SOC 318 - The Sociology of Health and Health Care (3)

Prerequisite: SOC 109 or PSY 117 .

This course is a systematic exploration and analysis of the social, cultural, political, and economic forces which shape health and illness in the United States. We will focus on the distribution of morbidity and mortality (i.e., who gets sick and why), the experience of illness (i.e., how people make decisions about illness and treatment), and the social organization of the healthcare field (e.g., health care policies and health care reform). An examination of ethical considerations within the health care field will also be discussed.