A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW OF HEALTH, THE ENVIRONMENT

AND OURSELVESAim: 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

• 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 gender2. Your family and its economic background3. Their ethnic and related cultural beliefs4. The geographic area and historical

period into which you were born5. 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