Talcott Parsons and the Theory of the ‘Sick Role’

The first major theory within sociology that analysed the role of health and illness in social life was devised by the functionalist theorist Talcott Parsons (1951) in his book ‘The Social System’. Parsons did not disagree with the dominance of the medical model of health in determining illness, yet argued that being ill was not just a biological condition, but also a social role (with a set of norms and values assigned to the role). Parsons saw illness as a form of deviant behaviour within society, the reason being that people who are ill are unable to fulfil their normal social roles and are thus deviating away from the consensual norm. Parsons argued that if too many people claimed to be ill then this would have a dysfunctional impact on society, therefore entry into the ‘sick role’ needed regulating. Parsons therefore devised the ‘sick role mechanism’ of how ideally a doctor and patient should interrelate. Within this mechanism, ill people and doctors had to abide by a number of ‘rights’ and ‘obligations’ attached to their respective roles in order to keep entry into the sick role tightly monitored. The ‘function’ of this mechanism was to prevent what Parsons called a ‘subculture of the sick’ from developing. Individuals who claimed the sick role who were not actually ill were classed as ‘malingerers’.