Principle Sociological Perspectives In Health

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Society: 1. An organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. 2. A body of individuals living as members of a community. [1] Society is made up of social institutions that together form the building blocks needed to create a culture, a belief system, a religious belief, a set of values, rules, laws, regulations, and how we're expected to behave and conduct ourselves. When we are born we are surrounded by social institutions that will impact our personality and lifestyle. These are: • the family • the education system • the income available • the environment • the political system • the culture or sub-culture • the religious beliefs • our peers These factors have a major influence on us as we grow and develop. This is also known as 'stratification'. Social class is the system of status layers. It can be measured by how much a person owns or in terms of how much education they have had. Social class can be achieved and it can be something we are born into. Class is split into four categories, upper class, middle class, working class, and underclass. As of 2011 the National Statistics socio-economic classification is: Class 1: Higher managerial and professional class Class 2: Lower managerial and professional class Class 3: Intermediate occupational class Class 4: Small employers and own accounts working class Class 5: Lower supervisory and technical occupation class Class 6: Semi-routine occupation class Class 7: Routine occupation class Class 8: Never worked and unemployed class Structuralists Structuralists believe that individuals are moulded by society and that rather than being able to act independently we are limited by the norms and values of society that we have been socialised into. They believe that the individual is subject to society.
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