Sociology Essay

The theory of approaches will be discussed in this essay with regards to health and medicine.  There exist four main approaches in regards to health and medicine. These include:  Social action theory, Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism. However, the two main approaches that will be discussed in this essay are Functionalism and Marxism. The key points of each theory will be examined and a key study for each theory will looked at including its strengths and its weaknesses. This essay will highlight the main issue of the health care profession being a source of social control.. [NEED TO LINK TO ESSAY QUESTION!]  

There is no singular definition of the terms health or illness which makes health and medicine a rather complex area of sociological study.  The terms health and illness are subjective in nature. They are interpretations of how you feel and are therefore social products. They are also relative in nature that is, they change over time and place. The question of what it is to be healthy is therefore open to a wide range of individual, social and cultural interpretations. However, health can generally be defined as a physiological, psychological and social state. Since health is difficult to define, it is inevitable that the measurement of health is difficult to define also. However, there are generally three main ways to measure health. These are: calculating life expectancy, studying the potential years of life loss and looking at standardised mortality rates.

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Functionalism in relation to health and medicine views health as a functional need for every individual member of society. It views health as a functional prerequisite in other words.  According to this view point, illness is dysfunctional for the social system as it disrupts the smooth running of society.

The functionalist theory links health and medicine to structures and takes a macro level approach. Through a consensus analysis this theory looks at functions in the interests of society as a whole. However, it does not question the status quo and virtually ignores inequality.

A key study in ...

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