The role of medicine | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 11 hours ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 50–65 minutes
The role of medicine A-Level Sociology revision topic examines medicine as a social institution rather than looking only at its treatment of illness. AQA requires students studying Health to understand the role of medicine, the health professions and the globalised health industry. This lesson focuses specifically on medicine, including its relationship with definitions of health and illness, wider society and questions of power. It builds on access to and provision of healthcare [Access to and provision of healthcare] and leads into the more specific study of health professions [Health professions].
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Explain why the role of medicine can be examined sociologically.
Explain different sociological perspectives on medicine where supported by course evidence.
Examine relationships between medicine, health and wider society.
Analyse medicine using ideas of power, social structure, social action, conflict and consensus.
Evaluate sociological explanations of medical power.
Evaluate sociological explanations of medical practice.
Revision Notes 📚
The role of medicine A-Level Sociology revision focus
The AQA Health specification requires students to understand:
the social construction of health, illness, disability and the body
models of health and illness
unequal health chances by social class, gender, ethnicity and region
inequalities in healthcare provision and access
the nature and social distribution of mental illness
the role of medicine, the health professions and the globalised health industry.
The revision plan divides the final specification point into three lessons:
The role of medicine
Health professions [Health professions]
The globalised health industry [The globalised health industry].
This lesson therefore concentrates on medicine as a wider social institution, rather than examining particular health professions or global health organisations in detail.
Medicine as a sociological issue
Medicine can be examined sociologically because health and illness take place within wider social relationships.
A sociological approach can therefore ask:
What role does medicine perform within society?
How is medicine related to definitions of health and illness?
What authority does medicine have?
How are relationships between medicine and patients organised?
How does medical practice relate to wider social structures?
Is medical power accepted through consensus, or can it involve conflict?
How might social values affect medicine?
These questions move beyond simply asking whether a treatment is clinically effective.
The focus is the social role, organisation and power of medicine.
Medicine and the definition of health and illness
Earlier in the Health option, students examine the social construction of health and illness [The social construction of health and illness].
This provides an important foundation for understanding medicine.
If definitions of health and illness can be examined sociologically, then medicine may also be relevant to the ways health problems are:
defined
classified
understood
responded to.
This creates an important sociological question:
What role does medicine play in establishing socially accepted understandings of health and illness?
The supplied specification establishes the requirement to study the role of medicine but does not provide a detailed named theory answering this question.
Medicine and models of health and illness
The relationship between medicine and models of health and illness [Models of health and illness] is also important.
Different ways of understanding health and illness may influence:
which problems receive attention
how illness is interpreted
what kinds of responses are considered appropriate.
What is medical power?
The lesson objectives specifically require students to evaluate sociological explanations of medical power and practice.
Within the supplied material, medical power can be approached as the influence or authority medicine may exercise within society.
Sociological questions about medical power include:
Who has authority to define a condition as requiring medical attention?
Who makes decisions within medical relationships?
Are patients and medical professionals equally powerful?
How influential is medical knowledge?
How is medical authority accepted or challenged?
Does medicine influence wider ideas about health and illness?
Medical practice
Medical practice refers broadly to what medicine does and how medicine operates socially.
A sociological analysis can therefore investigate relationships between:
medical knowledge → medical decisions → social interaction → health-related outcomes
The key point is that medicine operates through institutions and social relationships.
This means its practice can be considered in relation to the AQA core themes of:
power
social differentiation
social structure
social action
values
conflict and consensus.
Medicine and consensus
AQA requires students to understand the significance of consensus throughout the course.
A consensus-oriented analysis of medicine asks questions such as:
Is medical authority widely accepted?
Does medicine contribute to meeting shared social needs?
Do patients and professionals broadly agree about the role medicine should play?
Does medicine help maintain social stability?
These are useful analytical questions.
However, the supplied specification does not name a particular consensus theory of medicine, so students should not invent one from this page alone.
Medicine and conflict
AQA also requires the significance of conflict to be understood.
A conflict-oriented analysis asks different questions:
Are there unequal relationships within medicine?
Do different groups have competing interests?
Who benefits from particular medical arrangements?
Do some groups have more influence over medical decisions?
Can medical power be challenged?
The contrast between consensus and conflict helps students evaluate whether medicine should be seen primarily as serving common social needs or as operating within unequal social relationships.
Again, particular named conflict explanations are not given in the supplied materials.
Medicine, power and stratification
One of AQA's two core themes is social differentiation, power and stratification.
This is especially useful for analysing the role of medicine.
Social differentiation
People occupy different positions in society and may have different relationships with medical institutions.
Power
Medicine may involve unequal authority and influence within social relationships.
Stratification
Medical relationships can be examined in the context of wider social inequalities.
This links with earlier Health lessons on:
social class and health chances [Social class and health chances]
gender and health chances [Gender and health chances]
ethnicity, region and health chances [Ethnicity, region and health chances].
However, do not assume that every health inequality is caused by medicine. That relationship would need evidence.
Medical authority and social legitimacy
Power is not necessarily exercised through force.
An important analytical question is whether medical authority is socially accepted.
If people accept particular individuals or institutions as possessing legitimate expertise, this may strengthen their influence.
Sociologists can therefore ask:
Why is medical knowledge regarded as authoritative?
How is medical expertise recognised?
Do patients always accept professional judgements?
Under what circumstances might medical authority be questioned?
Medicine and the patient
Relationships between medicine and patients are an important aspect of medical practice.
Sociologically, these relationships can be examined through questions of:
authority
knowledge
decision-making
interaction
expectations
power.
This leads directly into health professions [Health professions], where the revision plan requires students to examine relationships between health professionals and patients.
For this lesson, focus on the broader issue:
How does the social authority of medicine shape relationships surrounding health and illness?
Medicine and social structure
AQA requires students to understand the significance of social structure and social action.
A structural analysis of medicine focuses on the wider institutions and arrangements within which medical practice occurs.
It might ask:
How is medicine organised within society?
How do wider social structures shape medical practice?
How does medicine relate to existing patterns of power?
How might medicine contribute to wider social arrangements?
Structural explanations are particularly useful for analysing patterns that cannot be understood solely through individual interactions.
Medicine and social action
A social-action perspective would place greater emphasis on:
interaction
interpretation
individual meanings
negotiation between social actors.
Applied to medicine, questions include:
How do patients interpret medical advice?
How do professionals and patients negotiate meanings?
Is medical authority always accepted?
How might people respond differently to the same medical classification?
The most effective analysis may consider the interaction between structure and action rather than assuming that either operates alone.
Medicine and social construction
Medicine has an important conceptual relationship with the social construction content studied earlier.
Consider this sequence:
experience → interpretation → classification → medical response
A sociologist may examine the role medicine plays within this process.
For example:
Who identifies something as an illness?
How does a classification become socially meaningful?
What happens once a problem is treated as medical?
Does medical classification influence social responses?
This does not mean medicine simply invents illness.
The sociological focus is on medicine's role in the social processes surrounding health and illness.
Medical classification and mental illness
The previous two lessons examined:
the nature of mental illness [The nature of mental illness]
the social distribution of mental illness [The social distribution of mental illness].
These provide particularly useful links because debates about the nature of mental illness raise questions about:
definition
classification
authority
recording
measurement.
Medicine may therefore be relevant to the ways mental illness is identified and classified.
However, avoid assuming that every social pattern in mental illness is simply produced by medical classification. This would require evidence.
Medical knowledge and expertise
Medicine can exercise influence partly through specialised knowledge.
A sociologist can therefore examine:
who possesses recognised expertise
how specialist knowledge affects relationships
whether differences in knowledge create differences in power
how expertise is socially recognised.
This becomes especially relevant in the next lesson, health professions [Health professions].
The specification does not identify particular named explanations of professional expertise, so detailed theoretical claims should come from approved course resources.
Medicine and values
AQA expects students to understand the significance of the role of values in Sociology.
Medicine can therefore be analysed by asking:
Are medical decisions completely separate from wider social values?
How are ideas about desirable health outcomes formed?
Can definitions of health and illness involve value judgements?
How might changing social values affect medical practice?
These questions connect medicine to earlier work on the social construction of health and illness.
Medicine and social control
AQA's Health specification does not separately identify medical social control as a named content requirement.
Therefore, a detailed theory of medicine as social control cannot be added from the supplied source alone.
However, because AQA requires students to examine the role of medicine and apply core themes such as power, a legitimate analytical question is:
To what extent does medical authority influence people's behaviour and social responses to health and illness?
A detailed answer would require specification-aligned evidence.
Is medical power necessarily negative?
No.
Power should not automatically be treated as harmful.
An important evaluative distinction is between:
having authority or influence
abusing that authority.
Medical expertise may provide reasons for professional authority, while sociologists may still question whether that authority is always exercised equally or appropriately.
Therefore, a balanced evaluation asks:
Why might medicine need authority?
What benefits may specialist knowledge provide?
When might unequal power become problematic?
How accountable is medical authority?
Can patients challenge or negotiate medical decisions?
This produces stronger evaluation than assuming that power = oppression.
Is medical authority absolute?
A further evaluative question is whether medical power should be treated as unlimited.
Patients are themselves social actors.
Therefore, medical relationships may involve:
acceptance
negotiation
disagreement
resistance.
This creates a useful link to the structure/action debate:
structural medical authority ↔ individual social action
A theory that presents patients as entirely passive may therefore need to explain why individuals sometimes act differently.
Medicine and healthcare provision
The previous lesson, access to and provision of healthcare [Access to and provision of healthcare], examines healthcare inequalities.
Medicine and healthcare are clearly connected, but the topics should not be collapsed into each other.
Role of medicine | Healthcare access and provision |
Examines medicine's wider social role | Examines inequalities in healthcare |
Includes power and practice | Includes provision and people's ability to obtain care |
Raises questions about medical authority | Raises questions about distribution and access |
Focuses on medicine as a social institution | Focuses on healthcare inequality |
If the question asks about medical power, do not write a general essay about unequal access to services.
Medicine and the globalised health industry
The final Health lesson is the globalised health industry [The globalised health industry].
This moves the analysis beyond medicine within a single society and towards the significance of globalisation for health.
For now, remember that AQA groups together:
medicine
health professions
the globalised health industry.
These are related parts of a broader sociological analysis of health institutions.
Sociological explanations of medical power
The lesson objective requires students to evaluate sociological explanations of medical power.
When you study named explanations from approved resources, revise each using the same structure.
1. What does the explanation claim?
State its view of medical power accurately.
2. Where does medical power come from?
For example, what social process does the explanation identify?
3. How is that power exercised?
Identify the proposed mechanism.
4. Who is affected?
Explain which social relationships the theory examines.
5. What evidence supports it?
Use evidence relevant to medical power.
6. What are its limitations?
Consider whether it exaggerates or underestimates medical influence.
7. Is there an alternative perspective?
Compare another sociological interpretation.
8. What is the overall judgement?
Decide how convincing the explanation is.
Evaluating medical practice
A sociological explanation of medical practice can be evaluated by asking:
Does it recognise the value of specialist medical knowledge?
Does it explain unequal power between social actors?
Does it treat patients as passive?
Does it explain variation between situations?
Is it too focused on structure?
Does it give enough attention to social action?
Does it account for wider social inequalities?
Is its evidence valid and representative?
These questions help turn description into AO3.
Evidence about medicine
AQA requires research design, including its strengths and limitations, to be integrated into substantive topics.
Evidence about medicine should therefore be evaluated.
Ask:
What is being measured?
Is the study investigating:
medical authority
patient experience
decision-making
professional practice
trust
access
or something else?
Who was studied?
Evidence from one medical context may not necessarily apply to all medicine.
What method was used?
The wider AQA course requires knowledge of:
quantitative and qualitative methods
questionnaires
interviews
observation
experiments
documents
official statistics.
Different methods may reveal different aspects of medical relationships.
Does the evidence establish power?
A difference in knowledge or decision-making may be relevant to power, but the researcher needs to explain how the evidence demonstrates the proposed relationship.
Quantitative and qualitative evidence
Different research questions may require different evidence.
Quantitative evidence may help reveal broad patterns.
Qualitative evidence may be especially useful for investigating:
meanings
experiences
interaction
perceptions of authority.
However, neither automatically gives a complete picture.
Methodological evaluation should always be applied to the specific claim about medicine.
Observing medical practice
The wider AQA specification includes participant and non-participant observation as sociological research methods.
Observation may potentially allow researchers to examine social interaction directly.
However, a sociologist would still need to consider:
access to the setting
ethical issues
how the researcher's presence may affect behaviour
how observations are interpreted.
The important point is to connect methodological evaluation to the study of medical relationships and practice.
A hypothetical application
Consider this invented scenario for examination practice:
In a healthcare setting, Professional A has specialist knowledge and formally makes decisions about treatment. Patient B can ask questions and express preferences but does not possess the same specialist knowledge. In some consultations Patient B accepts the recommendation, while in others the patient challenges it.
This situation can be analysed sociologically because it shows:
unequal expertise
potential differences in authority
the possibility of medical power
patient social action
negotiation rather than total professional control.
It does not prove:
medical power is always harmful
every patient-professional relationship operates this way
patients are powerless
one sociological theory of medicine is correct.
💡 Exam skill: Use an item to demonstrate the specific aspects of a theory that it actually supports.
Comparing consensus and conflict interpretations
A useful comparison framework is:
Consensus questions | Conflict questions |
How might medicine serve shared social needs? | Whose interests may be involved? |
Why might medical authority be accepted? | Are relationships unequal? |
How could expertise contribute positively? | Who possesses greater power? |
How might medicine contribute to social stability? | Can medical authority be challenged? |
These questions allow students to organise comparisons without pretending that the supplied specification provides named Health theories.
Evaluating explanations through social action
One possible limitation of a strongly structural explanation is that it may understate how patients respond to medical authority.
Ask:
Do people always comply?
Can they seek alternatives?
Can they question professionals?
Are medical interactions negotiated?
If patients exercise agency, this may qualify explanations presenting medical power as automatic or complete.
However, patient agency does not necessarily mean structural power disappears.
The stronger judgement considers both.
Evaluating explanations through structure
The reverse criticism can also apply.
An explanation focused only on individual interaction may underestimate:
institutional authority
professional status
wider social inequalities
structured differences in knowledge or resources.
Therefore, social-action explanations can also be evaluated in relation to wider structures.
Avoiding simplistic judgements
Weak evaluation:
“Doctors have power, so medicine is bad.”
Strong evaluation:
“Unequal authority may exist because medical professionals possess recognised expertise, but the significance of this inequality depends on how authority is exercised, whether patients can negotiate decisions and whether wider social inequalities affect the relationship.”
The second approach is much more sociological because it evaluates how power operates, rather than simply labelling it.
Building an extended answer
A useful paragraph structure is:
Perspective → explanation of medicine → mechanism of power/practice → evidence or item → evaluation → judgement
For example:
One sociological explanation views medicine as [accurate perspective from course material]. It argues that medical power operates through [mechanism]. This can be seen in [evidence/application], where [analysis]. However, the explanation may underestimate [alternative], suggesting that medical authority is [qualified judgement].
Use only named perspectives and evidence supplied by reliable course materials.
Reaching an evaluative conclusion
A conclusion about the role of medicine could consider:
whether medical power is necessary for effective practice
whether authority is distributed equally
whether patients possess meaningful agency
whether conflict or consensus provides the stronger interpretation
whether medical power varies according to social context
how convincingly the available evidence supports the explanation.
Avoid:
“Medicine has both positive and negative effects.”
Instead, explain which sociological interpretation is most useful and why.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Medicine | A social institution concerned with health and illness whose role AQA requires students to examine sociologically. | Explain relationships between medicine, health and society. |
Medical power | The influence or authority associated with medicine within social relationships. | Analyse and evaluate explanations of medical authority. |
Medical practice | How medicine operates through decisions, relationships and actions concerning health and illness. | Examine how sociological perspectives interpret what medicine does. |
Authority | Recognised influence or capacity to make decisions within social relationships. | Analyse relationships between medicine and patients. |
Social structure | Wider institutions and arrangements that shape social life. | Explain structural accounts of medicine and medical power. |
Social action | Meaningful actions and interpretations by individuals. | Evaluate whether patients simply accept or actively negotiate medical authority. |
Consensus | Broad agreement about social arrangements or values. | Consider whether medicine performs widely accepted roles. |
Conflict | Social disagreement or competing interests between groups. | Analyse whether medical relationships involve inequalities of power. |
Power | The capacity to influence social relationships, decisions or outcomes. | Apply the AQA core theme directly to medical practice. |
Social construction | The idea that meanings and definitions can be shaped within social contexts. | Examine medicine's relationship to definitions of health and illness. |
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Describing what doctors do instead of analysing the role of medicine
Why this is incorrect: The specification concerns the sociological role of medicine, not a list of medical tasks.
How to improve: Focus on social relationships, authority, power, definitions of illness and medicine's place within society.
Mistake: Assuming medical power is automatically harmful
Why this is incorrect: Power means influence or authority. It does not automatically establish abuse or oppression.
How to improve: Evaluate why authority exists, how it is exercised and whether it can be challenged.
Mistake: Treating patients as completely passive
Why this is incorrect: AQA requires students to understand social action as well as social structure.
How to improve: Consider whether patients can interpret, negotiate, question or resist medical decisions.
Mistake: Ignoring wider social structures
Why this is incorrect: Focusing only on individual interactions may fail to explain institutional authority or wider inequalities.
How to improve: Connect micro-level interaction to wider structures where relevant.
Mistake: Confusing medicine with healthcare access
Why this is incorrect: Healthcare provision and access form a separate specification requirement.
How to improve: Keep the question's exact focus central. Medical power is not the same thing as whether a service is accessible.
Mistake: Saying medicine “creates illness”
Why this is incorrect: The earlier social-construction topic concerns meanings and definitions, not the claim that people's experiences are unreal.
How to improve: Explain how medicine may influence classification and interpretation without denying experience.
Mistake: Using conflict and consensus as labels without explanation
Why this is incorrect: Simply naming a perspective does not show how it interprets medicine.
How to improve: Explain what the perspective would say about medical authority, social needs, interests and power.
Mistake: Giving unsupported named theories
Why this is incorrect: The supplied specification does not identify particular named theories of medical power.
How to improve: Only use theorists and studies from reliable specification-aligned teaching material.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Identify one course-wide sociological concept that may be used to analyse the role of medicine. [1 mark]
Question 2
Explain what sociologists mean by medical power. [2 marks]
Question 3
Explain two reasons why medicine can be studied as a social institution rather than simply as a form of treatment. [4 marks]
Question 4
Explain two ways in which medicine may be related to the social definition of health and illness. [4 marks]
Question 5
Explain how conflict and consensus may provide different ways of analysing the role of medicine. [6 marks]
Question 6
Explain how social structure and social action may both be relevant to relationships between medicine and patients. [6 marks]
Question 7
Analyse why possessing specialist knowledge may be relevant to medical power but does not necessarily mean that patients are completely powerless. [8 marks]
Question 8
Read the following hypothetical item:
Medical professionals possess recognised specialist knowledge and are formally responsible for many healthcare decisions. Most patients accept this expertise, although some question recommendations and seek greater involvement in decisions.
Using the item and your knowledge of Sociology, analyse two ways in which the situation illustrates debates about medical power. [10 marks]
Question 9
Analyse why a sociologist might question the view that medical authority always operates in the same way in every social situation. [8 marks]
Question 10
Evaluate sociological explanations of the role and power of medicine in society. [10 marks]
Answers and indicative mark scheme
Question 1
Any relevant AQA course-wide concept, such as:
power
social structure
social action
consensus
conflict
values.
Award 1 mark.
Question 2
Award up to 2 marks for explaining medical power as the influence or authority medicine may exercise within social relationships concerning health and illness.
Question 3
Possible points include:
Medicine operates through organised social relationships and institutions.
Medicine may influence definitions or classifications of health and illness.
Medical relationships may involve power and authority.
Medicine exists within wider structures of inequality and society.
Medical practice involves interaction between social actors.
Award credit for two developed sociological reasons.
Question 4
Possible answers include:
Medicine may participate in the classification of experiences as health or illness.
Medical knowledge may influence socially accepted understandings of conditions.
Medical responses may follow from particular classifications.
Medical authority may affect which definitions become influential.
Full-credit responses should distinguish social definition from the claim that medicine simply invents people's experiences.
Question 5
A developed answer should explain that:
Consensus directs attention towards shared social needs, agreement and the acceptance of medical authority.
Medical expertise may therefore be viewed as performing an important and widely accepted role.
Conflict directs attention towards unequal social relationships, competing interests and power.
It may therefore raise questions about who controls decisions and whose definitions carry greater authority.
Higher-quality responses will compare the perspectives directly rather than describing them separately.
Question 6
Indicative content:
Social structure directs attention towards institutions, formal authority and wider patterns within which medicine operates.
Social action focuses on how patients and professionals interpret and negotiate their interactions.
Medical professionals may possess structured authority, but patients can still act and respond.
Individual action occurs within wider social relationships.
The strongest answers should show how structure and action interact.
Question 7
A strong answer may explain:
Specialist knowledge can create differences in expertise.
Recognised expertise may contribute to professional authority.
This may place medical professionals in a more influential position in decision-making.
However, patients remain social actors.
They may ask questions, disagree or participate in decisions.
Formal authority therefore does not automatically produce total control.
Medical power may vary according to social context and interaction.
The strongest responses will distinguish unequal power from absolute power.
Question 8
Two particularly clear application points are available.
Recognised expertise and formal decision-making
Medical professionals possess specialist knowledge and formal responsibility. This supports an interpretation of medicine as possessing institutional authority and potentially greater power within healthcare relationships.
Patient questioning
Some patients challenge recommendations and seek involvement. This suggests that medical power may not be absolute and illustrates the importance of social action.
Students may also analyse the fact that most patients accept expertise, which could be interpreted through consensus and legitimacy.
The strongest responses will use the item to develop a debate rather than merely repeat its wording.
Question 9
A developed answer might explain that:
medical relationships involve different individuals and contexts
patients may differ in how they respond to authority
medical professionals may exercise authority differently
wider social structures may vary
individual social action can alter interactions
evidence from one context may not generalise to all medical relationships.
Therefore, an explanation presenting medical authority as identical and automatic in every situation may be overly generalised.
Question 10
A strong response should nevertheless:
Explain one sociological perspective on the role of medicine.
Explain what it suggests about medical authority and practice.
Develop the mechanism through which medical power operates.
Use relevant evidence or item material.
Evaluate whether medical authority serves shared social needs or produces unequal relationships.
Consider both social structure and social action.
Evaluate whether patients should be treated as passive.
Compare the explanation with an alternative sociological perspective.
Consider the quality and relevance of supporting evidence.
Reach a reasoned judgement about how far medicine possesses power and how useful sociological explanations are for understanding its role.
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