Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Biocultural Perspectives on Transitions, Stress, and Immune Response

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

The concept of stress has been employed in anthropological research as a means to examine how individuals respond to environmental or psychosocial challenges. Researchers who study stress and its effects on immune function generally examine individual response to shifting environmental conditions or stressful experiences. Rather than focusing on the stress of environmental conditions acting on an adaptable body, this project will examine the particular circumstance wherein an individual's body is shifting in relation to relatively fixed biological and cultural categories. The purpose of this research is to further develop our understanding of human variation in stress response and immune function in relation to shifting degrees of perceived cultural consonance and role incongruity. Variation in stress response, effects on immune function, and factors that may moderate these responses, will be examined in a sample of people who are utilizing exogenous hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) or other procedures. This study will focus on the liminal or intermediary portion of the transition process during which time individuals may occupy an ambiguous social category. Levels of salivary cortisol, salivary testosterone, Epstein Barr Virus antibodies, ambulatory blood pressure, psychological and physical symptoms of stress, and levels of self-esteem will be examined in relation to cultural consonance with perceived social categories. Biological, social, and psychological factors associated with symptoms of stress, levels of self-esteem, and variation in stress response will be identified. The study will be carried out in New York City, Boston, and rural western Massachusetts, which will allow for comparisons to take place between individuals living in small towns and urban centers, where cultural categories may vary. This research will also contribute methodologically to the field of anthropology through its combined use of quantitative and qualitative approaches and through its use of multiple physiological measures of stress response. A model of this sort could then be applied to situations where individuals are experiencing periods of liminality as a consequence of shifts occurring in their social identities (i.e. aging, illness, pregnancy, and disability.) This research will contribute to understanding physiological responses to cultural categories. This type of model is broadly applicable to understanding how individuals react to other biocultural shifts such as aging, illness, pregnancy, and disability.