Lesson 4.2.3.1

4.2.3.1 The social construction of health, illness and the body Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.3.1, The social construction of health, illness and the body: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Sociology (7192), Unit 2: Topics in Sociology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which model of health treats illness purely as a physical bodily malfunction?

    • Biopsychosocial model
    • Holistic model
    • Social model
    • Biomedical model

  2. Which sociologist argued that medicalisation extends medical control over ordinary life, so that normal conditions such as childbirth or grief become treated as illnesses?

    • Talcott Parsons
    • Emile Durkheim
    • Karl Marx
    • Ivan Illich

  3. What term describes how social processes define and shape health and illness?

    • Sick role
    • Social construction
    • Medicalisation
    • Biological determinism

  4. Which model argues that disability is created by societal barriers rather than physical impairment?

    • Functionalist model
    • Social model
    • Medical model
    • Biomedical model

  5. What concept did Foucault use to describe clinical observation that classifies patients as cases?

    • Panopticism
    • The medical gaze
    • Discourse analysis
    • Surveillance society

  6. Which sociologist introduced the concept of the sick role?

    • Mike Oliver
    • Talcott Parsons
    • Erving Goffman
    • Michel Foucault

  7. Which organisation defined health as complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing in 1948?

    • World Health Organization
    • United Nations
    • National Health Service
    • British Medical Association

  8. What does cross-cultural variation in defining conditions as diseases demonstrate?

    • Genetic variation
    • Biological determinism
    • Universal dysfunction
    • Social construction

  9. What concept describes defining everyday human experiences as medical conditions?

    • Institutionalisation
    • Medicalisation
    • Secularisation
    • Stigmatisation

  10. According to the social model of disability, what primary factor creates disability?

    • Individual impairment
    • Personal tragedy
    • Biological deficit
    • Environmental barriers

  11. Which evidence best demonstrates that physical body ideals are socially constructed?

    • Biological ageing
    • Changing beauty standards
    • Fixed genetic traits
    • Universal human organs

  12. Which sociological concept describes how the body is shaped and experienced through culture?

    • Reification
    • Materialism
    • Embodiment
    • Naturalism

  13. Which model combines biological, psychological, and social factors to explain illness?

    • Functionalist model
    • Biopsychosocial model
    • Reductionist model
    • Biomedical model

  14. Which condition is frequently cited by sociologists as an example of medicalisation?

    • Malaria
    • Tuberculosis
    • ADHD
    • Fractured bone

  15. Which Foucauldian concept describes practice that reduces patients to classified bodily cases?

    • Cultural capital
    • The medical gaze
    • Biopower
    • Discursive formation

  16. Where does the medical model locate the primary cause of disability?

    • Societal barriers
    • Individual impairment
    • Economic inequality
    • Cultural attitudes

  17. Which concept describes how social values, culture, and institutions shape human bodies and physical experiences?

    • Biological determinism
    • Genetic predisposition
    • Social construction
    • Somatisation

  18. Which key criticism is most often made of the social constructionist approach to illness?

    • Ignoring cultural meanings
    • Overemphasising biological factors
    • Assuming universal health
    • Ignoring physical reality

  19. What process occurs when non-medical human conditions and life events become defined and treated as medical problems?

    • Pharmaceuticalisation
    • Pathologisation
    • Medicalisation
    • Demedicalisation

  20. According to social constructionists, how do definitions of health and illness vary across different societies and eras?

    • Culturally and historically
    • Randomly and unpredictably
    • Universally and permanently
    • Biologically and genetically

All AQA Sociology quizzes