Deck 1: Medical Sociology

Question 1

The scholar who first provided a major theoretical approach for medical sociology was:

A) Durkheim.
B) Parsons.
C) Weber.
D) Mead.
E) Goffman.

Answer 1

Parsons.

Question 2

One of the earliest attempts in the Western world to formulate principles of health care, based upon rational thought and the rejection of supernatural phenomena, is found in the work of the Greek physician:

A) Hippocrates.
B) Socrates.
C) House.
D) Aristotle.
E) Dioceses.

Answer 2

Hippocrates.

Question 3

In developing his concept of the sick role, Parsons linked his ideas to which two classical theorists?

A) Marx and Goffman.
B) Weber and Marx.
C) Marx and Engels.
D) Durkheim and Weber.
E) Durkheim and Goffman.

Answer 3

Durkheim and Weber.

Question 4

What important event occurred in 1951 that began to reorient American medical sociology toward the use of theory?

A) The Vietnam War.
B) The publication of Parsons's The Social System.
C) The increase in chronic diseases.
D) The growth of universities.
E) The political swing towards a more conservative era.

Question 5

Talcott Parsons's book The Social System

A) Micro theory.
B) Medicalization.
C) Patient power.
D) Culture.
E) Sick role.

Question 6

In the case of the sick role, illness is seen as __________, and its undesirable nature reinforces the motivation to be healthy.

A) Deviance.
B) Normal.
C) Biological.
D) Social.
E) A stimulus.

Question 7

Unlike infectious diseases, chronic diseases typically are _____________ and ______________.

A) Short term; incurable.
B) Short term; curable.
C) Long term; incurable.
D) Long term; curable.
E) There is no difference.

Question 8

Decline in deaths from infectious diseases in the second half of the nineteenth century was mainly due to:

A) Improvements in diet, housing, and public sanitation.
B) Better training of physicians.
C) The discovery of penicillin.
D) Epidemiological transitions.
E) All of the above.

Question 9

Medical sociology is an important area of study because:

A) It promotes the role biology plays in social life.
B) It represents a departure from the theory-heavy discipline of general sociology.
C) It recognizes the role that social factors play in determining or influencing health.
D) It is the result of a merger between medicine and sociology.
E) None of the above.

Question 10

Which circumstance(s) particularly affected the development of medical sociology in its early stages?

A) Pressure to produce work that could be applied to medical practice and health policy.
B) Rich development of theories unique to medical sociology by academic sociologists.
C) Lack of attention on the role of medicine and health from classical theorists.
D) A and B
E) A and C

Question 11

Most sociologists of medicine are employed as:

A) Biostatisticians.
B) Hospital workers.
C) Professors at universities.
D) Researchers in governmental agencies.
E) Independent contractors.

Question 12

The Hippocratic Oath requires the physician to swear that he or she will:

A) Help the sick.
B) Refrain from intentional wrongdoing or harm.
C) Keep confidential all matters pertaining to the doctor-patient relationship.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.

Question 13

Medical sociology, as a subdiscipline, began gaining strength:

A) It was always part of sociology as a major focus of classical sociologists.
B) After World War II with the infusion of large amounts of federal funding for research.
C) Only in the last two decades when major worldwide health crises highlighted the need for it.
D) It never has been a major part of sociology and exists only as a small part of the medical field.

Question 14

The germ theory of disease is a perspective which asserts:

A) Diseases are caused by a biological agent.
B) Medicine is the only true way to treat disease.
C) Illness can be caused by lifestyle choices.
D) Germs are conscious agents that intentionally harm their hosts.
E) None of the above.

Question 15

The so-called "clinical gaze" is best associated with which of the following perspectives?

A) Medicine of social spaces.
B) Medicine of the species.
C) Public health paradigm.
D) "Whole person" medical care.
E) None of the above.

Question 16

The World Health Organization defines health as:

A) Normality.
B) The absence of disease.
C) Ability to function.
D) A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being
E) All of the above.

Question 17

Which is NOT a major area of investigation in medical sociology?

A) Social facets of health and disease.
B) Social behavior of health care personnel and their patients.
C) Social functions of health organizations and institutions.
D) The relationship of health care delivery systems to other systems.
E) All of the above answers are major areas of investigation in medical sociology.

Question 18

The medicine of social spaces is concerned with:

A) Curing disease.
B) Preventing disease.
C) Understanding disease.
D) Cataloging disease.
E) All of the above.

Question 19

What trend(s) reduced tensions between sociologists in medicine and sociologists of medicine?

A) Most government funding is awarded to research with practical application.
B) Medical sociology itself is converging with general sociology.
C) Sociology of medicine became the more dominant side of medical sociology.
D) A and B
E) B and C

Question 20

What is NOT a task of a sociologist in medicine?

A) Analyze the social etiology or causes of health disorders
B) Study the differences in social attitudes as they relate to health
C) Understand the way in which the incidence and prevalence of a specific health disorder is related to social variables.
D) Develop theory that assists in understanding social issues related to health.
E) All of these are tasks of a sociologist in medicine.

Question 21

Medical sociology is a relatively new field in sociology.

Question 22

Which is not a major bioethical issue?

A) Embryonic stem cell use.
B) Abortion.
C) Euthanasia.
D) Use of adult stem cells.
E) Cloning.

Question 23

Unlike law, religion, politics, economics, and other social institutions, medicine was ignored by sociology's founders in the late nineteenth century because it did not appear to shape the structure and nature of society.

Question 24

Which of the following have been significant factors in the most recent epidemiologic transition, which has seen a reemergence of infectious diseases?

A) Decreased attention to public sanitation.
B) Globalization of trade and travel.
C) Global warming and climate change.
D) A and B.
E) B and C.

Question 25

The appearance of the West Nile virus in New York city reflects:

A) An example of bioterrorism.
B) The role of globalization in the spread of infectious diseases.
C) Evidence of the declining prevalence of infectious diseases.
D) The transition of infectious diseases into chronic ones.
E) None of the above.

Question 26

Working within an atheoretical, applied approach, Parsons was the first to demonstrate how medicine functions to exert social control within the larger social system.

Question 27

One of the greatest threats from infectious diseases worldwide comes from:

A) Ebola and the avian bird flu.
B) Sexually transmitted diseases.
C) Food contaminated with E. coli.
D) Cancer and heart disease.
E) All of the above.

Question 28

Which of the following are TRUE about health lifestyles?

A) They include behaviors like smoking, drinking, and alcohol consumption.
B) They influence whether and how severely one becomes ill.
C) They can be positive or negative.
D) They are influenced by one's social environment.
E) All of the above.

Question 29

Health includes a number of components which are not just biological, but also social, cultural, political, and economic.

Question 30

In which study were syphilis patients intentionally not treated and allowed to die?

A) Nazi experiments.
B) Tuskegee.
C) STD1976.
D) Belmont.
E) Zimbardo prison.

Question 31

What caused the prevalence of STDs to soar around the globe?

A) The birth control pill.
B) A worldwide ideology of sexual liberation and permissiveness.
C) A new pattern of employment in developing nations.
D) Greater availability of multiple sexual partners.
E) All of the above.

Question 32

The tremendous growth of medical sociology would have been possible even without financial support for applied studies provided by the government.

Question 33

The sick role presents an ideal representation of how people act when sick.

Question 34

Medical sociology is important because it focuses on the critical role social factors play in determining or influencing the health of individuals, groups, and the larger society.

Question 35

Talcott Parsons provided a theoretical approach for medical sociology in the 1950s that was important in the subdiscipline's early development.

Question 36

A disgruntled coworker infects a box of pastries with dysentery, causing several staff to become ill. This is an example of:

A) Bioterrorism.
B) Bioethics.
C) Epidemiological transitions.
D) Social causes of disease.
E) None of the above.

Question 37

The sociologist in medicine is one who collaborates directly with the physician and other health personnel in studying the social factors that are relevant to a particular health problem.

Question 38

Medical sociology focuses on the social causes and consequences of health and illness.

Question 39

With the transition to a greater prevalence of chronic diseases, physicians have increasingly had to take which approach to medical care?

A) The clinical gaze.
B) Use of "magic bullets."
C) "Whole person" care.
D) The re-mystification of disease.
E) Assembly-line care.

Question 40

There are two categories of bioterrorism:

A) Overt and covert.
B) Latent and manifest.
C) Balanced and skewed.
D) International and domestic.
E) Medical and behavioral.

Question 41

Bioterrorism represents a relatively old threat of infectious diseases.

Question 42

Has there been a re-emergence of infectious disease? Explain your answer?

Question 43

The practice of medicine in the twentieth century was based on the premise that every disease had a specific pathogenic cause and was best addressed within a biomedical framework.

Question 44

The poor have the highest rates of disease and disability of an socioeconomic group, demonstrating their greater biological disposition toward illness.

Question 45

The sociology of medicine deals with such factors as the organization, role relationships, norms, values, and beliefs of medical practice as a form of human behavior.

Question 46

The number of sex partners an individual has is the most important risk factor in exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.

Question 47

Although there is no standard definition of health, there are many concepts. Provide your own definition of health. How does it relate to the World Health Organization's definition of health?

Question 48

Explain the differences between sociology in medicine and the sociology of medicine.

Question 49

Drug companies are typically non-profit agencies and do not benefit when academics publish articles about the effectiveness of their drugs.

Question 50

The development of institutional review boards and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act have eliminated ethical concerns about issues such as clinical care, informed consent, and drug testing.

Question 51

According to Michel Foucault, the development of modern medicine transformed perceptions of disease from something beyond the boundaries of knowledge to something to be scientifically studied and controlled.

Question 52

What was the Tuskegee Study and why is it an important reminder of the need for ethical oversight in research?

Question 53

What factors have been important in the development of medical sociology?

Question 54

There is a growing divergence between medical sociology and the general discipline of sociology.

Question 55

At present, medical sociologists constitute the largest and one of the most active groups of people doing sociological work in the United States and Europe.