The Functionalist Approach

The Functionalist View of the Medical Profession

Functionalists view the medical profession as protecting patients and benefitting society. They support the biomedical model of health, suggesting that it has brought power and prestige to the medical profession.

The biomedical model

The biomedical model has given doctors and other medical professionals power and control and the ability to effectively treat patients, through the following:

The medical profession

Expert knowledge gained through many years of training.
Altruism, or the ability to act only in the interests of the patient.
Universalistic values, that is, they act with values that apply equally to everyone.

The medical profession cont.

A legal monopoly; only those who are qualified can legally practice medicine.
A code of ethics which controls and regulates medical professionals by, for example, ensuring that the needs of the patients are always put first and that confidentiality is protected.

Criticisms of the Functionalist View

Functionalists view the medical profession as protecting patients and benefitting society. However marxists, feminists and other arguments challenge this assertion.

Ideology

Weberian and neo-Marxists argue that professionalism isn’t good for society and is part of an ideology used by the medical profession to advance and defend its own status, power and financial rewards.

Marxist views

Marxists argue that, because most health professionals work in the NHS, they are likely to place cost ahead of appropriate treatment.
Navarro insists that the health professionals are more concerned with social control of the sick by getting them back to work as quickly as possible in service of a capitalist economy.

Feminist view

Feminists argue that doctors reinforce patriarchy, for example, through the policing of motherhood and their control over women through the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth.

Values

Doctors do no always operate with universalistic values, such as treating all patients equally, for example, by giving private patients preferential treatment.

Lack of control of quality

There is little control over the quality and competence of diagnosis and treatment; training and specialist knowledge mean that doctors are given a great deal of independence, so incompetent doctors are rarely discovered or their decisions challenged.

Iatrogenesis

There is a problem with iatrogenesis, that is, some medical treatments do more harm than good.

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

2.1Role & Function of the Education System

2.1.1Introduction

2.1.2Functionalist Theories

2.1.3Marxist & Feminist Theories

2.1.4The New Right

2.2Educational Achievement

2.2.1Social Class: Internal Factors

2.2.2Social Class: External Factors

2.2.3Social Class: Attitudes to Education

2.2.4Social Class: Difference in Achievement

2.2.5Gender

2.2.6Ethnicity

2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools

2.3.1Processes

2.3.2Labelling

2.3.3Categorisations

2.3.4Student Experience

2.3.5End of Topic Test -Education with Methods

2.4Educational Policies

2.4.1Equality

2.4.2Privatisation

2.4.3Marketisation

2.4.4Government Policies by Party

2.4.5Globalisation

2.4.6End of Topic Test- Educational Policies

2.4.7Practice Exam Question - Social Policies

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

4.1Families & Households

4.1.1Definitions

4.1.2Functionalist & New Right Perspectives

4.1.3Marxist & Feminist Perspectives

4.1.4Postmodernist Perspective

4.1.5End of Topic Test - Families & Households

4.1.6Practice Exam Question - Function of Family

4.2Changing Patterns

4.2.1Marriage

4.2.2Divorce

4.2.3LAT Relationships

4.2.4Child-Bearing

4.2.5Lone Parenthood

4.2.6Diversity

4.2.7The Sociology of Personal Life

4.2.8Government Policies Post-WW2

4.2.9End of Topic Test - Changing Patterns

4.3The Symmetrical Family

4.3.1The Symmetrical Family

4.3.2Evaluation

4.4Children & Childhood

4.4.1Childhood

4.4.2Childhood in the UK

4.4.3Childhood as a Social Construct

4.4.4The Disappearance of Childhood

4.4.5Child Abuse

4.4.6Domestic Violence

4.4.7End of Topic Test - Family & Childhood

4.5Demographic Trends UK

4.5.1Introduction

4.5.2Birth Rates

4.5.3Death Rates

4.5.4The Ageing Population

4.5.5Studies on the Ageing Population

4.5.6Migration

4.5.7Globalisation

4.5.8End of Topic Test - Demographics UK

5Option 1: Health

5.1Social Constructions

5.1.1The Body

5.1.2Health, Illness & Disease

5.1.3Disability

5.1.4Models of Health & Illness

5.1.5End of Topic Test - Social Constructions

5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare

5.2.1Social Class

5.2.2Gender

5.2.3Ethnicity

5.2.4Regional

5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare

5.3.1The NHS

5.3.2Inequalities in Provision

5.3.3Sociological Explanations

5.3.4Inequalities in Access

5.3.5Inequalities in Access 2

5.3.6End of Topic Test - Distribution Health

5.4Mental Health

5.4.1The Biomedical Approach

5.4.2Social Patterns

5.4.3Social Constructionist Approach

5.5The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.1The Functionalist Approach

5.5.2The Postmodernist Approach

5.5.3The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.4End of Topic Test - Mental Health & Globalisation

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

6.1Poverty & Wealth

6.1.1Types of Poverty

6.1.2Types of Poverty 2

6.1.3Distribution of Wealth UK

6.1.4Sociological Theories

6.1.5Sociological Theories 2

6.1.6Distribution of Poverty UK

6.1.7End of Topic Test - Poverty & Wealth

6.2Welfare

6.2.1The Welfare State

6.2.2Theoretical Approaches to Welfare

6.3Labour Process

6.3.1Nature of Work

6.3.2Technology & Control

6.3.3Work & Life

6.3.4The Effects of Globalisation

6.3.5Globalisation & Worklessness

6.3.6End of Topic Test - Welfare & Labour

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

7.1Ideology, Science & Religion

7.1.1Types of Religion

7.1.2Ideology & Belief Systems

7.1.3Social Stability & Religion

7.1.4Social Change & Religion

7.1.5End of Topic Test - Ideology, Science & Religion

7.2Religious Movements

7.2.1Religious Organisations

7.2.2New Religious Movements

7.2.3New Age Movements

7.2.4Practice Exam Question - Growth of NRMs

7.3Society & Religion

7.3.1Social Groups & Religion

7.3.2Gender & Religion

7.3.3End of Topic Test- Religious Movements & Society

7.4Contemporary Religion

7.4.1Secularisation UK

7.4.2Against Secularisation

7.4.3Secularisation US

7.4.4Fundamentalism

7.4.5Economic Development & Religion

7.4.6End of Topic - Contemporary Religion

8Option 2: Global Development

8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.1.1Development

8.1.2Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations

8.2.1Globalisation

8.2.2Transnational Corporations & International Agency

8.2.3Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation

8.3.1Development: Aid & Trade

8.3.2Development: Industrialisation & Urbanisation

8.3.3Development: Environment & War

9Option 2: The Media

9.1Contemporary Media

9.1.1New Media

9.1.2Control of the Media

9.1.3Sociological Approaches: New Media

9.1.4Globalisation

9.1.5News Selection

9.1.6Moral Panics

9.1.7End of Topic Test - Contemporary Media

9.2Media Representations

9.2.1Age

9.2.2Social Class & Ethnicity

9.2.3Gender

9.2.4Sexuality & Disability

9.2.5Practice Exam Questions - Presentation of Women

9.3Audiences

9.3.1Media Theories

9.3.2Media Theories 2

9.3.3Media Representations & Audiences

10Crime & Deviance

10.1Crime & Society

10.1.1Functionalism

10.1.2Subcultural Theory

10.1.3Marxism

10.1.4Realism

10.1.5Other Approaches

10.1.6End of Topic Test - Crime & Society

10.1.7Practice Exam Questions - Social Construction

10.2Social Distribution of Crime

10.2.1Ethnicity

10.2.2Gender

10.2.3Globalisation & Crime

10.2.4Media & Crime

10.2.5Types of Crimes

10.2.6End of Topic Test - Social Distribution of Crime

10.3Prevention & Punishment

10.3.1Surveillance

10.3.2Prevention

10.3.3Punishment

10.3.4Victimology

10.3.5End of Topic Test - Prevention & Punishment

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