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Social Theories Overview. Functionalism – how society can exist over time. Society is always trying to come to an equilibrium. Institutions remain constant and only make minor change when stability is lost. Ex. Business institution had to adapt to online shopping boom. Conflict Theory – how societies changes and adapt over time through conflict. Two opposing positions would merge to create a new society where both are content. Social Constructionism – what society is rather than how it exists/changes. Everything is created from the mind of society. Agreement that something has meaning and value that it doesn’t have intrinsically, ex. Money. Everything only has value because everyone agrees it has value; we construct the world around us. Symbolic Interactionism – Puts a lot of focus on individual and how they behave – based on meanings we give to things, ex. Tree = shade. People are created by their society, and act based on past experiences, and meanings they’ve given things. Not everyone gives same meaning to same things. We interact with the world to give it meaning. • Functionalism = looking at stability of society, conflict theory = how society changes, social constructionism = how things are given value, symbolic interactionism = how individuals act. Feminist Theory - macro level perspective on society, focussing on gender inequalities inherent to patriarchal capitalist societies, where men occupy governing positions in family and community. Both men and women often forced into gender-based roles. Focuses on gender differences, gender inequalities, gender oppression, and structural oppression. Rational Choice Theory – people always take rational actions, weighing costs and benefits of each action to gain most benefit. 3 assumptions: completeness, transitivity, and independence of irrelevant alternatives. Exchange Theory – application of RCT to social interaction. Family, work, interpersonal relationships. People behave with goal of maximizing own rewards while minimizing punishments, and people can make rational choices in social norm, and self-interest and interdependence guide interactions, and from relationships from cost-benefit analysis. Relating Social Theories to Medicine. 1. Functionalism. – if we look at medicine from this point of view, when people become ill medicine ensures they return to functional state.  Being sick is detrimental to well-being of society as a whole. Assumption is you’re not supposed to participate in society when sick, affecting society on small scale.  Medicine stabilizes social system in emergency situations like earthquakes, etc. to provide medical assistance needed. • Day-to-day, it improves quality of life for aging population to allow them to contribute longer to society. 2. Conflict Theory. – Wealthier people can pay for best medical care, the poor can’t afford the deductibles/insurance so they skip hospitals, and are sick for longer.  Unequal access to valuable resources in society (education, housing, jobs) leads to heath disparities and limited access to medical care.  Power struggle between different interest groups can affect health of individual, ex. Factories vs. people living nearby. 3. Social Constructionism. – we attach different meanings to different behaviours, and have preconceptions of different people (stereotypes)  We have preconceptions about different races, genders, and subcultures. Assumptions dangerous to medical profession – affect how you treat patient and their diagnosis. • There are stereotyped assumptions on both sides – patient may feel some symptoms aren’t important enough to mention, or doctor makes false assumption based on how patient appears.  Can’t declare characteristic of person based on circumstance, ex. people who don’t work can still afford healthcare while those who work hard can’t afford it.  Medicalization – patients/doctors construct illness out of ordinary behavior. 4. Symbolic Interactionism.  Doctor-patient relationship, given meanings to lab coat/stethoscope can affect interaction. Important for realize the meaning the patient has given to tools of medicine, ex. Lab coat is sign of authority.  Changes in society – recently, medicalization of society, where everything has a medical fix. Standards of beauty have made many undergo unneeded plastic surgery, or have C-sections. Normal behaviours are being shown as illnesses. Ex. Depression. 5. Feminist Theory – medicine is still a male-dominated field, heads of doctors and hospitals usually men, and disparity in jobs/salary between the two. Translates into a disparity in power. 6. Rational Choice-Exchange Theories – what’s purpose of medical system as a whole? Or is it a capitalist competition to earn the most money?  People run every aspect of medical system and those people will make decisions that benefit themselves more than random sick stranger, may affect why people go to doctor or not. Some people avoid doctors if they don’t think it will benefit them.  Self-interested behavior of people in charge will trickle down and affect patients. Outside these theories – where you live can affect your health (food deserts), and nearly impossible to get nutrition a body needs from only these sources. Some neighbourhoods have no gyms/playgrounds.