Sociology and anthropology

OBJECTIVES
• Definition of medical sociology
• Terms commonly used in medical sociology
• Discuss socialization
• Understand knowledge about social stratification
• Describe the structure and organization of society
• Definition of anthropology
• Terms used in anthropology
• Definition of culture
Objectives
• Definition of culture
• Identify various components of a culture
• Theories of medical anthropology
• Relevance of anthropology to medical practitioners
• Definition of social institutions
• Types of social institution
 sociology
• It is defined as science that deals with human society and social
behaviour
• It is mainly interested in social interaction and how people relate to each
other
• sociological perspective
• Helps us see that we are social beings
• Our behaviour is the result of social factors that we learned over
behaviour of others
• Helps us find acceptable balance between our personal desire and the
demand of social environment
 Development of sociology
• Auguste comte –first person to use sociology to describe the study of society
• He is a French philosopher who believed that philosophy of society was key to
bring stability in the world
• He is more concerned with finding solution to the chaos created by the French
revolution
• Karl Marx(1818-1883)-believed that the overall structure of the society is
heavily influenced by how the economy is organized
• He was more interested in capitalist society and deeply troubled by social
condition
• Herbert spencer (1820-1903)-view society as a set of interdependent part
that work together to maintain the system over time
 concepts in sociology
• Social structure-refer to pattern of social and social positions
• Social action –peoples behaviour is based on meaningful
understanding of what they do
• Functional integration-interdependence among the parts of
social systems e.g. school depend government for financial
support
• Power-is the capacity of social actors to get others to do its
will or to ensure that it will benefit from the action of other
• Culture –language ,values ,norms and symbols that makes up
a way of life
 Medical sociology
• It is concerned to understand how people perceive
health/illness and the dynamic that makes them seek medical
attention
Terms used in medical sociology
Disease: the medical conception of a pathological abnormality
diagnosed by means of signs and symptoms
• Definition of a health problem by a medical expert
• ‘Something an organ has deviation from normal
• Based on scientific rationality and assumes diseases are
universal
• Illness: the subjective interpretation of problems that are
perceived as health-related, i.e. the experience of symptoms
• Experience of the problem by the patient
• Can be present where disease is absent
• Includes meaning that the patient gives the experience
• Affected by culture: provides etiology, diagnosis,
prevention & treatment regimen
 • Sickness: the social organization and performance of
illness/disease, i.e. the “sick
The social role attached to a health problem by the society
at large
• Society has influence on illness & those suffering from ill-
health
• Society assigns roles for the ill & carers
• Society provides labels for illnesses
 terms ctd

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being

and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• State of harmony with nature and the environment

• functionalism
• - social consensus + stable social systems- with specific roles for each
person
• - sickness as deviance from this stability
 sick role theory
• Exempted from normal roles
• Will to get well
• Not responsible for the illness
• Seek professional medical care
 Health belief model
• Addresses individual perceptions of the threat posed by a health
problem (susceptibility, severity), the benefits of avoiding the threat,
and the factors influencing the decision to act (barriers, cues to
action, and self efficacy)
• Developed in the 1950s by a group of social psychologists who
wanted to explain why so few people were participating in programs
to prevent and detect disease.
• They theorized that people’s beliefs about whether or not they were
susceptible to disease, and their perceptions of benefits of trying to
avoid it, influenced their readiness to act.
 socialization and social mobilization
• Socialization –is the process through which people are taught
to be proficient members of a society.
It describe how people come to understand societal norms
and expectations, to accept societal beliefs and be aware of
societal values
personality development
personality is the sum total of behaviour ,attitude ,belief and
values that re characteristic of individual
Personality trait determine how we adjust to our environment
and how we react in specific situation
 Factors that influence personality
development
• Birth order
• Parenteral characteristics
• Culture
• Heredity
• Ideologies that explain personality development
Nature versus nurture
Isolation in childhood
Isolation in childhood
Several instances exist in which children have been raised without
influence of cultural environment
Children isolated by their parents in the outside world would result
in children that have few human characteristics other than their
appearances
NATURE VERSUS NURTURE
Nature-according to this belief our temperament, interest and
talents are set before birth
Nurture-asserts that who we are results from the relationship
and caring that surround us
 social self
• Through interaction with social and cultural
environment,individuals are transformed into participating
well in society
• The interactive process through which individual learn the
basic skills, values ,beliefs and behaviour pattern is called
socialization
 Agents of socialization
• Family-most children learn how to behave in socially acceptable ways to
develop close emotional ties and to internalize values
• Peer groups-primary groups composed of individuals of roughly similar
age and social interaction
Thus our personality is shaped by our peer group
School- plays a role in socializing individuals through various activities
performed in school e.g. extra curricular activities
Mass media-one of the most influential among the other forms of
socialization
Others include religion
 Social inequality
• Social stratification-ranking of individuals or categories of
people on basis of unequal access to scarce resources and social
reward
• Social inequality –unequal sharing of social reward and
resources
• Types of social stratification
• Caste-scarce resources and reward are distributed on basis of
ascribed statuses
• It is a hereditary endogamous social group in which a person’s
rank and its accompanying right and its obligation are ascribed
on the basis of birth
• Exogamy- marriage outside of one’s own social category
• Endogamy –marriage within one’s own social class
• Class system –grouping of people with similar level of wealth,
power and prestige
• Definition is in build on the work of Marx waber who believes that
society is stratified on the basis of economic class ,social status as
expressed by life style and social party
• social stratification is determined by
Wealth
Power
 social mobility
• This refer to movement between or within social classes or
strata
• Vertical mobility-mobility from upward or downward
• Horizontal mobility-movement within social class or strata
individual moves from one job to another of equal social
ranking
Integrated mobility-status differences between same family
it is a special form of vertical mobility
 culture

• Culture – the values, beliefs, behavior, and material

objects that form a people’s way of life.
• Physical objects that people create form material
culture e.g. clothing's and buildings
• Abstract human creation form non materialistic
culture e.g. language and ideas
Although cultures vary, they all have five
common components:
(1) Symbols
(2) Language
(3) Values
(4) Beliefs
(5) Norms
• Symbols – anything that carries a particular meaning recognized
by people who share culture.
• Not understanding the symbols of a culture leaves a person
feeling lost and isolated.
• Symbolic meaning may also vary within a single society.
• Language – a system of symbols that allows people to
communicate with one another.
• Language allows for the continuity of culture.
•.
 components of culture

• Cultural transmission – the process by which one generation

passes culture to the next
• Values – culturally defined standards by which people assess
desirability, goodness, and beauty and that serve as broad
guidelines for social living.
• Beliefs – specific statements that people hold to be true.
• Values are abstract standards of goodness.
• Beliefs are particular matters that individuals consider true
or false
• Norms – rules and expectations by which a society guides
the behavior of its members.
• Most important norms in a culture apply everywhere and at
all times.
• Mores – norms that are widely observed and have great
moral significance.
• Folkways – norms for routine, casual interaction.
 cultural diversity
• Cultural diversity can involve social class.
• Many cultural patterns are readily accessible to only some
members of a society.
• High culture – cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s
elite.
• Popular culture – cultural patterns that are widespread.
• subculture -some groups in society share values ,norms and
behavior that are not shared by the entire population
• Counter culture –when a group reject the values ,norms and
practices of a larger society and replace them with new set of
cultural pattern
 culture change

• Change in one dimension of culture usually sparks change in

another.
• Cultural integration – the close relationships among various
elements of a cultural system
• Some elements of culture change faster than others –
cultural lag.
• Cultural change may be spurred by invention, discovery, or
diffusion and technologies
• Ethnocentrism – the practice of judging another culture by
the standards of one’s own culture.
• A particular culture is the basis for everyone’s reality
• Cultural Relativism – the practice of evaluating a culture by
its own standards.
• It requires understanding unfamiliar values and norms
 social control
• Internalization of norms-
• sanctions
 Theories of medical anthropology
• A theory is a statement of how & why specific facts are
related.
• Theories are based on theoretical paradigms = sets of
assumptions that guide thinking and research.
• There are 5 theories of particular importance to Medical
Anthropology:
1. Structural Functionalism
2. Ecological Perspective
3. Transactionalist Model
4. Marxist Political Economy Model
 STUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONALISM
• Society is a complex system whose parts work together
(Metaphor of the body)
• Our lives are guided by social structures & each social structure
has social functions.
• Social & cultural phenomena are functionally interconnected &
basic to structural maintenance of society
• Applying the model in Medical Anthropology:
• Illness is a ‘dysfunctioning’ of the body
• Health care contributes to maintenance of society by
‘repairing’ the sick
ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
• Culture is viewed as human adaptation to environment
• Health is regarded as the result of successful adaptation to
environmental challenges
• Disease is held to be an outcome of failure to adapt
• Medicine (preventive & curative) is a cultural device to
restore optimal adaptation
TRANSACTIONALIST MODEL
• Culture is seen as the outcome of competition at an individual level
• For maximum profits, enterprising individuals negotiate & change
society including:
• Conditions of health
• Conditions of health care
• Activities of health workers may be motivated by profit making e.g
private clinics
• Patients may use health services to further individual interests e.g.
specialized care & social prestige
 Marxist Political Economy Model

• Culture is viewed as an outcome of political & economic

circumstances
• Problems in health & health care in developing countries is linked to
penetration of the capitalist economy
• Health (or lack of it) & the quality of health care are determined by:
• Social competition between groups of people (social classes)
• Unequal distribution of scarce resources
 Relevance of anthropology
1. Better understanding of how different cultures and social groups
explain causes of ill-health
2. Appreciation of different types of treatment available
3. Better understanding of patients’ utilization of health facilities
(whom they turn to & why)
4. A view of health problems as explained & labeled in accordance to
cultural concepts
5. More understanding of patients’ context = better communication
during consultation
6. More understanding of patients’ context = appreciation of diversity
in the experience of an illness episode
 social institutions
• Social institution refer to a system of statuses,roles,values and norms
that are organized to satisfy one or more of the basic societal needs
• Social institutions are established or standardized patterns of rule-
governed behavior. They include the
• Family
• Education
• Religion
• Economic
• political institutions
•  Major Perspectives
• Marx
• Social institutions are determined by their society’s mode of
production.
• Social institutions serve to maintain the power of the
dominant class.
• Weber
• Social institutions are interdependent but no single
institution determines the rest.
• The causes and consequences of social institutions cannot be
assumed in advance.
• Durkheim
• Set the stage for later functionalist analyses of institutions by
concluding that religion promotes social solidarity and collective
conscience.
 Family
• Is a group of people who relate by marriage, blood or
adoption and live together and share economic resource
• Family is composed of individual and his/her sibling and
parents
• Family of orientation is a nuclear family into which individual
person is born
• Family of procreation-consist of the individual his/her spouse
and their children
• Kinship- refer to a network of people with related by
marriage, birth or adoption
Family
Function of a family
• Reproduction
• Regulation of sexual activity
• Socialization
• Economic and emotional support
Economic and political institutions
• Certain needs must be met if the health and happiness of societal
members are to be maintained e.g. shelter , food and other basic
needs
• Every society develops a system of roles and norms that governs the
production, distribution and consumption of goods and services
• People needs always are greater than the resources available
Economic models
Capitalism
socialism
Economic
• Capitalism-factors of production are owned by individual rather than the
government
• Economic activity is controlled by forces of profit and competition
• Socialism-factors of production are owned by the government which
regulate all economic activities
• Economic activity is controlled by social need rather than self interest
• Principle guiding socialism are social equality and economic fairness
• Pure socialist model-socialism ultimate goal is communism
• Communism is when political and economic systems in which property is
communally owned
 political institution
• System of norms and roles that governs the distribution and exercise
of power in society
Primary function of political system
• Creation and enforcement of laws
• Settling conflict between individuals
• Provision of services

• Legitimacy of power-those in power are viewed to have the right to

control or govern others
education and religion
• For a society to survive ,young must be taught the morals and values
of society and must learn skills necessary to take over the work of
adults
• To accomplish these goals every society develops a system of roles
and norms that ensure the transmission of knowledge , values and
behavior from one generation to another
• Children learn the ways of society mainly by participating in adult
activities
• Family comes in to educate the young with more formally established
organization
 Education
• Notes Marx: Education serves the capitalist order by producing skilled
workers with habits such as punctuality and respect for authority.
• Functionalist theory: Functions of education include transmitting shared
values and beliefs, transmitting specific knowledge and skills, sorting
individuals based on skill, and establishing social control over youths.
• Conflict theory: Educational tracking systems and other differential
treatment of students reinforce social inequalities.
• Symbolic interactionism: Face-to-face interactions in the classroom can
have long-range consequences for students’ educational achievements.
 Religion
• A unified system of beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural and
to norms about the right way to live that is shared by a group of believers.
Sociologists treat religion as a social rather than supernatural phenomenon.
• Sociologist focuses on the social characteristics of religion and the
consequences that religion has for society
Functions of religion
• Social cohesion-strengthening of bonds among people
• Social control-encouraging conformity to the norms of society
• Emotional support-help people endure suffering and deprivation by
providing comfort