Читать книгу The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology - Группа авторов - Страница 15

Building on previous conceptualizations, Figure 1.1 identifies and describes four major subfields of medical sociology: (1) Social Epidemiology, (2) Social Psychology of Health and Illness, (3) Sociology of Medicine, and (4) Sociology in Medicine. These subfields are intended to represent the field according to substance, theory, and contributions to knowledge.

Figure 1.1 Major Subfields of Medical Sociology.

According to the ASA Committee on Certification in Medical Sociology (1986), our subject matter includes “descriptions and explanations or theories relating to the distribution of diseases among various population groups; the behaviors or actions taken by individuals to maintain, enhance, or restore health or cope with illness, disease, or disability; people’s attitudes, and beliefs about health, disease, disability and medical care providers and organizations; medical occupations or professions and the organization, financing, and delivery of medical care services; medicine as a social institution and its relationship to other social institutions; cultural values and societal responses with respect to health, illness, and disability; and the role of social factors in the etiology of disease, especially functional and emotion-related.”

Our proposed subfields are intended to capture this broad range of topics, but not to be mutually exclusive or exhaustive. We fully acknowledge that some researchers may identify with more than one subfield. We believe that the diversity of research conducted in our field has and will continue to challenge the representativeness of our proposed disciplinary structure. With this in mind, our aim is not to find a perfect representation of the field or to dismiss other organizational schemes. Instead, our aim is to create a representative structure so that we can see the scope of our field more clearly. What does sociology contribute to the study of health and medicine? We argue that our subfield model answers this question in a clear way that better reflects where we are today.