Sociology of Health and Illness
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
The Sociology of Health and Illness explores the social dimensions of health, disease, and medical care, analyzing how cultural, economic, and institutional factors influence individuals experiences of health and illness. The course examines key theoretical frameworks, the social construction of illness, patterns of health inequality, and the functioning of healthcare systems. Students will investigate how concepts such as class, race, gender, and power shape health outcomes, access to care, and representations of illness in society. Critical perspectives on medicalization, public health policy, and the role of healthcare professionals are also addressed, providing a comprehensive understanding of health beyond a purely biomedical model.
Recommended Textbook
The Sociology of Health Healing and Illness 7th Edition by Gregory L. Weiss
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13 Chapters
357 Verified Questions
357 Flashcards
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Page 2
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) The sociological perspective emphasizes the role played by A) social security.
B) power.
C) genetics.
D) culture.
E) biological events.
Answer: B
Q2) Sociology of medicine refers to the study of how social factors affect A) health and illness.
B) health care.
C) health, illness, and health care, raising questions that sociologists, but not necessarily doctors, consider important.
D) health, illness, and health care, raising questions that doctors, but not necessarily sociologists, consider important.
E) all of the above
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Social Sources of 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) According to the Health Belief Model,which of the following are necessary before individuals will comply with medical advice?
A) They must believe they are susceptible to a particular health problem.
B) They must believe that compliance will significantly reduce their risk.
C) They must believe they may die if they do not comply.
D) all of the above
E) a and b only
Answer: E
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4
Chapter 3: The Social Distribution of Illness in the United States
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24 Verified Questions
24 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The infant mortality rate among African Americans
A) is similar to the rate among whites.
B) is similar to the rate among Western Europeans.
C) is higher than among whites primarily due to biological differences.
D) primarily reflects high rates of drug use.
E) is higher than among whites even if we look only at the middle and upper classes.
Answer: E
Q2) Because of gender convergence,
A) more men now take estrogen.
B) men's and women's health risks are becoming more similar.
C) women now have higher rates of disability.
D) women have become biologically weaker.
E) men increasingly refuse to seek health care when ill.
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Illness and Death in the Less Developed Nations
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29 Verified Questions
29 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Armed conflict can leave civilians with A) infertility due to rape.
B) long term disability.
C) psychological trauma.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Q2) HIV/AIDS is especially common in Africa in part because of high rates of A) infertility.
B) concurrent sexual partners.
C) serial sexual partners.
D) high cereal diets.
E) gluten free diets.
Q3) What defines whether a country is more or less developed? Why should development be conceptualized as a scale rather than a dichotomy? Give two examples to illustrate your argument.
Q4) What role do the more developed nations play-intentionally or unintentionally-in fostering illness in the less developed nations?
Q5) How is infant mortality linked to women's social status? How is maternal mortality linked to women's status?
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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) 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
Q2) Medicalization refers to
A) the process of developing new drugs to treat a given illness.
B) treatment offered by medical doctors.
C) the process of defining a condition or behavior as an illness.
D) the growing number of doctors in the United States.
E) the idea that the body is more than a mere machine or factory.
Q3) Those who use the concept of "fetal rights" typically
A) believe that mothers can best determine their babies' best interests.
B) place the welfare of the fetus above the civil rights of the childbearing woman.
C) question whether a father's behavior might have endangered his pregnant wife's fetus.
D) investigate why pregnant women use illegal drugs.
E) are Jewish.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: The Experience of Disability, Chronic Pain, and Chronic Illness
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Sample Questions
Q1) Borrow or rent a wheelchair from your university's office for disabled students or from a local department store,grocery store,or shopping mall.Spend about four hours using the chair,and engaging in your normal activities-going to classes,shopping,whatever.Be sure you go places where you will meet strangers.Watch for both verbal and nonverbal responses.Describe your experience,analyzing both your own feelings and the reactions of others to you.Did people avoid you? Look you in the eyes? Try to help? Treat you as a child?
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) Your textbook argues that the Internet has had a large and recent impact on the way that people experience their health and the institution of healthcare.Discuss at least three ways in which the Internet is changing people's health experiences,either positively or negatively.
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Chapter 7: The Sociology of Mental Illness
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29 Verified Questions
29 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A person who thinks he is Napoleon
A) breaks cognitive norms.
B) has an organic illness.
C) breaks feeling norms.
D) should be treated with psychoactive drugs.
E) probably has end-stage syphilis.
Q2) Freud's ideas about human nature and mental illness
A) continue to permeate American culture.
B) have received strong support from recent research.
C) reflected a belief in the inherent superiority of females.
D) reflected his support for the nascent feminist movement.
E) have been repudiated by those who take a biological approach to psychiatry.
Q3) Once an individual seeks treatment for psychiatric problems,doctors typically
A) remedicalize the journals they use.
B) assume that the individual has a mental illness.
C) work to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
D) work to identify the individuals' cultural background and its impact on treatment.
E) seek to understand the social context in which the individual's symptoms or problems emerged.
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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) The Affordable Care Act
A) offers no benefits to health care consumers.
B) simplifies health care administration.
C) will leave some US citizens without insurance coverage.
D) will reduce the number of insurers in the US health care system.
E) will likely reduce government costs for health care over the long run.
Q2) Blue Cross and Blue Shield were founded to protect the financial security of A) hospitals.
B) doctors.
C) American citizens.
D) a and b only
E) all of the above
Q3) Health care in the United States is more expensive than in other developed nations because
A) Americans receive more care than do citizens of those other nations.
B) the United States has unusually high rates of malpractice lawsuits.
C) the US population is aging more quickly than that of those other nations.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above
Q4) Why have health care costs risen in the United States?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Health Care Around the Globe
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Sample Questions
Q1) In recent years,
A) access to health care has improved in China.
B) rural Chinese increasingly have turned for health care to their agricultural communes.
C) rural Chinese increasingly have turned for health care to village doctors.
D) rural Chinese increasingly have received their health care on a fee-for-service basis.
E) urban Chinese increasingly have received their health care from village doctors.
Q2) In China,village doctors
A) were first used during the Cultural Revolution.
B) receive about two years of training.
C) work primarily in urban areas.
D) remain a major part of the Chinese health care system.
E) primarily work as midwives.
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.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Health Care Settings and Technologies
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Sample Questions
Q1) The cost of hospice care is
A) less expensive than hospital or nursing home care.
B) more expensive than nursing home care.
C) more expensive than hospital care.
D) about the same as hospital or nursing home care.
E) dropping due to the feminization of aging.
Q2) Which of the following is a result of commodification?
A) keeping nursing home residents strapped to chairs during the day
B) purchasing gourmet foods for nursing home residents
C) requiring nursing home residents to shower daily
D) increased drug use among nursing home staff
E) increased drug use among nursing home administrators
Q3) Give an example of how medical technology shapes society,and of how society shapes medical technology.
Q4) Based on your textbook,compare the experiences of individuals seeking medical treatment in three different time periods.Where would someone seek treatment? How would health care providers interact with a patient? How would race and class affect patients' experiences?
Q5) How does the profit motive affect the experiences of hospital patients and nursing home residents?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: The Profession of Medicine
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Sample Questions
Q1) The process through which medical students learn the skills,knowledge,and values of medicine as an occupation is referred to as
A) normative errors.
B) medical norms.
C) medical dominance.
D) professional dominance.
E) professional socialization.
Q2) 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.
Q3) The profession of medicine includes an ideology that dictates doctors' values,attitudes,and behaviors towards patients,colleagues,and other health care workers.Learning the role of medicine involves learning this ideology as well as learning specific technical knowledge.What does this ideology consist of,and how do doctors learn it?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Other Mainstream and Alternative Health Care
Providers
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26 Verified Questions
26 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When doctors first began medicalizing pregnancy,many women welcomed the change because it
A) offered guilt-free access to painkillers.
B) was less expensive than midwifery care.
C) was scientifically demonstrated to be safer than midwifery care.
D) was less expensive than osteopathic care.
E) allowed their husbands to participate in the process.
Q2) What factors make it easier for some mainstream health care occupations compared to others to approach or attain professional status? (Do not include alternative healers in your answer.)
Q3) Which of the following meets the sociological definition of a profession?
A) advanced practice nursing
B) chiropractic
C) midwifery
D) acupuncture
E) none of the above
Q4) Compare and contrast the fields of dentistry and osteopathy.What factors have allowed medicine to dominate osteopathy but not dentistry?
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Chapter 13: Issues in Bioethics
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27 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the study conducted at the Willowbrook State School,doctors
A) purposely infected children with hepatitis.
B) treated children who had hepatitis.
C) intervened to improve the horrendous conditions in which children were living.
D) cut short their experiment once they realized hepatitis could be cured with new drugs.
E) found a cure for hepatitis through unethical methods.
Q2) The effectiveness of commercial Institutional Review Boards is limited by
A) conflicts of interest.
B) insufficient federal oversight.
C) managed care regulations.
D) their reliance on career bureaucrats.
E) heavy-handed federal oversight committees.
Q3) 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.
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