AQA Specifications -AS Requirements: - Examine health, illness and disability as a social and biological construct - Examine the unequal distribution of health and illness in the UK (including: social class, age, gender, ethnicity, region and internationally) -Examine inequalities into access to healthcare -Examine the Sociological study of mental illness - Examine the role of medicine and health professionals -Application of research methods in studying health Key Concepts: - Biomedical model = health and illness are caused by factors within the body -Lay definitions = ordinary peoples explanations for health and illness - Social model = health and illness caused by factors outside of the body -Social construct - something is constructed by society - Social distribution = the way something is allotted into society -Material deprivation = the extent to which people have or are deprived of goods -Mental illness = mental or behavioural pattern that causes suffering Key Research/Theoretical perspectives: -Biomedical Model =links to biological abnormality, the human body needs to be repaired by treatment when it breaks down, the health of society- dependent on medical knowledge Nicky Hart (1985) Five features of the Biomedical model: 1) Disease is physical 2) Doctors are elite 3) Medicine is curative 4) Illness is temporary 5) Treatment is special -Lay definitions = non-specialist definitions of health and illness Mildred Blaxter (1990) - definitions of health depend on the social group someone belongs to. For example young men see health as being physically fit/older women see it as including good social relationships -The Social Model of Health = health and illness are social constructs/the medical elite have not always dominated the treatment of illness - it used to be linked to evil spirits and religions/ in modern society illness can only be diagnosed as serious by the medical elite- thus they control what is an illness and what isn't = social construct/ this model looks at environmental and social factors that have contributed to the ill health of someone -Senior and Viveash (1998) argue that there are six stages of getting ill > 1) Social factors 2) Individual interprets their symptoms as an illness 3) An individual develops symptoms 4) The individual goes to the doctor 5) The patient is LABELLED as ill 6) Statistics are created from information from doctors Functionalists : illness is deviant - it disrupts home and work life (Parsons 1951) Marxists : Medical institution supports capitalist Weberians : medical profession is used to help doctors maintain their high status in society Feminists: Medical profession serves the interest of patriarchy
INEQUALITIES IN HEALTH: Cultural explanations - bad health comes down to differences in attitudes - Howlett and Ashley (1991) Middle class people are better informed about health and health issues, resulting in them having healthier lifestyles Structural approaches - disagrees with cultural explanations and argues that differences in health are down to societies structure - working class have less access to things that can keep them healthy Inequality approach - health inequalities linked to social class Artefact explanation - patterns of inequality are an illusion and don't exist - too many variables are involved to prove that only one factor influences health inequalities Social selection approach -poor health results in low social status - those who have an illness sink to the bottom on the social status
MENTAL HEALTH: The Medical approach: treat mental health as a biomedical condition - focus on the abnormal individual rather than environmental influences Feminists : women's mental health is a result of patriarchy / Marxist feminists: mental illness caused by dual oppression of being a housewife and a worker Joan Busfield (2001) - women might be diagnosed with more mental health problems as a result of sexism within the male dominated medical elite Interpretivist approach : mental health is a social construct Thomas Szasz (1971) - mental health is a social construct - it is used as a label to control non-conformist behaviour Goffman (1961, 197) - mental illness is a stigma caused by negative labelling
DISABILITY: The Biomedical Model: Disability is a physical thing The Social Model: society is at fault for disability - e.g. if a place does not have wheelchair access then it is the place that needs to change, not the person!
Pedagogy: -After teaching what each theory says about health, put pupils into small groups and give them a theory to represent. After time to prepare, the pupils must then have a class debate supporting their argument and arguing against others -Get the pupils to design a poster with arguments for health being a social construct and health being a biological construct -Provide the children with two images of different people - get them to explain how they may differ in their access to health care (for example, working class and middle class individual) -Like the example below, ask the students to design a story board regarding inequalities to health -What will you choose video clip? - ask pupils to explain why working class may eat unhealthy in a comparison to middle class -Ask the pupils to design a case study of an individual (including factors such as social class, age, gender etc.) - ask the pupils to write a report using all the information that has been provided about health (e.g. using theories, research, inequalities in health, mental illness and disability) - as this is a large task it can also be a follow on as homework