SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Talcott Parsons, Whitehall Study, Sick Role

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCI201
• Professor: Andrea Kelley

Document Summary

The value of medicine: doctors highly valued in society, offer health and longevity, use specific props and scripts to assert their power. Power: asymmetry of information, ability to prescribe medications, and administer therapy, authority in areas beyond strict medicine: medicalization. Social construction of illness: what"s an illness, to be sick or healthy varies across time and place, disease: medical institution"s interpretation. Doctor-patient interaction from jutel (2011: asymmetrical knowledge, role of diagnosis, confirms the professional status of doctor, delineates doctor-patient relationship, provides rationale for consultation, delegates responsibility for labeling illness. Example: medical marijuana: medical marijuana: one doctor"s opinion, power: no discussion of medical marijuana in med school despite research showing its potential. Legitimacy: he"s a doctor so we tryst his opinion value. Social construction of illness: also construction of treatments: knowledge: challenging asymmetry. Critical examination of the consequences associated when social institutions and problems come under the umbrella of medicine.