APA Dictionary of Psychology

the behavior expected of a person who has a physical illness, mental illness, injury, or other disability. Such expectations can be the individual’s own or those of the family, the community, or society in general. They influence both how the person behaves and how others will react to them. In his pioneering discussion of the subject, U.S. sociologist Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) noted in 1951 that people in a sick role were expected to cooperate with caregivers and to want to get well but were also provided with an exemption from normal obligations. See also factitious disorder.