Medical Sociology and Its Changing Subfields

Hill, Terrence D.; Cockerham, William C.; Mcleod, and Jane D.; Hafferty, Frederic W.

doi:10.1002/9781119633808.ch1

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Methodological approach was coded using four dichotomous variables: quantitative, qualitative, mixed, and theoretical. Branch of the field was indicated using the categories outlined by Hill and colleagues (2021): social epidemiology, social psychology of health and illness, sociology in medicine, and sociology of medicine. Articles were coded as social epidemiology if they used quantitative methods, examined large data sets, and were primarily concerned with describing the prevalence or distribution of illness or illness-related factors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It does so by “studying such factors as the organizational structure, role relationships, value systems, rituals, and functions of medicine as a system of behavior” (Straus 1957:203). A recent typology of the field adds two others—social epidemiology and social psychology of health and illness (Hill et al 2021). Social epidemiology includes research on the social distribution of health outcomes, including the full range of physical and mental health conditions and health-related behaviors, whereas social psychology of health and illness focuses on processes underlying the links between social factors and health outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spotlight on Age: An Overlooked Construct in Medical Sociology

Barrett

Michael

2022

J Health Soc Behav

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Medical sociology gives limited attention to age—a surprising observation given the aging of the population and the fact that age is among the strongest determinants of health. We examine this issue through an analysis of articles published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior ( JHSB) and Sociology of Health & Illness ( SHI) between 2000 and 2019. One in 10 articles focused on age or aging, with attention increasing over the period. However, the journals differed. More JHSB than SHI articles addressed it, but fewer focused on the latest life stages when frailty often appears. We discuss three dimensions of age that would enrich medical sociology: as a dimension of inequality akin to race and gender with similar health effects, as an institution interacting with the medical one, and as an identity—again, akin to race and gender—through which people process their experiences in ways that affect health.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spotlight on Age: An Overlooked Construct in Medical Sociology

Barrett

Michael

2022

J Health Soc Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Similarly, to what was described in the earlier chapters introducing STS, medical sociology is also considered a late bloomer within the realm of social scientific research (Cockerham and Scambler, 2010), even though health and illness has been the topic of investigation for centuries (the intellectual lineage originates in the late 1800s (Armstrong, 1998;Hafferty and Castellani, 2019). The past few decades have brought tremendous changes to medicine, health perception and medical technology, all impacting its social imprint, and parallel changing the relationship between patients and medical professionals (Hellín, 2002;Hill et al, 2021). Since the widespread medicalization of health problems (Gore, 2013;Nichols, 2019) medical sociology and its theoretical perspectives have been influential (but not omnipotent) in guiding health related social scientific research.…”

Section: Changing Doctor-patient Relationship From the Perspective Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrated Experiences of Medically Assisted Reproduction in Hungary - Infertility from a Multimethod Perspective

Bauer¹

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The doctoral dissertation is focusing on the biographical disruptions and lived experiences of female patients using medically assisted reproductive technologies in Hungary. In general, the aim of the thesis research is to explore patients’ constructed narratives about infertility and reproduction technologies used in treatment. Further goal is to understand the role of patients’ accumulated knowledge in the form of ‘lay expertise’ has affected interactions with medical professionals and their perceptions of the doctor-patient relationship. Moreover, the inquiry aspired to uncover how the gendered reproductive responsibility of pronatalist Hungary influence participating women’s actualities and experiences. Four research questions were formulated for the investigation, the main findings detailed in the last section of the abstract. The thesis draws on the combination of four distinct theoretical fields. The four approaches the thesis gains inspiration from are the following: (1) science and technology studies (STS) to explore the connection between lay public and complex technologies; (2) medical sociology to trace what factors contribute to the new type of doctor-patient relationship apparent today; (3) gender role theory to engage the fact of gendered reproductive responsibility and genetic burden fuelled by the pronatalist rhetoric and social policy of Hungary; (4) the unique position and effect of online science communication on the aforementioned phenomena and mechanisms. To achieve its goals the exploratory thesis research utilizes a multimethod qualitative approach, relying on both active and passive research methodologies. The methodological design of the project connects online and offline data, its main prong being a netnography of online traces about infertility and medically assisted reproduction appearing in Hungarian public online discussion communities. The other, active strand of inquiry involved 18 qualitative patient, and 12 semi-structured expert interviews, which were used as complementary methodology. Rigorous qualitative thematic analysis guided by the six-step framework and guidelines presented by Braun and Clarke (2006) was applied to all data types. The main findings of the thesis research can be summarized as follows: • • Online conversation can be structured along the lines of four distinct patient pathways, or thirteen main identified themes about infertility and medically assisted reproduction. • • Participants of these online discussion communities are female, and group cohesion can be observed in both the topics and a special patient language used, which aims to soften textbook medical terminology. • Both in the online trace data and the qualitative interviews evidence was found that the patients were not only knowledgeable but have accumulated knowledge that fit the definition of lay expertise. • • The lay expert patients often utilized their knowledge to confront medical professionals, lay expert peers were asked to validate professional diagnoses and recommendations. • • The tensions observed in the doctor-patient relationship can partly be attributed to this accumulation of lay, contextual expertise, but also to the dysfunctions experienced in the public and private branches of the Hungarian health care system. • • Limited trust towards medical professionals was also observed. Patients attributed this declining trust both to the perceived lack of expertise of the professionals and from a behavioural focus, their perceived bad intentions. This observed decline in authority provides further evidence of the shift in the dyad’s interactional change, and orientation towards a form that can be grasped by modern doctor-patient relationship models and not the traditional Parsonian functionalist role-based modelling. • • Women assume most of the genetic responsibility during medically assisted reproduction. Underlying this is partially ideological, embedded in the pronatalist and traditionalist Hungarian society, and partially practical with women having more access to the information flow from professionals and the fertility institutions. • • Contradicting international research findings, while male partners proved to be supportive during the treatment process, they did not take on the role of information seekers but appeared to stay more passive.

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Medical Sociology and Its Changing Subfields

Cited by 2 publications

References 56 publications

Spotlight on Age: An Overlooked Construct in Medical Sociology

Spotlight on Age: An Overlooked Construct in Medical Sociology

Narrated Experiences of Medically Assisted Reproduction in Hungary - Infertility from a Multimethod Perspective

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