Payne SOCI 135 Winter 2022 Midterm #2 Due Thursday March 10th150 pts.
Please use 12pt. Times New Roman font and please double space responses.
Please insert page numbers and a header with your name and our course information (SOCI 135).
Part One: Identifications. 10 pts x 5 IDs = 50 points
For each of the five concepts below, please provide a brief explanation in your own
words describing what the term means.
Please provide an example from our course materials (readings, documentaries/clips,
lectures, slides) that provide an illustration of each concept.
1.) Reification
2.) Genetic Fallacy (week 5)
3.) Reflexivity
4.) Embodied Expertise
5.) Medicalization
Part Two: Short Answer. 50 pts x 2 prompts = 100 points
Please respond to both of the following two prompts.
Please aim for approximately 3-4 paragraphs per prompt.
Please include two specific examples from our course materials that help illustrate
or provide evidence for each response. (Total of four examples for short answer
portion of midterm).
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Payne SOCI 135 Winter 2022 Midterm #2 Due Thursday March 10th 150 pts.
1.) One of the central tasks of medical sociology involves persistently posing the questions:
what counts as objective medical knowledge, who is involved in determining said
objective medical knowledge (ideas and practices), and on what basis are medical claims
legitimately made and practiced? Since completing our first midterm, we have explored
the relationship between various understandings of professional expertise and its
relationship to lay (non-formal) expertise, trust, authority, and decision making.
? From your perspective, is there a fundamental tension between the exercise of
medical expertise and democratic deliberation and decision making? If so,
why? If not, why not? In answering this question, please specify your working
definition of expertise.
? Please discuss two distinct course examples that speak to your answer. Any
relevant course material is fair game for use as examples.
Please Note: You are not required to provide a simple ‘yes’ or hard ‘no’ answer – one of
your examples may suggest a ‘yes’ answer while another may suggest ‘no.’ You may
answer with ‘it depends!’ Please just be sure to fully explain the reasoning guiding the
response you provide.
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Payne SOCI 135 Winter 2022 Midterm #2 Due Thursday March 10th 150 pts.
2.) Please take some time to reflect upon the characteristics and consequences of the
organization of the medical system(s) in the United States. Consider the significant social
components of health care in the context of the United States.
? What role(s) does money play in relation to health care in the U.S.?
? To what extent is health care in the United States accessible? That is, in what
sense is health care available or not for particular individuals and groups of
individuals? If health care is not accessible in some or many instances, what
factors might explain these inequalities?
? Given the materials considered across our course readings, lecture slides,
documentaries/clips etc., what, to your estimation, are real or potential strengths
and limitations of the U.S. health care system?
Please Note: The final portion of prompt 2 (strengths and limitations of U.S.
health care system) is asking for a somewhat more subjective assessment – there
are no ‘wrong’ answers.
Please remember to include at least two examples from our course that speak
to your response for Prompt 2. Thank you
