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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page discussion of our societal construct of deviance. Under the medical model deviance is nothing more than a pathology, a view many psychiatrists and sociologists find disquieting. These same professionals prefer to look at deviance form a conflict and labeling standpoint. They view it as not simply a disease but something that can also be caused by society itself in the way we tend to categorize those that are outside the norm. The author reviews each of these approaches and concludes that despite the many criticisms of the medical model of deviance, there are many advantages to approaching deviance as a pathology. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: AM2_PPdevia2.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
deviance has been defined in accordance with a number of diverse considerations. By far the most prominent of these, however, is the definition imposed by the medical model.
Interestingly, this model has received considerable criticism for its dependence on the disease concept in explaining deviance. Under this model deviance is nothing more than a pathology, a view
many psychiatrists and sociologists find disquieting. These same professionals prefer to look at deviance form a conflict and labeling standpoint. They view it as not simply a disease
but something that can also be caused by society itself in the way we tend to categorize those that are outside the norm. The medical model, in turn, exerts
a form of societal control itself in the view that deviance is an illness. Illnesses are responded to with treatment and the status of being ill sets one apart
from mainstream society. Indeed, a whole set of precise guidelines are provided by the medical community in the DSM-IV which allow us to more effectively make the distinction between
normal and abnormal. While such guidelines have at least some semblance of objectivity, there is ample room for error in the human process of diagnosis. There are, however,
many advantages to approaching deviance as a pathology. Some of the advantages of approaching deviance as a pathology with precise symptoms and treatments
can be witnessed in the fact that the definition of deviance varies according to cultural environment, to social and economic class and even to gender. It is an acknowledged
fact that placing a label on an individual which identifies his or her behavior as deviating from the norm can have severe consequences. These consequences are the concern of
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