Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Eighth Edition of this classic text provides a basic introduction to the field of social psychology. Taking a critical symbolic interactionist approach, Social Psychology helps students understand the very nature of how individuals do things together in today's society. The book has been significantly revised taking into consideration a number of recent turns in the field, such as: the increased sense that American social psychology is deeply embedded in world culture; that postmodernism has much to offer the sudy of the social world; and that new theories on sexuality, identity, deviance and the body provide a fascinating viewpoint on a person within society.
Illness, Aging, Dying, and Medical Bodies
Illness, Aging, Dying, and Medical Bodies
Illness, aging, and death, with the rituals that surround their social organization, constitute social and biological facts that affect every human society. Illness, whether painful, chronic, transitory, or terminal, dislodges persons from their ordinary rounds of activity. Aging, often associated with entry into the social worlds of the elderly, the retired, and the chronically ill, signals the movement into the final stages of the life cycle. Death disrupts and alters ongoing social relationships. All social groups and societies develop routines, rituals, institutions, and classes of experts to manage the disruptive and disorganizing effects of these three interrelated phenomena. They are of interest to social psychologists for a number of reasons.
First, illness is painful, and ...
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