an introduction to medical sociology

1. Sociology
By
Dr. Utpal Sharma
Assistant Professor
Department of Community Medicine, SMIMS

2. Introduction
 Medicine and social sciences have their own way of
dealing with human behaviour.
 The term “social sciences” is applied to the disciplines
which are committed to scientific study of human
behaviour.
 The social sciences are..
1) Economics
2) Political science
3) Sociology
4) Social psychology
5) Anthropology
 Of these last three are directly concerned with human
behaviour and known as “behavioural sciences”

3. What we have got in social sciences….
Economics
 It deals with human relationships in specific context of production,
distribution, consumption and ownership of resources, goods and
services
Political science
 Deals with the study of systems of laws and institutions which
government of whole society
Sociology
 Study of human relationship and human behaviour for better
understanding of pattern of human life
Social Psychology
 Deals with effect of environment on persons, their attitudes and
motivations
Social Anthropology
 Study of development of various types of social life(physical, social
and cultural) of man

4. So….what is sociology….???
 Sociology is derived from the Latin socio, meaning society
and the Greek logos meaning science.
 The word society is derived from the root words socius,
meaning individual and societa meaning group.
Medical Sociology includes studies of……
 Medical profession
 Relationship of medicine to public
 Role of social factor in etiology, incidence, prevalence and
interpretation of diseases.

5.  Society : a group of individuals who have organized themselves
and follow a given way of life.
 Group of peoples coming together temporarily : crowd
 If the same group of people settled down and organized
themselves then they form a society.
 The outstanding feature of society is system- a system of social
relationship between individuals.
 It regulates and controls the behaviour of individuals by customs
and laws.
 It can exert pressure on the individual to conform to its norms.
Then what is society….?????

6. Now…..what is a community….???
 A community is a social group determined by geographical
boundaries and/ or common values and interests.
 Its members know and interacts with each other.
 It functions within a particular social structure and exhibits and
creates certain norms, values and social institutions.
 Any individual belongs to the broader society through his/her
family and community

7. Cont….
 Communities can be ‘structural’ or ‘functional’
Functional communities
 Non-geographical aggregates, bound together by some
common factor other than geographical place of residence or
work; e.g religion, occupation, special interest or need (as
socially backward communities).
Structural communities
 These are organised by geographical or political boundaries.
 It could be as small as an ‘indoor patient’s community in a
hospital or increasingly larger, according to a mohalla, village,
slum, city, district, state or even a nation.

8. Other things…..
Social structure
 Refers to the pattern of relationship between
persons
 It is a complex of major institutions, group, power
structure and status hierarchy
Social institution
 Organized complex pattern of behaviour in which a
number of persons participate in order to further
group interest
 Within each institution the rights and duties of
members are defined
 E.g school, church, club, political parties etc.

9. Role
 In a society, individuals are allocated roles.
 Sociologist have classified roles into “Ascribed” and
“Achieved”
Ascribed roles
 Particular role “given” to an individual by a virtue of sex, age,
and birth status e.g husband,father
Acquired roles
 Particular role “acquired” by virtue of education or otherwise
e.g employee, teacher
 When the individual falls sick he assumes “sick role” and
expected to decrease his normal role, seek medical aid and
carry out physician’s order

10. There is more…..
Socialism
 Economic doctrine that favours the use of property and resources of
the country for public welfare
 Motto of socialism is “all for all” and “each for each”
Socialization
 Every society has its beliefs, customs, traditions and prejudices
 An individual living in the society acquires these by interacting with
the people…..
…this process of acquiring culture and becoming the
member of social group is “socialization”

11. Social Control Mechanisms
 In every society there are rules, formal and informal, for the
maintenance of relationships of authority and subordinations.
 There are two types of control mechanisms “Formal” and
“Informal”
Formal social control mechanisms
 In the field of health, there are various Acts, some central and
others state or local which help to maintain standards of health.
Informal social control mechanism
 The informal social pressure may be exerted by powerful
groups, individuals or friends.
 These mechanisms work largely through reward and
punishment.

12. Customs
 The mere existence of a society, the mere plurality of individuals
gives rise to customs.
 Quite numerous and quite as powerful.
 Customs are technically divided into “Folkways” and ‘mores’.
Folkways
 The folkways are right ways of doing things in what is regarded
as the less vital areas of human conduct eg. Greeting “hello”
Mores
 The more stringent customs are called “mores”. The public takes
active parts in their enforcement eg. Rash driving
“Mores” dictate right and wrong, while folkways distinguish
between proper and rude behavior.

13. Culture
 Culture : “learned behaviour which has been socially acquired”.
 Product of human societies, includes all that person acquires in the
mental and intellectual sphere of his individual and social life
 Man is largely a product of his cultural environment.
 Transmitted from one generation to another through learning
processes both formal and informal.
 Lays norms of behaviour and provision for individual and social survival
of the individual
 Culture stands for the customs, beliefs, laws, religion and moral
precepts, arts and other capabilities and skills acquired by man as a
member of society.

14. Acculturation
 Acculturation means “culture contact”.
 When there is contact between two people with different
types of culture, there is diffusion of culture both ways.
 There are various ways by which culture contact takes
place.
 Trade and commerce
 Industrialization
 Propagation of religion,
 Education and
 Conquest
 Radio , TV, cinema have been important factors in
shaping the cultural-behavioural pattern of people

15. Standard of living
 Refers to usual scale of expenditure consumptionof
goods and the services enjoyed
 Includes food, dress, amusements and all other modes
of living
 The standard of living in a country is depends upon
1. The level of national income
2. The total amount of goods and services a country is able to
produce
3. The size of the population
4. The level of education
5. General price level
6. The distribution of national income

16. Social problems
 In a community there are both individual and social
problems.
 Individual problems become social problems when they
affect a large number of people amounting to a threat to
the welfare or safety of the whole group.
 But all individual problems are not social problems.
 Poverty, crime and disease are common social
problems.
 Alcoholism, venereal diseases, mental illness and
narcotic addiction are both public health and social
problems.

17. Social pathology
 Systematic study of human disease in relation to social
conditions and disease process outside the human body
 Describes the relation between disease and social conditions,
commonly linked to poverty, crime, delinquency and vagrancy.
 The social pathology has an important role in accident,
diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer etc.
 Social Diagnosis is made by socio-medical surveys and by
study of domestic and social conditions of individuals which
discloses the social pathology.
 Social Therapy offers holistic development-centered
therapeutic and support services.

18. Social defence
 Covers the entire arena of preventive, therapeutic and
rehabilitative services for protection of the of the
society from…..
….antisocial deviant or criminal conduct of man
 Includes measures like….
 Prevention and control of juvenile delinquency
 Enactment against domestic violence
 Control of alcoholism and drug addiction etc.
 It is system developed not only to protect society from
these atrocities…..
……but also to provide a conducive conditions for
wholesome growth of human life

19. Thankyou folks…for
your patience