Definition and types of institutions
Institution is one of the most important concepts in the field of sociology. Many well-known sociologists have gone deep into this concept to find out why it is important in society. The term is used to refer group of people who designate normal principles that are motivated towards a certain goal (Evans-Pritchard, 2013). Different sociologist defines institution in different ways. According to the sociologist Robert Morrison MacIver, term institution is an established forms and conditions of procedure characteristics of group activity (Talcott, 2013). However, in simple way it is an integrated set of social norm that is complex in nature and for the purpose of preservation of a basic societal value (Tyler, 2013). Institution can be formal with rigid and legal rules and regulations or informal with principles based on values, norms and ethical human behavior. Institution plays an important role in society with some important responsible. One of the major responsible of social institution is providing equality in every aspect of society. Focusing on health, this essay is discusses about the influences of social institution on class based health inequalities. Different societies receive different levels of health which causes inequalities based on different aspects and in this easy it is the ‘class’ on which health is received unequally.
Social institutes play important role, it has the potential to make a society progress or be damaged. When a society has weak social institution, it can be hard for people belonging in that society to survive. On the other hand strong institution can mean better society with no or less chance of corruption (Goffman, 2017). Weak social institution can lead to problems such as poverty, corruption, illiteracy, foreign debt, pollution, water crisis, lack of leadership, inequality, terrorism and many more. One of the major problems is health inequality in the society. Any unjust and unavoidable differences in people’s health across the society’s population and between particular population groups can be called as health inequalities. Health inequalities are a problem that is against the principle of social justice as it is not an unavoidable problem and possible to overcome (Kröger, Pakpahan, & Hoffmann, 2015).
There has always been a connection between class and health inequalities. There have been immense improvement in the healthcare sector and state has been trying to reach every corner to get the healthcare opportunities reached across the population, there are still existing sections deprived of these basic rights (Mirowsky, 2017). Social institution has been contributing deeply to this problem in the societies where the problem of health inequality has been observed. The major reason is the failure to close the social gap in the society. Every people are not aware of social institutions and its functions. They fail to understand the social institutions and its function. These institutions are not concrete building and place, these institutions are concepts and practices involving cognitive structure. Five basic social institutions around which society revolves are Family, religion, government, education and economics (Ballantine, Hammack & Stuber, 2017). Social institutions have been unfavorable to the people belong to lower class which develops as the unequal division of resources.
Social institutions and their impact on society
Families with low income and more children fail to provide every necessity to all the children. To maintain healthy diet, notorious food and healthy lifestyle becomes hard for the family as the income is less and children are more (Pecora et al., 2017). Family policies are responsible for the upbringing of children and therefore, when they fail to provide adequate health requirements the problem is arises of health inequalities. Although religion is hard to consider along with health, it has significance when inequality of health is concerned. Religion is often found the reason for bringing division in society (Aneshensel, Phelan, & Bierman, 2013). People are segregated as per their religion. By the constitution each and every person is entitled for equal health benefits however, people discriminate people on basis of their religion and deprive the people who on someway do not go with the religious principles. Government is a legal institution and it has brought several laws to practice equality among people across population in every aspect. In spite of the laws, it has been that the health facilities are not reaching every individual. It is due to the weak policies that are coated with class discrimination that are responsible for the health inequalities that are based on class. People from all classes are not aware of the laws, only the people having the adequate source of knowledge and access who are privileged to have the health facilities. Education is an absolute necessity for a person to be able to get the health benefits (Mirowsky, 2017). People belonging to lower class do not get the adequate knowledge about the impacts of the nutritious food and healthy lifestyle. It is often considered an area of high income people. People having low income prefer to save or spend their income on basic amenities where mere eating is the goal and not the healthy living. It is the responsible of education as an institute to be able to convey every person regarding the importance of healthy food and healthy habits. Without much thought the only reason people are found complaining about health inequality is the economy. Lacking sufficient amount of money is one of the major reasons for not being able to buy medicine, buy healthy food, and avail necessary check-ups. The food, medicines and lifestyle that are essential for healthy life are often expensive and it is the lower class people who fail to afford such expensive treatments.
Health inequalities and class division
With all the discussion above it is easier to answer why sociological explanation is important and sociological approach is necessary to make sense of the health and medical issues. Sociological explanation provides more comprehensive understanding to social problems. The society is made up various components that are implicit as well as explicit. To interpret these components it is essential to view from the sociological perspective. Sociological approach provides better understanding of the situations that are responsible for the social issues. Since society is consist of social concepts, institutions, facts and bodies which are interconnected, sociological approach is only way which keeping every aspect in concern is eligible to produce solution. It is a study of on human behavior and its connection to the society as a whole and therefore, it provides deeper insights to problem. The potential of getting the facts and causes of a problem is through sociological approach. Sociology is a scientific study that focuses on individual as well as group behavior. It provides with theories that define the sociological problems and its reasons along with methodologies that will help resolving the problem.
Seeing from functionalist perspective, for smooth function of society good health and effective medical care are essential. The ability to perform human’s role in society ill health contributes and when too many people fall ill society becomes unstable. Therefore, a person needs to meet all the criteria of a sick person to be called sick. Also, the patent-doctor relationship is hierarchical where the doctor provides instruction and patient follows. The conflict theory explains the situation in a it own perspective. The disadvantaged people are likely to become more ill compared to the people who belong to wealthy background. It is partially to increase income, physicians try to control the practice and define it as a social problem.
The sociological approaches help on assessing truth of any community with help of assumptions that a sociologist develop along with time and critical thinking skills. It is considered useful for its potential and capabilities. Although it is based on assumptions it has many practical applications. For example, the theory of Marx’s theory is highly applicable in the industrial society. This approach helps understanding how behavior can be influenced by other factors such as other people, situation or any life event. For example social concept of social institution is to bring harmony and peace in the society. Also, presence of authority and institution can influence people’s behavior even against their own will they are found abiding by the rules. Sociological perspective helps in figuring out extreme human behavior which is essential as it can find the causes of the behavior (Luhmann, 2017).
The Functionalist and Conflict perspectives
The major disadvantage of sociological approach is that it has the tendency of using biased methods. Humans are derived heavily by their feelings and emotions. Therefore, it is often debated that the approaches of any social problem influenced by the sociologist’s personal emotions and feelings. The social approach underestimates the influence of individual differences. It fails to give explanation for why in a society some people fail to act by the norms that are expected in any given social situation. Also, the sociological approach is often criticized for being ethnocentric in nature which might not generalize across culture. Another important disadvantage of the sociological approach that is constantly debated is conducting social research without the participant’s knowledge. Social researcher often to reach the valid result conducts the research without the participants’ awareness however, it is an unethical act (Vehmas, & Watson, 2014).
Even with all the disadvantages, it is a widely accepted and preferred approach for evaluating social issue. As the advantages that sociological approach delivers are of greater importance it has been one of the most used approach for social problems. Like any other approaches it has its uses and similarly it has weakness. Although these weaknesses are not very significant, they are still an issue to consider before approaching a problem.
There are ample factors that are responsible for health inequality including social institution. A social institution has many roles to perform and when it does not give act accordingly society has to face the consequences. Society is a complex body and therefore any social problem is not an absolute isolated problem. It is interlinked and interconnected with many other components of society. Class is a achieved factor, a person who belongs to the lower class has its personal battles to fight and when society imposes extra load of discrimination it leads to other issues. Factors such as education, employment status, gender, ethnicity, income level have proven to be important influence on health status of a person. Health inequalities are the differences in distribution of health resources or health status that are due to social conditions. With the right mix of institution’s principles and policies the unfair act can be reduced. Lower class people are prone to diseases more than the people belonging from middle class or from wealthy family. Around 95% of TB deaths occur in the developing countries (World Health Organization, 2015). Also, life expectancy found in the developing countries varies largely from the developed countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to bring change and awareness so the factors that are found affecting the health status should be monitored and distributed equally across the population.
References:
Aneshensel, C. S., Phelan, J. C., & Bierman, A. (2013). The sociology of mental health: Surveying the field. In Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 1-19). Springer, Dordrecht.
Ballantine, J. H., Hammack, F. M., & Stuber, J. (2017). The sociology of education: A systematic analysis. Routledge.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (2013). Social anthropology. Routledge.
Goffman, E. (2017). Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. Routledge.
Kröger, H., Pakpahan, E., & Hoffmann, R. (2015). What causes health inequality? A systematic review on the relative importance of social causation and health selection. The European Journal of Public Health, 25(6), 951-960.
Luhmann, N. (2017). Risk: a sociological theory. Routledge.
Mirowsky, J. (2017). Education, social status, and health. Routledge.
Mirowsky, J. (2017). Education, social status, and health. Routledge.
Pecora, P., Whittaker, J., Barth, R., Maluccio, A. N., DePanfilis, D., & Plotnick, R. D. (2017). The child welfare challenge: Policy, practice, and research. Routledge.
Talcott, P., (2013). The social system. Routledge.
Tyler, R.W., (2013). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. In Curriculum Studies Reader E2 (pp. 60-68). Routledge.
Vehmas, S., & Watson, N. (2014). Moral wrongs, disadvantages, and disability: a critique of critical disability studies. Disability & Society, 29(4), 638-650.
World Health Organization. (2015). Gear up to end TB: introducing the end TB strategy (No. WHO/HTM/GTB/2015.09). World Health Organization.
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