Parsons' Sick Role Theory and the Evolving Roles of Physicians

Parsons' Sick Role Theory and Medical Sociology

Talcott Parsons' concept of the sick role involves complicity on the part of both patient and community. The patient, once labeled as "sick," is exempt from the roles and duties expected of a healthy person, enabling a form of socially sanctioned deviance. This deviance is socially sanctioned because the physician, who occupies a position of power, authorizes the sick role. Parsons' sick role theory is unique because it focuses on the sociology of illness and incorporates both structural and functional factors.

Illness deviates from the norm practically by definition, because functional wellness is presumed to be normative. When a person becomes incapacitated in whatever way due to illness or injury, that person's behaviors, level of functioning, and usefulness to society deviate from the norm. Although Parsons developed his sick role theory in the middle of the twentieth century, it remains a potent guiding foundation for medical sociology. Sick role theory remains relevant because it can help elucidate issues related to labor relations and human resources, public policy, as well as issues that are more directly relevant to health care (Varul, 2010).

Rights and Responsibilities of the Sick Role

According to Parsons, the sick person has specific rights and responsibilities when assuming the sick role. In total, there are four categories of rights and responsibilities. The responsibility to seek care and work within the structure of the medical establishment remains salient, as it would be considered doubly deviant if a sick person were to simply remove herself from society rather than avail herself of treatment. This is why persons who refuse medical care for religious or other personal reasons are stigmatized: they are not fulfilling their responsibility as a sick person.

The sick person is, however, exempt from responsibility for the illness itself. This can be problematic with illnesses caused by lifestyle choices, such as obesity or lung disease. In spite of the limitations and challenges posed by Parsons' sick role theory, it remains part of the underpinning of medical sociology.

The Evolving and Multifaceted Roles of Physicians

A physician is often expected to fulfill many intersecting roles, and those roles have become more complex than ever before. Doctors are often high-profile figures who may need to work with the media or write for a public audience rather than for their peers. Likewise, doctors might participate in public policy, shaping the future of the health care industry and its many professions. Some doctors become behind-the-scenes researchers rather than working on the front lines with patients. Others do exactly the opposite, performing primary patient care alongside other members of the health care team.

Whatever roles any one doctor assumes, the role of medicine itself is to "bridge the gap between science and society," transmitting and applying medical science to practical and pragmatic ends (Working Party of the Royal College of Physicians, 2005, p. 5). Those ends might be related to healing and patient care or to improving public health. As such, the role of doctors has not necessarily changed so much as society itself has. Globalization and the pressing concerns of a mobilized society, the economic constraints of health care delivery, and the role of public health provisions all come into play across the various facets of physicians' roles.

References

Varul, M. Z. (2010). Talcott Parsons, the sick role, and chronic illness. Body & Society, 16(2), 72–94.

Working Party of the Royal College of Physicians. (2005). Doctors in society. Clinical Medicine, 5(6).