University of Central Florida

SYO 4400

Chapter 8

The Sick Role

Multiple Choice Questions

1)Which theorist’s work was not included as part of Parsons’s concept of the sick role?

1. 1. Emile Durkheim.
   2. Max Weber.
   3. Sigmund Freud.
   4. Erving Goffman.
   5. All of the above are theorists whose work was included.

2. “A state or condition of suffering as the result of a disease or sickness” defines:
   1. The sick role.
   2. Illness.
   3. Disability.
   4. Disease.
   5. None of the Above.

3. The traditional identifying criteria for disease do NOT include:
   1. The patient’s experience of subjective feelings of sickness.
   2. The finding by the physician through examination and/or laboratory tests or other indicators that the patient has a disordered function of the body.
   3. The patient’s symptoms conforming to a recognizable clinical pattern.
   4. The patient’s significant other’s identification of a “sick pattern.”
   5. All of the above.

4. The sick role is oriented toward which group?
   1. Upper class.
   2. Upper and middle class.
   3. Middle class.
   4. Lower class.
   5. All of the above.

5. The term                                 has been characterized as an adverse physical state, consisting of a physiological dysfunction within an individual.
   1. The sick role.
   2. Illness.

1. 3. Disability.
   4. Disease.
   5. None of the Above.

6. The physician exercises leverage over the patient through three basic techniques. Which is NOT one?
   1. Professional prestige.
   2. Situational authority.
   3. Situational dependency of the patient.
   4. Objective authority.
   5. All of the above are techniques used to exercise leverage.

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

8. Which is NOT a criticism of Parsons’s sick-role theory?
   1. Behavioral variation.
   2. Types of diseases.
   3. Behavioral modification.
   4. The patient–physician relationship.
   5. All of the above are criticisms.

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.
   1. Conditional legitimacy.
   2. Unconditional legitimacy.
   3. Illegitimacy.
   4. Forgiveness.
   5. None of the above.

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.
    1. Conditional legitimacy.
    2. Unconditional legitimacy.
    3. Illegitimacy.
    4. Forgiveness.
    5. None of the above.

11.                                             is where deviants are exempted permanently from normal obligations and are granted additional privileges in view of the hopeless nature of their deviance.
    1. Conditional legitimacy.
    2. Unconditional legitimacy.
    3. Illegitimacy.
    4. Forgiveness.
    5. None of the above.

12. People who have various types of physical deformities fall into which category of stigma?
    1. Abominations of the body.
    2. Blemishes of individual character.
    3. Disability of the form and mind.
    4. Feeling of lack of control.
    5. All of the above.

13. A pronouncement of deviant behavior involves making a                                            about what is right and proper behavior according to a social norm.
    1. Psycho-social stand.
    2. Stigmatized assertion.
    3. Lasting proclamation
    4. Wide-sweeping statement.
    5. Social judgment.

14. The functionalist perspective on deviance:
    1. 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.
    2. Relies on the ideas of what is good and what is bad to define illness, but also incorporates biological components.
    3. Stresses societal-level processes, systems, equilibrium, and interrelationships, representing a homeostatic approach to deviance.
    4. Purely focuses on health and well-being and disregards other forms of deviance, such as criminality.
    5. None of the above.

15. Who was one of the leading proponents of labeling theory?
    1. Emile Durkheim.
    2. Max Weber.
    3. Sigmund Freud.
    4. Howard Becker.
    5. All of these were proponents.

16. As Goffman points out, stigma represents a rupture between an individual’s                                   

and                                social identity that is regarded in some way as failing.

1. 1. Perceived; real.
   2. Virtual; actual.
   3. Imagined; socially assigned.
   4. Pre-illness; post-illness.
   5. None of the above.

17. Processes such as crime and mental illness which disrupt the social order are:
    1. Functional.
    2. Dysfunctional.
    3. Unnecessary.
    4. Rare.
    5. None of the above.

18. Which is NOT used as a form of sanction?
    1. Jails.
    2. Prisons.
    3. Mental hospitals.

1. 4. Juvenile detention.
   5. All of the above are examples of sanctions.

19. Parsons’s concept of the sick role is based on the assumption that:
    1. Illness is normal and routine.
    2. Being sick is not a deliberate and knowing choice of the sick person.
    3. There are different types of illnesses resulting in different reactions.
    4. Illness always subsides and is replaced by well-being.
    5. None of the above.

20. 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.
    1. Primary reward.
    2. Secondary gain.
    3. Tertiary exemptions.
    4. Primary reaction.
    5. None of the above.

21. Whose views on religious values are utilized by Parsons in describing the role of the physician?
    1. Emile Durkheim.
    2. Max Weber.
    3. Sigmund Freud.
    4. Howard Becker.
    5. All of the above are theorists whose work was included.

22. Parsons was the first to demonstrate the function of medicine as a form of:
    1. Social control.
    2. Deviance.
    3. Medicalization.
    4. Stigmatization.
    5. None of the above.

23. The patient-physician relationship involves mutuality in the form of behavioral expectations, and the status and power of the parties are                                                                      .

1. 1. Balanced.
   2. Equal.
   3. Unequal.
   4. Unknown.
   5. None of the above.

24. The American Psychiatric Association releases a guide to identifying disease called:
    1. The Manual to Diagnosing Disease and Illness.
    2. The Guide to Illness and Health.
    3. Health U.S.
    4. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
    5. None of the above.

25.                                                  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.
    1. Managed care.
    2. Fee-for-service.
    3. Medicare/Medicaid.
    4. All of the above.
    5. None of the above.

26. Twaddle found that the sick role, as defined by Parsons, was much more applicable to which religious group?
    1. Catholics.
    2. Muslims.
    3. Protestants.
    4. Jews.
    5. Hindus.

27. Which ethnic group was more susceptible to pain in the Zborowski study?
    1. Italians.
    2. British.
    3. Americans.
    4. Chinese.
    5. Mexicans.