Sick-Role Legitimization

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to consider in detail the issue of sick-role legitimization. There are three major sections to the chapter. The first provides a brief review of the sick role in light of American values and social structure, including a description of the traditional Parsonian scheme and the changes in it that have been necessitated by modifications in the health care delivery system. This section also considers the emergence of sick-role legitimization as a crucial contemporary issue in health behavior, focusing on its use as a coping response, as an avoidance mechanism, and as a justification for failure. The second section focuses on the prevalence of sick-role legitimization, including the taking of sick leave, and the receipt of medications and other visible badges of courage. In the final section we consider the major implications of sick-role legitimization: the increasing demand for it in the face of the coming physician surplus, and its effect on the stability of structural role interdependencies in highly differentiated societies.