1 Healthcare System in Israel: Policy, Society & Culture – Unit 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, theories, and terms from Unit 1 on sociology, culture, and health in the Israeli healthcare context.

Sociology

The scientific study of human life, social groups, and societies, examining how social forces shape individual and collective behavior.

Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills’ idea of viewing personal experiences within their broader social and historical context.

Aspect Perception (Wittgenstein)

The phenomenon in which the same factual stimulus is interpreted differently as meanings shift without the facts changing.

Defamiliarization

A technique that makes the familiar appear strange to highlight underlying cultural assumptions.

Reflection

A critical process of thinking back on experiences, emotions, and actions to improve future practice.

Reflection-in-Action

Real-time self-questioning and adjustment while performing a professional task (Schön).

Reflection-on-Action

Retrospective analysis of an event to learn and improve future performance (Schön).

Reflection-for-Action

Forward-looking planning that uses insights from past reflection to guide future actions (Schön).

Culture

The system of symbols, language, values, norms, and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.

Values

Cultural standards for judging what is desirable, good, and beautiful; guidelines for how things should be.

Norms

Rules and expectations that guide members’ behavior in a society—what people should and should not do.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture exclusively by the standards of one’s own culture.

Cultural Relativism

Evaluating a culture by its own standards rather than by those of another culture.

World Health Organization (WHO) Definition of Health

A dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease (1999).

Social Determinants of Health

Economic, cultural, political, and environmental factors that influence health beyond biological causes.

Biomedical Model

A view of illness as bodily malfunction with specific biological causes, treated mainly through technology, drugs, or surgery.

Critique of Biomedical Model

Points to neglect of social, cultural, and psychological factors, unequal power relations, and dismissal of patient experience.

Biopsychosocial Model

An expanded medical framework that integrates biological, psychological, and social dimensions of health and illness.

Medicalization

The social process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical conditions (Irving Zola).

Gambling Disorder (Medicalization Example)

A behavior redefined from moral deviance to medical pathology, officially included in DSM-III (1980).

Alcoholism (Medicalization Example)

Shift from moral failing to disease entity encompassing biological, psychological, and social components.

Alternative Medicine

Health practices outside mainstream biomedicine that have gained renewed popularity and integration into public systems.

Reflective Practitioner

A professional who continuously engages in reflection-in-action, on-action, and for-action to enhance practice (Schön).

Structural-Functional Approach

Macro theory viewing society as a stable system whose interrelated parts promote solidarity and order.

Manifest Function

The recognized and intended consequence of a social pattern (Merton).

Latent Function

An unrecognized or unintended consequence of a social pattern (Merton).

Social Dysfunction

A social pattern’s undesirable consequences that disrupt society (Merton).

Sick Role

Culturally defined rights and obligations of a sick person, exempting from duties while obliging pursuit of recovery (Parsons).

Criticism of Sick Role

Highlights limitations for chronic illness, socioeconomic constraints, and neglect of race, class, and gender factors.

Social Conflict Approach

Macro theory seeing society as an arena of inequality generating conflict and change (Marx, Weber, Mills).

Symbolic Interaction Approach

Micro theory focusing on everyday interactions and the subjective meanings people assign to symbols and situations.

Subjective Experience of Illness

Individual interpretation of illness that influences coping strategies, identity, and social interactions.

Nation-State and Public Health

Industrializing states viewed population health as a public resource, prompting censuses and sanitation reforms.

Medical Monopoly

The exclusive authority granted to formally trained medical professionals over diagnosis and treatment.

Power Dynamics in Medicine

Hierarchical relationships where doctors wield authority over patients, often marginalizing alternative knowledge.

Pre-modern Illness Conception

Interpretation of disease as divine punishment or spirit influence, with family-centered care and no public health system.

Talbot Parsons

Sociologist who developed the concept of the sick role within structural functionalism.

Robert K. Merton

Sociologist who distinguished manifest, latent functions, and social dysfunctions in social structures.

Irving Kenneth Zola

Sociologist who popularized the term ‘medicalization’ to describe expansion of medicine’s domain.

Horace Miner’s ‘Nacirema’

Anthropological satire illustrating ethnocentrism by portraying American hygiene rituals as exotic.

Defining Health via Comparison

People often judge their health relative to peers, normalizing widespread minor ailments.

Defining Health via Morality

Cultural beliefs tie ‘good’ behavior to being healthy, using illness definitions as social control.

Alternative Medicine Integration

Ongoing incorporation of complementary therapies into mainstream health systems, especially in Israel.

Health Consumerism

Trend of patients acting as informed consumers who seek participation in healthcare decisions.

Medical Technology Focus

Biomedical emphasis on diagnostic and therapeutic technology, often at expense of holistic care.

Macro-Level Analysis

Examination of broad social structures and patterns (used in structural-functional and conflict theories).

Micro-Level Analysis

Examination of face-to-face interactions and subjective meanings (used in symbolic interactionism).

Bio-Psycho-Social Expansion

Modern medicine’s widening scope to include psychological and social factors in diagnosis and treatment.

Socialization

The lifelong process through which individuals learn culture and develop human potential.

Health as Social Control

Use of health norms to enforce conformity and regulate behavior within a culture.