Chapter 14 Education and Medicine

Education Social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts and job skills as well as cultural norms and values –Schooling – formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers

Structural-Functional Socialization Cultural innovation through research Social integration Social placement Latent functions

Conflict Social control Testing and social inequality Tracking – assigning students to different types of educational programs

Problems Functional Illiteracy – reading and writing skills insufficient for everyday life –Approx. 20% of U.S. adults read and write at an 8 th grade level or below Violence Dropouts

School Choice Magnet – schools that attract students Charters – schools that have authorization from the state but operate independently from the district For Profit (private) – schools that make money

Medicine Social institution that focuses on combating disease and improving health. –Health – a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.

How society impacts health Cultural patterns define health Cultural standards of health change over time Technology affects people’s health Social inequality affects people’s health

Social epidemiology The study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society’s population

Holistic medicine An approach to health care that emphasizes prevention of illness and takes into account a person’s entire physical and social environment. –Patients are people –Responsibility, not dependency –Personal treatment

Who Pays? Socialized medicine – a medical care system in which the government owns and operates most medical facilities and employs most physicians Direct-fee system – a medical system in which patients pay directly for the services of physicians and hospitals Paid –Private insurance programs –Public insurance programs –Health maintenance programs (HMO) – organizations that provide comprehensive medical care to subscribers for a fixed fee

Structural Functional Medicine as a strategy to keep people healthy Jobs

Conflict Access to care is a huge problem in the U.S. with approx. 40 million people without health insurance Capitalist medicine Impacts social issues

Interactionist Socially constructing illness Socially constructing treatment