Chapter 8

The Sick Role

Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which theorists work was not included as part of Parsonss concept of the sick role?
a. Emile Durkheim.
b. Max Weber.
c. Sigmund Freud.
d. Erving Goffman.
e. All of the above are theorists whose work was included.
Answer: D

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2. A state or condition of suffering as the result of a disease or sickness defines:

a. The sick role.
b. Illness.
c. Disability.
d. Disease.
e. None of the Above.
Answer: B

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3. The traditional identifying criteria for disease do NOT include:

a. The patients experience of subjective feelings of sickness.
b. The finding by the physician through examination and/or laboratory tests or other
indicators that the patient has a disordered function of the body.
c. The patients symptoms conforming to a recognizable clinical pattern.
d. The patients significant others identification of a sick pattern.
e. All of the above.
Answer: D

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4. The sick role is oriented toward which group?

a. Upper class.
b. Upper and middle class.
c. Middle class.
d. Lower class.
e. All of the above.
Answer: C

Page: 182

5. The term ___________ has been characterized as an adverse physical state, consisting of
a physiological dysfunction within an individual.
a. The sick role.
b. Illness.
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c. Disability.
d. Disease.
e. None of the Above.
Answer: D

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6. The physician exercises leverage over the patient through three basic techniques. Which
is NOT one?
a. Professional prestige.
b. Situational authority.
c. Situational dependency of the patient.
d. Objective authority.
e. All of the above are techniques used to exercise leverage.
Answer: D

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7. Medicalization is:
a. The process where an individual falls sick, goes to the doctor, and seeks out a cure
or guidance.
b. A process where previously non-medical problems are defined and treated as
medical problems.
c. A concept which is not health care/medical related, but rather refers to the
sociological process of identifying stakeholders in a given situation.
d. Purely about the shift in expectation from birthing at home to delivering at a
hospital.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

Page: 176

8. Which is NOT a criticism of Parsonss sick-role theory?

a. Behavioral variation.
b. Types of diseases.
c. Behavioral modification.
d. The patientphysician relationship.
e. All of the above are criticisms.
Answer: C

Page: 178

9. _______________ is where the deviants are temporarily exempted from normal

obligations and gain some extra privileges, provided that they seek help in order to rid
themselves of their deviance.
a. Conditional legitimacy.
b. Unconditional legitimacy.
c. Illegitimacy.
d. Forgiveness.
e. None of the above.
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Answer: A

Page: 184

10. ________________ is where the deviants are exempted from some normal obligations by
virtue of their deviance, for which they are technically not responsible, but gain few if
any privileges.
a. Conditional legitimacy.
b. Unconditional legitimacy.
c. Illegitimacy.
d. Forgiveness.
e. None of the above.
Answer: C

Page: 185

11. ________________ is where deviants are exempted permanently from normal

obligations and are granted additional privileges in view of the hopeless nature of their
deviance.
a. Conditional legitimacy.
b. Unconditional legitimacy.
c. Illegitimacy.
d. Forgiveness.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

Page: 184-185

12. People who are physically handicapped typically fall into which category of stigma?
a. Abominations of the body.
b. Blemishes of individual character.
c. Disability of the form and mind.
d. Feeling of lack of control.
e. All of the above.
Answer: A

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13. A pronouncement of deviant behavior involves making a _____________ about what is

right and proper behavior according to a social norm.
a. Psycho-social stand.
b. Stigmatized assertion.
c. Lasting proclamation
d. Wide-sweeping statement.
e. Social judgment.
Answer: E

Page: 167

14. The functionalist perspective on deviance:

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a. Is based on the concept that what is regarded as deviant behavior by one person or
social group may not be so regarded by other persons or social groups.
b. Relies on the ideas of what is good and what is bad to define illness, but also
incorporates biological components.
c. Stresses societal-level processes, systems, equilibrium, and interrelationships,
representing a homeostatic approach to deviance.
d. Purely focuses on health and well-being and disregards other forms of deviance,
such as criminality.
e. None of the above.
Answer: C

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15. The symbolic interactionalist perspective on deviance:

a. Is based on the concept that what is regarded as deviant behavior by one person or
social group may not be so regarded by other persons or social groups.
b. Relies on the ideas of what is good and what is bad to define illness, but also
incorporates biological components.
c. Stresses societal-level processes, systems, equilibrium, and interrelationships,
representing a homeostatic approach to deviance.
d. Purely focuses on health and wellbeing and disregards other forms of deviance,
such as criminality.
e. None of the above.
Answer: A

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16. Who was one of the leading proponents of labeling theory?

a. Emile Durkheim.
b. Max Weber.
c. Sigmund Freud.
d. Howard Becker.
e. All of these were proponents.
Answer: D

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17. As Goffman points out, stigma represents a rupture between an individuals __________
and ___________ social identity that is regarded in some way as failing.
a. Perceived; real.
b. Virtual; actual.
c. Imagined; socially assigned.
d. Pre-illness; post-illness.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

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18. Processes such as crime and mental illness which disrupt the social order are:
a. Functional.
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b.
c.
d.
e.

Dysfunctional.
Unnecessary.
Rare.
None of the above.

Answer: B

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19. Which is NOT used as a form of sanction?

a. Jails.
b. Prisons.
c. Mental hospitals.
d. Juvenile detention.
e. All of the above are examples of sanctions.
Answer: E

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20. Parsonss concept of the sick role is based on the assumption that:
a. Illness is normal and routine.
b. Being sick is not a deliberate and knowing choice of the sick person.
c. There are different types of illnesses resulting in different reactions.
d. Illness always subsides and is replaced by well-being.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

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21. A person may desire to retain the sick role more or less permanently because of what
Parsons calls a _______________, which is the exemption from normal obligations and
the gaining of other privileges commonly accorded to the sick.
a. Primary reward.
b. Secondary gain.
c. Tertiary exemptions.
d. Primary reaction.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

Page: 171

22. Whose views on religious values are utilized by Parsons in describing the role of the
physician?
a. Emile Durkheim.
b. Max Weber.
c. Sigmund Freud.
d. Howard Becker.
e. All of the above are theorists whose work was included.
Answer: B

Page: 172

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23. Parsons was the first to demonstrate the function of medicine as a form of:
a. Social control.
b. Deviance.
c. Medicalization.
d. Stigmatization.
e. None of the above.
Answer: A

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24. The patient-physician relationship involves mutuality in the form of behavioral

expectations, and the status and power of the parties are ______________.
a. Balanced.
b. Equal.
c. Unequal.
d. Unknown.
e. None of the above.
Answer: C

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25. The American Psychiatric Association releases a guide to identifying disease called:
a. The Manual to Diagnosing Disease and Illness.
b. The Guide to Illness and Health.
c. Health U.S.
d. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
e. None of the above.
Answer: D

Page: 176

26. __________________ has become the dominant form of health care delivery in the U.S.,
which makes insurance companies as third-party payers important in both bolstering
medicalization through its coverage of particular services and a constraint in placing
limitations on those services.
a. Managed care.
b. Fee-for-service.
c. Medicare/Medicaid.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.
Answer: A

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27. Twaddle found that the sick role, as defined by Parsons, was much more applicable to
which religious group?
a. Catholics.
b. Muslims.
c. Protestants.
d. Jews.
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e. Hindus.
Answer: D

Page: 178

28. Which ethnic group was more susceptible to pain in the Zborowski study?
a. Italians.
b. British.
c. Americans.
d. Chinese.
e. Mexicans.
Answer: A

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29. Parsonss concept of the sick role seems to typically apply only to _________ diseases.
a. Chronic.
b. Acute.
c. Infectious.
d. Catastrophic.
e. None of the above.
Answer: B

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30. Many people in the ______________ may tend to deny the sick role.
a. Upper class.
b. Upper and middle class.
c. Middle class.
d. Lower class.
e. All of the above.
Answer: D

Page: 182

True False Questions

1. Functionalist theorists conceptualize social systems as composed of various connected
parts. They argue that changes, decisions, and definitions made in one part of the system
affects the other parts of the system.
Answer: TRUE

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2. Parson's concept of the sick role applies to chronic illnesses as well as to acute illnesses.
Answer: FALSE

Page: 181

3. Parson's concept of the sick role adequately accounts for variations in the way people
perceive illness and illness behavior.

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Answer: FALSE

Page: 180

4. In medical sociology, a sickness is a social state, signifying an impaired social role for
those who are ill.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 167

5. Deviant behavior always produces undesirable consequences for society.

Answer: FALSE

Page: 168

6. Parsons insists that sickness is functional because it provides the basis for social control
of the ill.
Answer: FALSE

Page: 171

7. Labeling theory does not explain the cause of deviance other than by the reaction of other
people to it.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 185

8. Sociologists have typically viewed sickness as a form of deviant behavior.

Answer: TRUE

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9. Conformity to prevailing norms is generally punished for lack of ingenuity.

Answer: FALSE

Page: 167

10. The biological view of deviance has been generally accepted by contemporary
sociologists.
Answer: FALSE

Page: 169

11. A major expectation concerning the sick is that they are able to take care of themselves.
Answer: FALSE

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12. Deviance in a social system is reduced through the application of social sanctions against
the offender.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 169

13. Psychoanalytic theories of the structure of personality and the unconscious played little
role in Parsons development of his notion of individual motivation.

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Answer: FALSE

Page: 171

14. Ideas on the function of moral authority and views on religious values are utilized by
Parsons in describing the role of the patient.
Answer: FALSE

Page: 172

15. The physicians role is, as Parsons tells us, to return the sick person to his or her normal
state of functioning.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 172

16. The role of the patient depends on the conception that the patient holds of the his/her role.
Answer: FALSE

Page: 172

17. The role of the physician is based upon an imbalance of power and technical expertise
favorable exclusively to the physician.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 173

18. The patientphysician relationship is not intended by society to be therapeutic in nature.

Answer: FALSE

Page: 172

19. Parsonss concept of the sick role helps us understand medicines role in promoting social
stability.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 176

20. Some criticisms of Parsons sick role are based upon a misunderstanding of Parsons.
Answer: TRUE

Page: 183

Essay Questions
1. What are the major criticisms of Parsons' concept of the sick role? Should the concept be
abandoned? Explain.
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the labeling theory view of sickness?
3. What are the four basic categories of Parsons sick role? Describe thoroughly.
4. Describe Riers story/experience. Why was this a unique experience? Were any
conclusions made?

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5. What is stigma? Define Goffmans types of stigma. How does stigma relate to the sick
role and illness in general?

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