Medical Sociology
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Course Introduction
Medical Sociology explores the social dimensions of health, illness, and healthcare systems. This course examines how cultural, economic, and political factors influence health behaviors, the experience of illness, and interactions with medical institutions. Key topics include social determinants of health, health disparities, the doctor-patient relationship, the structure and impact of healthcare organizations, and the role of public policy in shaping health outcomes. Students will gain an understanding of how social context shapes individual and group health, deepening their insight into both contemporary and historical healthcare issues.
Recommended Textbook
The Sociology of Health Illness and Health Care A Critical Approach 7th Edition by Rose Weitz
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13 Chapters
358 Verified Questions
358 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care
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21 Verified Questions
21 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In Germany, infectious and parasitic diseases are relatively rare, chronic and degenerative diseases are relatively common, and life expectancy is high. From these facts, we can conclude that Germany has experienced the A)epidemiological transition.
B)sociological transition.
C)expectational profile.
D)demographic shift.
E)developed nation syndrome.
Answer: A
Q2) Before 1900, the most common causes of death in the United States were A)chronic diseases.
B)infectious diseases.
C)accidents and trauma.
D)infant and maternal mortality.
E)diseases of old age.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: The Social Sources of Modern Illness
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29 Verified Questions
29 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Health lifestyles
A)are based on both life chances and life choices.
B)can affect life chances, but life chances do not affect life choices.
C)are very similar among Americans of different social classes.
D)are not affected by socialization or life experiences.
E)are purely a matter of individual choice.
Answer: A
Q2) Globalization has helped spread illness by
A)eroding cultural traditions that previously had reduced sexual activity.
B)encouraging industries that push into forests and put humans in contact with diseases carried by animals.
C)increasing the number of people who travel from region to region.
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: The Social Distribution of Illness in the United States
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25 Verified Questions
25 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Research suggests that
A)although women complain about illness more often than men, they actually experience fewer illnesses.
B)men's higher mortality rate in part reflects their traditional gender role.
C)at each age, women have higher rates of fatal illnesses.
D)women are biologically weaker than men.
E)men seek health care more often than women.
Answer: B
Q2) Compared to Anglo Americans, Native Americans are more likely to die from A)cancer.
B)heart disease.
C)alcohol-related causes.
D)AIDS.
E)strokes.
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Illness and Death in Less Developed Nations
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29 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the following, which is the most important cause of maternal mortality in less developed nations?
A)herpes
B)emphysema
C)unsterile abortion
D)illegal drug use
E)breast-feeding
Q2) Imagine that WHO has asked you to consult on a public health program to address malnutrition globally. How can the concepts of global health and structural violence help you in developing your recommendations?
Q3) How is infant mortality linked to women's social status? How is maternal mortality linked to women's status?
Q4) The primary cause of low life expectancy in the less developed nations is A)dictatorship.
B)poverty.
C)religious warfare.
D)genetic defects.
E)air pollution.
Q5) Why should war and disasters be considered public health issues?
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Chapter 5: The Social Meanings of Illness
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27 Verified Questions
27 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The history of ADHD as a "disease" shows that
A)drug companies can play an important role in medicalization.
B)the FDA has helped reduce the price of rare drugs.
C)doctors play a much larger role than any other group in promoting medicalization.
D)prescription drugs can only be sold to treat illnesses for which the drugs have been scientifically tested.
E)feminists have played a major role in medicalization.
Q2) Which of the following can be important supporters of medicalization?
A)doctors
B)lay groups
C)pharmaceutical companies
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q3) Treating behavior problems among children as an illness is an example of A)medicalization.
B)demedicalization.
C)depoliticization.
D)medical collaboration.
E)reductionistic treatment.
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Chapter 6: The Experience of Disability, Chronic Pain, and Chronic Illness
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Sample Questions
Q1) In part, an individual's experience of disability and illness reflects their social identity. What do studies tell us about how women's and men's experiences of disability differ?
Q2) The Americans with Disabilities Act
A)applies only to civil service employment.
B)required cities to establish special schools for handicapped children.
C)uses a very broad definition of who has a disability.
D)outlaws discrimination in employment, public services, and public accommodations.
E)has made it easy for individuals who believe they have experienced discrimination to win law suits.
Q3) A woman who uses a wheelchair and wears a "Crip Pride" button is engaging in A)passing.
B)avoiding stigma.
C)disclosing stigma.
D)challenging stigma.
E)stigmatizing.
Q4) Should people with disabilities be considered a minority group? Why or why not?
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Page 8
Chapter 7: The Sociology of Mental Illness
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do society's views on, and responses to, mental illness resemble those of past centuries? How do they differ?
Q2) Most psychiatrists now primarily treat patients with A)drugs.
B)psychotherapy.
C)psychoanalysis.
D)electroshock therapy.
E)none of the above
Q3) The history of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) suggests that A)those working in mental health generally agree on the causes of mental illness. B)our system of psychiatric diagnoses has resulted in part from a series of political fights.
C)those working in the mental health field generally agree on how to treat the different mental illnesses.
D)psychiatrists generally agree on how to treat homosexuality. E)the DSM is now highly valid.
Q4) Explain the link between stress and mental illness, and then use that explanation to explain class, gender, and race differences in mental illness.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Health Care in the United States
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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) To control costs, managed care organizations (MCOs) typically
A)encourage doctors to prescribe only drugs the MCO has approved.
B)require doctors to obtain approval before admitting patients to hospitals.
C)require doctors to work on salary, rather than fee-for service.
D)all of the above
E)a and b only
Q2) Which of the following has played the greatest role in contributing to rising health care costs in the United States?
A)US citizens expect more care than citizens of other countries.
B)US citizens have a unique propensity for filing malpractice suits.
C)the increasingly elderly population of the United States
D)the unusually high administrative costs of its health care system
E)doctors' high incomes
Q3) How has the public's health benefited from access to high technology medical interventions? Would the health of the public be better or worse if we spent less on high technology and more on primary care-lessening access to high technology while increasing access to primary care?
Q4) What kinds of health care reforms do you think are necessary? What stakeholders would be likely to oppose those reforms?
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Chapter 9: Health Care Around the Globe
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Sample Questions
Q1) General practitioners in Great Britain
A)typically work in group practices.
B)receive financial supplements if they practice in underserved areas.
C)are paid fee-for-service.
D)all of the above
E)a and b only
Q2) Which of the following is the most serious problem in the Canadian health care system?
A)waiting times for non-emergency care
B)overuse of high-technology medical services
C)an undersupply of doctors
D)the existence of multiple, competing insurance companies
E)lack of access to health care in urban "ghettoes"
Q3) Which of the following is true?
A)Health care is rationed in Great Britain but not in the United States.
B)Health care is rationed in the United States but not in Great Britain.
C)Health care is rationed in both the United States and Great Britain.
D)Health care is rationed in neither the United States nor Great Britain.
Q4) Which nation's health care system would you prefer? Why?
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Chapter 10: Health Care Settings and Technologies
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Sample Questions
Q1) US citizens who need nursing home care
A)generally pay for it through Medicare.
B)are disproportionately African-American.
C)often become impoverished as a result.
D)cannot legally be moved to a lower-quality home if their funds run out.
E)are generally under age 65.
Q2) In the Netherlands, doctors
A)can legally end a patient's life in certain circumstances.
B)who commit euthanasia may receive the death penalty.
C)can legally instruct a patient how to commit suicide painlessly, but cannot end the patient's life themselves.
D)who commit euthanasia can be tried for manslaughter but not for murder.
E)can legally end a patient's life only if they are psychiatrists.
Q3) In recent years, hospitals have
A)reduced the number of outpatient surgeries they perform.
B)shifted to treating an older and sicker mix of patients.
C)stopped serving as primary care providers for the poor.
D)abandoned the practice of patient dumping.
E)increasingly moved to nonprofit status.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: The Profession of Medicine
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Sample Questions
Q1) Published guidelines that establish norms of care for particular medical conditions based on a review of clinical research are known as
A)managed care documents.
B)practice protocols.
C)utilization summaries.
D)RBRVS decrees.
E)socialization literature.
Q2) Doctors' power over their patients increases when A)patients are physically unable to communicate.
B)doctors work in solo practice.
C)doctors and patients share the same culture.
D)doctors and patients share the same language.
E)doctors belong to the AMA.
Q3) Doctors' mechanistic model of the body may encourage them to A)distrust natural bodily processes.
B)value "watching and waiting" rather than quickly intervening in Emergency Rooms.
C)rely on redactive treatment.
D)burn out after working in medicine for a few years.
E)listen carefully to their patients.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Other Mainstream and Alternative Health Care
Providers
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Sample Questions
Q1) Florence Nightingale
A)believed that men and women should occupy "separate spheres."
B)believed that nursing needed a hierarchical structure.
C)saw caring as inherently women's role.
D)all of the above
E)a and b only
Q2) Currently, some chiropractors believe that
A)immunizations are unnecessary.
B)they should serve as primary care providers.
C)spinal manipulation can cure most health problems.
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q3) Optometrists have obtained considerable social status by limiting their treatments to only one part of the body. This suggests that optometry is a A)semi-profession.
B)limited but not marginal occupation.
C)parallel profession.
D)marginal but not limited occupation.
E)marginal profession.
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Chapter 13: Issues in Bioethics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Henry Beecher, writing in 1966, stated that medical journals
A)needed to pay more attention to psychological research.
B)adequately screened out proposed articles that relied on unethical methods.
C)sometimes published articles that relied on unethical research methods.
D)routinely ignored reviewers who raised questions about research ethics.
E)needed to pay more attention to sociological research.
Q2) The Karen Quinlan case demonstrated the problems caused when doctors
A)extend life without regard to the quality of that life.
B)perform organ transplants.
C)perform kidney dialysis.
D)genetically alter fetuses.
E)transfer patients from hospitals to nursing homes.
Q3) During the 1960s, hospital selection committees
A)typically decided who would receive kidney dialysis based solely on medical criteria.
B)typically decided who would receive kidney dialysis based in part on social criteria.
C)typically decided who would receive kidney dialysis based solely on age.
D)were abolished by most hospitals.
E)were declared legal, but nonetheless fell into disuse.
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