bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Homelessness, Medicalization of
Authors: Wasserman Jason Adam , Clair Jeffrey Michael 
Published: February 2014

AbstractHomelessness is a significant social phenomenon fundamentally conditioned by poverty and class inequality. However, while homelessness is best explained by social structural conditions, it continues to be understood as a phenomenon tied to the deviant behavior of individuals. Insofar as sociology serves a critical function in identifying how social phenomena are predicated by macrolevel contexts, it serves as an important counterweight to the overemphasis on individualistic explanations of these sorts of important social issues that is particularly common in the United States. Thus, where homelessness is understood as a function of deviance, mainly addiction and mental illness, there is a critical need for the sociological perspective. This entry explores the medicalization of homelessness, particularly where understandings of homelessness are conflated with disease concepts in a way that obscures social structural influences. We conclude by discussing how medicalized understandings of homelessness not only insufficiently explain it as a social problem, but impede efforts to remediate the fundamental inequalities at its foundations.
Emotions, Sociology of
Authors: Turner Jonathan H. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The prominent theoretically driven research traditions in the sociology of emotions are reviewed, and statements are made on some of the enduring conceptual issues in the field of inquiry. The study of emotions emerged rather late in sociology during the 1970s: this late arrival was the result of a relative lack of attention to conceptualizing emotions during sociology's first 110 years. However, once the sociology of emotions was recognized, work in this area continued to accelerate; and today, the study of emotions is leading edge in many fields of sociological inquiry. More specifically, symbolic interactionist, dramaturgical, interaction ritual, power and status, macrolevel stratification, exchange, and evolutionary approaches to conceptualizing emotional dynamics are reviewed. Among the enduring issues briefly explored are the problems in defining emotions, the debate over a social constructionist versus a biological basis of emotions, the debate over the place of cognitions in emotional arousal, the conceptualization variants and varieties of emotional states, and emotions versus rationality.
Relative Deprivation
Authors: Ladin Keren 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Relative deprivation is a term used to describe the adverse effects of social inequality on physical and mental health, well‐being, longevity, and disability. Whereas absolute deprivation is concerned with the physical implications of poverty, relative deprivation is a measure of social poverty, often resulting in social isolation, limited social mobility, physical and mental stress, low self‐worth, and an effort–reward imbalance. Recent literature supports a very robust correlation between socioeconomic position (measured by income, wealth, educational attainment, occupation class, etc.) and health. This association is so finely graded that a dose–response relationship is noted for each step up in socioeconomic status (SES). Relative deprivation theory purports that poverty alone does not account for the observed gap in health as the gradient in health is found to persist even among those whose basic needs have been met. Instead, this theory suggests that relative deprivation, embodied by psychosocial stress, leads to health disparities by influencing an individual's sense of well‐being and subsequent health behaviors.
Stressors, Types of
Authors: Kugelmass Heather , Lynch Scott M. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractStressors are a wide range of conditions and experiences with the potential to challenge the adaptive capacities of individuals. Stressors represent a distinct part of the stress model and come in a variety of types. As our knowledge of the stress process has increased, and the number of stressors often investigated has grown, the classes of stressors that researchers utilize have grown in number, magnitude, and complexity. The traditional distinction between acute and chronic stressors has developed into a typology that includes daily hassles, traumas, and macro‐stressors. We highlight the challenges associated with classifying stressors: most notably, avoiding the pitfalls of confounding stressors and outcomes.
Professional Ethics and Accountability
Authors: Dingwall Robert 
Published: February 2014

AbstractTraditionally, health professionals’ claim to a high degree of autonomy and discretion in their practice has rested on an implicit or explicit claim that this is a necessary condition for them to work in a way that maximizes benefits for patients, clients, or users of their services. The knowledge gap, or informational asymmetry, between professionals and non‐professionals is such that their work cannot be managed or scrutinized by people who have not experienced the same socialization processes. This creates a potential for professionals to misuse their knowledge to exploit patients, insurers, or employers: professional ethics justify patient trust. However, professionals have always been accountable in a variety of other ways – and these modes of accountability have proliferated as deference has declined.
Race and Medical Experimentation
Authors: Wasserman Jason Adam 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
While race/ethnicity clearly constitutes more of a social construct than a biological one, in sociological terms the reification of race has promoted its utilization in a variety of social arenas, including medicine. While often considered a scientific enterprise, it is important to remember that where science is a human enterprise, it is susceptible to social biases in the same way as other social institutions. In turn, medicine, at times, has been undergirded by questionable, and sometimes plainly false, knowledge. This entry examines the role of race in medical experimentation. Medical science long held that race was a significant biological reality. This, combined with the subjugated legal and moral status of certain race/ethnic groups, led to historical injustices in medical experimentation.
Eastern and Central Europeans, Health of
Authors: Mayfield Carlene A. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThe political transition into democracy led to particularly sweeping changes in Eastern and Central Europe. Variations in health status between countries and the epidemiology of disease cannot be attributed to specific, discrete factors, but rather emerge from the complex interaction of regional instability in both social and economic environments. Important health considerations include the instability of mortality and life expectancy rates, as well as the emergence of HIV as a national concern, particularly in the female population.
Postmodernity
Authors: Cockerham William C. , Wasserman Jason Adam 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The term “postmodernity” literally refers to the period following modernity, in which society moved out of its post‐industrial era to the next stage of development, bringing with it new social conditions and phenomena. The sociological version of postmodern theory that developed generally held that post‐industrial society's traditional centers of authority were disintegrating and giving way to the emergence of a new social modernity – the postmodern. Postmodern social theory mandated a turning away from theorizing in terms of grand, all‐encompassing systems (metanarratives) that conceptualized the social as a totality, along with the negation of formal, positivist conceptions of social theory and the belief that the sociological classics speak to the current era. Postmodernism may be best understood as an epistemological break from modernist thinking, rooted in Enlightenment thinking. While the strength of postmodern theory lies in its depiction of the type of social change taking place at the beginning of the twenty‐first century, its greatest shortcoming was its failure to account for the shape of the oncoming society. Other strengths and weaknesses of postmodern theory are discussed, along with its reception in medical sociology and in sociology generally.
Health Care Delivery System: Russia
Authors: Cockerham William C. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractThis entry examines the transition of Russia's health care delivery system from its former Soviet version to today's insurance‐based approach. Accompanying this transition was a major health crisis that ranked as one of the late twentieth century's most significant public health problems. Especially affected were middle‐aged, working‐class males whose high rates of premature mortality were caused by negative health lifestyles, primarily binge drinking and high levels of alcohol consumption. The crisis has yet to be fully resolved.
Allied Health Professions
Authors: White Kevin 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The allied health professions are the professions in the health care system with some measure of autonomy from the medical profession. Having said this, it is then very difficult to come up with a unitary definition since it varies enormously from country to country and even from region to region. The development of the allied health professions can be seen as one aspect of the decline of medical dominance, as previously subordinated groups of workers have developed their own educational programs, credentials, and career trajectories. Paradoxically, this professionalization is under greatest threat from the state, which is acting to standardize and routinize the training of these occupations.
Pharmaceutical Industries
Authors: Bonah Christian 
Published: February 2014

AbstractLate twentieth‐century observers conceive of industries producing medicines as a central element of health care systems, essential actors in the twentieth century's epidemiological transition from acute to chronic illness, and the associated substantial increase in longevity. Moreover, the pharmaceutical industry is a prime example of a science‐based industry. Since W. H. Perkin's invention of synthetic dyestuffs in the 1850s, it has become one of the largest and most profitable of all Western manufacturing industries. This entry traces how the pharmaceutical industry has achieved this status. History and sociology have only recently turned to the topic. Since the 1970s, an ever‐growing number of critical voices have found fault with the sustained and rising profits generated by the pharmaceutical industry, especially in times of health insurance economic crisis, and in spite of the commercialization of knowingly dangerous medicaments, which have given rise to repeated drug scandals from thalidomide to rofecoxib (Vioxx); falsely innovative therapeutic agents; the pharmaceutical industry's tendency to medicalize social phenomena, including depression, hyperactivity, erectile dysfunction, and obesity; drug overconsumption issues in the global north and essential drug inaccessibility in the south, including costly HIV treatments and so‐called orphan drugs, that is, scientifically conceivable drugs that profit‐oriented pharmaceutical industries do not research or develop because they relate to economically uninteresting, low‐profit diseases.
Biosociety and Genetics
Authors: Dingwall Robert 
Published: February 2014

Abstract

The term “biosociety” has come into use to describe the impact of developments in cellular and molecular biology on culture and society. In the words of the editorial introduction to the first issue of the academic journal
Biosocieties
in 2006: “The drivers of these developments, and the stakes in them, are not merely scientific – they are therapeutic, economic, political, ideological and ethical … developments in genomics, stem cell research, pharmacology, neuroscience all raise questions, not just about the nature of living processes and their amenability to understanding and manipulation, but also about the forces and ambitions shaping progress in the life sciences themselves, and the ways in which the life sciences are transforming different societies, locally, nationally and globally, in a multitude of different practices from the clinic to the factory.” The so‐called genetic revolution is one dimension of this.
Problem‐Based Learning
Authors: Schmidt Henk G. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractProblem‐based learning (PBL) is a method of learning and instruction popular in medical education. Students work on biomedical or clinical problems in collaboration with peers and guided by a tutor; they are supposed to learn primarily through self‐directed study. Problem‐based learning is not a single educational treatment but a conglomerate of interventions each of which is thought to foster learning. This may be the reason why different authors have tended to define the purpose of problem‐based learning differently and to stress different aspects as being crucial. First, there is the cognitive constructivist approach to problem‐based learning. The idea here is that the central goal of PBL is to help students build flexible mental models of the world. Others define problem‐based learning as a process of inquiry. According to this view, the goal of problem‐based learning is to help students learn the skill of diagnostic reasoning by mimicking the thinking processes of the expert. A third perspective stresses the fact that students in problem‐based learning have autonomy in their choice of resources and learn to show agency. In this view, problem‐based learning is a method for learning how to learn.
Geographies of Gender and Health
Authors: Thien Deborah 
Published: February 2014

AbstractGeographies of gender and health examine the sociospatial dimensions of gender ideologies, expectations, and embodied practices as they intersect with places and spaces of health and health care. A major emphasis of this work is to examine the unequal spatial distribution of health outcomes, health provision, and caregiving as shaped by gender. For example, normative gender practices commonly designate domestic and familial unpaid care work as “women's work,” an assignment that frequently serves to disadvantage women and may lead to diminished health outcomes. In contrast, men are discouraged from health‐seeking behavior, an effect of hegemonic masculinity requiring men to be invulnerable that is also detrimental to health.
Slavery, Segregation, and Health
Authors: Wasserman Jason Adam 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Racism has a long history that touches every aspect of the social arrangements in the United States. This includes medicine, where African Americans have historically been victimized, sometimes by direct maltreatment and sometimes by being disfranchised from opportunities to get health care and more generally to maintain health. This entry primarily covers the broader social‐structural context in which African Americana were mistreated by their exclusion from medicine and their limited social and economic opportunities. Examples of these include the segregation of hospitals and medical schools and the lack of attention to public health problems that largely affected blacks. These constitute a patterned and widespread set of experiences, less sensational, but perhaps more consequential for understanding racial disparities in health both past and present.
Medical Education, Medical Humanities, and History
Authors: Ousager Jakob 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The family ties between medicine and the humanities can be traced back to Hippocrates or earlier. More recently, there has been an increased interest in including subjects or elements of teaching from the humanities in medical education. Some claim that humanistic disciplines can be used as a way of achieving or strengthening specific skills and competences that are not necessarily directly connected with the humanities as such but may be relevant for those who practice or training to practice medicine. Others claim that spending time on the humanities enables medical students to obtain a number of competences that are valuable in themselves, for people in general and for physicians and medical students in particular.
Habitus, Class, and Health
Authors: Hinote Brian P. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractHabitus represents one of the most important and influential contributions of contemporary social theory, as social scientists and cultural commentators around the world have drawn extensively upon this concept to analyze and explain numerous phenomena in various settings. This entry offers an introduction to habitus as a concept, a brief explanation of how habitus fits into Bourdieu's broader analytical framework, and a specific connection between habitus and the more commonly known concept of social class. It concludes by identifying several ways in which habitus facilitates our understanding of health, lifestyles, and contemporary disease epidemiology.
Socioeconomic Status and Health Behaviors
Authors: Denney Justin T. , Krueger Patrick M. , Pampel Fred C. 
Published: February 2014

AbstractHigh socioeconomic status (SES) groups are typically more likely than their low‐SES counterparts to avoid unhealthy behaviors such as cigarette smoking and undertake healthy ones such as nutritious eating, exercise, and weight control. This entry provides an overview of the research on the socioeconomic gradient in health behaviors.
Race and Stress
Authors: Budhwani Henna 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Race is defined by physical traits associated with a given; race is based in biology. For example, African American or black is considered a racial category and is primarily identified through skin color. According to the American Sociological Association, “[r]ace shapes the way that some people relate to each other, based on their belief that race reflects physical, intellectual, moral, or spiritual superiority or inferiority.” Although race emerges from genetics and biology, it is a label. The beliefs and stereotypes associated with different races are socially constructed; therefore, they have implications for the perceptions groups have of one another and for outcomes, such as stress, which may manifest as repercussions from these perceptions.
Disease Surveillance and Global Health Security
Authors: Sellwood Chloe , Nguyen‐Van‐Tam Jonathan S. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Global health security (GHS) encompasses how international policies and activities can address the breadth of infectious disease and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) health threats and challenges. Formalized GHS activity commenced largely with the formation of the World Health Organization in 1948, and has more recently been driven by a range of emerging and re‐emerging pathogens, including the SARS coronavirus, avian influenza, bioterrorist threats, and pandemic influenza preparedness and response. International relations and health policies are becoming intrinsically linked, and accurate and timely disease surveillance, a key component of the International Health Regulations (IHR), is essential for effective action.
Stress and Religion
Authors: A. Gibson Philip 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
The relationship between religion and stress was a founding concern in sociology dating back to Durkheim's landmark research on suicide. The pathways through which religion and stress are connected are complicated, however, making research on the subject difficult. Existing literature demonstrates some positive influences of religious belief and participation on stress and distress, but the mechanisms of these effects are not precisely understood, nor is the research comprehensive. This entry presents several of the ways in which religion is believed to interact with stress. Unique challenges involved in the study of religion and stress are also discussed in addition to the opportunities for contemporary social scientists to make meaningful contributions to the subject.
HIV/AIDS, Health Services Utilization among People Living with
Authors: Szaflarski Magdalena 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
An estimated 34 million people in the world are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The majority of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) reside in developing countries. High‐risk HIV populations include commercial sex workers, patients being treated for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or tuberculosis, injection drug users, pregnant women, and blood donors. The treatment of HIV/AIDS is challenging. There is no cure; available therapies – principally, antiretroviral therapy (ART) – can only suppress the viral load to reduce the risk of disease progression and to prevent transmission to others. Access to ART has improved significantly, but nearly half of PLWHAs are still not receiving life‐saving treatment, and only 10 low‐ and middle‐income countries have achieved universal (80 percent) access. Several barriers to HIV/AIDS treatments have been noted; for example, many PLWHAs are not accessing ART because they are unaware of their HIV status. Research shows that bringing services closer to where people live improves access and utilization. Scaling up HIV services for special populations, such as men who have sex with men (MSMs), injection drug users, and youth, is essential for curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemics.
Biomedical Techniques and Innovations
Authors: Faulkner Alex 
Published: February 2014

AbstractA myriad of new medical techniques are evolving through the biological sciences and bioengineering. Many observers predict a revolution in health care. Such technologies include genetic testing, nanomedicine, tissue regeneration, cell therapy, biosensors, and imaging techniques. Sociologists have opened the black box of biomedical technology, through case studies of techniques and eclectic conceptual development, to deconstruct their origins and the interests and expectations built into them. The socioeconomic roots of controversial debates have been uncovered, and the ways in which technologies become embedded in health care practice have been demonstrated. Sociology is increasingly investigating the global political economy of the circulation of biomedical techniques, and how they figure in or escape states’ global dynamics of governance, competition, and collaboration. Future challenges for the field include the progression toward technologies for personal disease risk prediction, understanding diversifying biomedical techniques, and the implications for health inequalities, health elites, and global health.
Mental Illness, Diagnosis of
Authors: Thompson Claire 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
There are currently no laboratory tests on blood or other bodily fluids for diagnosing mental illness. This is largely because the diagnosis of mental illness, unlike those of cancer or diabetes, does not involve ascertaining the presence or absence of a single biological factor. However, ascertaining a diagnosis of mental illness is important to formulating the correct form of treatment and to helping people understand how their condition is likely to develop.
Insanity Defense
Authors: Thompson Claire , Cockerham William C. 
Published: February 2014

Abstract
Insanity within the law is a defense to criminal charges grounded on the premise that the defendants were unable to comprehend their actions or to understand that their actions were wrong at the time of the offense – the reason being that willful intent is an essential part of most offenses. A person who is “not of sound mind” is therefore deemed not capable of forming such intent.