COM201 — Introduction to Medical Sociology: Lecture Note

About this lecture note

This is the complete lecture note for COM201 Introduction to Medical Sociology. You can read it online below, open it in the full viewer, or download the PDF for offline study. It pairs with the course's video lectures, so you can read and watch together.

Preview: opening of the note

Course code: COM 201 Course title: Introduction to Medical Sociology Course credit load: 1 Unit Series 1: Human Make-up and Needs • Part 1.1: The Biological Make-up of the Human Being o Sub Part 1.1.1: The human body as a biopsychosocial entity o Sub Part 1.1.2: Organ systems and their social significance o Sub Part 1.1.3: Human growth, development, and the life cycle • Part 1.2: Physiological Needs of Human Beings o Sub Part 1.2.1: Maslow hierarchy of needs o Sub Part 1.2.2: Basic physiological and safety needs o Sub Part 1.2.3: Social, esteem, and self-actualisation needs • Part 1.3: Human Beings as Social and Cultural Organisms o Sub Part 1.3.1: Socialisation and the formation of identity o Sub Part 1.3.2: Roles, norms, and values in human society o Sub Part 1.3.3: Implications of human make-up for health and healthcare Introduction Medical sociology begins with the human being, not merely as a biological organism with organs, tissues, and physiological processes, but as a social creature whose health, illness, and response to healthcare are shaped equally by psychological experience, social relationships, cultural beliefs, and environmental conditions; the biopsychosocial model, first articulated by George Engel in 1977, challenged the purely biomedical model that dominated medicine through the twentieth century and established the principle that no understanding of health or disease is complete without attending to all three dimensions simultaneously. This Series introduces students of medical sociology to the human being as the subject of their discipline, examining the biological architecture of the human body, the hierarchy of physiological and social needs that motivate human behaviour, and the processes of socialisation and cultural formation through which each individual acquires identity, values, and patterns of behaviour that profoundly influence their relationship with health, illness, and medical care.

Understanding what human beings are made of and what they need is the essential starting point for understanding health behaviour, healthcare utilisation, and the social determinants of health that this course addresses throughout. Series Learning Outcomes Upon completing this Series, you should be able to: • SLO 1.1 describe the human being as a biopsychosocial entity and explain the significance of major organ systems in a social context, • SLO 1.2 describe Maslow hierarchy of needs and explain how physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualisation needs relate to health behaviour, and • SLO 1.3 explain how socialisation, roles, norms, and values shape human identity and behaviour, and discuss their implications for health and healthcare. 1.1 The Biological Make-up of the Human Being 1.1.1 The human body as a biopsychosocial entity The biomedical model, which dominated Western medicine from the nineteenth century onward, defined health as the absence of disease and disease as a deviation from measurable biological norms caused by specific biological agents; this model achieved remarkable success in conquering infectious diseases, understanding physiology, and developing effective surgical and pharmacological treatments, but it proved inadequate for understanding why people become ill in the first place, why the same biological pathology produces different illness experiences in different people, and why social conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and social isolation are among the most powerful determinants of health outcomes; George Engel proposed the biopsychosocial model in 1977 as a more complete framework, arguing that biological, psychological, and social factors all simultaneously contribute to health and illness, and that clinical care must address all three dimensions. In practice, the biopsychosocial model means that a patient presenting with hypertension cannot be fully understood only in terms of their blood pressure readings and cardiovascular physiology; the psychological dimension includes their experience of stress, their health beliefs, their coping mechanisms, and their adherence to treatment; the social dimension includes their socioeconomic status, their occupation, their housing conditions, the quality of their social relationships, and the cultural norms of their community regarding illness and healthcare; understanding and addressing all three dimensions is what distinguishes socially competent clinical care from purely technical intervention.

Fill in the blank: The ________ model, proposed by George Engel in 1977, argues that biological, psychological, and social factors all contribute simultaneously to health and illness, challenging the purely biomedical view of disease. 1.1.2 Organ systems and their social significance The human body is organised into eleven major organ systems, each with defined anatomical structures and physiological functions, but each also carrying social significance in the context of health, illness, and healthcare; the cardiovascular system (heart, blood vessels, and blood) is not only a biological pump but the site of the most common cause of death globally, a disease burden driven substantially by social factors including diet, physical activity, stress, tobacco use, and access to preventive care; the respiratory system (lungs, airways, and associated structures) is similarly shaped by social factors, since air quality, occupational exposures, tobacco use, and indoor cooking fuel use are among the most powerful determinants of respiratory disease burden in Nigeria. The reproductive system carries particular social significance in societies such as Nigeria where fertility, marriage, and family formation are deeply embedded in cultural identity and social status; reproductive health outcomes including maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and sexually transmitted infections are powerfully shaped by social norms around gender, sexual behaviour, marriage age, access to family planning, and the utilisation of skilled birth attendance; the nervous system, as the organ of mind and behaviour, is the biological substrate of the psychological dimension of the biopsychosocial model, connecting biological functioning to thought, emotion, perception, and social behaviour; understanding how social experiences of stress, trauma, and deprivation affect nervous system function is fundamental to understanding the social production of mental illness and psychosomatic disease. Fill in the blank: The ________ system carries particular social significance in Nigeria because fertility, marriage, and family formation are deeply embedded in cultural identity and social status, linking reproductive health to social norms around gender and marriage. 1.1.3 Human growth, development, and the life cycle Human growth and development follow a biologically determined sequence of stages from conception through infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, but the experience and outcome of each stage are profoundly shaped by social conditions; Erik Erikson described eight psychosocial stages of development, each presenting a specific developmental challenge that must be resolved for healthy psychological growth: infancy (trust versus mistrust, resolved through consistent and nurturing caregiving), early childhood (autonomy versus shame and doubt), play age (initiative versus guilt), school age (industry versus inferiority), adolescence (identity versus role confusion), young adulthood (intimacy versus isolation), middle adulthood (generativity versus stagnation), and old age (integrity versus despair). From a medical sociology perspective, the life cycle is a framework for understanding how health needs, health risks, and healthcare utilisation patterns change across the lifespan, and how social factors at each stage shape health trajectories that persist across subsequent stages;

childhood malnutrition in Nigeria, for example, has biological consequences (stunting, impaired cognitive development) that produce lifelong disadvantages in educational achievement, occupational status, and adult health, illustrating how a social determinant acting at one life stage creates compounding effects across the entire life course; the life course perspective in medical sociology attends to these cumulative processes and the critical periods of development when social interventions have the greatest impact on long-term health. Fill in the blank: Erik ________ described eight psychosocial stages of development, each presenting a specific challenge from trust versus mistrust in infancy through to integrity versus despair in old age. Figure 1.1: The biopsychosocial model and the human life cycle Pilot questions 1.1 1. Explain the difference between the biomedical model and the biopsychosocial model of health and illness. 2. Name three organ systems and explain the social factors that most powerfully shape the disease burden in each. 3. Name four of Erikson psychosocial stages and state the developmental challenge at each. 4. Explain what the life course perspective in medical sociology means.

1.2 Physiological Needs of Human Beings 1.2.1 Maslow hierarchy of needs Abraham Maslow proposed his hierarchy of human needs in 1943 in a paper titled "A Theory of Human Motivation", arguing that human needs can be arranged in a pyramid of five levels, with more basic needs at the base requiring satisfaction before higher-level needs become motivating; the five levels from base to apex are: physiological needs (the most fundamental biological requirements for survival), safety needs (security, stability, and freedom from fear), love and belonging needs (social connection, friendship, and family), esteem needs (self-respect, achievement, recognition, and status), and self-actualisation needs (the realisation of one full potential and the pursuit of meaning and purpose); Maslow model has been widely applied in health promotion, patient motivation, and healthcare design because it provides a framework for understanding why people prioritise different needs at different times. Medical sociologists apply Maslow hierarchy to understand health behaviour and healthcare utilisation: a person whose physiological needs (food, water, shelter) are not met cannot be expected to prioritise preventive health behaviours; a person living in conditions of insecurity and fear cannot engage effectively with mental health treatment; poverty, therefore, is not simply a background variable in health research but a direct barrier to health behaviour at

This is the opening of the note. Read the full note or download the PDF to continue.