Download A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT AND

A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF
HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT
AND OURSELVES
Aim: To explain the nature of sociological
inquiry and to explain a sociological approach
to understand health across and within
societies in order to improve it.
What is Sociology?
• The study of societies, social groups and
social interactions
• A social environment is composed of
organizational structures, social processes
or activities and sets of social relationships
• Sociologists primarily seek causes in
social group membership and the ways
these groups relate to others in the
environment and to each other over time.
Socializing (teaching) agencies
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Family (especially in early years of life)
Friends
Schooling
Work
Entertainment and related
communications media
• Churches, government, public service,
other relevant institutions
Socialization
• Is often an unconscious process
• We usually adopt the norms of various
groups we are introduced to by those we
trust without question
• We play our allotted roles
• Failure to do so may be explained by
group rejection, sickness (stress?),
criminality or other rebellion
Durkheim (1858-1917)
• Traditional societies are based on
uniformity and personal ties of kinship and
neighbourliness
• Status is defined by family location
• Modern societies driven by market
relations which are increasingly seen as
contractual, undertaken for limited
purposes and for personal gain
• Increasing tolerance of diversity in beliefs
World Health Organization (WHO)
• Defines health holistically as ‘a state of
complete physical, mental and social
wellbeing, and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity’
• A focus on environment as producer of
health contrasts with a medical model of
health which focuses on the body
• WHO approach is a sociological approach
WHO VIEW OF HEALTH
(Ottawa Charter)
• The determinants of health include peace,
shelter, food, income, a stable economic system,
sustainable resources, social justice and equity.
• In 1990 1 death in every 3 was related to
communicable, maternal and perinatal
conditions and nutritional deficiencies. Need to
fix conditions of poverty which produce illness.
• In developed economies people live longer and
have fewer children. In all societies the poorest
groups tend to be the least healthy. Smoking,
poor diet and lack of exercise are key problems.
Elements of a sociological
approach to health consider
• Geography
• Economics
• Government and politics (power at all
social levels related to the health problem)
• History
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Cultural and language
MENTAL HEALTH
• We should distinguish between the brain, and
the mind as they are respectively produced by
genetics and interaction with the environment
• Freud discussed the family as a vital socializing
and civilizing force acting upon rapacious sexual
animals driven by their instincts
• He distinguished between id, ego and superego
development and saw the unconscious mind
and its defense mechanisms as very powerful
HEALTH RELATED USES OF
SOCIOLOGY
• Like history, sociology provides a method for
gaining an improved individual and collective
understanding of why we are the way we are, so
that we can act better to design and achieve our
future aims
• It seeks to understand people as products of
their broader geographic, economic, political and
historical environment, which is passed on
through socialization by families and other
agencies. We may learn unconsciously.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION
• C Wright Mills said a sociological
imagination enables us to grasp history
and biography and the relationship
between the two within society.
• Later feminists said, ‘The personal is the
political’.
SITUATE YOURSELF
SOCIOLOGICALLY
Consider how you have been shaped by:
1. Your gender
2. Your family and its economic background
3. Their ethnic and related cultural beliefs
4. The geographic area and historical
period into which you were born
5. Key events which may have shaped your
family or personal situation: e.g. war;
economic depression; migration
A sociological and WHO related
approach to health
• Describe the environment of a community
• Identify and prioritize the main health
problems in the environment through
evidence and related consultation
• Develop aims and consultatively put into
place environment related strategies to
deal with the current and related future
health problems