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- Title
ARATIONALITY, IGNORANCE, AND PERCEIVED DANGER IN MEDICAL PRACTICES.
- Abstract
The article studies the presence of arationality and ignorance in the prevention and treatment of an illness. Medical care is an especially fertile area for an examination of some of the critical variables related to arational behavior. A measure of arationality was made possible by asking each respondent to recall the manner in which she treated her child or children. Open-ended questions and check lists were also administered in order to elicit hypothetical responses. In an attempt to measure a general form of arationality, each respondent was asked to name persons other than medical doctors from whom she sought help or counsel in treating an illness. Those named, in order of frequency, are clergymen, pharmacists, nurses, and chiropractors. The evidence indicates that when the respondent did not perceive her child's illness as serious she tended to consult one or more of these other individuals. Evidence on the basis of an empirical investigation done in an American city supports those who argue that the use of arational behavior patterns recedes as modern civilization unfolds.
- Subjects
MEDICAL care; PRACTICAL reason; IGNORANCE (Theory of knowledge); DANGER perception; PREVENTIVE medicine; MOTHER-child relationship
- Publication
American Sociological Review, 1962, Vol 27, Issue 4, p508
- ISSN
0003-1224
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2090031