ABSTRACT
The central theme of this chapter is to illustrate the important role that sociological theory has in the practice of medical sociology. Theory distinguishes medical sociology from virtually all other scientific fields engaged in the study of health and illness. This chapter describes how a sociological perspective can be applied to analyzing health problems and the utility of theory in doing so. Theory is defined and its use in research explained. The different levels of theory in sociology and their characteristics are described, along with a discussion of the relationship between agency and structure in sociological theory and the types of social phenomena they represent.
