SOCI 422: Sociology of Health and Mental Illness
| Course Home Page | Blackboard | Instructor E-mail |
| Course Overview | Required Reading | Course Structure and Requirements |
| Grading | Course Mechanics | Lesson Schedule |
| Honor Code |
Course Overview
About your Instructor
Welcome to SOCI 422, Sociology of Health and Mental Illness! I’ll be your instructor—really your guide—through this course.
As an instructor, I see a class as a cooperative, group effort, which means that we learn together and with one another. In this effort, I see us as cooperating toward achieving a joint goal, rather than competing as individuals to achieve solo goals. I will help you with course content, and I hope that you will help your fellow students as well. I expect to learn from you, and for you to learn from each other. But, enough about my philosophy and me, you probably want to know a bit more about the course itself.
Well, here’s what you’re getting yourself into!
Course Description
Health (and lack thereof) has become a highly visible public issue as politicians, healthcare providers, insurers, and lay persons debate the nature of various health concerns, including mental illness, and formulate policy around such concerns. The policy developed and definitional claims oftentimes stem from the perspective or starting point of the assorted stakeholders and claimsmakers, and students should be able to identify the perspective and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of policies and claims. In order to do so, however, they need some tools to disentangle the debates and to sort rhetoric from evidence. These tools include:
- knowledge of the various perspectives on health and illness
- an understanding of how illness undergoes a definitional process (and is not merely a biomedical fact)
- some history of how illness (mental illness in this course) has been treated and the implications for those treatments.
This course offers an introduction to sociological theories and research related to health and illness, with a focus on mental health and mental illness. Although many people think of mental illness as under the purview of healthcare providers (and psychiatrists and psychologists for mental illness), sociologists have made significant contributions to our understanding and conceptions of health, illness, and mental illness. Sociologists have challenged taken-for-granted assumptions about how health and illness are defined and how these definitions are applied to individuals. They have also examined the social sources and (unequal) distribution of healthcare in the population, and they have studied the structure, organization, and provision of health and mental health services.
This course is loosely organized into three main sections. We will begin by examining multiple perspectives on health, illness, and mental illness. Next, we will study several major theories about these topics, and we will finish the course by focusing solely on mental illness and the history of treatment for mental illness.
Hopefully, this course will whet your intellectual appetite to study other topics within the sociology of health, illness, and mental illness, as a vast literature exists for further learning (on aspects such as race, class, and gender and health/mental health; or the criminal justice system and mental health). We will not have enough time to explore all of these fully, but will touch on them throughout the semester. Should you have a desire to learn more, I would be happy to guide you to other readings!
Required Reading
Textbooks
The required textbooks for this course are listed below. You can order them from Friday Center Books & Gifts either online or by using the book order form.
- Creating Mental Illness (2003) by Allen Horwitz; Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0226353821
- The Medicalization of Society (2007) by Peter Conrad; The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: 978-0801885853
- Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness (2002) by David Karp; Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0195113860
- The Mad Among Us: A History of the Care of America’s Mentally Ill (1995) by Gerald Grob; Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0674541122
- Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (1961) by Erving Goffman; Anchor Press. ISBN: 978-0385000161
E-reserves and E-Journals
Throughout the semester, I will have several assigned readings available online through the UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries Web site. Some of the readings will be listed as “e-reserve,” and you can access them through the library's electronic reserves system. Others, designated “e-journal,” will be available through the library’s electronic journal subscriptions. Both types of articles will be in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the articles. If you don’t have it on your computer, you can download it for free at the Adobe Web site. More information on accessing the library's electronic resources is included in Course Mechanics.
Course Structure and Requirements
Your final grade will be based on the following assignments:
| Assignment | Point Value | Length |
| Discussion Forum participation | 20 (10 forums, 2 points each) |
Weekly paragraphs and comments |
| Paper: Sick Role Memoir | 20 | 5-7 pages |
| Paper: Advising Mental Health Care Providers | 20 | 5-7 pages |
| Paper: Textual Analysis | 20 | 3-5 pages |
| Final Exam (essays) | 20 | 4-6 pages |
I will describe each component in detail below, but please let me begin by suggesting that you save all of your work! Technology can be a temperamental beast, and if you lose an assignment somewhere in cyberspace, I’m not savvy enough to help you retrieve it. You’d be responsible for doing the assignment all over—not the most fun prospect!
Also, please note that you are responsible for submitting all work by the due date. I do not accept late work unless there is an exceptional circumstance, in which case you should alert me as soon as possible.
Readings, Key Questions, Lesson Notes
I have based this course on the one I teach in a traditional classroom, and I have assigned the typical amount of reading I would assign in that setting. It may look like a lot of reading, but I promise that it is consistent with what you’d be getting if we were in the traditional classroom. Besides, you’re paying good money for this course, and I want you to get your money’s worth!
For each reading, I will provide a list of key questions. You don’t need to write out answers to these or hand them in. The questions are guides that will help you pick out what I see as key ideas in the readings. When you’re finished with a reading, go through the questions again to check your understanding—you should be able to answer the questions for yourself. If you can’t or are unsure of an answer, then you know to follow up with me either using our Online Q&A discussion forum or via e-mail.
Each lesson also includes Lesson Notes to supplement your readings, and sometimes to guide you through more challenging readings.
Weekly Discussion Forums
Each lesson will include a short online activity or a couple of thought questions to provoke and guide discussion. You need to submit two posts each week. The first should be your thoughts on the reading (or your answer to the guiding questions) and the second should be a response to at least one other student. Your first response to the reading should be at least four sentences long.
Your posts will be graded with a check, check-minus, or zero. Like the grading for the reflection papers, I will look for a thesis statement, whether you brought ideas from the reading assignment into your post, and whether you made an argument instead of simply stating “I like this.”
The quality of your posts will count more than the quantity. I will assess quality by determining if you integrate the readings into your comments and make a good argument. If you agree or disagree with something or someone, explain why and give sound empirical evidence for your position (for example, you can’t cite Al Franken or Bill O’Reilly as “proof” of your position; you have to find peer-reviewed examples, rather than rhetorical positions).
Online discussion need not be limited to the activity or questions I provide. If you find another idea in the readings compelling, I welcome additional thoughts or comments.
A note about civility: I want to remind everyone to be respectful and sociological in your responses. Sociology is a science. Personal experiences are welcome, but keep in mind that your individual experience is not a counterargument against a trend. For example, if you saw one mini-van speeding, it wouldn’t be logical to say that all mini-van drivers are speeders, or if you like to talk during a movie, that doesn’t invalidate the fact that most people don’t talk while at a theater.
When considering your personal experience in the discussion forum (or in the analytic reflection papers), you might think about why and how you fit (or don’t fit) the trend. This doesn’t mean that your personal experiences don’t matter; of course, they have meaning for you. But, they are not counterarguments.
Online Q&A: An optional component of the course is our Online Q&A forum. If you have questions about the readings, you can post them to the Online Q&A for answers from your classmates or me. You can also e-mail me privately, but if your question is important for everyone to know, I’ll also post an answer on the Online Q&A.
One more reminder: You are responsible for submitting all posts on time. I will not accept late posts (unless you have compelling reasons for their lateness). You should verify that your post appears in the forum after you submit it.
Papers
You will prepare three papers for this course. Each paper is described below; links to return you to these instructions will be included in the appropriate lessons.
Please type your papers double-spaced, using one-inch margins and 12-point type. Proofread your papers carefully; I expect them to be free of spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. Be sure to number the pages. You do not need to include a separate title page. Please send me your paper as a .doc or .rtf. Do not send .docx as I cannot open those files. If you send the paper as a .docx, I will consider the paper late, and will automatically deduct one point for each day the paper is “late.”
- Sick Role Memoir (approximately 5-7 pages): This paper is designed to develop your understanding of the sick role, its conceptual strengths, and its limitations through the lens of a personal experience. It should also demonstrate how illness is profoundly social.
Read A.S. Trillin, “Of Dragons and Garden Peas: A Cancer Patient Talks to Doctors” (e-reserves)
Being sick is a universal human experience. Think about a time when you, a family member, or a close friend was sick. Write a personal memoir along the lines of Alice Trillin’s “Of Dragons and Garden Peas.” What was it like to be ill, or to deal with the illness of someone close to you? Did you experience any socialization into the “Land of the Sick People”? How so? Were there any special rituals or talismans associated with illness? You might want to consider whether you fulfilled the sick role as envisioned by Talcott Parsons. If so, in what ways? How did you deviate from Parsons’ model?
As you write your paper, try to be as personal as you can. Try to reflect on your experience using your knowledge of sociology. You do not need to answer all the questions I have posed: They are merely starting points for your thinking. I am more interested in your interpretation of your experience.
- Advising Mental Health Care Providers (approximately 5-7 pages): This paper draws on all of the course readings to date. It should demonstrate how the perspectives and concepts used in the course might be applied to a real-life situation. You are asked to synthesize and evaluate the perspectives and theories. Please follow these instructions in preparing your paper:
You have been asked to participate in a panel of technical experts who will discuss depression. The major topics are updating the DSM and modernizing approaches to treatment. The panel organizer asks you to prepare a short paper to clarify your thoughts. Your paper will be offered to the audience after the panel discussion.
To prepare your paper, begin by reading the DSM definition of Major Depressive Disorder. Then, elaborate on and explain your recommendations for:
- revising the definition of major depressive disorder for the next version of the DSM
- improving treatment practices and options.
In accomplishing these two tasks, be sure to explain how various perspectives (sociological, biomedical, and so on) and theories or theoretical constructs (such as, labeling theory or social power) of illness inform your recommendations. (Feel free to draw from the multiple perspectives we have studied in developing your response. No single discipline has all the answers.) Acknowledge where any particular strengths or weaknesses/drawbacks to your recommendations lie, and propose means to deal with weaknesses or obstacles.
Also, be certain to acknowledge a person’s individual experience of illness (as in Speaking of Sadness) with institutional effects (as in Creating Mental Illness). In other words, how would you reconcile Katz’s work with Horwitz’s or Szazs’s? How do institutions frame individual experiences?
- Textual Analysis (3-5 pages): For this paper, you will do a textual analysis of either Grob’s book or Goffman’s book (note that you are responsible for reading both before the final exam).
In textual analysis, you move beyond summary and description of the author’s work. The objective is to take apart the work and examine the different components in order to create an argument you are making about the work. This may come in the form of a critique or evaluation.
The paper should cover the following (you do not have to use this order if it does not match your needs):
- Explication—What are the main points of the work?
- Explanation—What are the author’s assumptions? What debate is being addressed? What is the evidence for the argument? What are the implications for this line of reasoning?
- Assessment—What are the strengths and weaknesses of the argument? What is your evaluation of the text (critical evaluation)?
To accomplish this, you may consider using the following tools:
- raise questions about the logic of the argument
- raise questions about the credibility of the evidence provided
- raise questions about the soundness of the conclusions.
Final Exam
The course will conclude with one cumulative exam, which will consist of several short essay questions, and will cover the readings, activities, and discussions. Two weeks before the exam, I will provide a pool of possible questions. On exam day you will be asked to write on four questions of my choosing (5 points each). The two-hour exam will be closed book and closed notes.
Grading
Letter grades will be assigned using the following scale:
A 95-100 A- 90-94 B+ 87-89 B 83-86 B- 80-82 C+ 77-79 C 73-76 C- 70-72 D+ 67-69 D 63-66 D- 60-62 F under 60
Course Mechanics
Blackboard
Your discussion forums are accessed through a software program called Blackboard. There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the “SOCI 422” link, and you will see a navigation button on the left taking you to the forums.
If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:
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If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.
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If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), visit the Onyen Web site.
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If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
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If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durhamat the Friday Center.
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If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
- If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).
Library Services and Resources (including e-reserves)
Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online have access to the UNC Library System. Visit Distance Education Library Services to access a wide array of online services and resources including e-reserves, online databases, online journals, online books, and live help with research and library access.
Most online resources require you to log in with your Onyen and password. If you have any trouble finding the resource that you need or logging in to a resource, you can contact the library through the contact information at Distance Education Library Services. You can chat live about your problem, or send an e-mail to request assistance.
E-mails regarding the course will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC mail using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” at the Onyen Web site. Please also notify Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change.
If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff.
We strongly recommend that you use your UNC e-mail account for all e-mails regarding your course. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses “blind carbon copy” to protect privacy. If you forward your mail to a commercial e-mail service provider (yahoo.com or msn.com, for example), messages from your instructor, Friday Center staff, or other students may be delayed because these service providers sometimes place temporary blocks on messages originating from universities. If you are using a commercial e-mail service provider, the e-mail links in this course may not work for you.
Submitting your work
It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.
Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.
Finally, please remember to send your papers as .doc (or .rtf) files. A paper submitted as a .docx will be considered late. You can also send a copy of the text of your paper in the body of your e-mail to ensure that I receive the paper on time.
Other Questions
Contact me with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. There is an e-mail link to my address at the top of every lesson page. Please include “SOCI 422” in the subject line of your e-mail.
Contact your Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links.
If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669)
Lesson Schedule
| Dates | Topics |
| Lesson 1 |
Perspectives on Health, Disease, and Illness |
| Lesson 2 |
Social Sources of Illness |
| Lesson 3 |
Meaning and the Experience of Illness Paper due: Sick Role Memoir |
| Lesson 4 |
Illness as Deviance: Medicalization and Stigma |
| Lesson 5 |
Illness as Deviance: Labeling |
| Lesson 6 |
Defining and Creating Mental Illness Paper due: Advising Mental Health Care Providers |
| Lesson 7 |
Institutions and Mental Ilness: Institutionalization and Deinstitutionalization; Mental Illness and Social Control Paper due: Textual Analysis |
| Final Exam The exam is a closed book and notes, two-hour essay exam. |
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| Course
evaluation form Please take a moment to complete our online evaluation form. |
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Honor Code
The Honor Code is in effect for all assignments in this course—all of your work must be your own or cited properly so that you don’t take credit for someone else’s work or ideas. If you borrow ideas from other people, books, Web sites, or sources inside or outside of class, I expect you to cite the source in a footnote. You are encouraged to study together, but your reflection papers, discussion forum postings, and exam responses must be your own.
If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, you can ask me. You might want to refer to this helpful Web page that explains plagiarism.
The UNC-Chapel Hill Honor Code states that:
“It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity.”