The final syllabus will be available in the Learning Management System.
This is a past syllabus providing a general idea of what the course entails. This does not represent the current course's syllabus, requirements or expectations.
“I diagnosed “abdominal pain” when the real problem was hunger; I confused social issues with medical problems in other patients, too. I mislabeled the hopelessness of long-term unemployment as depression and the poverty that causes patients to miss pills or appointments as noncompliance. In one older patient, I mistook the inability to read for dementia. My medical training had not prepared me for this ambush of social circumstance. Real-life obstacles had an enormous impact on my patients’ lives, but because I had neither the skills nor the resources for treating them, I ignored the social context of disease altogether.”
-Laura Gottlieb, MD, San Francisco Chronicle 8/23/101
Welcome to SOC 334 Medical Sociology! Together in this course we will examine the social dimensions and determinants of health, medicine, and disease. Using the sociological perspective we will examine how health and medicine are impacted by social forces often external to the individual. Although we will largely focus on the United States, this will be supplemented with material on global health. We will study and explore these topics through a variety of methods, including PowerPoints, readings and reading responses, one test, two analysis papers, and applied exercises. As this is an upper-division as well as an online course, you will be expected to read and write a lot.
| Course Goals | Course Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Understand social determinants of health and apply sociological lens to health, disease, and medicine | Explain how individual health is impacted by factors external to the individual; provide various examples social factors that matter for health and explain how and why they matter; identify the health disparities across gender, race/ethnicity, and class and the social factors that cause them; apply the sociological perspective to new medical issues and situations |
| Critical thinking skills | Use and synthesize evidence to answer empirical questions; develop creative solutions to public health problems; critique and respond to academic articles; apply sociological perspective to new material |
| Communication and writing | Build a written argument using evidence; develop writing and construction skills; provide feedback to others and receive feedback; share ideas and thoughts on various topics with peers |
| Quantitative reasoning | Read and interpret graphs and visual presentations of data; evaluate data and evidence; calculate rates of disease and understand how calculations are made; critique statistics and examine their validity |
| Information synthesis and analysis skills | Gather, organize, summarize reliable literature on a topic; use evidence to build an argument; critique research and arguments |
Midterm Exam (80 points, 20%)
One midterm exam will cover all course material up to the exam. The midterm exam will be week 7, and the exam will be available from Monday 12:00 am to the following Sunday 11:59pm. Once you begin the exam, you will have one hour to complete it. The exam will include multiple choice and short answer questions, and will be open book and note. If you know you need to take the exam at an alternative time, please let me know so we can make arrangements. If an emergency arises that makes advance notice impossible, please let me know as soon as you can.
Reading Posts (15%, 60 points, 5 points each)
The textbook and course readings are typical of what medical and health sociologists might read in the discipline’s journals, as well as reputable journalism. Besides the textbook, all other course readings will be provided on Canvas. To assess your understanding of readings and enhance engagement and comprehension, every week you will submit one discussion question and your response to that question for the readings that week. You will also respond to two other students’ discussion questions.
Your discussion question and response to your question is due almost every Thursday by 11:59pm to Canvas. Your response to two other students’ posts is due almost every Sunday by 11:59pm.
Please see assignment instructions on Canvas for details on expectations and grading.
Applied Exercises (25%, 100 points total, 20 points each)
There will be applied exercises approximately every other week throughout the semester. Exercise instructions will be provided two weeks before the due date. The applied exercises will consist of smaller assignments or worksheets, covering topics such as calculating rates of disease. These exercises provide the opportunity to reinforce and engage with the course material, and help me to gauge collective understanding.
Applied exercises are almost every other week and are due by Sunday by 11:59 PM to Canvas on the due date specified on the course calendar.
Each exercise is worth 20 points and there are seven in total. However, only the highest five out of seven grades will be used to calculate your final score at the end of the semester. This means if you miss or do poorly on two exercises, it will not negatively impact your grade.
Media Analysis Paper (15%, 60 points)
We will use media to supplement our discussions of course material. In this paper you will analyze media using a sociological perspective and will be required to engage with and apply course concepts and material. You will watch or listen to media from the list provided on Canvas. Please see assignment instructions on Canvas for further details. The media analysis paper is due week 10 Sunday by 11:59pm to Canvas.
Medical Policy Paper (25%, 100 points)
Using the medical sociological perspective you have developed in this course, you will address a medical topic/issue from options provided. Broadly, you will describe, synthesize research on, and analyze a medical issue using a sociological perspective, and propose a recommendation to address the issue. You will be required to engage with and apply course concepts and material. Please see assignment instructions on Canvas for further details. The final medical policy paper is due week 16 Friday by 11:59pm and must be submitted to Canvas. The annotated bibliography for this paper is due week 12 Sunday by 11:59pm to Canvas. The purpose of the annotated bibliography is not only to help you synthesize and identify relevant literature, but also to get you started on your paper early. A draft of your paper and complete self-review instrument will be due week 14 Sunday by 11:59pm to Canvas.
Lecture
As far as “lecture” goes, I will post power point slides for each topic/week that cover the key points and learning objectives of the material for that week. The lecture slides will focus on those aspects of the material that are most important and follow the textbook closely. The PowerPoints will often contain questions for you to consider and even additional information on the topic. In order to best utilize the lecture slide/materials, I suggest downloading or taking notes from the slides and fleshing them out as you read and watch the assigned materials associated with each section. I highly suggest you at least review the PowerPoint slides for each week.
| Assignment | Points | Percent of Overall Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Midterm Exam | 80 | 20% |
| Reading Posts | 60 | 15% |
| Applied Exercises | 100 | 25% |
| Media Analysis Paper | 60 | 15% |
| Medical Issue Policy Paper and components | 100 | 25% |
Based on this grading scheme, failure to complete even one of the assignments will lower your grade considerably. Points are earned not only by completing the assigned tasks, but by presenting a high-quality finished product. Grades will be based on the following scheme (only fractional scores of .5 will be rounded up):
| Grade | Percent | Grade | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 94-100% | C | 74-76% |
| A- | 90-93% | C- | 70-73% |
| B+ | 87-89% | D+ | 67-69% |
| B | 84–86% | D | 63-66% |
| B- | 80-83% | F | anything below 63% |
| C+ | 77-79% |
A note on grades: I am very receptive to discussing grades at any point prior to the last week of the semester. If you are concerned about your grade or having trouble in the course, please send an email so we can devise a plan together. We are here to support your success in this course. There is only one guaranteed extra credit opportunity in this course, a take-home essay. If you detect a potential grading error, please bring it to our attention for correction or clarification.
College level writing will count as points towards your assignments. This means that grammar, spelling, and sentence structure are evaluated in conjunction with the content of your work. There is a writing resource folder on Canvas with help on writing topics and principles. Please use ASA style formatting for in-text citations and references (https://lib.trinity.edu/citing-sources/asa-style-citations/).The penalty for plagiarism or any other form of cheating is failing the course. See the academic integrity statement for further details.