Unit 8: Psychological Perspectives for Health and Social Care

Introduction

This blog will be an explanation of the main psychological perspectives for Health and Social Care. I will also be evaluating the perspectives and the theories within the different perspectives.

P1 – Explain the main Psychological Perspectives

M1 – Asses two Psychological Approaches to Study

 

P1 – This section of my blog will be a brief explanation of the principal psychological perspectives.

Behaviourist perspective

Behaviourist perspective believes that human behaviour is learnt, usually from experiences. The perspective claims that you can train a human to behave in a specific way. Moods including anger, aggression, love and all other behaviours occur as a result of what we learn.

Ivan Pavlov, a behaviourist psychologist came up with a theory called ‘classic conditioning’. Classic conditioning claims that it is possible to shape human behaviour, in order for this to occur, the right environment must be created, e.g. Pavlov’s dog experience. Pavlov claimed that dogs demonstrated classic conditioning. When food was given to the dog, it immediately salivated more. This showed that the dog seeing/smelling food and salivating was automatic, an unconditional stimuli in the experiment. Through this experiment, the dog began to associate the lab assistant with food. This was learnt because before the experiment, the dog did not salivate when it saw the lab assistant, which means their behaviour changed. Pavlov used a bell as a neutral stimulus; whenever he gave food to the dog he rang the bell. After repeating this procedure, he rang the bell on its own, the dog had an increase in salivation. So the dog learnt to associate the bell with food – a conditional stimulus.

Skinner’s theory is another behaviourist theory which states that “the best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences.” This approach was called ‘operant conditioning’. Skinner identified three types of responses that can follow behaviour:

  1. Neutral operant: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behaviour being repeated.
  2. Reinforcers: Response from the environment that increase the probability of a behaviour being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative – positive reinforcement
  3. Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated. Punishment weakens behaviour – negative reinforcement

An example of operant conditioning is when a child is doing well at school and is rewarded for it, they will be influenced to repeat their good behaviour in the future.

The main contributors of behaviourist perspective are Pavlov and Skinner. The main idea of the perspective is that behaviour can be leant and controlled in a particular setting.

Social Learning Perspective

The social learning perspective looks at human behaviour and how it is connected to society. The social perspective makes us understand how society is important in shaping individuals. This theory suggests that behaviour can be learnt by observing others; therefore it focuses on observational learning. The main contributor of this theory is Albert Bandura. For social learning to be effective, the five steps must apply:

  1. Availability – the model must be present.
  2. Attention – in order to learn, the behaviour attentiveness is required.
  3. Retention – behaviour must be retained.
  4. Reproduction – repeating the actions.
  5. Motivation – full motivation is required in order to pattern the behaviour.

Bandura agrees with the behaviourist perspective, however he adds that behaviour is learnt from observing others in our environment. Bandura conducted a study called ‘Bobo dolls study’. They showed the children an adult playing aggressively with the dolls, then told the children that they could play with the dolls. The children copied the adult’s actions on the bobo dolls.

Biological perspective

The biological approach believes us to be as a consequence of our genetics and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviours from a biological point of view, whereas other perspectives believe that development is due to environmental factors. All thoughts, feelings and behaviours ultimately have a biological course according to the biological perspective.

Arnold Gessell created the theory of maturation which states that while in the mother’s womb, we develop according to a set of fixed stages. Development of womb:

  1. Heart
  2. Nervous system
  3. Bones and muscles
  4. Fully functioning human ready to be born
  5. From birth onwards – our genes are responsible for our development

Some scientific facts defend this perspective, e.g. genes are responsible for many diseases. These are known as hereditary diseases, e.g. Huntington disease, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia are all passed on from parents to child.

Humanist perspective

This perspective studies the whole person and the uniqueness of each individual. It helps us to understand humans experience from an individual’s view. This perspective places emphasis on free will and freedom of choice. The study was mainly studied by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Maslow developed a theory of human motivation. He thought that each person attempts to be the best that they can be, intellectually, emotionally and physically. He created a hierarchy which includes five motivational needs:

  1. Self-actualisation
  2. Self-esteem
  3. Social
  4. Safety
  5. Physiological

The humanist perspective is known to be used to treat a few illnesses such as depression.

Roger’s created the Client Centred Approach. This approach places the client at the centre of the entire therapeutic process. Roger’s also created the Unconditional Positive Regards, which states that people should be positive no matter what a person has done, e.g. a criminal should be positive in difficult circumstances, and people should be non-judgemental. Roger’s agrees with the main assumptions of Abraham Maslow, but adds that for a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood).

Cognitive perspective

The cognitive perspective refers to the cognitive operation of the brain and gives us an insight of how our brain and memory works. The main researchers who carried out this theory are Atkinson and Shiffrin. They created the Multi-Store Model of Memory, which suggests that everyone stores information in three areas:

  1. Sensory memory – Small capacity to withhold information and it is where our visual memory is stored, e.g. remembering colours, sizes and shapes. Also consists of our hearing system and enables us to remember specific sounds.
  2. Short-term memory – the information we use regularly is stored here – hearing and visual. Short-term memory has a capacity of about 30 seconds unless the information we want to store is replayed.
  3. Long-term memory – The information in this section is grouped into sections regarding their meaning. This information is stored for a long period of time.

M1

The two psychological approaches that I will discuss in this section of my blog are behaviourist perspective and the social perspective.

Behaviourist perspective – One strength of the behaviourist perspective is that you can understand the impact of rewards on behaviour as the data is easy to collect and measure as it is mainly based on observations which is essential when research is being conducted. The behaviourist perspective has been used for mental health disorder treatments – Pavlov’s ‘Classical Conditioning’ theory has been used to help treat those with unhealthy addictions.

A weakness of the behaviourist perspective is that the perspective contradicts the ‘freewill’ of humans as it teaches that depending on the environment and atmosphere is what impacts our behaviour the most.

Social perspective – A strength of the social perspective is that it tries to investigate human behaviour scientifically. Scientific experiments have proven this concept to be reliable to some extent. Nowadays, many people use social media where many positive applications and trends have been made, such as for breast cancer awareness, many women are taking part in not wearing makeup and putting up pictures on their profiles to help raise awareness for the illness. The social perspective helps people to change their behaviour.

A weakness of this perspective is that it eliminates the fact that people should not copy everything that they see as it could affect individual’s in later life because it encourages behaviour change, for example with the ‘bobo doll’ theory which was carried out by psychologist Albert Bandura. An ethical issue of this experiment is making sure that the participants were safe. The children could have been affected in the future due to this experiment.

To conclude this section of my blog, many would argue that the behaviourist perspective (Skinner’s theory) only caters to one type of learning, and excludes learning that takes place with a neutral reaction. The social perspective is a great way to raise awareness to an extent such as on social media, in today’s society, many people are connected online, twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. however, the perspective does not encourage individual’s to make their own choices.

 

P2 – Provide an explanation of the different psychological perspectives to health care practice

P3 – Provide an explanation of the different psychological perspectives to social care practice

M2 – Formulate a comparison of two psychological approaches to health and social care service provision

D1 – Conduct an evaluation of two psychological approaches to health and social care service provision

In this section of my blog, I will explain the different psychological perspectives to health care practice and social care practice. Then I will compare two psychological approaches to health and social care provisions. The two psychological approaches I have chosen to compare are the psychological perspective and the social learning perspective.

P2 & P3

Behaviourist Perspective

The behaviourist approach states that our behaviour is determined and shaped by the environment of an individual. The main aim of this approach is to change and shape an individual’s behaviour by understanding that there are ways in overcoming difficult behavior.

Continuous reinforcement in every instance of desirable behavior is useful when a behavior is being introduced. In a health care sector, the behaviourist approach is frequently used to treat weight loss, smoking, and drug and alcohol addiction. The importance of regularly and consistently rewarding desired behavior immediately and not rewarding undesirable behavior is crucial to the success of a behaviorist approach to learning.

Within a social care setting such as a school, using the operant conditioning method is essential as it encourages children to continue to behave well in the future, therefore being conditioned to behave in a certain manner, and also discouraging children from behaving bad.

Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive perspective focuses on the way individuals think and how our thoughts affect the way we behave.

This perspective can be used in a wide number of mental health and physical conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended its use as a treatment option for a number of diagnoses, such as anxiety and depressive disorders. By challenging ways of thinking, cognitive therapy can help to produce more helpful and realistic thought patterns.

Within a social care setting, the cognitive perspective can be used by a psychologist to help an individual who suffers with ADHD, and would like a non-medical treatment. By helping the service user learn new techniques and coping strategies like self-soothing, and self-regulation. This means that the service user can then control their behavior without the need for medication, and they will learn how to act in different situations. The individual learns how to consider their behavior due to what social situation they are in and then learn how to act correctly and refrain the situation.

Humanist Perspective

The humanist perspective is frequently used in health and social care settings. The learning cannot take place unless both the cognitive and affective domains are involved. An individual’s capacity for self-determination is an important part of humanist theory. In a health secor, humanist perspective is used to help individual’s regain personal control over their health care and to boost an individuals self-esteem and confidence.

Similarly in a social care sector, humanist perspective is used to help regain an individuals peronal control and esteem. Humanist perspective can be used to treat suicidal thoughts. Service providers suhc as social workers need skills such as empathy, patience, to be good listeners and to gain the trust of te service users in order to understand and help the individual to get better and to build self-confidence.

Biological Perspective

The biological perspective states that the development of an individual is influenced by their genes and not by social factors.

It is far from easy to determine the extent to which genetic inheritance influences behaviour, however illnesses such as autism and schizophrenia are biological illnesses.

Gesell developed an assessment scale to enable judgments to be made about whether a child’s behaviour and understanding matches their age. In the social care sector, this scale enables the child’s scores to be compared against their scores at an earlier age to determine whether development is proceeding satisfactorily. It also enables a skilled and trained assessor to identify developmental problems that may emerge for an individual, allowing for early and appropriate intervention.

Social Learning Perspective

The social learning perspective is the process that takes place in a social context, through observation. Social learning is used by positive role models to influence health and social care campaigns etc. People can also be influenced by celebrities through social media, e.g. when the ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ campaign was introduced, many celebrities used the hashtag and raised awareness all over the world about what gone on in Nigeria. This influenced individuals to want to know what was going on and to raise money for the charities that were set for the tragedy.

Social learning perspective can be used in social care sectors such as schools, e.g. in a science lesson, when the youths do practical work, they are more likely to understand their lesson as they are not only reading from a textbook but also carrying out investigations demonstrated by their teacher. Through observation they are learning, and copying the model to correctly complete the experiment.

To conclude, all individual‘s grow with success and do better when achievements are recognized and reinforced. Respecting the whole person in a supportive environment can encourage learning. Learning is also adapted through structuring information appropriately and presenting it in meaningful segments with appropriate feedback.

 

M2 & D1

The two psychological approaches I will be comparing and evaluating in this section of my blog is the behaviourism perspective and the social learning perspective. Each perspective has got its strengths and weaknesses in the way that they are used in health and social care sectors.

The behaviourism perspective is the perspective that believes human behaviour is learnt, usually from experiences. According to psychologists Pavlov and Skinner, the best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. It is possible to shape human behaviour.

The social learning perspective is the complete opposite of the behaviourism perspective as it makes us understand how society is important in shaping individuals. The social learning theory suggests that behaviour can be learnt by observing others and social interactions, whereas the behaviourism perspective cancels this out by claiming that behaviour is learnt by personal experiences.

A positive for the behaviourism perspective is that when the theory is applied to help treat certain individuals with disorders and illnesses such as weight loss and drug/alcohol addictions, it is proven to be remarkably effective.

However, there are very few scientists who believe that the behaviourism theory is as comprehensive as it was once thought to be. The behaviourism perspective totally dismisses the effect that the environment has on a person’s behaviour and the role it plays in developing personality.

The social learning perspective can be difficult to quantify the effect that social learning has on development as not all social learning can be directly observed. Because of this, the understanding of how a child learns through observation and how an adult learns through observation are not differentiated, and factors of development are not included. Social leaning perspective ignores the developmental stages of maturation over an individual’s lifetime. The perspective does not explain how motivation or personality can change over time.

On the other hand, the social learning approach takes thought processes into account and acknowledges the role that they play in deciding if a behaviour is to be imitated or not. As such, social learning theory provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes.

 

Conclusion

To conclude my blog, I have found that none of the psychological perspectives are similar, they all claim different views on how an individual’s personality and behaviour is shaped. However all of these perspectives can be a person can learn and develop their personality through more than one of these perspectives. The perspectives can be used individually to help treat certain disorders and illnesses.

 

References

Biological Psychology 2015 [Online] Available at:  http://www.simplypsychology.org/biological-psychology.html – (Accessed 19/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

Bandura – Social Learning Theory 2016[Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html – (Accessed 19/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

Skinner – Operant Conditioning 2015 [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html – (Accessed 20/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

Humanism 2015 [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html – (Accessed 21/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

Carl Rogers 2014 [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html – (Accessed 20/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

Bandura – Social Learning Theory 2016 [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html – (Accessed 22/05/2016) – Saul McLeod.

 

P1 – Explain the Principal Sociological Perspectives

 

An Introduction to Sociological Perspectives

Sociology is the study of society and the different social structures within it. ‘Social structures’ refers to the different parts that make up society. Sociologists look at patterns in various social relationships and develop theories that will help explain it and in many cases determine social change. There are many sociological groups that all have their individual perspectives and theories on sociological issues which is explained further below.

Functionalism

The functionalist approach looks at how society completes systems and parts within the systems are not understandable in isolation from each other’s. Functionalists related society to the human body: the heart, lungs and brain work together so the body can function properly, in the same way family, education and the law work together to improve society.

The human body consists of dependant organs and systems whereas society consists of dependant social institutions.

In more detail:

The government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state.

Every social institution has a main function to help improve society and link with other social institutions to work effectively to improve society.  Functionalists described society as a ‘social system’ to show their idea of a dependent network of various social institutions.

Criticisms of Functionalism

It ignores conflict and competition in society and paints a positive image of goals and values of a socialisation process that will not fail. Functionalist generally ignores the fact that humans are completely unpredictable. They do not recognise that there is a difference between class, region and ethnic groups. Functionalists simply reflect on middle class families.

Marxism

Marxism is regarded as a conflict perspective as the approach looks at the inequalities and exploitation of wealth which are established by a capitalist economic system and how it affects individuals and society. This sociological theory was developed by Karl Marx who had a view that there are two social classes in society:

  1. The capitalists – a small group who had factories and different places of employment.
  2. The proletariat– this is a poor group of workers who were employed by the capitalists

Marx claimed that the proletariat are being exploited by the bourgeoisie. The proletariats live in false class consciousness according to the Marxist. Marxist believe that we live in a capitalist society, where the entire purpose is to gain capital for the bourgeoisie. The only power the proletariats possess is their labor power i.e. their ability to work. 90% of wealth is owned by the ruling class, therefore the majority of people are being exploited.

Marx stated that where there are two different social class, ‘rich and poor’, there will always be conflict, this explains why the Marxism theory was called the conflict model. But Marx believed that the only way to resolve this conflict is by revolution.

Criticisms of Marxism

Marxists had the same belief functionalists had that a human’s behaviour is the key result in the socialisation process which didn’t have the individual’s choice. Marxism is criticised for focusing too much on social-class inequality, whereas the social class conditions have improved dramatically over the years. While Marxist suggest that the only way to resolve the problems in capitalism is through a revolution and replacing the unfair system with a communist one, evidence suggests that even in a communist society there will always be inequality in the distribution of power.

Feminism

Feminism is the theory that examines women’s social roles, experience, interests, chores, and feminist politics in a variety of fields. The Feminist theory is strongly influenced by Marxist ideas. While Marx focused on the economic inequality between different groups within society, Feminists concentrate primarily on ‘gender inequality’. There are different groups of feminist e.g. Marxist, radical and liberal feminist. Feminists believed that women were discriminated against because of their gender.

Radical Feminist

Radical feminists concentrate on the patriarchal structure of society. The term ‘patriarchal society’ refers to society being controlled by men for the interest of men. Many radical feminists say that patriarchal structures influence social institutions. Radical feminists say that family is the main reason for patriarchal structure in society and other social institutions. Radical feminists then went on to believe that the patriarchy was spread throughout the relationship between both women and men on two different levels. According to radical feminist women need to be aware of the extent to which they are being exploited for example sexually, financially and emotionally by men and challenge the society. They believe that men are responsible for most of the problems in the world and women can do a far better job, therefore they are fighting to achieve a matriarchal society.

Feminists: Andrea Dwokin, Catherine Mckinon, Susan Brownmiller and Valerie Solonas have focused on domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape. They are not simply campaigning to overcome the patriarchal society, but also to empower women.

Marxist Feminist

Marxist feminist focuses on the exploitation of women, especially women in the working class social status. Marxist feminist looks at how women’s injustice, treatment or control is a product to the economic position of women. The theory stated that women have a more subordinate position than men in terms of class relationships. Women were semi-proletarianised workers which means that the labour was forced. They are critical of women maintaining the household, cooking, cleaning, washing and performing other domestic duties without pay.

Liberal Feminist

Liberal feminist are also concerned about the exploitation of women but they are more interested in fighting for greater equality of opportunity for women. Some of the equality rights of opportunity that women have now that they did not have in the past:

  • Having the same job opportunities as men
  • Government roles
  • Equal pay to men
  • Entitled to education and they’re ability to make choices on what they want to study
  • Freedom of speech

Criticisms of Feminism

Too much of the Feminism theory is focused on gender inequality, while it ignores other forms of inequality in society. Feminism also ignores the differences of inequality amongst women, some woman have more power than others. Many people argue that the feminist movement has already achieved its goals. Men and women are now equal, having careers in professional sectors such as police officers, lawyers, or enter in any other ‘male dominated’ professions.

Interactionism

Interactionism was also known as the social action approach and was compared to other structured perspectives in terms of not focusing on big institutions and how they link and function with one another. The Interactionism approach looked at individual’s behaviour and the way society is shaped under the influence of small groups. Interactionist’s will look at various groups from gangs to patients in hospital wards.

This approach believed that individuals were being influenced by the socialisation process. This was because individuals were able to choose their own roles and choose how they’ll behave. Theorists weren’t interested about the social structure, but on how individual’s behaviours were caused by the way the individual looks at a situation, e.g. they would be more concerned about comprehending how the interaction between teenagers may lead to rioting, rather than the role riots play in society. Also theorists saw individual’s behaviour due to their self-esteem and the way others perceive us.

Criticisms of Interactionism

The Interactionism approach only focuses on concepts of social life and doesn’t look at society as a social system. Interactionist’s research was mainly micro-scale and the end result in the research didn’t always apply to society. The perspective described individual’s behaviour by the influence of gangs and social relationships e.g. Doctor and service user. Interactionism does not look at bigger social factors that could influence an individual’s behaviour. Many social theorists tend to base their idea on interactions between small groups than bigger issues.

Collectivists

The Collectivist approach focuses on the progress of the group, rather than just on individual progress. looks at how the government has the main responsibility to provide health care services to society. The main priority for the collectivism is to provide support and meet the needs of service users, e.g. children and old people received support from the government.

This perspective was shown by the post second world war by the labour government who formed the ‘welfare state’ in order to help fight social problems in Britain’s society. Due to the ideas of the collectivists this lead to the government forming the National Health Service and primary and secondary schools.

Criticisms on Collectivists

The ideas of the collectivist approach results in state dependency, it prevents individual’s from looking after themselves and their own affairs as they begin to rely on the state to provide them for their needs.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a theory that moves beyond modernism. The term literally means after modernism. Post modernists argue that the ideas and the modern era, such as structures and seeking scientific explanations to events no longer applies. Postmodernist argue that in a postmodern society, the ideas of social class, capitalism and large scale social structures and seeking scientific explanations to events are no longer valid. Postmodernist argue that in a postmodern society, the ideas of social class, capitalism and large scale social structures is no longer valid. As different attributes are now being used as an indicator to social class, e.g. what and where we eat, the car we drive, the friends we have and our social pursuits.

Within a post-modern society, the rules, norms and values are not clear as these vary from one location to the next and from one group of people to the next. The level of respect for teachers has decreased. Postmodernist society are filled with uncertainty and the quest for identity. People are more concerned about where they fit into society and how they can help to bring about a condition that is suited to their individual needs. Postmodern societies are becoming more individualistic and materialistic, this in itself can and does create tensions with society.

Criticisms on Postmodern

The postmodern society grows in the arts, media and culture, rapid social changes which is why their ideas are not always clear.

New Right

The New Right approach goes against the collectivists ideas as their policy is tough on crime, strong on individualism. The New Right theory study claims that some groups in society are forming an ‘underclass’ social class. They believe that individuals should fend for themselves. They believe that the role of education should strive you to be in competition with others, opposed to unconventional values improving social justice. Promoting social equality through equal opportunity campaigns against the gap of rich and poor. The New Right approach encourages the population to be independent and to recognise our individualities.

Criticisms of New Right

The New Right tends to blame victims for the things that are not of their own making. Many of the problems identified come from low wages, lack of employment opportunities, cultural changes etc.

P2 – Sociological Approaches to Health and Ill-Health

In this assignment, I will be explaining the various concepts of health. I will also be explaining the different sociological approaches to health and ill health. Some sociological perspectives I will be looking at are.

  • Marxism
  • Functionalism
  • Feminist
  • Interactionist

Definitions of health

Health is a dynamic condition resulting from a body’s constant adjustment and adaptation in response to stresses and changes in the environment for maintaining an inner equilibrium called homeostasis. Health can mean different things to different people and is influenced by our age, gender, culture and social class. There is no specific definition of health that is used universally. Health is important as health is wanted and has consequences for promoting health.

Health is defined in the following categories:

  • World Health Organisation (WHO)
  • Positive
  • Negative

World Health Organisation:

The World Health Organisation definition of health is ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. This has changed over time because health includes the condition of the best physical, mental and social wellbeing. It has to deal with the wellness of an individual which involves working to become fit and reach to the best of their ability of their physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual health. As you may see that the definition of health has changed dramatically over a period of time.

Positive definition:

The positive definition of health is described as the achievement and maintenance of physical fitness and mental stability. This relates it to individual’s physical and emotional well-beings.

Negative definition:

The negative definition oh health is described as the absence of physical illness, disease and mental distress.

Sociologists have categorised human disorders as:

  • Disease
  • Illness
  • Disability

Disease

A disease is a particular abnormal condition, a disorder of a structure or function, that affects part or all of an organism. The causal study of disease is called pathology. Disease is often construed as a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. Disease’s have similar symptoms that are used worldwide to diagnose a disease whatever the individuals circumstances are.

Illness

This is a state of poor health in your body and mind. An illness is a specific condition that prevents your body or mind from working normally : a sickness or disease. The definition of illness can vary and is a subjective term, many say that feeling is associated with a lack of health e.g. pain or discomfort.

Disability

Disability is a broad term that includes: impairments, limitations, and restrictions on an individual’s body or ability to participate in what is considered “normal” in their everyday society. The disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person’s lifetime.

Marxist approach to health and ill-health

Marxist believe that the definition of health and ill health is determined by the bourgeoisie. Marxist also believe that doctors only serve the interest of the bourgeoisie as doctors are gatekeepers, they work together with the ruling class. They leave the decision of whether you are healthy or unhealthy to work. Health care professionals make sure that individuals go back to work as quick as possible.

  • Tobacco companies: make huge cancer and other health conditions by selling cigarettes.
  • Alcohol: Alcohol could cause someone to become an alcoholic and other health conditions.
  • Chemical and oil companies: destroying forests and causes air and water pollution.

The government does not spend enough money to tackle ill-health e.g. poverty, unemployment and poor housing. Marxist’s theory says that health and ill-health has to be viewed as a social class problem that is linked to inequality – if people had a good standard of living, there would be no ill-health. The population from the upper class have a longer life expectancy and they enjoy better levels of health.

Functionalist approach to health and ill-health

Functionalist regard health as a very important aspect of society. If everyone is ill, society can’t function, which will result in anarchy and the state will collapse. According to Functionalist, those who are sick are going against the norms of society. They view those who are ill as having an important social role to play, i.e. those who are ill have to play the ‘sick role’, meaning the ill have to do everything necessary to get better health in a short space of time, e.g. going to the doctors, staying at home, taking medication.

The rights linked to this approach was that you had to be free from a social act e.g. go to work or college or paying tax, another right is to be cared for. Parsons saw this as a main function of a family who cared for sick and other family members who relied on the family group. The responsibilities linked to this approach involved the individual to take reasonable steps to improve to look to continue their normal role in society as fast as possible. Also liaising with other health care professional’s especially doctors, nurses etc.

Interactionist’s approach to health and ill-health

The interactionist approach to health and ill-health focuses on what happens in individual’s life. It is a very anxious approach meaning that it worries about individual’s physical wellbeing and focuses on the issues of health and illness. They are anxious about why some individuals who have serious illness’ do not consider themselves as ill e.g . someone who has cancer may decide to run a marathon to raise money for cancer research, whereas another cancer patient may prefer to be hospitalised.

Interactionist are concerned about the effect of labelling someone as ill as this could affect an individual’s self-esteem, self-image as well as their family and social life.  When looking at sociology, Interactionist’s don’t focus on structures and institutions, but focuses on complicated relationships with other individuals e.g. their family, friends and their connections with professional services. Interactionist’s think that these social relationships have as much influence as a medical diagnosis to decide whether an individual state themselves as being ill.

Interactionist believe professionals and patients should negotiate whether they should be signed off from work e.g. the government is trying to get disabled people back to work. The benefits system renegotiated giving money to those deemed long-term disabled or ill and unfit to work.

The Feminist approach to health and ill-health

Feminist have based their approach on how males are dominating the medical profession and the adverse impact this has had on women such as pregnancy and childbirth being regarded as a medical issue, sometimes even as an illness rather than a natural process.

Feminists believe that the exploitation of women by a patriarchal society, have contributed to the fact that more women suffer from depression, anxiety and stress more than men. All these problems are treated as medical issues rather than as a result of natural causes.

Postmodernist approach to health and ill-health

Health and illness is a growing concern in postmodern societies. Individuals need to think of new ways of accessing healthcare provisions and perhaps even explore non-traditional options such as alternative medicine. The uncertainty of life in postmodernist society can lead to growing health problems. Postmodernist believe that people should challenge conventional views on health and Ill health e.g. “do diets actually work?” They also believe that people should challenge conventional views, e.g. “is chocolate bad for health?”, “should women drink when pregnant?”

As there is so much information on health and Ill health people tend to get confused such as “pregnant women should drink red wine”. Postmodernists are concerned with the ‘deconstruction’ of meanings. In other words, they challenge (or deconstruct) the claims made by certain theories. To apply this to health and social care profession, they would challenge the claims made by health and social care professionals.

Conclusion

Overall, I have seen the different explanations each sociological explanation has which defines health and ill health and has looked at the different concepts of health.

References

  • Btec National Health and Social Care Book 1

M1 – Assess the Biomedical and Socio-Medical Models of Health

There are many models throughout the world but the models that play the largest roles in the UK, USA, France and a greater part of Western Europe are the biomedical and social-medical models of health.

Biomedical Model

The Biomedical model is the most common way for Health Care professionals to identify the nature of a medical condition in many western countries. The Biomedical model defines health as being free from pain, disease or defect. The model looks at the physical processes that influence individuals for example physiology and pathology of a condition; this does not go under the social or psychological influences that may have an active role in influencing illness. According to the biomedical model, every illness has a cause and once the Health Care professionals remove the cause this means the individual can become healthy again.

Strengths of Biomedical model

The biomedical model shows to be successful for diagnosis and treatment for various diseases. The model is based on scientific knowledge and research; it focuses on the cures for illnesses and diseases. The biomedical model also states that health can be restored by various techniques e.g. surgery, drugs or treatment. The model emphasises facts and testing on biomedicine and that ill health can be found by diagnosis putting into consideration signs and symptoms.

Weaknesses of Biomedical model

It fails to include psychosocial factors that are shown to be the main influences of disease and illness. Individuals play little to no part in the intervention to restore their body back to health, the model does not take into consideration the interpretation of the individual’s health. When trying to restore health back, the biomedical model treats both the body, mind differently, and thinks that finding a cure is more important than finding prevention.

The biomedical model failed to address illness and disease, which does not show any physical signs and symptoms. It also fails to look at the harmful effects that prompt the individual through the effects of treatment by a physician or surgeon. In addition, the use of medical technology and the health system to diagnose and treat conditions is costly for governments. Paying for medications and treatment via the biomedical approach can be expensive for individuals also.

Socio-medical model

This model of health focuses on social factors that contribute to individual’s health and well-being and especially looks at the impact of poverty, poor housing, diet and pollution and in order for individuals to prevent themselves from ill health they need to improve housing and programmes to tackle poverty and inequality. The socio-medical model challenges assumptions made about the medical model, and focuses and emphasises the need to look at wider considerations.

There are five key principles to the social model of health:

  1. Addresses the broader determinants of health
  2. Acts to reduce social inequalities
  3. Empowers individuals and communities
  4. Acts to enable access to healthcare
  5. Involves intersectional collaboration

Strengths of socio-medical model

The socio-medical model encourages people to live healthy lifestyles. The model looks at the causes of illness and diseases, and tries to improve the factors that cause illness and prevent this from occurring again. It is widely used by many medical professionals.

Weaknesses of socio-medical mode

It fails to look at the biological causes of disease and illness and can take a long period to look for factors affecting the illness and prevention to stop it reoccurring to improve environmental factors. The socio- medical model doesn’t have a clear method to identify or arrange health problems and it is unable to explain illnesses where there are no signs and symptoms to make a diagnosis. Changing an individual’s environment and lifestyle choices will consist of different things depending on what the person was used to previously, many people take longer to adjust to change whereas others may find it easy to adjust to change, therefore may take a long time and not have a quick response on an individual’s health.

P3 – Explain Patterns and Trends in Health and Illness among Different Social Groups

In this assignment, I will be explaining how patterns and trends in health and illness may vary in different social groupings.

Mortality rate

The number of deaths that occur in a population compared with the total number of people in that place or group.

Infant mortality rate

The number of deaths during the first year of a baby’s life per thousand  live births.

Morbidity rate

Morbidity rate is the frequency with which a disease appears in a population. Morbidity rates help insurers predict the likelihood that an insured will of contract or develop any number of specified diseases.

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the average period that a person may expect to live.

Main social groups:

  • Social –economic status
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Geographic location
  • Ethnicity
  • Risky Behaviours

Locality

Inequality between social groups is increasing in the UK. This is evident especially in Glasgow, where the life expectancy drops up to 7 years from just a couple of streets away. This is due to poor housing conditions and the difference in social class. If an individual in the working class sector gets an illness or disease, they will receive poorer care than a middle class individual who can afford to go private as they are on a low income, they will not have the money to go private therefore the working class individual will not receive quality care.

Those in lower paid, unskilled jobs have a greater risk of accidents at work and can suffer from stress linked to unemployment. Professionals enjoy healthier lifestyles, because not only do they have a better standard of living, they are more likely to be aware of health issues than unskilled workers as they have access to the internet, etc.

The black report agrees with the sociological model of health that environmental factors play a part in health and illness e.g. poor housing conditions, diet and pollution.

The most used study that focuses on these differences is the Black Report by Townsend et al 1980, soon after was followed by the Acheson Report 1998, both reports gave detailed explanations about the relationships between social and environmental influences and health, illness and life expectancy.

The Black Report has been the most influential and the explanations that were given are still used by many sociologists when focusing on these issues. Gender, age and ethnicity are the main factors that influence the Black Report:

Socio-economic status refers to an individual’s position in the social structure. Socio-economic status’ are made up of different facts e.g. an individual’s occupation, education, income and wealth. Sometimes sociologists use socio-economic status to determine an individual’s behaviour. A huge amount of research was done which showed that health, ill health and life expectancy can be different depending on the social group, especially on the social class, e.g. individuals from a higher social class are likely to have a higher life expectancy and experience better health than individuals who are in the working class social group.

Ethnicity

Studies show that there is a link between race and ethnic backgrounds and illnesses and it is difficult to describe an individual’s racial type as many come from more than one ethnic background. An increasing amount of ethnic groups e.g. black African or Caribbean or Asian backgrounds have a lack of good health due to poverty this is more common amongst minority ethnic groups who live in deprived areas e.g. poor housing conditions, pollution and an increasing amount of unemployment.

Individuals that are from Africa, Caribbean or Asian backgrounds are more likely to have long-term illnesses e.g. diabetes, coronary heart disease or high cholesterol levels than those that are not from ethnic minority groups. Minority ethnic groups are more likely to have a shorter life expectancy or a higher infant mortality rate due to health problems because of increasing levels of poverty and being unable to have access to health care services.

Age

As you get older, you are more likely to develop illnesses and experience depression/ anxiety, grief or loss, which is the main reason why older people have chronic health problems or life-threatening disease. This does not show that ill health is a result of ageing e.g. old people feeling more sick and fragile. There is an increasing level of illness and disease within the elderly, especially those who are 75 and over.

In a three-month period of 2003, 24% of the elderly, over 75 were admitted to casualty or the outpatient’s department of a hospital, whereas 14% compared to people from various ages. Death rates among 15-19 years old has risen, making adolescents mortality and morbidity rates a trend in national priority areas e.g. mental health issues, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and male suicide.

Risk Behaviours

An individual’s lifestyle choice can put them at higher risk of developing health related illnesses as they take part in high-risk activities e.g. smoking or drinking. This is the main reason why there is a difference between female and male mortality rates, the death rate between young men aged 17-24 are higher than young women as males in this age group tend to take part in more risky behavioural activities than females.

Gender

Women live longer than men and have a higher life expectancy as women are more aware of health issues and more likely to consult doctors than men. As a result, women appear to have higher sickness rates than men. This reflects the fact that the ill health of men is unreported.

Overall, men’s mortality rates from cancer are some 30–50% higher than a women’s, with much of this difference driven by more lung cancer among men. For men, lung, stomach, and liver cancers are the major killers. For women, breast and lung cancers are the deadliest over- all, cervical cancers are major killers for women in developing countries. Effects of gender e.g. the fact that smoking has traditionally been a male activity has led to alarmingly high lung cancer mortality among men. Female lung cancer deaths are on the rise; however, as cigarette advertisers have successfully linked smoking to women’s status and emancipation. In some developed countries, male lung cancer deaths are on the decline, while women’s are still rising. Cervical cancer, on the other hand, remains the deadliest cancer for women in the developing world which also suggest that depending on your ethnicity the chances of getting cancer is more likely to get cancer.

M2 – Use different Sociological Perspectives to discuss Patterns and Trends of Health and Illness in two different Social Groups

People are born into the social class there parents are in, therefore are more likely to stay in that class. The Marxist approach agrees with this statement. Ill health and life expectancy vary depending on where an individual lives. However, Marx beleive that ill-health is caused by inequality in society. They believe that all groups suffer apart from the ruling class, whether their age, gender etc. Individuals from the higher classes tend to live longer lives and enjoy better health than individuals who are working class. This could suggest that if you are from the working class social group, your health will be comprised by things such as lifestyle choices, e.g. affording healthy foods.

The difference between social classes is not just income but also health. Individuals in the working class social group tend to have unskilled manual, below living wage jobs. This results in the working class having to eat from fast food restaurants often as they may not be able to afford healthy foods. This may lead to many health illness’ such as diabetes, obesity, etc. It would be highly unlikely to access private care, the working class will have to go to a public hospital funded by the NHS which means they will not have as great an oppurtunity of fast and greater care than those who can fund private care (the middle class). The New Right would argue that individuals are to blame for their own health as they believe that individuals should stop relying on the government. The Interactionist approach supports the New Right. They claim there is a problem in society which is the fault of the individuals, nothing to do with society.

Health inequality is often portrayed as a result of people’s lifestyle choices. If people on a lower income exercised more and smoked/ drank a bit less, they could also enjoy the benefits of a longer and healthier life. However, a 25 year life expectancy gap cannot simply be explained by a dedicated diet of alcohol, cigarettes and chips. This makes it hard to tell whether social class could be the cause of bad health or a person’s lifestyle.

Ethnic minority groups, live in areas of deprivation in inner areas with associated poor housing pollutions and relatively high unemployment. This would therefore make it difficult to know whether ill-health is due to poverty or ethnicity. Compared to white minority there is evidence from annual population survey, office for national statics, shows that unemployment is higher for black and other ethnic groups than white British and Irish.

Feminist approach blames inequality on the patriarchal nature of society. They believe that all groups suffer but women suffer the most ; all woman suffer but not as much as working class women. Since the feminist campaign, women have a higher life expectancy.

D1 – Evaluate different Sociological explanations for Patterns and Trends of Health and Illness in two different Social Groups

In this section, I will continue from P3 and M2 to come to a conclusion and evaluate both of my chosen sociological explanation and look at the strengths and weakness’ of the social perspectives on the patterns and trends of health and ill-health.

The Marxist approach focus too much on social class inequalities that they forget about other factor issues such as age and gender. Social class is not such a major issue in health and ill-health as it is not only the working class who experience ill-health, individuals from the middle class experience ill-health too.

The New Right believe that individuals should stop blaming the government and blame themselves for their ill-health, however this theory totally ignores the fact that some individuals can not look after themselves. The upper class will always have an advantage to get a higher level of health care, and the lower class will recieve a lower level of health care. Private healthcare can be expensive for some people to afford. Individuals need a certain level of basic support in order to help themselves.

Conclusion

Sociology does not have any right or wrong answers. Instead, there are different perspectives about society through theories and views. This open view promotes debate, discourse and sometimes even controversy.