...Addiction, Emotional Problem or Disease? Tom Warnick Colorado Mountain College Abstract My topic of research for this paper was the nature of addiction, the controversy of labeling addiction a disease, and the difference between a disease and behavioral problems. I learned about the sociological stigma of the “sick role” that is to be assumed by anyone with a debilitating medical condition or disease, and argued my point that addiction should not be considered a disease, but rather a behavioral problem. Assuming the “sick role” offers rights and social exemptions that I do not feel addicts deserve, as well as demanding obligations that addicts are not interested in adhering to. In the following pages, I explain my position that society enables addict by labeling addiction as a disease, thus exempting them from any responsibility for that which they are entirely responsible for.when, on, the economy could collapse An addiction forms into a habit only after the choice has been made to consume a addictive substance in the first place; Addiction is a physical or mental habit; you could have an addiction as simple as biting your nails or as pervasive as smoking methamphetamine. However, while addiction is a very complex and serious problem for many people, others are able to use equal proportions of substances and are unaffected by the grasp of addiction. Although certain people may have more self-control/willpower than others, this does not make them immune to the...
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...the scientific study of social behavior and human groups (R. Schaefer, 2011, p. 5). It focuses on social relationships, how those relationships influence people’s behavior, and how societies, the sum total of those relationships, develop and change (R. Schaefer, 2011, p. 5). This helps form many theories of the development of the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views of healthcare. A functionalist perspective is a sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability (R. Schaefer, 2011, p. 24). From a functionalist perspective, being sick must therefore be controlled so that not too many people are released from their societal responsibilities at any one time (R. Schaefer, 2011, p. 390). If this happens, then it will hurt our society and prevent it from being stable and functional. Sociologist Talcott Parsons, well known for his contributions to functionalist theory, outlined the behavior required of people who are considered sick (R. Schaefer, 2011, p. 390). This was also called the sick role. Usually when people are sick, they call out of work/school and either stay at home or seek professional care. When people have responsibilities out in the real world, they are obligated to get well and get back to a daily schedule. If a person refuses to try to get better or will not follow any professional advice from a doctor, then it can be perceived as if they are not really sick and...
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...Cognitive Dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors (McLeod, 2008). Cognitive dissonance produces an uncomfortable tension of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. Situation In the United States, over two-thirds of the workers who call in sick are not physically ill (Perman, 2011). So why do employees jeopardize his or her job? A survey performed in 2007 found that absences were divided between personal issues, family issues, mental entitlement, and stress (Wolter Kluwer Law & Business, 2007). Employees are asked to give 110% to his or her employment and yet most supervisors and coworkers cannot empathize with personal and family issues. An employee may need an hour or two for a doctor appointment or to take a parent to an appointment. Perhaps there is a school function that a single parent would like to attend and needs a longer lunch hour. There is another group of employees who call in sick and are not physically ill, those that may be suffering from domestic abuse. The bruises may not be apparent to a coworker, but the employee may feel shame or mentally drained and cannot work for either a day or a few days. When a person calls in sick and does not appear to be...
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...efficient methods of communicating between the actors. Verbal and non-verbal communications were not used to the scripts best advantage. The ability to listen, along with the use of problem solving skills, were not used effectively. We must remember this is a comedy series, involving several characters with different perceptions of what reality is. The conflicts in this particular episode revolves around empathy, and the actions and reactions, involving one of the characters temporary sickness. The sick persons’ empathic friends took into consideration their sick friends perspective, as well as his thoughts and feelings. His friends recalled similar experiences in their own lives that had generated needy feelings of their own. Their sick friend complained about being sick, expecting to be responded to in a substantial way. His friends did not devalue or judge him, they understood the trauma he was feeling because of his sickness. The sick friend became very demanding of his friends, asking many special favors. The friends catered to his wishes, due to the empathy they had. When the sickness was over and the person felt better, his friends were...
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...Case #8 - Sick Leave Steve Tobias MGT 470- Conflict Management and Negotiation Colorado State University – Global Campus Dr. Ernesto Escobedo September 3, 2013 Background Three foreign Assistant Language Teachers (ALT’s), Mark, Suzanne, and Kelly are employed in a teaching program titled Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET). The Japanese government developed JET in an effort to better the English language education in Japan through the use of international teachers. It was also hoped that the program would promote an understanding at the local level of the importance and value of the differences between various cultures. Any differences that presented themselves between the ALT’s and their employers would be heard by the Conference of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). An issue however, was that, by agreement, CLAIR would only become involved if the employer would not or would not resolve the problem itself. Issue In this case study, Kelly and the other ALT’s had taken two days off for being sick. The ALT’s were directed by their boss Mr. Higashi to get a doctors note before returning to work and were told they could not use sick leave, instead they would have to use accumulated vacation time for their absence. Mr. Higashi explained that the work ethic is different in Japanese workers and they feel guilty missing work generally and especially because...
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...One of most important skill sets in Dal’s case would be distress tolerance, or survival and acceptance skills. Here, Dal will learn more effective coping skills that will result in less impulsivity and self-destructive behaviors; instead of relieving intense feelings by means of self-harm, Dal will learn more positive coping skills such as distraction or self-soothing techniques. One of the most common distraction techniques is having the client hold an ice cube. Although the ice cube technique is quite simple, it teaches the client to control impulses and regulate emotions. Holding the ice cube will allow Dal to create some time and space between the initial intensity of the difficult emotion or thought and any action that she may have taken...
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... the healthcare system in the United States has been focused on caring for the sick and treating and preventing diseases. But a new standard has developed. Focus has now shifted to health promotion. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health promotion as the “process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.” Health promotion focuses on changes to a community as well as an individuals health by modifying their behaviors to strive for optimal health, which The American Journal of Health Promotion defines as being the “balance between physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual health.” A healthy change of lifestyle can be assisted through a combination of learning experiences that increase understanding, motivation and build skills that access environment that make positive health practices the easiest choice. Examples of positive health practices are physical fitness, stress reduction and management and nutritional awareness. Historically, the role of nurses was to treat disease and care for the sick in acute care hospitals. But since the world of health care is always evolving, so does the role of the nurse. The role of the nurse now focuses on the quality of life in primary and community settings. Nurses have a very important role in health promotion. They facilitate communities in making healthy decisions. They...
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...Sociology of Health Author’s Name Institution’s Affiliation Sociology of Health The social perspective in sociology of health explains the society's view concerning health. It is a discipline that describes an illness using social factors present in daily activities of life. Sociologists show how wellness and disease, the treatment and explanation of illness production in a social organization can be understood differently from a medical perspective of nature, biology, and lifestyle in an attempt of explaining sickness (Bahar, 2013). It is a significant facet of interpreting biological information that shows the creation of health and disease in a political, social, and cultural environment. In describing various social phenomena, sociologists examine how social life impacts morbidity and mortality rates and how it alternatively influences the society. Medical sociology uses sociological theory to explain the relationship between social factors and health to define this issue and its systems (Amzat & Razum, 2014). Amzat and Razum (2014) demonstrate that it tends to separate nature from the community. It means that it illustrates how scientific knowledge mediates social relations. Moreover, medical sociology shows how the technical realm of medical practice is inconsistent with social processes in nature. It is a claim of understanding constructivism through an objective in natural science. Various studies identify the inconsistencies between current medical practice...
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...Utilization. d. There is extensive utilization diversity even in the poor. e. None of the above. 3. _______________ 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. e. Conditional legitimacy. f. Unconditional legitimacy. g. Illegitimacy. h. Forgiveness. i. None of the above. 4. The importance of Emile Durkheim's work for understanding stress lies in his: j. Typology of three specific types of suicide. k. Denial of biological influences on human behavior. l. Insight into the link between the state of the economy and certain types of illness. m. Notion of the capability of society to create situations where people are forced to respond to conditions not of their own choosing n. None of the above. 5. What is the reason many low-income persons do not have a source of medical care? a. Health facilities may not be near. b. Costs may not be covered by health insurance....
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...having severe stomach problems and has been exhibiting moodiness, sleep deprivation, weight loss and lack of energy. Along with alcoholism, John is suffering from stress due to the possibility of his wife leaving him and his job being on the line. Evaluation of models behavior According to the case study John has multiple health issues that the doctor cannot explain from a physical point of view. His medical problems can be explored by understanding what psychosomatic medicine (the mind body relationship) is. According to Friedman (2002) “a significant proportion of patient complaints (at least 25 percent) made to physicians are psychological in nature and have no significant physical counterpart.”(pg. 80) Patients, like John, exhibit symptoms from tension (caused by an unhappy marriage) such as headaches, pain, or weakness and no physical explanation can be found because the problems are somatization. (Friedman, 2002) Somatization is symptoms that have no known medical explanation and are affected by psychological processes. (Friedman, 2002) John’s stressors at the moment consist of his failing marriage, debt and the possible loss of his job. The first type of behavior model is the illness behavior (sick role) model. Friedman (2002) describes this model as someone who responds to...
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...Lesson #1 Case Studies Renzi Gao International American University MGT 600: Organizational Theory and Design Kourt Williams July 5th, 2015 How Westland/Hallmark Put Profit above Safety Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. is a famous national meatpacking plant. It was the main supplier of many fast food restaurants, as well as a lot of schools in the year 2005. Then, something turned up by the Humane Society in 2007, proving that the company not only inhumanely treated the animals, but also allowed sick animals to enter the food market. According to this, USDA had to recall the contaminated beef which had entered the market, but most of those meats had already been consumed by customers. Finally, the plant would close forever, people who involved in the violation had been prosecuted, and all 220 employees lost their job. Analysis of the Case Analysis of Findings In this case, the key problems are the importance of business ethics in management, and the profit priority between business owners and other stakeholders, such as employees, fast-food restaurants, schools and final customers. The tops managers in Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. put the company’s profit in first so that they forced their workers to slaughter unreasonable amount of cows every day which directly led to those abuses and violations. In order to avoid similar cases, companies have to pay more attention on its business ethics among...
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...Hot seat 1 note outline I. On the follow of hoping for. THE REWARD SYSTEM OUTLINE a. Numerous examples exist of reward systems that are fouled up in that behaviors which are rewarded are those which rewarder is trying to discourage, while the behavior he desires is not being rewarded at all. Societal Examples. a. Politics i. Official goals are purposely vague and general they do not indicate the hose of decisions that must be made among alternative ways of achieving official goals and the priority of multiple goals. Considered high acceptance and low quality goals. ii. Operative Goals are higher in quality but lower in acceptance, they specify where the money will come from and what alternative goals will be ignored. iii. Most official speak of official goals until after election since they are generally more accepted. iv. Examination of costs and benefits combined with knowledge of what...
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...the pages listed will be discussed in class for some of the objectives. 1) What types of thoughts and behaviors fall under the category of Somatic Symptom Disorders? (Note that you should be familiar with the behaviors associated with specific disorders, such as Conversion Disorders & Factitious Disorders, but you will only be responsible for knowing that these behaviors fall under the umbrella of Somatic Symptom Disorders, not knowing the specific diagnosis associated with a given behavior) i) Real or imagined somatic (physical) symptoms ii) Related abnormal thoughts, feelings, or behaviors a) Biopsychosocial Model i) Biological Factors 1) Physical symptom may be present ii) Social Factors 1) Greater cultural acceptance of physical than psychological problems 2) “Sick role” reinforcers 3) Social support b) Treatment i) Cogntivie Behavioral Therapy 1) Identify reinforcers and elimate or replace them 2) Change catastrophic thoughts 3) Identify and challenge misinterpretations ii) Biological 1) Antidepressants 2) Can Somatic Symptom Disorders include real bodily symptoms or do they have to be imagined? 3) How do fears and beliefs about illness play into Somatic Symptom Disorders? What about reinforcement of the “sick role?” 4) What kinds of symptoms does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Somatic Symptom Disorders target? Are...
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...Organizational Behavior – Leadership BUS 318 Organizational Behavior (BWD1421A) Organizational Behavior – Leadership Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizations. It is an academic discipline devoted to understanding individuals and group behavior, interpersonal processes and organizational dynamics (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Hunt, & Uhl-Bien 2012). OB is also devoted to explaining and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in an organization (McGraw-Hill n.d.). Leadership is an important role in an organization and in this paper I will discuss the different styles of leadership and how they affect the overall organization. “Inspired leadership has always played a vital role in the development and sustained productivity of any successful organization. But as many managers are discovering, effective leadership does not often come naturally to them. The technical and business skills they have carefully honed are simply not transferable to many situations calling for interpersonal and leadership abilities” (Dr. Strauss 2014). It is very important to have effective leadership in order to have a successful organization. Leaders are people who influence and create change. Others follow leaders because they see the value of their ideas and suggestions and choose to align with them. Leaders will succeed when other follow them because they want to not because they have to (Schermerhorn...
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...has been an dramatic increase in the diagnosis of ADHD and ADD in children and adults. There is a dramatic impact on children and their families once the child is diagnosised and labeled as ADHD. The medical industry and pharmaceutical companies have been benefiting from the diagnosis of child and adults with ADHD with the prescriptions of medication and overutilization. ADHD can be considered the medicalization of deviance when the diagnosis removes responsibility from society and the individual who has deviant behavior. This attitude continues the perpetual production of perpetrators of deviance. Medicalization is by definition the extension of medical jurisdiction or the expansion of medical boundaries. Medicalization studies reveal how nonmedical problems become diagnosis as medical. Current perceptions of ADHD and the treatment can be seen as the medicalization of deviance by taking away the accountability of the actions. An example of this deviant behavior is a 38 year old security guard has had 128 job since leaving college. He was diagnosed with ADHD. There is no background given on why the guard was diagnosis with ADHD, but if he didn't show up for work or was lazy that may be a reason for why he had some many job in 15 years not because of ADHD. "Adult ADHD has now become the foremost self-diagnosed condition in my practice . I fear that the condition can allow an adult patient to find a biological cause that is not always reasonable, for job failures, divorce...
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