The Role of Attitudes in Society in Medical Change, c1250-Present
The role of attitudes in society examines what ordinary people, patients and sometimes the medical profession itself believed and were willing to accept, as a factor shaping the pace of medical change across the whole period c1250 to the present. Deep respect for inherited authority, such as Galen's, and low literacy limited challenge to old ideas in the medieval and Renaissance periods; widespread belief in quackery meant many people bought remedies from unlicensed 'quack' doctors and travelling salesmen selling patent medicines with little or no real medical value, well into the nineteenth century, because trained physicians were expensive and scarce. Attitudes could also actively resist proven medical advances: when the Vaccination Act of 1853 made smallpox vaccination compulsory, an Anti-Vaccination League formed, with some people objecting on religious grounds, fears about safety, or resentment at government interference in personal and family decisions. In the modern period, attitudes have shifted again, with widespread public acceptance of state-provided healthcare through the NHS since 1948, alongside continued resistance to some public health advice, shown by ongoing efforts needed to change attitudes to smoking, diet and exercise through government campaigns.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Treat attitudes as something that can both SPEED UP and SLOW DOWN change, and identify which effect a question is asking about before you plan your answer.
- Learn the medieval and Renaissance blocking attitudes precisely: deep respect for Galen's classical authority, widespread illiteracy that limited access to new medical texts, and a Church-shaped worldview in which illness could be seen as a spiritual matter, not only a physical one.
- Learn quackery as a specific example of a persistent public attitude: unlicensed 'quack' doctors and sellers of patent medicines attracted customers throughout the medieval, Renaissance and even into the nineteenth century, because trained physicians were expensive, scarce, and their treatments were often no more effective anyway.
- Learn the Anti-Vaccination League as a specific example of resistance to a PROVEN medical advance: after the Vaccination Act of 1853 made smallpox vaccination compulsory, some people opposed it on religious, safety or civil liberty grounds, showing that scientific proof did not automatically bring public acceptance.
- Learn how attitudes changed by the twentieth century: growing trust in science and a shared experience of two world wars helped build public support for collective solutions such as the NHS, founded in 1948 with wide popular backing.
- For a 4-mark question, contrast a specific attitude in one period, e.g. trust in quack cures, with a specific attitude in another, e.g. modern trust in NHS doctors, supporting both sides with a named, dated detail.
- For a 12-mark or 16-mark question, treat attitudes as interacting with other factors: explain how negative attitudes (distrust, superstition, resistance to change) could delay a discovery's impact even after the science was settled, or how positive attitudes (public support for the NHS) could accelerate a change once it began.
Worked example
Explain one way in which public attitudes towards smallpox vaccination in the 1850s were different from public attitudes towards NHS healthcare after 1948.
- Choose a precise contrast: compulsory vaccination in the 1850s provoked significant public resistance, while the NHS, introduced in 1948, was broadly welcomed by the public from the start.
- Support the vaccination side with detail: after the Vaccination Act of 1853 made smallpox vaccination compulsory, an Anti-Vaccination League formed, and some parents refused vaccination on religious grounds, safety fears, or objections to government interference in family decisions.
- Support the NHS side with detail: the NHS, founded in 1948 to provide healthcare free at the point of use for everyone, was generally seen as a popular and welcome development after the shared hardship of the Second World War, with high public demand for its services from the outset.
- State the difference clearly: even though both changes were led by government and backed by good evidence of benefit, one provoked organised public resistance while the other was broadly embraced, showing that public attitudes towards a medical change do not depend on the scientific evidence alone.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What is meant by a 'quack' doctor?Show answer
Answer: An unlicensed, often untrained seller of medical remedies or cures, some of which had little or no genuine medical value, who was nonetheless popular because trained physicians were expensive and scarce.
Q2What did the Vaccination Act of 1853 require?Show answer
Answer: That parents have their children vaccinated against smallpox; it made vaccination compulsory rather than optional.
Q3Give one reason some people opposed compulsory vaccination in the 1850s.Show answer
Answer: Religious objections, fears about the safety of the procedure, or resentment at the government interfering in personal and family decisions.
Q4Give one reason low literacy limited medical change in the medieval and Renaissance periods.Show answer
Answer: Most people could not read the Latin and Greek medical texts that held existing knowledge, so new ideas could spread only slowly, mainly among the educated few.
Q5Give one example of a positive public attitude that helped a medical change succeed.Show answer
Answer: Broad public support for the NHS, founded in 1948, helped establish free healthcare at the point of use as a widely accepted part of British life.
Q6Why might people in the medieval period have been reluctant to challenge Galen's authority, even where evidence suggested he was wrong?Show answer
Answer: Because his ideas had been trusted for over a thousand years and were backed by the Church, so challenging them meant going against both established medical opinion and religious authority.
Q7Give one example of continuing resistance to public health advice in the modern period, despite strong scientific evidence.Show answer
Answer: Continued smoking or poor diet by some people despite government campaigns and clear scientific evidence linking these to serious illness.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE History exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain one way in which attitudes towards quack doctors and unlicensed remedies in the sixteenth century were similar to attitudes towards them in the nineteenth century.
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Explain why some medical changes were resisted by attitudes in society, c1700 to the present.
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'Attitudes in society were the main reason medical change was slow to benefit ordinary people, c1250 to the present.' How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. You may use quackery and the Anti-Vaccination League in your answer, as well as any other information you know.
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