Study guides › P/S › Sociology
Health, Illness & Health Disparities
This chapter shows how society shapes who gets sick, who gets care, and how illness is understood. You will apply the sick role, medicalization, social epidemiology, social determinants, stigma, and disparity concepts to real-world scenarios and data.
Study this chapter in PrepMed (free)
What this chapter covers
- The Sick Role, Medicalization & Views of Illness. Sociologists treat illness as a social experience, not just a biological one. Expect scenarios asking you to name the concept.
- Social Epidemiology & the Social Determinants of Health. Rates, gradients, and social determinants form the data side of this chapter. Be ready to compute incidence and read a graph.
- Health Disparities: Class, Race, Gender & Access to Care. Disparities questions ask you to link a pattern to a mechanism, such as insurance, bias, or stress, and to avoid biological explanations.
- Stigma, Mental Health & Society. Stigma, labeling, and the causation-versus-selection debate turn up in questions about mental illness and social class.
Key points to know
- Disease = biological; illness = subjective; sickness = social status
- Sick role (Parsons): exempt from duties and blame; must try to recover and seek care
- Incidence = new cases in at-risk group; prevalence = all existing cases
- Social gradient: health improves at every step up in SES
- Class, race, and gender all shape health through social mechanisms
- Racial gaps persist after controlling for income (discrimination, stress, weathering)
- Stigma (Goffman): discredited is visible; discreditable is hidden
- Courtesy stigma affects people associated with the stigmatized person
Try a practice question
Which term describes the person's own subjective experience of feeling unwell?
- Disease
- Sickness
- Medicalization
- Illness
Show the answer
D. Illness is the subjective, felt experience. Disease is a biological diagnosis, and sickness is social recognition of being ill.
Common questions
What does this chapter cover?
Health, Illness & Health Disparities covers The Sick Role, Medicalization & Views of Illness, Social Epidemiology & the Social Determinants of Health, Health Disparities: Class, Race, Gender & Access to Care, Stigma, Mental Health & Society.
What should I know first?
Disease = biological; illness = subjective; sickness = social status Sick role (Parsons): exempt from duties and blame; must try to recover and seek care Incidence = new cases in at-risk group; prevalence = all existing cases
21 original practice questions accompany this chapter in the app. Spaced review brings missed ideas back at the right time; it helps memory but cannot promise you will not miss an idea again.