Cumulative advantage/disadvantage and the life course: cross-fertilizing age and social science theory

Age and cumulative advantage/disadvantage theory have obvious logical, theoretical, and empirical connections, because both are inherently and irreducibly related to the passage of time. Over the past 15 years, these connections have resulted in the elaboration and application of the cumulative advantage-disadvantage perspective in social gerontology, especially in relation to issues of heterogeneity and inequality. However, its theoretical origins, connections, and implications are not widely understood. This article reviews the genesis of the cumulative advantage/disadvantage perspective in studies of science, its initial articulation with structural-functionalism, and its expanding importance for gerontology. It discusses its intellectual relevance for several other established theoretical paradigms in sociology, psychology, and economics. On the basis of issues deriving from these perspectives and from the accumulating body of work on cumulative advantage and disadvantage, I identify several promising directions for further research in gerontology.

A new intellectual framework for psychiatry

In an attempt to place psychiatric thinking and the training of future psychiatrists more centrally into the context of modern biology, the author outlines the beginnings of a new intellectual framework for psychiatry that derives from current biological thinking about the relationship of mind to brain. The purpose of this framework is twofold. First, it is designed to emphasize that the professional requirements for future psychiatrists will demand a greater knowledge of the structure and functioning of the brain than is currently available in most training programs. Second, it is designed to illustrate that the unique domain which psychiatry occupies within academic medicine, the analysis of the interaction between social and biological determinants of behavior, can best be studied by also having a full understanding of the biological components of behavior.

Cultural variation: considerations and implications

Cultural systems vary widely across the world. Partly this is due to different cultures' occupying different ecological and environmental niches. But partly it is due to similar circumstances giving rise to multiple stable equilibriums, each with a distinct cultural form. Using insights and examples from various fields, this article illustrates the way that multiple equilibriums can emerge and the forces that push a culture toward one equilibrium point or another. Considerations of game theory principles, mutual interdependence, historical circumstance, dependence on initial conditions, and crucial choice points are highlighted in discussing the ways humans create and re-create their culture. Cultural traits develop within physical, social, intracultural, and intercultural niches, and implications of this for how culture might be studied and the benefits of combining an "equilibrium" perspective and a "meaning" perspective are discussed.

From neurons to neighborhoods: old and new challenges for developmental and behavioral pediatrics

Rapidly advancing research in neurobiology and the behavioral and social sciences, coupled with dramatic changes in the social and economic circumstances under which families are raising young children, has created a highly dynamic context for early childhood policy, service delivery, and child rearing in the United States. A recent report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, presents a critical analysis of that complex knowledge base and a set of recommendations designed to close the gap between what we know and what we do to promote the healthy development of young children. This article examines the report through the lens of developmental and behavioral pediatrics and highlights both exciting opportunities and sobering challenges.

Psychology defined

A new form of knowledge technology is used to diagnose psychology's epistemological woes and provide a solution to the difficulties. The argument presented is that psychology has traditionally spanned two separate but intimately related problems: (a) the problem of animal behavior and (b) the problem of human behavior. Accordingly, the solution offered divides the field into two broad, logically consistent domains. The first domain is psychological formalism, which is defined as the science of mind, corresponds to animal behavior, and consists of the basic psychological sciences. The second domain is human psychology, which is defined as the science of human behavior at the individual level and is proposed as a hybrid that exists between psychological formalism and the social sciences.

The behavioral and social sciences

In the social sciences, as in other sciences, progress is often placed by advances in observational techniques and instruments. This article reviews some of the recent technical progress in the social sciences ans then discusses three substantive frontier areas that are particularly exciting at present: evolutionary theory, especially in relation to sociobiology, the theory of human rational choice, and the newly christened discipline of cognitive science. All three claim to provide explanations for broad areas of human behavior.

HIV/AIDS social and behavioural research: past advances and thoughts about the future

This paper is an introduction to the various contributions in this special issue of Social Science & Medicine which are an attempt to synthesise the main debates of the 2nd European Conference on Social and Behavioural Research on AIDS held in Paris, in January 1998. The paper discusses how the recent advent of highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART) and new trends in the epidemic (its concentration in the socially most vulnerable groups and countries) have affected the research agenda of European social and behavioural sciences (SBS) in HIV/AIDS. Questions which had already been thoroughly studied by SBS (like determinants of HIV-related risk behaviours, or impact of gender and socio-economic inequities as well as discrimination on the diffusion of HIV) will have to be "revisited" in light of these recent changes. New issues (such as risk behaviours among already infected patients. impact of therapeutic advances on psychosocial and daily life management of their disease by people living with HIV/AIDS, adherence to treatment, or "normalisation" of AIDS public policies) will have to be strongly and quickly dealt with, in order for SSB to keep the pace with the rapid evolution of the epidemic and of the societal responses to it. Finally, the paper argues that to face these challenges, new theoretical and methodological advances will have to go beyond the classical oppositions in internal debates among SSB between individualistic and holistic approaches, or between radical criticism of the existing state of the world and practical involvement in public health decision-making.

Everyday life with AIDS/HIV: surveys in the social sciences

Research on persons infected with HIV is critically assessed by using the notions developed in the sociology of illness. Has this research stimulated new questions or led to reformulations in research paradigms? Methodological problems related to data collection are pointed out, namely: the recruitment of HIV-positive participants for such studies and the stance they adopt during interviews. The contributions made by studies that have focused on adjustment strategies or resorted to the notions of stigmatization, identity and illness trajectory are also discussed. In conclusion, questions are raised about what implications the new HIV/AIDS treatments will have on this field of social science research.

Social science research in malaria prevention, management and control in the last two decades: an overview

In the recent past, considerable progress has been made in understanding how human behavior and social organization, macro- and micro-level economic processes, and health and political systems affect responses to malaria at global, national, community, household, and individual levels. Advances in malaria-related social, behavioral, economic, evaluation, health systems, and policy (social science) research have resulted in improvements in the design and implementation of malaria prevention, management and control (PMC) strategies. Indeed, the past two decades chronicle dramatic advances in the implementation of evidence-based interventions, drawn not only from biomedical but also from social science research. Malaria awareness-raising, advocacy, case management, and prevention efforts have reaped the benefits of social science research and as a result, many programs are implemented and evaluated in a more effective manner than in the past. However, the pace at which findings from social science research are integrated into program and policy implementation is unsatisfactory. Additionally, examples remain of programs that fail to utilize findings from social science research and as a result, achieve minimal results. Furthermore, there is a sizeable body of knowledge that is underutilized and which, if assimilated into programs and policies, could accelerate progress in malaria PMC. Examples include information on meaningful community participation, gender, socio-economic status, and health systems. Regrettably, although social science input is necessary for almost all interventions for malaria management and control, the numbers of scientists working in this area are dismal in most of the key disciplines-medical anthropology; demography; geography and sociology; health economics and health policy; social psychology; social epidemiology; and behavior-change communication. Further, skills of program workers charged with implementation of interventions and strategies at country level are most often inadequate. The Special Program for Research and training in tropical diseases (TDR) and the multi-lateral initiative on malaria (MIM) have remained in the forefront of capacity building for this area of research, but additional efforts are needed to bring more applied social scientists into the fold. Their skills are necessary to ensure that social science findings get to program planners and implementers in a useful form that allows for more rapid and appropriate integration of the results into malaria PMC programs and policies. A re-thinking of the current focus within capacity building efforts is proposed.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Natural and Social Sciences - Status and Trends Exemplified in Groundwater Research

Interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between natural and social sciences, is perceived as crucial to solving the significant challenges facing humanity. However, despite the need for such collaboration being expressed more frequently and intensely, it remains unclear to what degree such collaboration actually takes place, what trends and developments there are and which actors are involved. Previous studies, often based on bibliometric analysis of large bodies of literature, partly observed an increase in interdisciplinary collaboration in general, but in particular, the collaboration among distant fields was less explored. Other more qualitative studies found that interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between natural and social scientists was not well developed, and obstacles abounded. To shed some light on the actual status and developments of this collaboration, we performed an analysis based on a sample of articles on groundwater research. We first identified journals and articles therein that potentially combined natural and social science aspects of groundwater research. Next, we analysed the disciplinary composition of their authors' teams, cited references, titles and keywords, making use of our detailed personal expertise in groundwater research and its interdisciplinary aspects. We combined several indicators developed from this analysis into a final classification of the degree of multidisciplinarity of each article. Covering the period between 1990 and 2014, we found that the overall percentage of multidisciplinary articles was in the low single-digit range, with only slight increases over the past decades. The interdisciplinarity of individuals plays a major role compared to interdisciplinarity involving two or more researchers. If collaboration with natural sciences takes place, social science is represented most often by economists. As a side result, we found that journals publishing multidisciplinary research had lower impact factors on average, and multidisciplinary papers were cited much less than mono-disciplinary ones.

Well-being: towards an integration of psychology, neurobiology and social science

Well-being: towards an integration of psychology, neurobiology and social science

The implementation of health promotion: a new structural perspective

Although health promotion has become a critical concept in public health, both research and practical projects in this area are almost devoid of theory. The present article uses a theory of complexity and structure to organize the different elements of health promotion in a new perspective. This perspective involves (1) new ways for looking at patterns of behavioral risk factors and health-related lifestyles. It (2) relates health promotion to policy making. In particular, it (3) focuses on a comprehensive model of the implementation process, revealing the true interrelationship of relevant elements to the concept of health promotion. In this context, it (4) becomes obvious that the reflexivity and recursiveness of scientific analyses are an integral part of the structure of health promotion. Thus, the professional role of the social scientist with regards to the implementation and utilization of scientific knowledge in the field of public health policy will be discussed. Finally, the role of appropriate theory is emphasized as a strategy for improving the practice of health promotion and to further the development of a new public health.

Emerging trends in the application of the social sciences to health and medicine

Tensions are inevitable between funders seeking to solve specific health care issues within existing frameworks and many social scientists who see health and health care as reflections of societal stratification and processes of power and control. Many current and impending issues require deep scrutiny of values and meaning systems as they relate to class, gender, ethnicity and other forms of social differentiation. Interdisciplinary efforts provide social scientists important problem-solving opportunities but also occasions to refine disciplinary theories and methods. In recent years such efforts have resulted in increased sensitivity to demographic imperatives, prospective investigations, social experimentation, a growing appreciation of the complexity of life trajectories, development of more complex models of causation and remediation, and a revival of interest in meaning systems and their effects on ultimate outcomes. Social scientists have come to play a variety of roles in health services and policy research that contribute to a fruitful interplay of theory and practice. Major roles include helping to frame issues and how they are attacked; anticipating emerging trends, issues and problems; monitoring health and the provision of health services; evaluation and assessment; and implementation processes. The contributions of the social sciences to understanding complex organizational arrangements, structures, cultures, managerial approaches, financial arrangements and regulatory processes are increasingly evident and part of a culture of informed thinking.

GeoSES: A socioeconomic index for health and social research in Brazil

The individual’s socioeconomic conditions are the most relevant to predict the quality of someone’s health. However, such information is not usually found in medical records, making studies in the area difficult. Therefore, it is common to use composite indices that characterize a region socioeconomically, such as the Human Development Index (HDI). The main advantage of the HDI is its understanding and adoption on a global scale. However, its applicability is limited for health studies since its longevity dimension presents mathematical redundancy in regression models. Here we introduce the GeoSES, a composite index that summarizes the main dimensions of the Brazilian socioeconomic context for research purposes. We created the index from the 2010 Brazilian Census, whose variables selection was guided by theoretical references for health studies. The proposed index incorporates seven socioeconomic dimensions: education, mobility, poverty, wealth, income, segregation, and deprivation of resources and services. We developed the GeoSES using Principal Component Analysis and evaluated its construct, content, and applicability. GeoSES is defined at three scales: national (GeoSES-BR), Federative Unit (GeoSES-FU), and intra-municipal (GeoSES-IM). GeoSES-BR dimensions showed a good association with HDI-M (correlation above 0.85). The model with the poverty dimension best explained the relative risk of avoidable cause mortality in Brazil. In the intra-municipal scale, the model with GeoSES-IM was the one that best explained the relative risk of mortality from circulatory system diseases. By applying spatial regressions, we demonstrated that GeoSES shows significant explanatory potential in the studied scales, being a compelling complement for future researches in public health.

Introduction: why do we need a science of well-being?

INTRODUCTION

why do we need a science of well-being?

A critical juncture for synthetic biology: Lessons from nanotechnology could inform public discourse and further development of synthetic biology

Since its start, synthetic biology has been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate by the public and social scientists. To avoid public resistance and overreaching regulation, the field could learn from how actors in nanotechnology engaged in debate.

HIV/AIDS and the construction of Sub-Saharan Africa: Heuristic lessons from the social sciences for policy

There is no doubt that Sub-Saharan African countries face major problems due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has ravaged the region. Yet the Eurocentric construction of the region as the source of the virus not only creates negative stereotypes in social science disciplines like geography, but also glosses over the potential of social science disciplines to provide knowledge and influence policy about HIV/AIDS. This oppositional construction of the region has unfortunately contributed to a glossing over of many aspects of Sub-Saharan Africa's people, their environment, culture, history, politics, economics, gender relations, and the region's global status that would provide important input for policy aimed at curbing the devastating spread of HIV in the region. This paper argues that once we recognize that HIV is a global virus with trans-cultural implications, social science disciplines, such as geography, can reveal certain attributes about the region and its HIV/AIDS pandemic that can be used in policy formulation to combat the spread of the virus.

Adjudicating entitlements: the emerging discourses of research ethics boards

Research ethics boards adjudicate between competing sacred discourses in the knowledge industries. The traditional rights of researchers to initiate and conduct enquiry, the rights of research subjects to have stewardship over their own experiential knowledge and the legal responsibilities of universities and other institutions often compete in the process of adjudication. The justification narrative leading to the establishment of boards is reviewed along with the governmental and institutional actions that have led to the ethics codes in existence. Also discussed is divisiveness between researchers and boards, changes brought about by shifting moral bases, trust and confidentiality, privacy, informed consent, the creation of cultures of research ethics and the unresolved issues awaiting future discussion.