1. Welcome to
Sociology of Health and
Illness
Week 14

2. Introduction to the Module
• Introductions
• What is health and illness?
• The ‘sick role’
• What next?

3. Introductions
• Pam Lowe
• Room NW 922
• Email p.k.lowe@aston.ac.uk
• Telephone 0121-204-3807 (Ext 3807)
• Anna Gruszczynska
• gruszcak@aston.ac.uk

4. What is health?
• For the next couple of minutes discuss
then write a definition of ‘health’

5. What is health?
• Classic definition:
– Absence of disease
• World Health Organisation definition
– "health is (…) a state of complete
physical, mental and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or infirmity“
• http://www.who.int/about/en/

6. What influences health?
• For the next couple of minutes discuss the
factors that you think influence health?

7. What do you think influences
health?
• Nature and biology

8. What do you think influences
health?
• Nature and biology
• Social factors

9. What do you think influences
health?
• Nature and biology
• Lifestyle factors
• Environmental factors

10. Sociological Approaches
• Health and illness is not just natural or
biological
• Health and illnesses are
shaped, distributed and understood in
relation to social factors
• Relationship between social structures
(class, gender, ethnicity etc) and health

11. Sociological Approaches
• Biological/genetic factors are always
shaped by the social circumstances
• Poverty creates illness rather than sick
people become poor
• Unhealthy ‘lifestyles’ are shaped
by economic and social circumstances

12. Professional/Patient
relationships
• What role to medical professionals play in
maintaining health?

13. Sociological Approaches
• Medical knowledge is not just ‘scientific
facts’
• It develops in relation to wider society
• The power relationship between health
professionals and ‘patients’ impacts on
individuals health

14. The ‘sick role’
• One of the earliest concepts in medical
sociology was Parson’s idea of the ‘sick
role’.
• For Parsons being sick not just a biological
condition but also a social role
• It has both rights and duties

15. The ‘sick role’
• Rights and Duties:
– You can be excused normal duties
– You are not responsible for your ‘deviance’
– You must want and try to get well
– You must seek and accept professional help

16. The ‘sick role’
• People could adopt the ‘sick role’ to opt
out of social obligations
• So the ‘sick role’ can only be verified by a
competent professional
• But fails to explain
• chronic illness
• those held responsible for their illness
• the impact of professional power
• patient rejection of the sick role

17. • Discuss the idea of the ‘sick role’. What
advantages and disadvantages does it
have?

18. The rest of the module
Week 15 Medical power and surveillance medicine
Week 16 ‘Lay’ understandings of health
Week 17 Health inequalities and social class
Week 18 Gender inequalities and health
Week 19 Independent Study –no classes
Week 20 Ethnicity, racism and health
Week 21 Chronic illness and social (dis)ability
Week 22 The sociology of mental illness
Week 23 Reading week (essay preparation)
Week 24 Essay Submission

19. Summary
• Thought about how health and illness and
shaped by society
• Introduced the power relationship between
patients and professionals
• Looked at the idea of the ‘sick role’

20. Next week:
Medical Power and Surveillance Medicine
• Look at how health and illness are shaped
by medical power and knowledge
• Consider how bodies are medicalised
• Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of surveillance medicine