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Sick Role Sociology

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Sick role was an idea introduced by Talcott Parsons. He explained that sickness is not intentional and it’s caused by being exposed to diseases and injuring the body. The person that is sick deviates from the social norms because they can’t prevent the illness that has taken over. Social norms are the rules for behavior in a society that are seen as acceptable. For example, someone wearing their clothes backwards would be judged by others. Parsons does note that some individuals may take on the sick role to avoid their normal everyday tasks, but care is available for people that are actually sick. One of the social expectations of the behavior of the sick role is that the sick individuals are unable to take care of themselves. They need medical …show more content…

Sickness is the social state, which describes how the social role is affected by the illness. For example, an individual could have cancer which would be the disease. Illness would refer to the person possibly developing depression, feeling nauseous and weak all the time, and having pain in the joints and bones. Sickness means that the individual may stay away from other people due to a weakened immune system and have to stay home from work for medical appointments and not feeling strong …show more content…

The figure shows how many children are currently diagnosed with ADHD in the US. Korea does not view ADHD as a disability unlike the US. Teachers in Korea are worried about students with ADHD not paying attention to what's being taught, moving a lot, ignoring rules, and not listening to instructions. The teachers felt shame and worry over the fact that they couldn't control the students and fulfill their responsibilities as an educator. Another worry was that students would see that the teacher couldn’t handle the behavior of the students with ADHD. It was shown that US parents cared more about the behavior of their children, while the Korean parents were bothered by academic performance. Also, US parents were more likely to use medication to help their children, while Korean parents were against the medication because it doesn’t help the children academically. Confucianism plays a large role because Korean parents focus on their child’s and feel that behavior issues reflect negatively on them. Some treatments that the US use in schools is bringing in interventions, like aides to help the students with ADHD. Korean teachers take it upon themselves to be in charge of disciplining the students and maintaining their authority in the classroom. Most people in Korea don’t know that much about ADHD and there is a negative stigma against children with the learning disability. Schools aren’t equipped to deal

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