In the past, being sick or getting ill is sign of punishment from the gods because of sin, those who die from sickness were serious sinners. After the advancement of scientific and medical research, it proves that illness is nothing but malfunction of one or a few parts of our body, according to the medical model. Not so long after that, sociologists had discovered a pattern of illnesses in the structure of the society that is there is a difference in prevalence rate among different groups of people in different social class, status or position. In this essay, it is arguing that individual choices or behavior and social structure play a role in the society’s health and illness, but the later has a greater influence on people’s lives than the former, especially to those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged.
As knowledge is gained through constant academic debate and discussion, the debate of structure and agency has been on for more than a century within the sociology discipline. In this debate, it is about whether human behaviors are shaped by the structure of the society, such as the economy, culture or the politics (Structure). Or, on the other hand, are totally based on free will, the existence of self autonomy and individuals could make decisions on their own destiny (Agency) (Barker, 2005). Famous sociologist like Karl Marx believes that people’s lives are being locked within the structure of the society, which is the proletariats must work for and exploited by the bourgeoisies (Marx & Engels, 1848). However, modern sociologists Anthony Giddens (1984) points out that in a modernized, industrialized, capitalized and individualized society, individuals have much more power and mobility, they can decide the meaning of their lives. Nonetheless, it is proposed people are not often really have the power to decide what kind of life they want to have, or in the discussion of sociology of health, individuals do not have the freedom to live a healthy life or...