Research Unit in Behaviour & Social Issues

Training

The Sociology of Health

The proposed course could be arranged around the following 5 themes:

  • Health beliefs and knowledge
  • Inequalities and patterning of health and illness
  • Professional and patient interaction
  • Chronic illness and disability
  • Evaluation and politics in health care

Health beliefs and knowledge

This theme would cover two of the basic issues confronting a sociological view of medicine, namely how lay people conceptualise health and illness, and how far these views differ from those of doctors and other experts.

Inequalities and patterning of health and illness

Here, the ideas that health and illness are not simply properties of individuals are examined. Cultural motifs of morality, responsibility and causation, and the influence of social structures can be glimpsed through the study of people’s responses to the challenges of poor health, or attempts to maintain good health. Even notions of fate and chance are powerfully shaped by the cultures in which they exist.

Professional and patient interaction

Here we examine the changing sociological perspectives of research, as they confront changes in health care organization and delivery

Chronic illness and disability

The widespread nature of chronic conditions and difficulties in medical treatment is examined here. As with mental illness, if medicine, were able to offer cures, the social as well as personal significance of these disorders would be reduced. Their often intractable character leads to problems of everyday living and to difficulties in lay and medical management. Alongside living with pain and discomfort, making sense of seriously disruptive symptoms frequently initiates a ‘search for meaning’ on the part of the patient, in an attempt to construct or reconstruct a sense of biographical continuity.

Evaluation and politics of health care

Here we will provide examples of sociological perspectives on the evaluation and politics of health care. There is at present a great deal of applied ‘health services research’ being carried out which draws on social science perspectives.