Explain and analyse the conflicts between Sociological theories of Essay

Explain and analyse the conflicts between Sociological theories of Disability and Chronic Illness - Essay Example Parsons maintains that the notion of health is specifically significant in any society because of the value system of the societies, which underline self-autonomy and individual accomplishment, and the advanced level of demarcation in its social structure. Parsons (1975) proposes that disability and illness is dysfunctional to the social system for the reason that it hampers individuals and debilitates their successful fulfilment of social roles. He claims that society perceives disability and illness as forms of deviance that have to be regulated since they create difficulties for the individual and for the larger society. In UK, people suffering from chronic illnesses and disabilities also face problems like in other societies. The social system of the society is somehow in disadvantage because of disabled and chronically diseased people (Gouldner 1973). Parsons (1975) argues that individuals who are disabled or ill are permitted to have particular immunities and opportunities denied to other forms of social deviance. Disability studies have a political obligation to materialist social model standpoints that identify the centrality of disability as oppression, created through social structures and systems (Abberley, 1987).   Whereas medical sociology favours interpretive viewpoints that facilitate a focus on micro-social interactions.   It remains entrenched in and is largely dedicated to a notion of disability as social deviance (Bury 1997, Williams 2001). Yet simultaneously, these individuals get hold of particular responsibilities, indicating that the individual who takes in the ‘sick role’ has to address four traditional expectations and responsibilities: the sick individual is excused from normal social role obligations; the sick individual is not held accountable for the disability or illness and cannot become healthy merely by an act of determination; the