Health and Medicine

Medicalization

The process by which a condition or behavior becomes defined as a medical problem or a disease

Pawluch - "Medicalizing Childhood"

Argues that as children and adolescents become much healthier after the 1950s, this led to professional insecurity among pediatricians. They then began to "medicalize" a host of conditions and behaviors associated with childhood, including bedwetting, temper tantrums, thumb-sucking, and hyperactivity.

Smith - "What does Calling Something a Disorder do?"

Discusses the pros and cons of medicalization, focusing on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Baynton - "Disability and Inequality in American History"

The article examines how the idea of health and disability has changed throughout time to justify social conditions. For instance, it has been used to justify slavery and the suppression of women's rights

Berkman - "The Health Divide"

The article exposes the health inequalities and disparities in the US. Looks at the unequal life expectancy and infant mortality rate in the US in relation to income, gender, and race.

Social Inequality

Women live longer social class: relates directly to rates of disease, death, and life expectancy

Good health is: a. historically and socially contingent b. biologically determined c. consistent around the world d. unrelated to culture e. explained only by biomedical models

a

According to Pawluch's "Medicalizing Children", the field of pediatrics has changed in what way? a. it has transformed to serve the interest of elite youth, thus upholding the class divide b. It now focuses on the mental and emotional aspects of childhood rather than merely the physical c. It involves much more symbolic interaction between doctors and patients d. It is partially responsible for the undermining of parental authority characteristic the contemporary American family

b

A popular television program called The Swan aimed to turn less visually appealing people into more socially acceptable ones by radically changing their appearance through plastic surgery, as well as through clothing, style, and makeup artistry. This is an example of: a. the rise of the new naturalists b. acute care transformations c. medicalization and the social construction of health and illness d. a way to finally address the failure of willpower e. genetic improvement

c

Liu, King, and Bearman(2010) find that independent of other factors, children living near other children diagnosed with autism are more likely to also be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This demonstrates that ASD is at least in part.... a. contagious b. more common in certain geographic locations c. a social phenomenon d. something that can be learned and "performed" e. not a real disorder

c

A neighborhood where there is no grocery store but there are more liquor stores, convenience, and drug stores, and fast food outlets than most other locations is referred to as a: total institution b. locavore problem c. chain food center d. food desert e. fast food-dominated area

d