PROFESSIONS AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND: THE WORK ORGANISATION OF GENERAL PRACTITIONERS.

The aim of this paper is to bring together data concerning the social attributes and backgrounds of a cohort of general practitioners, to relate this to certain features of the organizations within which the doctors work, and to make certain suggestions about the implications of the results for the sociology of the professions. Sociological studies of the professions appear to originate from two main theoretical orientations. One approach views a profession as a relatively monolithic and homogeneous social grouping, and examines the features which distinguish a profession from other occupations. Examples of this approach are the work of Parsons,[1] Cogan,[2] Goode[3] and Greenwood.[4] This approach, which may be called the 'attributes' approach, unquestionably has its uses. For example, it is possible to assess the degree to which various occupations can be said to conform to the model of a 'profession'. Both Akens and Quinney,[5] and Hickson and Thomas,[6] for example, have developed sets of items upon which occupations may be assessed to discover how far they resemble an 'ideal' profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]