBT

mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, aging, HIV/AIDS

Biographical disruption

the destabilization and questioning of identity after the onset of chronic illness

Ignore this, answer is ‘alright’

alright

Okay

Ignore this card. The answer is Okay

Medical model of disability

disability seen as (1) located in the individual, (2) a tragedy, (3) needing professional help

Social model of disability

disability seen as a consequence of (1) social attitudes, (2) design, (3) lack of civil rights

Aging

emerges out of the interplay of society, biology, and psychology

ageism

a set of beliefs originating in biological variation related to the agin process; the actions of corporate bodies and their agent and the resulting views of ordinary people

disengagement theory of aging

a functionalist theory that argues that older people relinquish their roles as they go through life so as to minimize social disruption on their retirement and death

dependency theory of aging

theory that focuses on the economic restriction and lack of access to social and cultural resources that face older people

Third Age Theory

states that old age can be a “golden age” full of self-realization, personal growth, and the fulfillment of lifetime ambitions; is made possible by older people having higher disposable incomes and access to consumer culture.

Life cycle

a static set of phases that are passed through by everyone and that are outside of their control

life course

implies a fluid approach to passing through life where the individual has more agency to act and do as they want

Historical time

the circumstances in which a person lived and the attitudes they held

Biographical time

the events and experiences that shaped a person’s life

joint pain

a normal part of biography for older people; as a consequence of old age/personal history

social death

length fatal illness, deeper old age, loss of personhood

Social Death Response

accepting but not behaving, accepting and behaving, not accepting and not behaving

pandemic

disease spread involving wide geographic extension, disease movement, high attack rates and explosiveness, minimal population immunity, novelty, infectiousness, contagiousness, and severity

Spanish flue of 1918

started from the zoonotic transfer from birds to humans, killing 60 million worldwide

epidemic psychology

within pandemics there are parallel social epidemics of fear, stigmatization, explanation, moralization, and action

medical populism

the over-simplification of complex medical problems

political populism

the over-simplification of complex social problems

 pandemic stigmatization

social groups can be singled out to blame for the spread of disease (ex: kung-flu language)

scientific

Sociology is a _______ approach to understanding people in society

social

Sociological perspectives on health emphasize that it is vital to fully understand the _____ to understand health and illness.

sociological imagination

The _________ invites us to think beyond our subjective perceptions.

common sense

Sociological theories help move away from _____ _____ understandings of society.

secular, scientific

Modern medicine emerged from the Enlightenment, a critical historical period when society became ____ and ____ replaced religious explanations of the natural world.

mechanistic

The medical model of health stresses a _____ view of the body and a reliance on biological causation to explain illness

social

The social model provides a holistic approach, stressing that health and illness can only be explained by analyzing the ____.

rounded

Theories of well-being attempt to capture a holistic and _____ account of people’s lives, going beyond simple binaries of health and illness.