Social Institution of Health Care

Beverly J. Roach

Introduction to Sociology 101

Emily Frydrych

Febuary 19, 2012

Social Institution of Health Care

Introduction

Health care is a social institution whose function is to help people in dealing with diseases, sickness and injury and guide them to improve their health, on both individual level as well as community level. Normally, in the United States of America, the officials of public health are more apprehensive about the issues related to prevention of diseases and injuries of people. While on the other hand, the medical practitioners are more worried about the treatment and cure of the diseases in public, along with offering advice on how to live a healthy life.

The health care industry in the United States of America is a huge social Institution. The health care system over there has been formed and designed according to the communities that are served there. It is a formal organization that is planned for efficiency and a certain purpose. (Nettleton, 1995)

The three major sociological theories are the Functionalist, Conflict and Interactionist. Each of these theories have an impact on the social institution of health care and each of these theories have their own strengths and weaknesses, ranging from high function to discrimination according to the social status, to stability and problems of accessibility.

Discussion

Three Major Theories in Sociology and Their Impact on Health Care

Sociologists have this tendency to social phenomena at various levels and from a number of different perspectives. From real and existing interpretations to comprehensive generalization of the society around them and its social behavior, they go on to study everything from specific events that take place (the micro level of analysis) to studying the big picture (macro level of analysis)

Sociologists today, use three basic theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective and the conflict perspective. These perspectives suggest to the sociologists the theoretical models to help them explain how society influences people and in turn, how people influence the society. Each of these perspectives conceptualizes society, the social forces and human behavior in a different manner.

Sociological Perspective

Level of Analysis

Focus

1. Interactionism

Micro

Use of symbols; Face-to-face interactions

2. Functionalism

Macro

Relationship between the parts of society; How aspects of society are functional (adaptive)

3. Conflict Theory

Macro

Competition for scarce resources; How the elite control the poor and weak

The Interactionist Perspective

The interactionist perspective which is also known as symbolic interactionism, guides the sociologists to take into account the symbols and details of daily life. The meaning of these symbols and how people react and cooperate with one another should be studied. According to this perspective, people give meanings to symbols and interpret them and then they act according to what they have interpreted about the symbols. In verbal conversations, the words that are spoken are the main symbols. These words have a specific meaning for the sender and through effective conversation; it has the same meaning for the receiver as well. Therefore words are not just fixed things, rather, they require purpose and understanding. Conversation is kind of a communication of symbols between people who are always understanding ...