Deck 5: The Social Meanings of Illness

Question 1

According to Talcott Parsons, sick persons are

A) excused from fulfilling their normal social roles.
B) not held responsible for their illnesses.
C) expected to work to get well.
D) all of the above
E) a and b only

Answer 1

D

Question 2

According to the medical model of illness,

A) illness is anything less than a complete state of physical, social, and mental well-being.
B) illness is best dealt with through holistic treatment.
C) doctors around the world generally reach the same diagnosis when confronted with the same symptoms.
D) a given illness will manifest itself in different ways in different countries.
E) doctors should recognize that the body is more than a mere machine or factory.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

We can tell that a condition is deviant by seeing if those who exhibit the condition

A) are punished.
B) receive token gifts.
C) are police officers.
D) have broken universal moral laws.
E) engage in social control.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The belief that illness is caused by sin is especially evident in the history of

A) influenza.
B) typhoid.
C) leprosy.
D) arthritis.
E) stroke.

Question 5

Early nineteenth century doctors argued that cholera typically attacked only individuals who

A) had come in contact with dangerous miasma.
B) had weakened their bodies through improper living.
C) had been weakened by living in poverty.
D) were malnourished.
E) had bad genes.

Question 6

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.

Question 7

Which of the following is a contested illness?

A) HIV disease
B) measles
C) fibromyalgia
D) leprosy
E) influenza

Question 8

Talcott Parsons' term for how society views sick people and how sick people should behave is

A) functionalism.
B) deviant behavior.
C) dysfunctional behavior.
D) the sick role.
E) legitimate deviance.

Question 9

According to sociologists, doctors are

A) social institutions.
B) social deviants.
C) social control agents.
D) cultural commodities.
E) demedicalizing.

Question 10

Widespread genetic testing may lead to

A) better counseling for those with genetic defects.
B) increased economic protection for those who carry a genetic defect.
C) psychological damage among those who learn that they carry the gene for a devastating illness.
D) a greater understanding of why the severity of Down Syndrome varies so widely.
E) the demedicalization of fatness.

Question 11

Which of the following is an underlying assumption of functionalism?

A) Society is a smoothly-working, integrated whole.
B) Society is held together by coercion and constraint.
C) Deviance is necessary for society to evolve.
D) Society's needs often conflict with individuals' needs.
E) Illness is functional.

Question 12

Which of the following policies would legislators who believe heart disease is primarily caused by individual lifestyle choices be most likely to support?

A) increased funding for reducing air pollution
B) proposals to increase the number of epidemiologists
C) heavy taxes on tobacco manufacturers
D) tax deductions for persons at risk of heart disease who join gyms
E) increased funding for research on heart disease

Question 13

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

Question 14

According to the sociological model of illness, illness is a

A) form of deviance.
B) subjectively defined condition.
C) social construction.
D) moral status.
E) all of the above

Question 15

Explanations for illness that emphasize individual blame have

A) encouraged policy-makers to focus on the impact of poverty.
B) disappeared from American culture.
C) encouraged policy makers to ignore social and environmental causes of illness.
D) increased individuals' risk of arthritis.
E) resulted in greater sympathy for those with polio.

Question 16

Treating behavior problems among children as an illness is an example of

A) medicalization.
B) demedicalization.
C) depoliticization.
D) medical collaboration.
E) reductionistic treatment.

Question 17

Across history, people have most commonly believed that illness was

A) a deserved punishment for bad behavior.
B) caused by witchdoctors.
C) caused by bad genes.
D) caused by bad water.
E) caused by cholera.

Question 18

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.

Question 19

Which of the following is a negative social sanction?

A) bribes
B) execution
C) illness
D) disease
E) socialization

Question 20

In the nineteenth century, medical textbooks generally described masturbation as a sign of illness. Modern textbooks, however, do not. This is an example of

A) medicalization.
B) demedicalization.
C) depoliticization.
D) medical collaboration.
E) reductionistic treatment.

Question 21

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.

Question 22

What contribution does Parsons' concept of a sick role make to our understanding of sickness in society? What are the weaknesses of that concept?

Question 23

The concept of an epigenetic effect suggests that genes

A) outweigh the potential impact of socialization.
B) interact with the environment to cause or avoid causing an illness.
C) mutate at different rates in different populations.
D) Mutate in different ways in different populations.
E) Can be modified in laboratories to prevent disease.

Question 24

Some psychiatrists believe that battered wives who do not leave their husbands suffer from an illness referred to as "masochistic abuse personality." If this idea became widely adopted by psychiatrists, what might be some of the positive and negative consequences?

Question 25

Most individuals assume that illness is an objective, biological category. Your textbook, on the other hand, argues that illness is a moral category and a social construction. Argue for or against this position. Be sure to address the issues likely to be raised by those holding the opposite view.

Question 26

Individuals who live with a troublesome condition sometimes push for the condition to be medicalized in order to

A) encourage research into the condition.
B) discourage others from blaming them for their condition.
C) convince doctors to take them seriously.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 27

Which of the following is least well explained by the sick role model?

A) the illegal drug user whose family rejects him after he gets AIDS
B) the illegal drug user whose family supports him after he gets AIDS
C) the person who seeks medical care for syphilis
D) the person who seeks medical care for a mild cold
E) the person who believes doctors always know best