Health Decisions and Sick Role Variations: An Exploration

Case interviews are used to explore variations in illness behavior and Parsons' sick role formulation. A decision-making model, focusing on the influence of status and role definers (significant others), produced findings relative to the nature of being "well", assignment of a "sick status", and illness behavior. While Parsons' formulation describes modal categories when each component is taken alone, his total configuration describes only a minority of responses. Seven sick role configurations are identified. In addition to interpersonal influence, the nature of "well roles" and the nature and severity of the illness are important variables for the study of illness behavior.