Reading Quiz

Social Construction of Health and Illness

Let’s begin


Please put away your devices and pull out a sheet of paper.

Question #1 (2 pts)


Sociologists of health and illness explain Black-White inequalities in infant mortality by the fact that Black women have greater rates of hypertension and diabetes compared to White women.

True or False?

Question #3 (2 pts)


Which of the following is the sociological definition of “illness”?

  1. the subjective experience of person with a physical or mental disease, condition, or impairment
  2. a social construction applied to those temporarily disabled
  3. the social barriers that impede one from continuing their everyday life when dealing with a medical condition
  4. the loss of function associate with a particular disease or health condition

Question #4 (3 pts)


Medical sociology focuses on the ways that social control is exerted through the medical profession.

Provide one example of this that you read about for today’s class.